Category: Web Based Tools

UPC and EAN are types of product numbers also referred to as GTIN (Global Trade Identification Numbers).

UPC and EAN barcode numbers can be used in keyword searches to find exact matching items for specific products.  This is an alternative to using keywords that sellers may or may not include in their item titles or descriptions.

To use UPC or EAN codes in BINSniper and VieBuy.com, simply include them in the keyword field of your filters.  To search multiple codes, use the boolean OR syntax like this:

keywords:
(035255848701,035255869027)

When shopping European countries, you should use the EAN number.  The UPC code can be converted to EAN by adding a zero to the front.  So the same search would look like this:

keywords:
(0035255848701,0035255869027)

Not all products are available in all countries.

One note about UPC codes on eBay: UPC codes are 12 digits long, and so are eBay item numbers.  UPC codes have a check digit to validate them.  It may happen that a UPC code and eBay item number match.  In this case, eBay could return an unrelated eBay items page.  In cases where UPC codes are not in the eBay database, the website may interpret the code as an eBay item number and display and error page.  This does not occur with EAN codes which are 13 digits long.

 

When using VieBuy and BINSniper, the order of items in the lists can vary from the eBay order.

Age Sorting

When set to sort by age, items are resorted to chronological order by age.  This mode matches the Newly Listed sort on the eBay websites.  The apps will also flag newly arrived items with a star.

Here we see the items sorted, with stars next to the newly received items:  Because the starred  items are out of order, it means that they were created earlier, but not published to the website and data feeds until a couple minutes later.

Look at the Frederique Constant Slim…  line.  This item was just received, as indicated by the star, and inserted into the sorted list below old items.  This is what happens at the eBay site. The inserted item could appear on page 2 or page 3 of the website list in fast categories.

Note that, because of the delays, newer items can be published on the eBay site in a different order than they are created.

Arrival Sorting

When sorting by arrival, the newest items are displayed first and flagged with a star.  The new items will always be first.

Here we see the same items using arrival sort.  The newest item is at the top, the times reflect how long the item has been published on eBay (not how long ago it was created):

Again, look at the Frederique Constant Slim…  line.  Now it appears toward the top of the list in the order it was published by eBay.  This sorting mode is not available at the eBay websites.

This is a cause for confusion for some users of the apps when trying to compare items sorted by arrival with the eBay site which is sorted by creation time.   When you set the eBay site for Newly Listed sort, you will see new items at the top of the list only if they are published immediately or in slow moving categories where other items can’t jump ahead.  But in many cases, new items that are delayed will be inserted into the item lists based on their creation time and appear further down the page.

Here we see the same items again, at the eBay site with the Newly Listed sort:

While it appears that the first item in the list is the newest, it is in fact one of the oldest.  The third item marked #1 was the first item displayed on the website (the oldest).  Then item #2, #3 etc.   Item #8 was the last item of the group to be published (the most recent), but it appeared on the eBay site at around 17:37.   Because it was created at 17:35, it gets sorted to the bottom.

You can see this process happen if you load the eBay pages, record the results,  reload the page, and compare the new results to the old results.  You’ll find older items are inserted further down the page.  If you don’t reload and compare, you might assume that the items on the eBay site are arriving earlier because of how they are sorted.

Using VieBuy and BINSniper allows for arrival sorts which show the items as they are published, and you don’t miss those hidden items that don’t appear in a timely fashion.  We recommend using arrival sort in all cases.

 

We’ve noticed that a number of users are checking ALL of the exclude filter options. Checking all of the boxes will prevent you from seeing most if not all items.

The viebuy.com filter screen has been changed to warn about this and clarify it a bit:

If you check all the boxes, you will be excluding free shipping items, returnable items, best offer items, etc.

The same is true for BINSniper.  We will update the the BINSniper screen in 3.01.

The article describes performance tuning for the eBay website for VieBuy and BINSniper 3.0 or higher.

 

How this varies from the BINSniper 2.x recommendations:

BINSniper 3.x is more efficient on the network and performs better over 3G, WiFi and satellite connections too. There are no settings that improve item delivery speed.

The following Firefox setting can be used to improve image and script loading time on fast network connection. This primary impacts load time of the eBay pages.

Enter about:config into the Firefox address bar (where you type URLs). A settings list should appear. You may receive a warning first. If you do, accept the warning screen.

Enter the following into the search box:

network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server

Warning: This setting affects all websites. Increasing this setting too much may result in excessive demands being place on servers and you being banned.  10 is a reasonable maximum.

 

Double click to adjust the setting. Increase it to 10.

 

If this setting does not exist, right click the blank area of the screen and select New->Integer. Paste the name into the preference box, click OK, and enter 10 for the value.

Increasing this setting can improve image and script loading time on eBay.  Image loading may be improved on BINSniper and VieBuy websites when many items are displayed. This setting has no effect on item delivery speed.

 

Network Pipelining

Firefox has settings to enable network pipelining that are widely recommended as cure-alls. While these may improve performance in some cases, they are not likely to improve BINSniper performance for most users. Broadband users are unlikely to see any improvements at all in any circumstances by modifying the Firefox settings. Pipelining may also introduce some security risks. See this article at sys-con for more information on these issues. We do not recommend pipelining to improve BINSniper performance.

 

Use more specific searches for better speed and ease of use

For best performance, you should make your searches as tight as possible. Very broad searches will result in the entire item list being replaced with each update. More specific searches will yield fewer results and make it easier to work with the lists. You can use the streamer mode to separate lists on the screen, one for each search.

Limiting the number of searches improves display time on your browser. But more importantly it allows you to focus only on items that you would actually buy.

For example, if you have the following searches:

ipod nano blue case
ipod shuffle blue case

You could replace these with:

ipod blue case

The nano and shuffle searches would be included, as well as other ipod models.

Or you can use the OR syntax to limit the results to nano and shuffle only:

ipod blue case (nano, shuffle)

which means:   items containing “ipod” and “blue” and “case” and either “nano” or “shuffle”

 

Pale Moon

Pale Moon is a performance optimized version of Firefox for Windows. Pale Moon is (or was) derived from Firefox code, and has some hardware restrictions. It is not supported by Mozilla. Some BINSniper users are running Pale Moon, but we cannot provide support for it. The current release does not appear to implement the necessary features of Gecko 29+ required by BINSniper. We have not tested any version for performance or compatibility.