Auctions can be monitored on the eBay website easily with the disadvantage that changes are only reported to the user per email sporadically or after logging into the ebay site. Software programs that monitor eBay auctions offer the advantage that the information are available in realtime on the computer desktop without having to access the eBay website.

This gives a user more control over auctions and the bidding process. JBidWatcher was recently mentioned in Joe’s post about winning more eBay auctions. The program is available for multiple operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Mac. Windows users can download a portable version or an installer.

The eBay software can be linked to an eBay account. This is not necessary for users who only want to monitor eBay auctions but becomes important for the sniping module. Sniping refers to late bidding on eBay auctions which computers can do way better and more precisely than humans.

Auctions can be added by adding their auction number in the program. Another, comfortable, option is to perform searches on the selected eBay site which will add items to the eBay item list automatically. A search for Google Phone or iPhone will for example add auctions of that kind to the items list.

Items can then be sorted by time, price, time left, seller or name. Hovering the mouse over an item will display an auction image of one is existing. The eBay monitor provides access to RSS feeds which come in handy in certain situations to check eBay auctions from smartphones or other mobile devices or to process the items further.

The settings of the software program are quite extensive and include options to enter eBay username and password, to switch to a locale eBay website, set the sniping time in seconds or to specify the web browser that should be used to open the items on eBay. The only thing that seems to be missing is a statistic function that can be used to monitor item prices over time.