Auction management is an extremely important part of any successful eBay seller's business. We've been shopping and evaluating auction management providers off and on since 2001, and have learned a few things along the way. We hope you find some of them helpful.

1) Ignore sales pitches. Everybody's pitch sounds great and they all claim to do "everything" (they don't).

2) Evaluate a service "as it is" not what it promises to be in a few months (or even weeks). These promises are often not kept at all, or take much longer than expected.

3) Make a list of functions you need and functions you want. A spreadsheet is a good idea to keep track of what functions various services will do.

4) If possible, browse the services' forums to get a feel for the their strengths and weaknesses. Take single complaints with a grain of salt, take note of complaints that recur.

5) Use eBay "Search Descriptions" for auctions launched by the service and browse. You can learn a lot about a services' capabilities and customer base this way. Find something cheap to buy so you can test it out from the buyer's side.

5) When you find a service that looks promising, sign up for the trial period. The only way to truly know if the service will work for you and your business is to learn it and try it out.

6) Use a secondary eBay selling ID to test out a new service so your regular business will not be impacted during your evaluation and learning curve.

7) Do not import current listings from eBay into a new service. Start from scratch with one or two items. Auction Management can never manage imported listings as well as listings launched from the service.

8) Don't assume ANYTHING. Every service has simple things that it can not do, many of which you would never think a service would lack.

9) When you run into a function that you really need, but the service seems to not have, look hard for workarounds. Other users are often a better source for "out of the box" solutions than support.

10) Take current users recommendations with a huge grain of salt. Many users will say their service is "great" and "does everything". Their business and processes may be very different from yours. They may have different expectations, or they may lack experience with other services. People often recommend things they have chosen to validate their choice, and a lot of people are reluctant to admit they've made a mistake, or even admit they could have made a better choice.

11) Be willing to compromise. In your search for auction management you will likely have to give up on things in your "need" list. Every business is different, and so far, there has not been an auction management tool that is perfect for everyone.

12) Make a "wish list" of features you need and want that a service doesn't yet have, and send it to the company. Some don't care, but others do take these suggestions into consideration and sometimes implement them down the road. This might help a future poor seller shopping for auction management. Who knows, that future poor seller could even be you!

Good Luck eBayers!
(you're gonna need it)