2 Cool eBay Listing Tools for the Mac - GarageSale and iSale

Like many eBay users, I have lots of stuff "sitting in my garage" (actually, a spare bedroom) that I intend to sell on eBay, someday. I'm by no means a professional seller -- I don't have any employees and I don't buy anything with the intent of reselling it. But I do like to sell things on eBay to get extra spending money. Since I recently started using a Mac at home, I thought I'd give GarageSale and iSale, two leading eBay Mac selling tools, a try:

iSale

iSale recently won the Apple Design Award for "Best Mac OS X User Experience," and you can see why when you first launch it. The interface is indeed attractive, and I liked how it was laid out. The eBay selling "flow" is always difficult to build a user interface around, but iSale does a decent job of guiding the user through the process.

One key reason to use a desktop listing tool is that they often provide the ability to work offline and save drafts of items for sale. This is a key feature for me, because I rarely have the time to create a listing all at once. And indeed I appreciated how both iSale and GarageSale allowed you to save your listings at any point before they are complete.

iSale has some advanced features that I found useful. The category browser has a feature I've wanted to see on the eBay website for years -- it lets you type in part of a category name and immediately shows you any categories that match. I sold an old Tivo using iSale, and I was able to quickly sort through dozen or so Tivo-related categories instead of having to guess where they are in the category hierarchy.

The templates feature is emphasized heavily on the iSale website, but I found the current implementation lacking. The build-in design templates, while attractive, offered little or no customizability. The website advertises the ability to create your own templates, but I didn't try this out.

One thing to keep in mind with both iSale and GarageSale is that they are both listing tools, not complete selling tools. You'll have to use the eBay website or another tool for certain parts of the selling process, such as revising listings, and managing parts of the post-sales process.

Overall I had a good experience using iSale - my auction was a success, and I made a few hundred bucks from selling an item that I probably would have never gotten around to listing on eBay.

GarageSale

The initial user experience with the GarageSale setup is fantastic - information such as your location and PayPal ID is collected up front and saved so that you don't have to enter it each time you list. I was up and running using GarageSale in just a few minutes. The main GarageSale interface is more functional than attractive, but it is laid out well and it has some nice touches.

My favorite feature in GarageSale was the great listing editor. It organizes the options really well, and I appreciated how "basic" and "advanced" options were split out into separate tabs. Feature fees are clearly marked in the editor, although it would be nice to see what the fees actually are, in context. A few improvements could make the listing editor even better -- attributes are an extremely important part of the listing process, and they could be more prominent in the editor.

GarageSale has some great templates that seem to work no matter how many pictures are in your listing. I sold a laptop battery using GarageSale, and I was able to find a nice template that went with the computer accessories category nicely.

Some advanced features in GarageSale caught my attention. I liked how scheduled auctions are handled by GarageSale, so you don't have to pay the eBay fee for scheduled listings. Your scheduled listings are presented in a table, so you can clearly see what has been listed and what is yet to go up on the site. Another interesting feature is Smart Groups, which, like iTunes Smart Playlists, allow you to auto-group items according to sort criteria.

Features of GarageSale that I didn't try, but that seem interesting, include the ability to script GarageSale, and native integration with iPhoto. .Mac, and iSight.

Overall, I was quite impressed with GarageSale. It offers advanced features while maintaining good ease-of-use.

Conclusion

Both tools offer good eBay listing solutions for small to medium-scale eBay sellers. If you own a Mac I recommend that you give them both a try. GarageSale and iSale offer trial downloads from their websites that let you list a few auctions before purchasing a license.

-Alan