BINSniper® Legacy Add-on User Guide

This is the current documentation (for version 3.1 – 3.4.x) for legacy Firefox v30-v56.  See BINSniper Sidebar for the v57+ edition.

Overview

BINSniper provides realtime alerts showing newly listed items. BINSniper alerts you within seconds of items being listed on eBay. Whether you are an individual looking for rare or underpriced items, or a reseller finding product to resell, BINSNiper can meet your needs. If you are trying to find items to resell on eBay or other sites, take a look at our article on Buying and Reselling on eBay using BINSniper.

Important Note: BINSniper is not an auction “sniping” program. BINSniper does not place bids or buy items for you, and does not need your password.

BINSniper can monitor fixed-price items, auction style listings (commonly referred to as auctions) and auction style listings with a Buy-It-Now option.

You can monitor multiple sites for new listings that are rare, hard to find, or priced below market price. BINSniper alerts you quickly, so you can get to the deals fast. Just login to eBay like you normally do, start BINSniper, set up a search, and you’re ready to go! When you select an item, you will be taken to a fast loading item detail page where you can view major details of the item and then go straight to the buy page or view more details on the listing site. You can also just go straight to the listing site.

BINSniper also has the ability to monitor auction-style listings ending soon for the same searches.

BINSniper is free to download and use, and it’s supported by a small portion of the seller’s fees (if any) from items purchased using the program. By using BINSniper you support small business and help support future development of this and other add-ons.

Recent changes in 3.4

  • All Channels option added (see below).
  • System status messages added to sidebar and streamer headers.
  • 3.4 requires Firefox 39 or higher.

 

Important Notes for New Users

BINSniper is a Firefox add-on, so you need a desktop version of Firefox to run it. It is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. If you don’t have Firefox, try our browser based tool at VieBuy.com which offers similar functionality for use with any browser.

BINSniper is primarily intended for ongoing monitoring of provider sites to find new listings. It does not show all listings, only the most recently listed items and auctions ending soon. These are items that can be purchased immediately. It is best used to monitor sites like eBay in the background and receive alerts when the items you want are available at the price you want.

Requirements

This release requires Firefox 29 or newer and a network connection that permits connections of port 843 (some mobile providers or proxy servers may block this access). See troubleshooting at the end of this document for help if you can’t connect.

 

Get BINSniper

BINSniper is easily installed thru the FireFox add-on page at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/binsniper/versions/

You can also install approved versions thru the Firefox menu:  Tools->Addons and the search for BINSniper.

Newly released versions, may not appear in the Firefox menu results because there is some delay while Mozilla reviews the add-on for quality and security.

Once you have BINSniper installed, you will be notified of new versions as they are approved.

Download the current version from this site at:   http://auctionbucks.com/binsniper.xpi

International Support

BINSniper supports the following eBay sites: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA and eBay Motors USA.

The BINSniper Icon and Icon Menu

When BINSniper is installed, a BINSniper icon will appear in your navigation bar. The icon is your quick reference to status and the quick way to access features. The icon shows the current status.

 Connected, waiting for items
 New items found
 Paused (either set to pause mode, or the computer has gone idle)
 Could not connect to server. (restart Firefox)
 Connected, in email mode
 New items were found, in email mode

To access the menu, just right-click the target icon (Ctrl-click on Apple computers). From this menu, you can control program settings, set the program mode, or force an update.

Click Settings on the icon menu to access program settings and configure filters.

You can use the icon menu directly to control some program features: such as the alert mode, switching between desktop and email modes or to pause BINSniper. You can also select BINs, Auctions, or items of both types . BIN items include fixed price and auctions with the BIN option. Auctions include listings with and without BIN that are ending soon.

Double-clicking the icon brings up the item list in a browser page with images.

Single-clicking the icon toggles the screen display associated with the current display mode (sidebar or streamer). You can operate with just the icon displayed and then click it to bring up the list display when items are found. There is also a setting to open the lists automatically when items are received.

You can move this icon to other toolbars including the add-on bar. Search for the AddOn Bar extension to restore the addon/status bar feature (it was removed from Firefox several versions ago). Or you can create a custom toolbar. Then right click and customize and drag the BINSniper icon to your preferred location.

The icon must be present on a toolbar for BINSniper to function properly in versions below 3.2.1 or lower.  Starting with 3.3 the icon does not need to be visible on the screen.

Program Modes

Sidebar Mode

In Sidebar mode, BINSniper displays items in the Firefox sidebar. This mode is well suited to wide screen displays when few searches or very targeted searches are configured. You can also activate Sidebar mode with the Ctrl-Alt-B shortcut.

If you close the sidebar without selecting another mode, the sidebar will be reopened when new items arrive. To prevent the sidebar from popping up, switch to Streamer Mode or disable the Open the item lists when new items are found setting.

To accommodate multiple searches, sidebar mode consolidates all the searches of each type (BIN/auction) into combined lists and displays the most recent items. Each list can contain up to 40 items. Up to 20 items can be displayed from a single search. If you have only one active search, the lists will be limited to 20.

In Sidebar there is ample room for wide screen browsing. If you have a larger monitor, you can get even more details by using the Streamer Mode.

Streamer Mode

In Streamer mode, BINSniper shows a frame at the bottom of the screen with a list of items for each search (up to 10). The lists are color coded.  This mode provide the most visibility into different searches when you use less than ten searches. It allows you to have several searches visible that may return a large number of results. It is well suited to fast moving competitive categories where there may be many new items.

If you close the Streamer using the close box (X), and Open the streamer/sidebar when new items are found is set, it will open again when new items are found. You can also open the Streamer by single clicking the BINSniper icon in your toolbar.

To prevent the streamer from opening by itself, disable the Open the item lists when new items are found setting.

Streamer mode can display up to 20 separate lists on screen. To get more details, click the individual items from the list. You will see a detail screen optimized for high speed use. You can make your purchase decision on this screen and click the Buy Now button to complete the purchase by going directly to the item’s confirmation page.

Getting Started

Once installed, you need to configure BINSniper. Look for the BINSniper icon    in the browser navigation bar.

Right-click the icon and then click Settings in the menu that appears.

To try your first search, select the Searches tab and click the Add button. Enter a name for your search: “Rare Guitars”. Now enter rare guitar into the keywords box and click Save. Note that we use “guitar” instead of “guitars” for the keywords. This will better match eBay listings where one guitar is sold. You could also use the wildcard form: rare guitar*

Your search will appear in the searches list. You’ve just configured a search for all listings containing “rare guitar”.

Click OK. BINSniper is now operating and will receive any new items that match the filter. The BINSniper icon starts out green. When new items are found, alerts will occur and the icon will turn red. Alerts are suppressed on the initial load, but will occur on any new items found after that.

You should now see multiple listings on your screen.

Because rare guitars are rare, this search is will find a limited number of items. When searching for a widely used product such as Apple iPads, a search for “iPad” will match thousands of items and the lists cannot accommodate all the items. To address this, we need to focus the search.

Go back to Settings and create another search for iPads. Make the search more specific by changing the keywords to ipad blue case  and save the search. Only matching iPads cases, or maybe iPads with cases, will be displayed. As new items are listed on eBay, they will appear at the top of the list. In general, you’ll want to keep your searches very specific so BINSniper only shows you what you really want to buy. Otherwise, you’ll get too many results to act upon. For our example, if you want to see just cases, you can set a price maximum to $40 and iPads won’t be shown, but cases will. To see iPads with cases, you would set a price minimum at $40 or more.

When you reconfigure searches, the screen is cleared and formatted for the new searches.  As new items are listed on eBay, they will appear on your screen. Older items will drop off. BINSniper shows you only what you want to see and eliminates the noise. Remember that you aren’t seeing everything on eBay, just items that are new or about to close that match your selections. These are the items that you can buy now to get the best deals.

Take a moment to check your computer’s time clock and set it to the correct time. We recommend that you set the computer clock to synchronize with a time server to make sure the clock is always set to the exact time.  Check your computer’s user manual or support site for instructions on how to automatically synchronize with an Internet Time Server. BINSniper will warn you if it detects items being discarded due to the time errors and prompt you to change the clock to the correct time.

BINSniper determines item age by using the current time. Auction start and end times come from eBay and are not affected by your computer clock. But BINSniper uses the current time to compare these values and issue alerts.

Filtering 

You can create filters to run specific searches based on a variety of criteria. When no filters are configured, BINSniper uses a default filter so that new users can see how the program works.  Right click the BINSniper icon and select Settings.   On the Filters Tab, select Add.

Quick access to search the eBay site     New in 3.4.2

If you haven’t been online for awhile, you may want to search eBay for your items to find items that were listed earlier, but the best deals are probably already grabbed up.

On the Sidebar or Streamer displays, you can click the eBay logo to open the eBay home page in a browser window.  You can use this feature to check items that may have been listed while you were not running BINSniper.

To search using your filters, two button are provided on the Settings->Filters screen.  You can search Auctions or Buy It Now items based on the filters you have entered.  Select a filter in the list and click one of the search buttons.

This feature uses only the keywords, channel, categories and prices to configure a search and displays the results on the eBay site.  Other settings on the filters are ignored.

This feature may be adversely affected by future changes at the eBay website.  Please report any problems.

 

Filtering – Multiple Filters

You can configure multiple filters to do a variety of searches.  The fewer filters you have configured, the more often filters will be searched.  For users with a large number of filters, filters may be delayed as the system works thru your filters list.

Use the Boolena OR syntax and the All Channels option to combine searches.  More on that below.

Please note that the system does check for duplicate items.  If you have filters that overlap, items that match both filters will only be shown on the first matching filter.  This prevents duplicate alerts.

 

Filtering – Channels  

Channels correspond to eBay top level categories on all eBay sites.  This is a quick way to select a broad category of items.

To filter by channel, simply select the country to view the channels available and then select a channel from the list. When adding new filters, the site you select as your home country in the Settings tab will be displayed first. You can select another country when creating the filter.

Filtering – Use “All Channels” to search an entire site     New in 3.4

If you are looking for multi-purpose items such as GPS devices, or keywords that may match items in multiple channels, you should use the “All Channels” option.  For example, in the US, multiple top-level categories on eBay can contain Garmin GPS devices: consumer electronics, sporting goods and cell phones as shown below.  If you are looking for a particular model (auto/marine/avionics/fitness), the channels may be different. Sellers may also list in an incorrect category.

All Channels allows you to reduce the number of filters needed to search.  This speeds up filter processing and delivers results quicker.

eBay currently shows the top-level categories out-dented and bold (outlined here in red).  Top level categories match the BINSniper channels. To cover all three channels, you would need to configure three filters or use “All Channels” on a single filter. The three filters would include all items in the sub-categories (shown indented in this example).

 

Filtering – Panel Number

The panel number feature applies only to the streamer mode display. It allows you to combined specific filters into a single panel. Under normal use, the panel numbers are automatically assigned as you add filters, each filter getting it’s own panel, so you can general ignore this setting.

You can override the panel number during filter setup to make two or more filters share a panel. If you leave gaps or delete a filter, the numbers are automatically adjusted to remove empty panels. If you use more than ten filters, the additional filters will all be combined into the last results panel unless you change the panel numbers.

 

Filtering – Keywords

You can search items using simple keywords, or more complex advanced search methods. The advanced syntax is similar to eBay’s advanced search option.

ipad
Finds any titles containing the exact word ipad, partial words are NOT found.
e.g. this matches ipad but not multipad

ipad blue
Finds any titles containing the word ipad and the word blue.
e.g. this would find “ipad blue case” but would not find “ipad bluetooth headset”

 

Filtering – Search by Description    New in 3.2

You can enable description searches for your listings. In most cases you’ll want to enable this option. In some cases, generic search words may appear in unrelated listings, so you can disable it if need be.

 

Filter Keywords – Boolean OR groups

(ipad,iphone,ipod)
This boolean “or” search finds listings that contain: ipad or iphone or ipod.
It is more efficient to use a group like this than to set up separate filters for each word.

Phrase support – Watch for split words. Some sellers enter “postcard” other use “post card”.
(postcard,post card)

Exclude keywords w/ wildcard support

ipad -blue
Finds any titles containing the word ipad and not containing the word blue.

ipad -damage*
Finds ipads, but excludes those that contain “damage” or “damaged”
Note, this search would also exclude items that say “no damage” or “not damaged”.

ipad -blue*
Finds any titles containing the word ipad and not containing any word starting with blue.
e.g. this would exclude blue cables and bluetooth accessories

ipad iphone ipod
Finds only listings containing ALL of the product names

 

Searches are not case sensitive.

Diactrics are supported, but not necessary.
garmin nuvi
Finds both nuvi and nüvi. eBay search generally normalizes diacritics to their base letter in the same fashion.

Words with similar meaning are not matched.
ipod nano 1st
“1st” does not match “first”
use this instead:
ipod nano (1st,first)

 

Filtering Keywords with the Global Keyword Exclude List

Keywords can also be entered into the global keyword exclude list on the Settings tab.

The format here is different. Since we are only excluding items, words and phrases can be entered, separated by commas, but wildcards, negative keywords, and boolean ( ) groups are not supported. You do not need to put quotes around phrases.

Global excludes for keywords can easily exclude unexpected items.

Example:

Filter1: iphone (5,5s,6)
Filter2: nikon camera kit
Global excludes:   damage,broken,case,cable

This search would exclude iPhone cases, but would also excluded camera kits where a camera case is included and mentioned in the listing.

In a similar fashion, excluding “damage” would exclude items with “no damage”
Instead, use the filter settings for item condition whenever possible. Global keyword excludes should be your last choice.

 

Filtering – Sub-category IDs   updated in version 3.2

The category matching feature tests each item for a match to the primary or secondary listing category. This feature is optional. Keywords are usually sufficient for locating items, but in some cases you may wish to only show items in certain categories.

For example: In collectibles, items are categorized by age or quality, but keywords are similar. In electronics, keywords like “iphone 5s” will typically return a wide range of accessories in addition to phones. Results can be limited using categories or price.

Multiple categories (currently limited to three) can be specified on a single filter separated by commas. Beginning with version 3.2, all subcategories are included automatically.

Note that the channel you select corresponds to a top level eBay category and you do not need to specify the top level.  If you specify sub-categories, the top level will not be used.

Categories vary by site/country. There are also organizational differences. For example GPS units might appear in consumer electronics, automotive, or sporting goods depending on the type. On eBay US, GPS units are listed in category 156955, under Consumer Electronics. On eBay DE, the category is also 156955, but they are under Auto Parts or Handys & Kommunikation which is equivalent to US Cell Phones. To determine the correct channel, search the eBay site and note the top level of the item’s category tree.

Please note that if you include more than three categories on a filter, the behavior is different.

For 1-3 categories, all subcategories of the category numbers you specify are included in the results. You can specify mid-level categories that contain other categories.

For 4+ category numbers, only items in the exact category are matched.  This means you need to use leaf categories.

Category numbers on eBay are typically 3-6 digit numbers. There are different types of categories: listing categories and organizational categories. You can envision this organization as a tree, where the organizational categories are the branch and the listing categories or the leaves.

Take for instance this category navigation links displayed at the top of some Disney pin pages:

Listed in category:  Collectibles > Disneyana > Contemporary (1968-Now) > Pins, Patches & Buttons > Cast Member Exclusives

  • Collectibles is the top-level or root category. This corresponds to BINSniper channel “Collectibles”
  • Disneyana > Contemporary (1968-Now) > Pins, Patches & Buttons are organizational categories. These categories can be used if you specify 1-3 category numbers.
  • Cast Member Exclusives is a listing category where the items are listed. This is a leaf category.

Clicking on “Cast Member Exclusives” brings you to that category page. The page URL then contains a usable category number like this:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Cast-Member-Exclusives-/38005/i.html

The category number is 38005. You can also see this in most browsers by hovering over the “Cast Member Exclusives” text on the item pages.

Note that only the last entry in the category navigation links can be used. For some items, two sets of navigation links may appear if the item is listed in two categories. You can then use either or both of the last links in each set.

By specifying a category on the filter, you will only see results in that category. By using category and a price filter, you can see all items in the category as they are listed. You will not see pins outside the category.

A better approach is to use a keyword filter for Disney “cast member” exclusive pin without a category specified. This will find matching pins in the Collectibles channel, in any category. Sellers often miscategorize items, but keywords still match when that happens.

 

Filtering – Item Condition   

Item condition is provided by the seller. In some cases the item code provided by the sellers may vary from the item description. You should read the listings before purchasing.

Some items do not include a condition code.

 

Filtering – Feedback

Feedback is a good way to filter out classes of sellers. It can work two ways: to target or to filter out.

  • Use feedback score to identify new sellers (low scores)
  • Use feedback score to identify business sellers (high scores)
  • Use percentage to filter out bad sellers (e.g. <95%)  

 

Filtering – Country Codes   

Country codes can be used to filter out import shipments, avoid duty charges, or only purchase from domestic sellers. For example, Chinese sellers listing on eBay US can be excluded by entering US in this field.

To filter, specify the country codes you want to see. All others will be excluded.

This option requires ISO 2-letter country codes. For a list of codes see: Wikipedia  The same codes are used on the item displays.

 

Filtering – Postal Codes  

Postal code filtering can be used to find local listings. Enter postal codes separated by commas or you can use a wildcard like this 752* (any postal code beginning with 752) or 7* (any beginning with 7) etc.

When using the postal/zip code option, you should also specify a country code to avoid any country overlap in codes.

You can provide a default list of zip codes in the Settings->Settings tab. Clicking the default button in the filter edit screen will apply that list to the current filter.

The country code is displayed on each item. The postal code is only included if you have defined postal code filtering. If a listing does not include  a postal code, it will be displayed as “NoLoc”

 

Filtering – Other Options   

Free Shipping – shows only items with free shipping

Returnable – shows only items that have a returns option

Best Offer – shows only items that have a best offer option available. You can use this option with price ranges to set up two filters: Set one filter with your normal buying price range. Then set another filter with a higher minimum price and best offer selected, and you can negotiate these down.

Top Rated Sellers – shows only items from top rated sellers. See the eBay site for details on what they currently consider to be top rated criteria. While this rating comes from eBay, it is not always reflected on the eBay sites.

Top Rated Listings – shows only items that are considered top rated listings. See the eBay site for details on what they currently consider to be top rated criteria. This varies from Top Rated Seller status, but it is not always clear how or why.

Global/Worldwide shipping – Limits items to only those where the seller has specified “worldwide” as a ship-to option or those items that are listed with the eBay Global Shipping program. Enabling this option may cause some items that ship specifically to your country (but not globally) to be excluded.

Pickup Only – Limit the results to items that have been marked as local pickup available. You should not use this to find automobiles as some sellers do not select the pickup option and vehicles are almost always pickup items.

Single Quantity Listings  New in 3.2  – shows ONLY single quantity listings. Use this option to filter out listings for multiple items and show only single item listings. This is useful when searching for rare or unique items and can be used to exclude surplus items and large retailers.

eBay Store Items – Store items are fixed price items listed by sellers that have stores. Uncheck this option to exclude store listings. This option can be used to filter out large sellers, but it would also filter out small stores listing many single items. Since store fees are cheaper than non-store fees, even low volume sellers may use the low end store option to save on fees. We recommend always including store items.

Variation Listings – Variation listings are items that have options. Most commonly, this is used with clothing for sizes and/or colors. For instance a seller offering t-shirts in 14 colors, would actually have 14 variation listings. Duplicate listings are excluded by default, showing only a single entry. If you enable this option, you may see duplicate listings in your results. Unchecking this option will exclude variation listings, which can be useful in finding unique items.

Seller Business Type   New in 3.2  – You can filter sellers by Private, Business, or both. This feature is currently supported by eBay on EU sites.

Listing Type   New in 3.2  – Auction, BIN, Both can now be selected at the filter level.  This replaces the global “show auctions” option used in previous versions.

 

Filtering – Sellers

You can exclude individual sellers, or include individual sellers.  When excluding, we recommend that you use the global list under the new Globals tab. While there may be cases where you only want to exclude a seller in a single filter and allow their listings in another filter, the more common use would be to just entirely block sellers from all results.

Enter a list of sellers separated by commas.

 

Filtering Sellers with the Global Seller Exclude List   

The global seller exclude option on the Settings tab is also used to exclude sellers. You can enter a list of seller names separated by commas. The sellers in this list will be excluded from ALL results.

 

Filter Diagnostics

The system analyzes filters and sends messages about certain errors. Some errors are indicated during filter entry, others are detected when the filters are running. These messages are indicated with a red error icon in the streamer header and filter errors are displayed in the Settings->Filter screen.

It may take a minute or two for filter error indications to appear after you submit the filters. Invalid filters are deactivated if they prevent items from being returned.

 

You can’t win ’em all

One of the most common questions we see is “Why do I lose some items to other buyers?”  While system speed and update delays can occur, the biggest factor by far, especially in highly competitive categories, is your competition.

For example, take a hypothetical case where just ten people worldwide are buying used iPhones in the busy cellphone category. Let’s say three of them are using BINSniper. If the three BINSniper users win every single iPhone, each one is still only going to win 33% of the listings (give or take). While that would be a balanced result, all three would still feel they are missing items. Imagine how the seven users not using BINSniper feel…

To be clear, that’s just an example. Everyone is on equal footing as far as the app is concerned. Also, it’s likely there are more than ten buyers around the world using browsers and maybe other tools buying in the cellphone category during peak hours. Even some of the page-refreshers can get lucky every once in awhile.

Alerts

BINSniper can play sounds, popup a message, open a new tab in the browser, and send email when new items are found.

Popup alerts are displayed in the system alert area of your screen. The messages appear outside the Firefox window in the lower right corner of your screen on Windows computers, and the location may vary on Apple and Linux computers. The first result is shown. This feature is of use when items arrive slowly, but the limitations make it less useful for active searches.

Please note that, due to a Firefox bug first noticed in v21, popup messages may cause idle mode to reset. You should not use both features at the same time.

Attention Alert   The attention display is different depending on your platform. On Windows, the taskbar flashes; on Macs, the icon in the upper right corner of the desktop flashes; on Linux, behavior varies by window manager and settings.

Audible alerts play a sound when items are found. You can use the default sound or a custom sound file. A number of sound files are included with the program. You can select them by clicking Default and then the folder icon to view the list.

AutoOpen alerts.  You can select Open a new tab for each item…  under visual alerts in the Settings->Alerts tab to have BINSniper open a new tab in your browser when each new item is found. You can also have BINSniper open a new window. Care should be taken to set your searches as specific as possible. Wide searches will open many tabs. For active categories, you may see 20 tabs per second if you don’t filter the items down. With eBay batching items, this feature is likely to open windows/tabs in groups.

This feature should only be used when directly monitoring BINSniper.  If you run it in the background, we recommend that you use the “flash taskbar” and sound alert options to alert you to new items.

When Firefox is minimized, opening a new tab causes the browser to open and come to the front.  If you run Firefox in an open (not minimized) window in the background, then tabs will open, but the browser will not pop to the front. This is the standard Firefox behavior.

If you have too many tabs to manage and want to close them all, right-click one of the tabs and select Close Other Tabs or Close Tabs to the Right . If too many tabs are allowed to open at the same time, Firefox will slow down as it runs out of memory. This is more pronounced if you have the option to open windows instead of tabs enabled. Use this feature with care.

Tab opening is disabled in idle mode to prevent hundreds of windows from being opened over time.

Tab opening is also disabled on the first set of results to allow you time to recover if you are flooded with new items. You can pause BINSniper using the icon menu, then adjust your settings.

 

AutoOpen Sidebar/Streamer You can close the sidebar or streamer displays and have them pop open when new items are received.

 

Icon Alerts

The default alert is that when new results are found, the BINSniper icon will turn red and an attention getting display occurs . You can click the icon to view the new items, or click individual items to get more detail.

If you are getting too many alerts, check your searches to make sure they aren’t too broad. Setting a search without keywords in an active channel is a common culprit.

Item Details Page

The item detail screen is hosted on the BINSniper server. This screen appears when you double click an item or when auto-open opens a tab for you. When available, price, shipping and combined price+shipping are shown for the original listing cost and the cost in your currency.

Shipping charges reflect country level shipping charges to your location based on your home site selection. Zip code rating is not supported on this page, “calculated” is shown instead. For local pickup searches, refer to the price displayed for price w/o shipping.

Additional information is shown for auctions: (Auction) is displayed after the price, the number of bids, and the ending time.

When using the Buy buttons, you may be prompted to login to eBay. Once you login, you should not be prompted again.

Multiple Listings Page

The multiple listings page is shown by the mobile features when more than one item matches at a time. It shows multiple items in short form. You can click thru to the buy page or view details on an item using the More Info buttons. Each item has a close box; When clicked the item is removed from the current display. This provides a quick way to filter down a list for review. If necessary, you can refresh the page to get all the items back.

If you are displaying auctions, a Bid button is now available. For closed items, a Sold or Ended button is displayed.

The Item Lists

The item lists in Sidebar and Streamer modes show the most recent items for each search. If color coding is enabled, the items are colored based on age. Items are color coded in two ways: single color and heat map.

In single color mode (on the left), darker background colors are newer items and are usually at the top of the list. Items that are less than 1 minute old are darkest. Colors lighten to white over six minutes.

In the heat map mode (on the right), colors of the rainbow indicate age. The newest items are red, and colors change thru the spectrum from red to orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet as items age (ROYGBIV). Red items are less than one minute old, orange two minutes, yellow three minutes. etc. Again, white indicates older than six minutes.

The list times and colors are updated whenever items arrive or every five seconds if no items have been received.

An additional color code is used to indicate when items have been clicked. When you select an individual item for viewing, it will change color to grey. The item can still be clicked, and will remain in the list in the proper time sort position until it is removed by BINSniper. This provides a visual indicator for you of which of the current items you have viewed. This feature can be disabled in the Settings->Display Tab.

Sorting

As mentioned earlier, eBay is batching items and they will now tend to arrive in groups rather than individually. Many items may arrive 10-15 minutes after their official start time. It can be difficult to identify new items if they are sorted by start time.  To address this issue, a new sorting feature has been added for BIN items.

You can choose to sort BIN items by either start time (when the listing was created) or arrival time (when the listing was added to the website and feeds). The default sort order has been changed to arrival time. This is more useful, and more consistent with the older start time behavior. The sort only affects BIN items. Ending auction style listings are always sorted by end time. Color coding is based on the current sort mode.

To switch to start time sort, uncheck the “Sort BINs by arrival” checkbox in the Settings->Display tab.

Sorting is closely related to the stars feature. Stars appear next to items that are recently added to the list (in the last 30 seconds).  When color coding is active, the color indicates the time since the item was listed on eBay. The stars indicate the time since the items was added to your screen.

This feature is useful when sorting by start time, but is somewhat redundant when using the arrival sort.  Stars appear on all newly arrived items. After 30 seconds, the stars are removed.

The stars feature is designed primarily for fixed price items. For auction lists, stars appear on the last items in the list, so if you have long lists, you may not notice them.

 

How the lists work

Auctions and fixed price items are show separately.

In fixed price (BIN) lists, items enter at the top of the list, and move down based on their time. New items push old items off of the list. The time value displayed in BIN lists is controlled by the Sort BINs by arrival setting and is either when the item arrived, or the age of the item.  The default is the arrival time. More on this in the Sorting section.

In the auction display, items enter the list at the bottom and proceed up the list as their end time approaches. Colors progress from yellow to red as they approach ending time. When auctions end, or reach the minimum time remaining option you set in the Display tab, they are removed from the list. The time displayed is always the ending time.

In both modes, you should concentrate on the items at the top of the lists. These are items that have just been listed, or are just about to end, that meet your criteria. If you choose to sort by age instead of arrival, you should look for red items (in heat text mode) or darker colors in single color modes.

Auctions with a BIN option can appear in both lists, though not at the same time. They appear in the fixed price list when they are listed. eBay removes the BIN option from listings with bids (unless there is a higher reserve price), so any listings that run their full life without a bid and with a BIN option will still be displayed in the auction lists. You may have previously seen these items as new BINs days earlier.

Auction lists are also controlled by the settings on the Display tab.  For best results, set the Display auctions ending in X minutes to a value that gives you enough time to open up the item and place a bid (0-9 minutes). When set to zero, items will remain in the list until they expire. When set higher, items are removed when they have less than the selected number of minutes remaining.

BINSniper monitors all auctions and delivers them to the lists with at least 5 minutes remaining.

If auctions have been opened in tabs, they stay open until you dismiss them, so you can monitor closing auctions thru completion and see the results in the browser tab. The first 20 matching auctions in order of ending time are show in the list.

Settings of 1-30 minutes with a 2 minute alert time are recommended for interactive use. For email alerts, you may wish to increase the alert and minimum ending time. To reduce the number of items appearing in your lists and give more targeted alerts, make your searches as specific as possible.

Note that when the list is initially populated, some items may already be past the alert time window and will not fire alerts. These can be manually opened if needed. The items in the list that have not yet crossed the alert threshold will fire alerts when they reach the specific time.

Note also:  that once you view an auction, it turns gray and will not alert. If you close a tab and want to reopen it, simply click the item again.

Auction displays show the current auction price. BIN displays show the BIN price. The same listing may appear in both lists if the listing is auction-style with a BIN and BINs are not filtered by age in BINSniper. The price in each list will likely be different.

 

Idle Mode

You can set the idle mode to pause or switch to email alerting when you don’t use the computer for awhile. The idle timeout controls when the computer switches to idle mode after it detects inactivity on the computer.

When idle mode is activated and the email modes are selected, BINSniper can switch to sending you emails. Emails will be sent at about the same frequency as desktop alerts.  When BINSniper detects that the computer is being used again, it will switch back to the user selected mode (set on the icon menu).

To prevent the computer from entering idle mode too quickly, set the idle mode delay to 180 minutes. This maximum idle time prevents BINSniper from running overnight if you forget to turn it off. Otherwise it would waste resources. Please set the idle time to a value appropriate to your needs. Most users do not need BINSniper to run when away from their computers unless using email alerts and should set the idle time to a low value (10-30 minutes).

Email+desktop mode runs indefinitely and can be used without email configured.

You may want to consider using VieBuy.com instead when on a mobile device. VieBuy is an interactive app rather than a background app on mobile devices.

 

Computer Power Settings

You need to also consider the computer’s power saving features. You should disable power saving options (especially hard drive, network and CPU options). You may need to set power setting in your operating system and/or in your BIOS.  If your computer goes into power save mode, errors may occur, BINSniper may not be able to receive items, communicate with eBay or send emails, or your computer may shut down. This is especially important in idle/email mode.

BINSniper Settings – Alerts

The Alerts tab controls how BINSniper lets you know about new items. Optional for visual, audible, mail and mobile alerts are supported.

Popup alerts display a message on the screen that an alert has occurred. Only the first item found is indicated. This message may be outside the browser window.

Attention alerts flash the taskbar or other areas of the screen depending on your platform when the browser is in the background.

Open a new tab brings up a new tab for each new item found. The auto-open feature is disabled when email alerts are enabled to prevent tabs from accumulating over time. This option should only be used when you configure searches that do not return large numbers of results. It could open hundreds of tabs at once if you have multiple searches configured. Test your searches before using this option.

Open the streamer/sidebar enables automatic popup of the item lists when new items are found. Uncheck this option for full manual control. When unchecked, audible alerts, new tabs, and the red BINSniper icon will still function to alert you to new items.

Play a sound file when new items are found.  You can use the default (bloop) sound or select your own sound file. Short sounds are best.

If you are using BINSniper in another room while working on something else, you can use longer sounds to make sure they get your attention. You can even record your own sounds. Firefox supports OGG, WAV and WEBM files. We’ve tested and provided OGG files as recommended by Mozilla. MP3 and AAC files may work with a decoder plugin for Firefox. Try http://media.io to convert your sounds to a supported format. To download ready made sounds, try http://freesound.org

Do not play sounds more often than…  This setting prevents sounds from playing is very rapid succession. Sounds are limited to once every five seconds by default to help prevent insanity. If repeated sounds irritate you, adjust the interval or try using a subtler, lower volume , or shorter sound.  When sounds are being suppressed, the visible alerts all still continue to operate normally.

Email alerts are complex, supporting up to three address configurations and mobile device targeting for smartphones or SMS text devices. See the email section below for more details on email alerting.

BINSniper Settings – Display

The Display tab controls the on screen look and behavior of BINSniper. It also allows you to control which items are displayed based on time and item type.

Item color scheme controls the appearance of the sidebar and streamer lists. Seven single color options display items in a color gradient, and two heat map options display items in a rainbow heat pattern based on the listing time (for fixed/BINs) or ending time (for auctions).

Open clicked items on eBay instead of the BINSniper website will send you to eBay when you click an item. This option is dependent on current eBay policies and may be removed in the future if those policies change. When reviewing many items, you may find it faster to disable this function and use the BINSniper pages to review item details.

Show times in the lists shows the timestamp when the item arrived, ends or was listed on eBay.

Sidebar and Streamer: Bold text sets the display text to bold. You may find this more readable.

Sidebar and Streamer: Grey out items turned the items grey when you click on them so you can easily tell what you’ve already viewed. Auto-opened items are also greyed.

Sidebar and Streamer: Remove items marks items for removal from the lists when you view them. Viewed items are removed on the next update. Auto-opened items are also removed. If you uncheck this item, previously viewed items are restored in the current searches.

Fonts can be controlled using the font name and size selector. This affects the streamer and sidebar displays.

Sort BINs by arrival  controls the order of BIN lists. Arrival sort is recommended, but you can uncheck to sort by listing age. Items may be published on eBay websites and in the feeds up to 15 minutes after creation due to new batching processes at eBay, so arrival is more accurate.

Display auctions ending in X minutes or more allows you to provide a ending buffer so that you have time to review and make purchases. Displaying items down to the last second doesn’t always allow you time to buy.

 

 

BINSniper Settings – Settings Tab

Default Country selects your default site. This is the site where you will buy items. Items from any eBay site can be purchased on any other site. Rather than logging into multiple sites, BINSniper sends you to one to buy. This country is also used as the default country for new searches. Each search has its own country which selects which site the items are located/listed in.

Zip/Postal Code Defaults sets defaults for your searches that can be applied to filters by clicking the Use default button in the filter edit screen. You should set this value when searching for local pickup items. Include all zip codes within your desired area. You can also used wildcards like 902* to include all zip codes from 90200-90299.

Global Seller Exclude List is a list of eBay seller names to exclude from ALL results. Use this to exclude problem sellers.

Global Keyword Exclude List is a list of keywords or phrases separated by commas. Any items matching any of the keywords, will be excluded. You should use the item condition filter options to filter out damaged/repair items instead of keywords wherever possible.

 

BINSniper Email Features

Email Modes
The email feature sends email to your inbox with a link to new items. Mobile devices must have Internet browsing capability and SMS or email capability.  Messages are sent from @binsniper.com addresses.

Email may be sent in two ways: by manually selecting email alerts from the user menu, and by setting the idle mode to switch to email mode when you are away from your computer.  Email is not realtime communication, be aware that delays may occur on the BINSniper server, relays or your mail server.

You can set BINSniper to send all alerts to email, or to both email and the desktop.  You can still monitor listings on the desktop while in email mode, but sounds, popups, and auto tab opening are disabled.

To set BINSniper to use desktop alerts and switch to email when you leave the computer, you need to use the idle mode settings. You should leave the icon menu setting on Desktop Alerts. Then set the idle mode setting to “Switch to Email Alerts”. Set the idle time to a low value such as 10 minutes. When set like this, BINSniper will show desktop alerts, switch to email when you leave for ten minutes or more, and switch back to desktop mode when you return.

When you connect to the BINSniper server using the email links, you are not connecting to your PC. The connection is from your mobile device to the server and then to eBay. No special network or firewall configuration is required on your network for email operation. If you can receive email and browse the web, you can use the email alert feature.

The amount of email sent is similar to amount of desktop alerts. Keep this in mind before enabling email. If you get a large number of desktop alerts, this will translate to a large number of emails when in email mode.

 

Configuring Email
Email is configured on the Settings->Alerts tab. You can configure multiple accounts and even use the same account on multiple computers.

To activate email alerts for your email address, simply enter your email address and click the Confirm button. An confirmation email will be sent from our server to your email account. You must use the confirmation link in the email to activate your account.  Once confirmed, you can use the account on multiple computers by copying the confirmation code from one system to another. Up to three email accounts can be configured on one system. You can select which email account should receive alerts using the selector on the settings screen. BINSniper will only send to one email at a time. If you want to send to multiple accounts at once, you need to set up a distribution list on your email server and enter the list’s email address in the BINSniper email section or establish forwarding to multiple accounts for your email account.

To unsubscribe an email address, use the Delete button. If you are using the email address on multiple systems, the other systems will no longer be able to send email once the account is deleted. Do not share your confirmation codes with anyone. If you rebuild your computer and don’t know the code, just re-confirm.

If you want to use the same email account on two computers, confirm your email on one, copy the code, and use the Enter Code Manually option to add the code to the other computer.

When you reconfirm, the old code is removed and any other computers using that code will not be able to send. You will need to re-sync them using the manual code entry process.


To view the email management page, click the Manage button on the Alerts tab. This will take you to a mobile size page that can be used to manage messaging for your email account. Each account has separate settings.

You should bookmark this address on your mobile device. A QR Code is provided on the web page for your convenience in importing the link to your mobile device.

The management page provides a simple mechanism for temporarily disabling email messaging while away from your computer. While disabled, emails are still sent by your desktop but will be discarded at the server. Discarded mails are not saved. When you enable email again, only new items will be sent. 

You should not use this feature to permanently disable dead email accounts. Instead, click the delete option in the BINSniper app Alerts tab next to the email address. This will completely remove your email address from our system.

If you are working mostly in email mode, consider using viebuy.com instead.  Viebuy delivers items to your mobile device without using email, but it is designed for more interactive use rather than the occasional alert.

 


Each email that is sent to your account will include a link containing the found items. Clicking the link will take you to a web page listing the items that were found. The format of the web page is controlled by the Mobile check box next to each address. When checked, the email link will direct you to a mobile-friendly page. When unchecked, you will land on a wide format standard web page.

For mobile accounts, you can also choose to display the full item description. The description may span many pages.

BINSniper is programmed to direct mobile traffic to the eBay mobile or classic sites based on the preference on the Alerts tab.  However, on the eBay website, they may intercept page requests from mobile devices and forcing them to view the mobile version of the website. To stop this, scroll to the bottom of any eBay mobile page and click “classic site”. Then return to the BINSniper alert email and click an item again. You should now land on a classic site item listing. You may need to repeat this process if the cookies controlling it expire or are removed. When eBay removes the redirect, the BINSniper setting should work as expected. If you are stuck in classic site mode and want to go back to mobile mode, you may need to clear your cookies in your mobile browser.

If you are using an email to SMS gateway to deliver mail to your phone, select the SMS checkbox. This reduces the message length and should work with most phones. Using SMS formatted mail may introduce additional steps into the process of viewing items on a smart phone, so you should only use this option if you cannot read the email sent by BINSniper. This option only applies when Mobile is checked next to the email address.

The SMS feature in BINSniper only controls the message format, it is not a SMS sender. You must provide an email address in the format required by your provider’s SMS gateway, a phone number is not sufficient. For a list of major providers and their email address formats see the WikiPedia page on SMS gateways. You may find SMS delivery to your phone to be faster than email delivery. SMS uses a push technology, where email update time is usually selected in your email client.

 

Best Practices

Set up your computer

  • Set the time clock to use network time servers (NTP) to sync time
  • If you are going to use email features, or if you run BINSniper on a computer you are not actively using, disable power saving in your computer control panel and BIOS. Be sure to disable CPU and hard drive power down too.

Searches

  • If you don’t need Auctions or BINs, set BINSniper to only load what you need.
  • You should try to configure as few searches as possible.  Your filters are processed in a round-robin fashion and more filters means less frequent updates.  If you have 10 or more filters, you may start to notice a slowdown at times.
  • Remember that searches are limited to specific product categories by the channel selection.  If you need to monitor multiple channels, use the “All Channels” option in version 3.4 and higher.
  • Try to configure searches that target items you want, and that actually exist on eBay. Unrealistic searches just waste resources and slow down your updates.
  • Set a maximum price on searches to minimize unwanted items and unreasonable seller prices, but keep in mind best offers may allow you to purchase some items at prices lower than listed price.
  • Use specific searches where  they make sense. It is generally more efficient to combine very similar searches and make the purchase decision yourself than to try and build the purchase decision into your searches. Fewer searches mean faster results.
  • Review the keyword syntax to reduce the number of filter where possible. While you can have hundreds of filters configured, consolidating filters is more efficient and easier to manage.
  • Setting a low Display auctions ending in X minutes or more value makes it easier to track auctions in busy categories.
  • Use the global seller exclude list.

Efficiency

We see some users that review thousands of items but only buy a handful. Other users review a handful of items and buy most of them. Let your filters do the work for you. If you are looking at many items but not buying anything or buying very little, try to determine what sets the items you are buying apart from the rest.  Then adjust your searches to find those items. Tuning your searches for item condition and price are major time savers. If you have different price ranges for new and used items, create two filters and set the price ranges for each.

Where possible, use OR groups to combine filters.  For example:

apple iphone
apple ipad

can be combined into: apple (iphone,ipad)

see the keywords section for more detail.

 

Active Categories
For active categories, the following are recommended:

  • Make your searches as targeted as possible. This way you only see items you are ready to buy. Reviewing every item in a category is possible, but in most cases is not an efficient use of your time.
  • If you want tabs to be opened, set the open a new tab for each… option in the Display tab. Each item will open separately and you can review the details on the BINSniper site before going to eBay. This flow is optimized for speed buying. The Buy button will take you to the eBay commit/buy screen.
  • Use Streamer mode. Streamer is optimized for multiple searches.
  • If you aren’t buying many auctions, set for BIN items only to get the best deals faster.
  • Set the BIN filter to a level that works for you. Don’t set it too low or you may miss late arriving items. BIN filter will remove listings that are older than the limit you set. You should not set this lower than 20 minutes. This filter is based on start time, not arrival time.
  • If you are overwhelmed by new items, you probably have your search criteria set too wide. Adjust it for price, etc to minimize the number of unwanted items. Let BINSniper do the work for you.

Background Use

Recommended use for occasional items:

  • Set your searches as specific as possible to prevent false alerts
  • For email features:
    • Set the idle mode to turn on when you leave your computer.
    • Set the idle mode action to Email+Desktop or just Email. When you leave your computer, BINSniper will start emailing you alerts instead.

 

 

Multiple browsers

The open in a new window option for item alerts has been removed.  Running BINSniper in multiple windows of the same browser will deactivate all but the most recent window.  BINSniper is designed to be used in a single window with multiple tabs.

It is possible to run multiple copies of BINSniper on one computer, but you need to use different browsers or different profiles in the same browser.  On one computer, it is generally more efficient to create new filters instead. If you have multiple computers available, it can be easier to manage things if you run BINSniper on two computers at once when you have a large number of filters.

 

Frequently Asked Questions FAQ – Troubleshooting

BINSniper doesn’t load any items

Make sure BINSniper is active. If it is paused, you won’t see any results. Right click the BINSniper icon menu and select Desktop Alerts. The target icon should be green or red when BINSniper is running.

You must have Firefox 29 or higher.

If no items are displayed by BINSniper, the first thing to check is that the BINSniper icon is displayed on your toolbar. The icon is a central control mechanism for BINSniper and should be placed on an active toolbar.  View->Toolbars->Customize.

In versions 3.2.1 or lower, a message “Reference Error: document is not defined”  may also appear in your browser error console when the icon is not found.

If items do not appear and the icon is visible, you may have a connectivity problem. Visit http://websocketstest.com/  to verify basic support connectivity. When the test completes, you should see green check marks in the Port 80, Port 443 and Port 8080 sections. If you do not, you will need to refer to your ISP for getting websockets access on port 843 to work. We cannot assist you with this.

If you are getting connected (green icon) but are unable to see any items or a connection error is displayed at the top of the BINSniper areas, you may have firewall issues. Make sure that your firewall software allows you to access port 843. Check your network connection.

If you only see Connecting… and no items appear, you may need to create a new Firefox profile or reset Firefox.  Creating a new profile is a general cure-all for profile corruption.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

If you are using a 3G mobile device, try using 4G or WiFi instead.  If you are on a 4G device, try WiFi.  3G and 4G providers may block some access. If your provider has a means for accessing the Internet without using their proxy, that may also help.   Public WiFi hotspots may also restrict access.

If items were displayed when you first started BINSniper, before you configured filters, you probably have a conflict in your filter.

Make sure the proper channel is selected.  The most common mistake is to select the wrong channel for the keywords you are using. e.g. you won’t find new smartphones in the antiques channel.

Another possible error is to filter on a category that is not in the channel you selected. If you get items when you remove the category number, but don’t see items when you add it back in, you probably have a conflict between the channel and the category. See the instructions above about filters and categories on how to determine categories and channels from the eBay pages.

Make sure that your search isn’t too narrow. Selecting settings that are too specific can cause very few items to be displayed. Normally you want to be as specific as possible while still seeing all the items of interest. Things to look out for are: conflicting keywords that eliminate all the items (e.g. ipad -apple), keywords in the global exclusion list that conflict with your filter keywords, or selection of keywords that conflict with item conditions such as keyword:new and condition:used.

 

 

BINSniper isn’t showing an item that is on the eBay site

BINSniper shows ONLY new listings and auctions that are about to end. It doesn’t show everything on eBay, and it isn’t a general purpose search tool. You can jump to eBay for searching, by clicking the eBay logo in the streamer or sidebar modes.

If listings aren’t loading, there may be a problem with the search, or just no new items to show.

 

 

Why are item colors out of order sometimes in Streamer Mode?

The display colors are rounded to the nearest minute. This can cause adjoining items to be the same color on one cycle and then different colors on the next cycle when sorting by starttime.

 

How to disable BINSniper

BINSniper can be temporarily disabled by right clicking the icon and selecting Pause. BINSniper will also pause itself after a certain amount of time as set in the settings screen. BINSniper will also pause when no searches are configured in the searches list. When paused, BINSniper does not use any network resources and use minimal computer time.

The BINSniper add-on only runs when FireFox is running, so you can shut it down by closing FireFox. You can also disable BINSniper without uninstalling it by using the Disable option in the FireFox Add-ons list. To remove BINSNiper, uninstall it from the Firefox Add-ons list using the normal Firefox procedure.

 

How to prevent BINSniper from pausing when the computer is idle

You can keep BINSniper running for prolonged periods of time by setting the Idle Mode email mode. In Email+Desktop, BINSniper will not pause and will not switch to email mode when idle.  This can be useful if you run BINSniper on a second computer or work near a system that you aren’t always actively using. Normally, you should allow BINSniper to go idle when you are away. If you are not using email alerts, you should set the Idle Action to Pause Mode and set a high idle timeout (up to 180 minutes). If the computer is idle for an extended period, BINSniper will pause itself (or switch to email mode).

You can keep BINSniper running indefinitely by setting it to email+desktop alert mode. This will disable automatic tab opening, but sound and email alerts will still be sent. This mode can also be used without email configured.

Older items popup sometimes
BINSniper looks at the most recent items.  For instance, if BINSniper retrieves the newest 100 items that match your search and an item in that list sells, item #101 will move up into the top 100 and may be displayed.  BINSniper filters out older listings, but in fast moving categories, #101 may not be that old. So BINSniper will display it because it hasn’t been marked as sent.

An item displayed was marked SOLD after I clicked on it
This can happen when another buyer beats you to the item. This is more likely to happen in high demand categories like mobile phones or cameras. It is also more likely to happen when you are using email alerts due to the inherent delays. Sold items may also appear on your screen until the next update cycle.

Results sometimes include items that don’t exactly match.

Searches for pickup items return results based on several factors that make the item pickup-able but may not be readily apparent in the listing.

Clicks land on the eBay home page instead of the item page.

There are occasional issues where eBay misroutes clicks and you end up on the home page.  In some cases, this is a sporadic issue – sometimes clicks work, sometimes they don’t.  This will continue to occur until eBay fixes the backend.

If all your clicks are ending up at the home page, it might be a cookie issue.  eBay has long standing issues with their handling of cookies that prevent links from working in some browsers at some times and may even prevent login on the eBay site.   If you see these errors, clearing your cookies should resolve the issue.   You can use an add-on like Cookie Manager to delete only the eBay cookies.

When you delete the cookies, you will need to login into eBay again.  Cookies are required to use eBay, so you should only delete your cookies when needed.  Once you’ve logged back in, go to BINSniper and click on an item to verify that you can get to the item pages.

The debug log says items are being skipped, why?
Reset your computer clock if needed to eliminate the errors. If too many errors occur, it indicates a time clock issue and a warning message popup is displayed. The popup warning is only displayed once per session so it won’t interfere with normal use. You should verify your computer’s clock setting.

The error console shows “DEPRECATION WARNING: toggleSidebar() is deprecated”

Deprecation warning indicate features that are being changed in future versions of Firefox. You can ignore this message.

 

Debug/Tools

BINSniper tries to restrict search entry to avoid errors, but sometimes system errors can occur. You can review any errors by selecting Debug/Tools from the icon menu. The latest status messages are displayed at the top of the Log tab. If any error messages appear, the message should indicate what the problem is. This list is cleared each time you restart Firefox.

Network problems are also reported in the Debug/Tools screen.

BINSniper will attempt to automatically correct for some errors.

The Filters Tab displays a summary of your configured filters.

The Import/Export tab also allows you to copy and paste your searches between BINSniper systems. If you have multiple computers, you can copy the searches from one, save them to a file or your hard drive or USB stick, email them, or paste them into http://pastebin.com/ or a similar service. You can then paste the results into another BINSniper system. Pasting the results overwrites your existings searches. This feature can also be used to share searches with other users, or to save your searches in files so you don’t have to manually reconfigure them if they are lost.

 

Reviews

This is by far the best professional eBay buyer’s tool. It has helped my family transform our income to a home based business. Take the time to fine tune it and you can steal the deals! The developer always responds quickly and personally to questions and is there to help.
– by iBuyers

VERY GOOD, no one else has something else like it
– by Dustin

I have purchased a few items through this tool, and it sure beats the old way of checking a bookmark for new BIN’s ever few hours. This tool will really help resellers and other who need to buy a laptop or desktop on a budget.
– Joseph at upgradeosx.com

Absolutely the BEST Bin Sniper for eBay!! I’ve used it for over a year and have snagged some AWESOME deals!! Very easy to use and clean looking on the status bar. Thanks!
– by katelynne

very useful
– by funnybuh

absolutely wonderful as before (ed: speaking about earlier versions)
– by ch_mudassar

Worked well. Gave me a constant stream of new items, and let me know when they became available. Did all the work.
– by Terry

Great tool! good assistant for ebay BIN !! Thank you!
– by Scott

Please post any suggestions, questions or comments. Your feedback is important. You can review this add-on on the Mozilla site too.

 

Trademarks

eBay, the eBay logos and “Buy-It-Now” are trademarks of eBay, Inc.

BINSniper&reg; is a registered servicemark of Tech World, Inc.

 

History

Original release: 05 Jan 2009

Current release: May 2015  3.1

15 thoughts on “BINSniper® Legacy Add-on User Guide”

  1. which old version supports scanning of new auctions?
    the version 3.3 can only scan new bin’s and ending auctions but i need also new auctions.

    1. BINSniper is designed for alerting of new events, not general searching. Auction style listings that have a BIN option are included in the BIN listings when they are new. All auctions with and without a BIN option are included in the Auctions listings when they are ending.

      We plan to add some limited search capability that will allow quick jumping to eBay results pages using the filter configuration, but this will be separate from the normal alerts system.

    1. We need more information on this. It is working properly here with BINSniper 3.3 and Firefox 44. Please provide errors from the Browser Error Console (Ctrl-Shift-J) and/or a screenshot.

  2. Running v3.3 on latest Firefox. I’ve tried syncing with both the time.windows.com and time.nist.gov time servers but items are appearing 5 to 9 minutes late on average. I remember in earlier releases, items were appearing within a minute or sooner upon listing. Never had an issue with with items appearing late until rel 3.1. Is there something I can do to resolve this as it quite impossible to buy popular items because they are already sold by the time it appears in BinSniper?

    1. Significant delays were introduced into the eBay systems at the end of 2014. BINSniper 3 was released to speed up item fetches as much as possible. BINSniper updates these items every few seconds. The longer delays you are seeing are created by the eBay systems, and some items may not post to the eBay website and feeds for up to 20 minutes. While they are dated with their submission date, they are not published to the site until minutes later in many cases. According to eBay, items are delivered to the website and the data feeds at the same time. This does appear to be the case. When eBay resolves this delay issue, BINSniper will automatically deliver the items faster.

      More about this here: http://www.auctionbucks.com/news/ebay-feed-changes/

      Smartphones and electronics are high competition categories. There are many buyers monitoring these categories using VieBuy, BINSniper, the eBay website and other tools. You will never be able to win all the items, or even a large percentage due to this competition. We continue to look for ways to improve this.

    1. This appears to be resolvable by restarting Firefox. I’ve posted a new topic about this. Let me know if you continue to have issues. Thanks.

      If you have issues, please look for errors in your browser and BINSniper logs.

      Right-click the BINSniper icon and select Debug/Tools

      And from Firefox enter Ctrl-Shift-J to see the browser error list.

  3. Hi,

    Does Binsniper not work for searching for ISBNs? I set up a few searches with wide parameters and have had 0 results in the last 24 hours. Is there a way to change it to get those results? Also, how often does Binsniper search for new listings?

    1. Update:
      If the ISBN is in the title it will match. Items that list the ISBN in the description or item specifics only do not match in BINSniper 3.1 or VieBuy.
      You can use watcherx.com or BINSniper 2.8 to search descriptions.

      We are currently working on including description and item specific support for keyword searches in BINSniper 3.1 but this requires some changes to the search filters and the server and may take some time.

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