Cool Hacks for eBay Buyers and Sellers

At O'Reilly Network: eBay [Sep. 09, 2003] you'll find a wealth of tools that can help you apply big company strategy to your eBay storefront without spending big bucks on analytics tools. The site is a companion to the O'Reilly-published book, eBay Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools.

In this case, the hacks aren't sinister, just quick and simple solutions to eBay challenges that use less than elegant interfaces to accomplish the goal. In her review of the book on AuctionBytes, Ina Steiner also mentions a very important additional value of the book, that it helps sellers see the eBay transaction from the buyers' perspective as well as their own. This is a very important competitive edge that many sellers not only ignore, but even work against with their copy and terms.

The big news here is the interface to the eBay API for sellers. eBay formerly had an API just for developers, and the barriers to using it were pretty steep for the average seller. Using this API, you can automate re-listing, mass-update your listings, automatically leave reciprocal feedback and much more.