How does Tadpole Auction Watcher Work?

TAW has two main features. 1. It lets you select auctions to watch and 2. it lets you setup custom searches that are automatically updated. The auction watch feature allows you to watch auctions that interest you. You may be interested in bidding on the auction or you may only want to see how many bids are placed or how high the price goes or you may want to monitor items you are selling. The search section allows you to create a custom search for items that you are interested in. You no longer have to check your favorite category several times a day or wait for the eBay favorites email. By the time that email arrives, the auction with the item you wanted may have ended with Buy-It-Now! You need something that lets you know much sooner when an item of interest to you has been listed. TAW will alert you when an auction is about to end or you can set the options to be alerted with every new bid(great for watching your own auctions) or you can receive an alert when an auction exceeds a price you define. You can setup a custom search for keywords or for new listings in a category. This listing is regularly updated and shown on your desktop. Double click any item to see the auction listing. It could not be easier to monitor auctions or find items you are interested in. You can see more in our demonstration video which shows you exactly how to use the simple software program.

Watch the demonstration video by clicking the below icon

How much does TAW cost?

It is 100% free! There is no upgrade and no trial version. You can download the full 100% functional software for FREE. TAW also contains no adware or spyware. There are some links in the menu for sponsor websites but those do not appear as banners. No banners, no adware, and 100% free!

What are the latest updates?

Version 1.0.0.0 - Original release

In version 1.0.0.1 - Fixed gallery image display problem caused when eBay changed the way they show gallery images. Improved code speed and image display code. Please note that the installer will uninstall and delete your old db file, so if you have something that has to be saved - copy to a temp directory and then copy it back after the new installation. You can find this file in c:\Program Files\Elite Minds\Tadpole Auction Watcher\watch.mdb

How do I setup a custom search in TAW?

Searches are setup the same way they work on eBay. You can enter keywords and search all of eBay or you can search for keywords within a specific category. By default, the searches are setup to show items listed in the past 24 hours but you can change any search settings with the click of a mouse.

For example, suppose you collect antique wine bottle stoppers and you want to know when a new stopper is listed. Click the Edit Or Create A Search button to open the search feature window. If you enter the keywords antique wine bottle you will receive too many results and many of them will not be of interest plus you will miss many because the seller may not put the word 'antique' in the title. For this type of search I would suggest only monitoring the antique wine bottle group for new items. Leave the keywords section blank and click the button for Select Category. A popup will appear that shows all available eBay categories. Select your specific category which would be

• Home & Garden > Dining & Bar > Bar Tools & Accessories > Bottle Stoppers, Corks

Now name your search at the bottom right corner as 'wine corks' and click the Save button then Close.

When you return to the main program you will see(after several seconds) a new search appear called 'wine corks' and it will list all items that were listed in the past 24 hours in the selected group. That was all you had to do. Select the group and you can see all of the new items listed. Once you look over the new listings, click the Mark As Viewed button and they will disappear. When new items are listed, you will see them appear in the bottom window. You can also drag the bottom window down to make it larger if you usually have many results to view. Double click any of the auctions to open in a browser window for a closer look. You can right click for other options too. You can also view the search at eBay anytime by double clicking on the blue search bar with the search name.

Some tips:

• Make sure your search results are fairly narrow. If you search all of eBay for a common keyword, you will receive lots of results you are not interested in. Try to pick specific keywords and a specific category.
• Most of the time you will only want to see items listed in the past 24 hours which is the default setting. If you want to see all items, make sure you change the 24hour setting to all listings.
• Click the Mark As Viewed button to hide items you have already seen. When the search list is updated, you will then see only newly listed items and not the same items over and over.

You can see a demonstration of how to setup a search in our demonstration Video.

I only see 20 results but I should have 200?

Your search criteria are too broad. You need to modify the search so that it normally returns fewer listings. It is OK to have a lot of results the first time you create a search, but if you always have 200 results even after clicking the Mark-As-Viewed button, then the search criteria is too broad. Try using keywords, price, category, or other factors to limit the number of results returned. If you want to monitor a group that is higly active, you can still use the search box but it will only show the 20 most recent listings matching your search criteria. The search section is intended to help you identify items you are interested in, not show you every item in a category. It shows 20 items per search result which is a reasonable number to look through. You will need to double click the blue title bar for the search to see all results for highly active groups/products if it regularly has many results.

My search window shows items I am not interested in seeing?

Your search criteria are too broad. You need to modify the search so that it is more specific.Try using keywords, price, category, or other factors to limit the number of results returned.If you search all of eBay for keywords, you may receive many unwanted results. Try searching only in the categories that have the items you want even if you have to setup a seperate search for each category.

I cant view the Demonstration Video ?

You can try right clicking on the video image and select Save Target As. Then save the video to your desktop where you can double click to play it. This may be useful if your internet service is not reliable, slow, or if you are on dial-up.

The video is in a standard Microsoft WMV format and should be playable on any windows system by default and on some MacOSX systems with special plugins. The software is PC/Windows only so we do not offer a QT version of the video at this time.

Does TAW work with MacOSX or Windows?

Windows: The software should run under most windows systems including Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 98. The system requirements are minimal. If your computer can run Windows smoothly, then you can run TAW.

MacOSX: Unfortunately there is no MacOSX version at this time but you can run the program under Windows Emulation on a Mac.

Does TAW require Cable/DSL?

TAW needs to access the Internet regularly to check on auction status and new listings so a broadband connection like Cable or DSL is recommended. You can use TAW with dialup by clicking the Refresh buttons when you login. This will update your watched auctions and custom searches immediately. If your dial-up modem software is set to auto dial, then your computer will connect when TAW needs to update the listings. This is a good option because it allows TAW to alert you when an auction is ending.

Zone Alarm keeps popping up alerts. What do I do?

Zone Alarm monitors any software that tries to use other programs or tries to access the Internet. TAW needs to access the Internet to see the eBay listings. It also has to access other programs such as your Internet browser to display auctions and to play sounds. When the Zone Alarm popup appears, click the Remember This Setting checkbox and then check Allow. Make sure that you are allowing the Tadpole Auction Watcher this access and not another program. The popup will have TadPoleAuctionWatcher.exe in the top line.

My computer will not shut down but I see a popup from TAW ?

Windows should shut down all running programs but then again...it's windows so it does not always work like it is supposed to. If you select shutdown or reboot and your computer never does, right click on the TAW frog in your system tray and select Exit or when the window is open, select Program/Exit and this should allow windows to complete its shutdown.

I have a suggestion or found a bug, who do I contact?

We are always glad to hear suggestions and the software is updated regularly to add improvements and make it run smoothly. Please send any comments to support@tadpoleauctionwatcher.com

What other free software can you recommend?

Check out the Download page HERE to find other software you can use for eBay or for general Internet browsing. This software includes useful tools and necessary free security tools to protect you from bad websites.

This software is 100% Free and it contains no adware. Download your free copy and try it out HERE