eBay has come a long way with it’s web interface on the worlds most popular bidding site on the world wide web. But, there still could be some improvements made, namely, with speed. One of my main gripes with eBay is that it can be slow at times. Not a biggy when you’re browsing but it can mean the difference between winning and losing at bid time. It’s happened a couple of times to me. Granted, network issues could be related to the speed problem; however, with its complex layout, eBay can take some of the burden of blame as well. Thankfully, eBay has an API (Application Program Interface) that allows developers to tap into the eBay engine externally. This means people at companies like iwascoding can make an eBay manager that works as if you were on eBay…but better.

iwascoding are the makers of the well known GarageSale, an eBay sell manager. This has been the more popular use of the eBay API but fortunately, those whacky German coding guys understand that there is a need to manage sales as well manage bids, so they created GarageBuy.

When I first saw GarageBuy, I was hesitant. What could it possibly do better than eBay’s web interface? Yes, speed was my key draw to this application, but was it worth opening another application to take more resources away from my Mac? Needless to say, the cost, free, was the strongest pull for me to click that download link.

Once installed, GarageBuy asks for you to authorize the application, much like wonderful Flickr Uploadr (also free) does. Once authorized, you’re already signed in and ready to go. First thing GarageBuy will do is import any items on your Watch list and other eBay information locally. Then, you’re off to the races.

I did a test search, “Purple Birkenstock”, to see how well the search would perform. To my surprise, it was quick and presented very nicely. The left side of the column shows your search term along with the hit count. To the right is the results. These results include brief auction information and a picture (if available.) With a limited pool of results, I went for something I wanted: NAS. NAS, short for Network Attached Storage, is a need at my home-based office. I’ve been looking for a rack mount product but this hardware form factor starts at 3k. Ouch! But what better way to test GarageBuy’s speed and see if I could find a deal? Well a deal indeed is what I found and speed was another feature rich benefit. My results quickly filled up the screen (over 700 total) and within minutes I found the perfect NAS at the perfect price. I’m sure I would have found it on my web browser as well, but no way would it have been this easy and this pleasurable.

Why pleasurable? The layout is so intelligently done that one would think iwascoding spent countless hours and Euros on this program. So why is this free, guys? On the right side, the Gallery display, where all your hits are shown, you can sort by time left, current price, Buy It Now price, or title. Above this sort line you can narrow down the results by clicking on soft buttons that differ from search to search that allow you really get into the details. You can also increase the size of the Gallery picture if you’d like. To watch an auction or hide it from the results, just click the appropriate button on the tool bar above.

To bid on an auction, all you need to do is click the money icon and up comes a new window with bid information including a place for your bid. The window is updated in real-time, so the auctions remaining time is displayed in countdown fashion along with the price being updated with the current bidders name. Placing your bid couldn’t be any easier than typing in your price, clicking the bid button, confirming the bid (which you can have disabled for future bids) and that’s it. Your bid is in and the screen updates with your information! It is very fast!

The left column will keep you up to date on your bids and other items you are watching. Green colored bubbles mean you’ve won the auction, red indicates a loss, and light red with dark red means it’s in auction your watching but you haven’t bid on yet (or your losing the bid.) Yellow is for the ended auction without a winner. Another nice feature of GarageBuy is the darker color will progress to the right as a time indicator. The closer it fills up the bubble, the less time you have left. It’s just so easy to glance at any auction and know when time is almost up.

GarageBuy is fully Growl compatible, so if you’re watching an auction, you’re notified when the bid changes. All other actions by you are also shown such as making a bid.

In short, GarageBuy, the first officially certified client for the Mac by eBay, is nothing short of awesome. Any user of eBay with a Mac should have this in their Applications folder. Light users to heavy users are going to thoroughly enjoy this eBay buyer manager. I know I am.