When I first sat down to write something up about Auction Action Tracker I intended on it being one of our Products of the Day since it's the sort of small/shareware/user-specific type of software that we usually review in that feature. However, due to Auction Action Tracker's continued updates, and the application's enormous potential, I decided to dedicate a full review instead. Auction Action Tracker is a utility to check the status of eBay auctions. It works by connection to eBay's servers and obtaining all the necessary information. You can have it retrieve all your current auctions (whether selling or bidding) by using your User ID, or you can enter in auctions manually by their number, which is convenient if you're not yet sure you want to bid on the item but don't want to fill up your browser with errant eBay bookmarks.
Auction Action Tracker's functionality extends to providing all the information about an auction that you could wish for. Double-clicking an auction in the main list opens up another window that shows the time remaining, high bidder, current price, and other information normally found in the top status section of an auction.
Currently there are a handful of annoyances with version 1.5 of the software. First of all, the main list doesn't tell you what the current price is or who the high bidder is, two essential pieces of information. Obtaining that information requires that you open up each listing which can quickly prove to be time consuming and tedious. The My eBay section of eBay lets you track all your current auctions (those that you're selling or bidding on) and displays all of this information while using colors to make it even easier to see which auctions you're winning. Auction Action Tracker may only require a quick launch of the application, but with a few clicks inside of your web browser you can get all the information in a better designed format. In actuality, Auction Action Tracker really proves only to be convenient for those auctions that you haven't yet bid on, allowing you to easily keep track of them.
Other problems with Auction Action Tracker in its current form include the lack of a refresh/reload button for the main list. If you had it check all your current auctions using your User ID, and then proceeded to bid on a couple more auctions, choosing Auto Load and entering your User ID again will result in duplicate listings. These can easily be removed by choosing "Remove Duplicates" from the View menu, but that's an unnecessary step.
Auction Action Tracker's huge potential lies in features that it currently doesn't offer. Apart from improving the interface and layout, Auction Action Tracker's feature set should be extended to allow you to bid directly from within the application. An extraordinarily convenient application exists for the PC called BidSniper. BidSniper allows you to enter in your maximum bid but BidSniper will only send that bid to eBay in the closing seconds of the auction, ensuring that if your bid is the highest then you're guaranteed to win. This eliminates the dreadful "outbid at the last second" frustration that many eBay users have experienced. If Auction Action Tracker added such a feature, it's functionality would greatly be increased.
Auction Action Tracker is a reasonable piece of programming and carries a reasonable price tag of $5. For most users, though, using My eBay and a handful of bookmarks may prove to be more useful -- for now.
