My new automated ebay tat finding website

[cort16]

Like all tat finders I spend a lot of time on ebay looking for cars. Ebay's own tools like watch lists and alerts really didn't do what I wanted so fired up my 486 PC, pushed the turbo button and wrote this website to do it for me. It seems to work quite well so I thought I share it with you lot before I put the thing live.

 

You sign up then add in searches for cars you're looking for with a min and max price. Every couple of hours it scans the cars and classic cars section for any of your tat with a buy it now price or classified advert price within your price range or any auctions ending within the next 24hours in your price range.

 

When you first login you'll have no results showing until the ebay process kicks in and runs your searches. Once logged in it shows a Results next updated time, which will tell you when the process is next due to run your ebay searches for you.

Once you've got results you'll get a screen like this.

 

It's currently running on the back of a spare domain name I've got until I find a name that won't make ebay sue me. Any feed back would be good. Happy tat finding.

 

here's the link.

http://www.uselessincorporated.com/omg/

[messerschmitt owner]

ta

 

logged in and am having a look

[ragger]

I'm having a go too. Another XM owner from the other end of the country.

 

Rob

[skattrd]

Sounds like a good idea ... I've registered and put in some random searches.

[cort16]

If it returns results your'e not interested or aren't relevant then press the red X next to that listing and it should never trouble you again.

 

I can also see it's bringing back things like Renault Laguna 16v when the search text is Renault 16. I think I'll need to tweak that a bit.

[messerschmitt owner]

I'm having a go too. Another XM owner from the other end of the country.

 

Rob

what model have you?

 

I've an M 2.1TD manual in white, R 2.1TD manual in forest green and a K 2.0 SEi manual (being broken for parts)

 

Ragger

 

are you a member of club-xm.co.uk or club-xm.com?

[theorganist]

Sounds like an excellent idea, just signed up.

[cort16]

I meant to say the £3000 price range limit is moveable so the price rance It's not just 0-3000 itt can also be 2000-5000, 8000-11000 etc.

[skattrd]

I've just checked my searches and the only one thats bringing up results is the one with one word in it, the others aren't showing any results at all. I'm not sure if its something I'm doing or a glitch.

[cort16]

I've just checked my searches and the only one thats bringing up results is the one with one word in it, the others aren't showing any results at all. I'm not sure if its something I'm doing or a glitch.

 

Are you putting in searches like "rover sd1, austin " as that won't work? In the case above you'd need to have 2 searches for. One for Rover Sd1 and another for austin.

I am having a problem with a search like "Alfa 156 v6" as this won't bring back results for an ebay title "Alfa 156 Selespeed v6". The problem is if I make it too slack then searching for "Renault 16" will bring back results for "Renault Scenic 16 valve". I'm going to look at trying to fix that this week but today I'm just too hungover.

[RedSparrow]

Your website needs a catchy name, like 'iShite' or something.

[Station]

That's an excellent idea, I hope it catches on. I recognise the domain name from the Retro Rides for sale helper thingy.

[maxpower]

cant see register button only next and login buttons appear

 

its okay i have done it

[cort16]

Hangover's mostly gone so I've been fannying around with it and got it working a bit better.

I think it could have a limited life as ebiz say I can only do 5000 searches a day before they have me shot.

You have to search once each for auctions, buy it now and classified adverts and it runs 4 times a day, in both cars and classic cars which means I can only have 213 searches in there before ebay start freaking out. I'm already at 142 just with you lot.

 

Top 5 searches are

 

citroen xm

lancia

mg zt

porsche turbo

princess