AuctionGenie - 4.2

update to my comment below. I still use auction hunter but since GarageSale got a little greedy and is asking for more money for their "upgrade" I use the free online Auctiva.com to list. My listings never looked so good and it's all done from one page. The page graphics are awesome. It shows your other auctions, free everything, photo hosting. The click to enlarge the photo will blow you away.

This program attempts to manage every phase of buying and selling on eBay. It centers on a database in which it retains info on all the auctions you are tracking either as buyer or seller. My only interest is in quickly preparing new auctions using photos I have previously uploaded to a personal website. I do not buy much on ebay so I did not attempt to evaluate this program for that use; only for selling.

Ebay's auction-creation web page is tedious to use, but at least it presents you with a clear, well-defined work-flow: a sequence of simple actions, with clear prompting of the relevant choices at each step, and instant feedback. I went looking for a tool to build auctions locally then upload them. This program will do that but it has a number of drawbacks compared to the ebay pages. (1) The form you use to view/create an auction uses tiny type, I'm leaning in and squinting at the monitor; (2) It doesn't know the ebay category codes, and it has a tool for looking up only the Major category codes -- for example you can look up and enter "Book:nonfiction" but no way can you specify the sub-category "Literary Criticism"; (3) although it claims to handle pictures you've uploaded based on a URL you give it, in preview mode it doesn't display them.

The "manual" is badly organized and much too short for such a complex program. The writer has tried to lay out all the program's fields and forms in a program-based sequence, but this has nothing to do with the order the user needs them. The manual should discuss bidding, preparing, and post-sales as three different topics, the way the user thinks about them, but it just covers every feature more or less top to bottom left to right so info you need in each phase is mingled. I'm giving it 3 stars because I suspect it actually could be useful if (a) you track a LOT of auctions (dozens) and (b) you are prepared to put a lot of time into learning it.

With a little bit of patience and understanding, once you actually get auction genie peforming, it is great. I am still in the midst of learning certain aspects, but Gary has been super helpfull answering any questions. Depening on the level of experience with certain things such as FTP clients and so forth, the instruction are very good, but you may need a slight bit of assistance. I highly recomend the use of this program!

I don't think I have ever witnessed a worse piece of software on the Macintosh since the first model was launched in 1984. (so I mean EVER).
It is sheer "User Interface Hell".

1) The DB List view (when selected from Details view) resizes the window to full height so the the resize handle is unobtainable under the dock. It then takes a minute or so of fiddling about on my screen layout to get it somewhere where you can adjust it. Then it puts it back There again if you switch views again. I cannot be the first person to be REALLY ANNOYED by this.

2) If I happen to be typing in another application when AuctionGenie performs one of its timed updates, I find I am typing into the auction database all of a sudden with an error box which says "Before Typing press tab....". Yes, that's right, they actually made their program force itself to the foreground and grabs focus against your will. So if you like to track auctions tightly as they approach the hammer drop it will drive you mad, unless you stop doing anything else on your Mac.

Then there is the diminutive typeface in the default view. They provide a Zoom menu for us oldies whose eyes are not what they used to be, but you have to redo the zoom every time you go to that view.

Inconsistent Menu vs Control Panel Button function location.

No countdown time like in the old Entourage "Auction Manager".

There's much more but I don't have time to write it and you probably shouldn't waste time reading it even if I did.

I think this program may be of some help if you are a high volume seller and you dedicate one Mac to running it, hide the Dock or move it away from the bottom, set the screen resolution so things are not too small, live in America so the searches work properly, but I found it more of a hindrance than a benefit to the bidding process.

- Mine's in the bin!

considering that this thing barely works (i'd be much happier with it if it WORKED) it shouldn't cost more than $10, or it should be listed as beta and cost nothing. it's the only app i can find that promises to do what i want, but it's extremely annoying.... i can't get it to actually list any of my auctions, and it won't work in the background while pretending to list them, so i can't, say, email people while this app acts like it's submitting my auctions to ebay. of course, when it finishes its work, the auctions are not listed and there is no explanation from the app as to why not. blegh. jeez. ridiculous. still, it being the only thing like it (that i can find) for the mac, i'm TRYING.