New Auction searching and tracking website: bid-brain.com

[dstudeba]

With so many auctions going on I am sure we have all had the problem of missing items we wanted and forgetting when auctions are ending with items we want. I wrote a program to combine multiple auctions into one searchable database. The program also allows you to save the searches and email hits out when new auctions come online. If you want to follow an item's bidding progress the program will track it and email you either when a certain bid level is reached or when any bid comes in on that item.

And it is free.

Currently these Auction Houses are tracked:

Love of the Game Auctions
Robert Edwards Auctions
Joe's Vintage Sports Cards Auctions
Sterling Auctions
SCP Auctions
Goodwin & Company
Legendary Auctions
Collect Auctions
Greg Bussineau Sports Rarities
Huggins and Scott Auctions
Brockelman & Luckey Auctions

http://bid-brain.com

Here is the pitch:

Today there are so many auction houses and multiple auctions ending every week. Bidding in and tracking these auctions is difficult with all the rest of one's commitments. Not to mention the concerns with leaving your maximum bids in the auction house's system. Now all of the auction lots you are interested in can be tracked in one place by a third party. You can be notified when each new bid is made on a lot or when the lot reaches a certain bid level.

Search

All current auctions we track are downloaded into our database. These auctions can be searched by keywords from one interface. Links are provided to go to the original listing on the auction house's site. Searches can be saved for automated notification when new auctions come online with items that match your search. Notifications can be set up for any of the monitored auctions. These notifications can be configured to be sent when a certain bid level is reached or for every bid placed.

Monitor

All of the auctions are monitored from the start to the end of the auction. You select the price levels that are important to you. The levels are not disclosed to any other party especially the auction house. There is no need to worry about leaving a max bid or being outbid late in the auction without knowing.

Notify

Emails and text messages can be sent whenever a lot you are following has a bid of importance to you. Daily or weekly reports are also prepared for all of the lots you are tracking. Don't worry about ever missing a bid or the end of an auction again.

Searching Mossi returns hits from 3 different auctions at once:
(also note that Mossi isn't in any of the titles)



Lots to track can either be entered on the Track Lots page or from the Search Results page by clicking on the logo that looks like this:



Searches can be saved and run from the website manually, or automatically when a new auction comes online.




There is also and auction calendar for all upcoming auctions whether they are tracked or not.




This has been in testing for about 2 months and has worked with many auctions. However I would love to hear suggestions and any problems that people have with the program. Much of the current functionality was implemented after being suggested by early users.

http://bid-brain.com

Dan Studebaker
danstudebaker@gmail.com

[bn2cardz]

Can you limit searches within parameters? For instance you are looking for a t206 Cobb with a Tolstoi back OR a El Principe De Gales back without doing two separate searches?

I saw this:

You can search on multiple words and parts of words. Searches are not case sensitive.

1952 Mantle will return all 1952 Mantles; Bowman, Topps, graded and ungraded


You may also use * as a wildcard

195* Mantle will return all Mantles, 1950-1959

Please note that eBay searches for 195* Mantle will return all Mantles with only 195 in their title, namely the 1975 Topps MVP card #195 of Mantle and Aaron.


You may exclude results with the minus character (-) immediately before the word to exclude from the search

1954 Mantle -Bowman will return Topps, Dan-Dee, Mantle photos from 1954, etc. but exclude 1954 Bowman Mantles


Commas or spaces may be used to separate search terms.

On ebay you can use parenthesis to enclose a list of words that will allow "any of these" searches. Is that available?

[dstudeba]

Currently there is not or functionality so you would have to do two searches or something ugly like:

t206 cobb -piedmont -sweet -caporal -polar -bear -broadleaf -soveriegn .....

However if it were in a group the second search would probably be bad.

Good idea though, I will add it to the list of improvements.

Thanks!

[bn2cardz]

Originally Posted by dstudeba

Currently there is not or functionality so you would have to do two searches or something ugly like:

t206 cobb -piedmont -sweet -caporal -polar -bear -broadleaf -soveriegn .....

However if it were in a group the second search would probably be bad.

Good idea though, I will add it to the list of improvements.

Thanks!

It would be appreciated. I have a more complicated one that goes beyond t206 because I am wanting to do a e92 image front back run. Those image are found in t216, e106, e90, e92, d303, e101, and e102 so just for that I would have 7 searches.

[asphaltman]

Very nice Dan - will be fun trying it out and playing with it.

[tombocombo]

hi i see you put a ton of work in thank you im trying to search 1952 topps in the auction house omitting ebay is that possible thank you

[dstudeba]

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

Can you limit searches within parameters? For instance you are looking for a t206 Cobb with a Tolstoi back OR a El Principe De Gales back without doing two separate searches?

On ebay you can use parenthesis to enclose a list of words that will allow "any of these" searches. Is that available?

I have just added this search functionality. It uses the same format as eBay so the search above is:

t206 Cobb (Tolstoi,El Principe De Gales)

which generated the following hits.

Originally Posted by bn2cardz

It would be appreciated. I have a more complicated one that goes beyond t206 because I am wanting to do a e92 image front back run. Those image are found in t216, e106, e90, e92, d303, e101, and e102 so just for that I would have 7 searches.

I tested your search and it pulls up multiple cards for the same player using one search:

player name (t216,e106,e90,e92,d303,e101,e102)

Thanks for your input, I hope it helps you.

[bn2cardz]

Thanks. This is a very great tool. I am glad that I have already gotten two emails using this tool and it helps a lot. The auction sites should love it too because it is advertising for their sites with direct emails showing what that auction may have for each individual.

[kamikidEFFL]

nice site for sure def bookmarking this

[Jay Wolt]

Dan this is a great aid, thank you for doing all of this work.

[bn2cardz]

It was nice to get an email today showing me all the stuff in the B-L auction I would be searching for before I even knew that the preview was up.

[TUM301]

Nice job. Did a few practice runs and like the results. Already added to the favs list.

[conor912]

Cool site. I will use it for sure. A couple issues on my end: 1) there seems to be a problem tracking my auctions. I hit the "track" button but nothing shows up in my "tracked items". And 2) I'm looking at a particular item that your site says ends 2/26, but the clock for the item page on the AHs site says 4 days (thur 2/27).