Frequently Asked Questions

So, what is it that you do exactly?

We search ebay for you, 24 hours a day, and alert you as soon as we find an item that matches your criteria and is about to sell for a bargain price

We take a search that you have created in ebay itself and re-run it from our own servers every few minutes, all day every day. Your search includes a price range, with the maximum set considerably below the usual ebay selling price of the item you are looking for. When an item has less than 15 minutes* left to run, and is currently below your maximum price, we will alert you immediately enabling you to step in at the last moment and grab a bargain. It is also important to specify a sensible minimum price to ensure that you are not alerted about unsuitable items, for example Playstation games when you are actually searching for the console itself

We can alert you both by email and also by sending a text message to your cell/mobile phone, meaning that wherever you are you should still have enough time to get to a computer and bid on your bargain item

*the actual time at which we will alert you is configurable upto one hour before the item is due to end

How can you benefit me?

By freeing up your time and saving you money. In order to find the ebay bargains that we can you would have to frequently refresh your ebay search 24 hours a day, and track which matching items are about to sell for a lower than usual price. This is not feasible for most people as they have better things to do with their lives than spend that amount of time behind a computer screen, so it makes sense to let us do it for you and save you some money in the process

How much money can you save me?

That depends on the value and popularity of the items you are searching for, but we are confident we can save you money off most things that are to be found on ebay. Most of these example bargains for popular items save at least $50 off the usual ebay selling price

What do you charge?

For the time being, nothing! There will be a period of about a month after our inital launch where the site will effectively be in a beta testing stage, and no charge* will be made for our services during this time

We have not yet finalised the charges for when we fully launch, but there are likely to be a range of subscription packages starting as low as $5/month, as well as a 'pay as you go' option for one-off searches. When you consider that many of these example bargains save at least $50 off the usual ebay selling price, this represents excellent value for money

There will be at least one free introductory search to enable new users to try out our services

*we will offer a number of free SMS messages per search, but reserve the right to charge for any extra texts if these run out, to cover our costs

What personal data do I need to give you to sign up?

We require only a valid email address and the number of a cell/mobile phone that can receive SMS text messages. We don't even need to know your name

Why do I have to give you my cell/mobile phone number?

We require a validated cell/mobile phone number in order to send you our SMS bargain alerts. However, even if you don't want to take advantage of our SMS alert option, we still need your number to validate your account. This prevents people abusing our good nature and signing up for many different accounts to take advantage of the free 'try before you buy' search

If the bargain items are there, why can I not just find them myself?

If you are happy to spend countless hours behind a computer constantly refreshing your search then we won't try to stop you, but we're sure most people would be happier to live their lives instead and leave the searching to someone else

How will I know when you have found something?

We will always send you an email immediately, and an SMS text message to your mobile/cell phone as well unless you have configured your preferences not to

So will you be waking me in the middle of the night with SMS alerts?

Only if you want us to - you never know when that bargain item will be sold. However you can configure any times of the day when you would prefer us not to contact you with text alerts

How many alerts am I likely to receive?

That depends on the scope of your search and the popularity of the item you are looking for. If you follow our guidelines for creating an effective search you should only receive alerts when genuine bargain items are about to end. If you think you are receiving too many alerts then it probably means you need to narrow your ebay search criteria

Does my computer need to be constantly switched on whilst searching?

No, all of the searches are done from our own servers. The only reason you need your computer is to receive our bargain alert emails, and of course to bid on your bargain items. And remember, alerts are also sent to your phone by SMS text message

Which ebay sites does your search tool work with?

Currently we support both ebay.com and ebay.co.uk, and we plan to add more in the near future

Can you bid on items for me?

No, we only find bargain items for you - you must bid on them yourself in the usual way through ebay's website

Do you need my ebay username and password?

No, definitely not. We only search ebay, we do not bid for you, so we do not need this information

When will you launch?

We hope to start offering searches sometime in November 2008