:: gumshoo - free eBay search - spot online auction fraud and misspelled auctions ::

FAQ

Q: What is gumshoo™?

gumshoo™ is a free eBay search tool that gives you the information you need to make informed buying decisions and save money.

Q: Why did you create gumshoo™?

We created gumshoo™ because we believe that eBay is a great place to shop, but it has a couple problems:

It's much too hard to find what you're looking for on eBay.
Once you find what you're looking for, how do you know you can trust the seller? How do you know you'll get the item and avoid auction fraud?

gumshoo™ takes these two problems head-on:

We start by providing what is arguably the simplest and most efficient search interface for eBay, anywhere. Just enter keywords and we filter out most of the junk listings you'll find when you search eBay. We also look for common misspellings of your keywords to uncover items that you would have otherwise missed. Because misspelled items are hard to find, they often get fewer bids. You might even save some money!

We're also committed to making eBay a safer place to shop. The reality is, being a well informed eBay shopper is a lot of hard work. There are literally dozens of things to look out for if you want to avoid fraud on eBay. We saw an opportunity to automate all that hard work by taking the best practices of expert eBay shoppers (Power Buyers) and automating them so that everyone has a chance to make a well informed buying decision, not just the Power Buyers. And for all you Power Buyers out there, we make your jobs a lot easier because you can spend more time focusing on finding eBay's bargains and less time avoiding scams and fraud.

Q: Who are you guys, anyway?

We're just a couple of guys who've been working together, building good software (in our humble opinions) for over 7 years. We're located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Craig works on the user interface and Paul works on the all the fancy code that makes the site do cool things like filter junk and analyze listings for signs of trouble. Craig was once an eBay employee, so he knows a thing or two about how eBay works and what tools eBay users need most. Together we form a "dynamic duo" focused on making the eBay shopping experience better for everyone.

If you'd like to tell us what you think of gumshoo™, good or bad, please contact us. Tell us how we can make gumshoo™ even better. Let us know your biggest frustrations when shopping on eBay. We just might be able to resolve them!

Q: I don't get it. The site is free to use, so how do you guys make any money?

We're registered eBay Affiliates. We get paid when our users bid on items or buy items on eBay. This is a good thing, because the better we are at helping you find the item you want, the more likely you are to buy on eBay and the more likely we are to get paid. It's a win-win! We also serve up relevant ads from Google and Amazon which generate a small amount of revenue and give our users other outlets for finding what they're looking for. After all, sometimes the best deals can be found off eBay.

Q: I'm new to eBay. Why should I use gumshoo™?

eBay can be an intimidating place to shop. There are so many items and so many ways to find them, you might feel like it isn't worth the effort. But eBay has items you can't find anywhere else. And if you know where to look, eBay has some great deals. The hard part is know where to start and having enough information to make an informed buying decision. gumshoo™ makes it easy. Our search interface was designed to make the eBay shopping experience as simple as possible. Just tell us what you're looking for and we do the rest. We filter out most of the scams to make it easier to find the item you're really looking for. Found an interesting item? Open it up and we'll scan for dozens of potential problems, automatically. We'll let you know if we found anything, tell you what it means, and what you should do about it before you buy.

Q: I'm worried about auction fraud. Can gumshoo™ help me avoid getting scammed on eBay?

gumshoo™ is committed to making eBay shopping easier and safer. We think safety is best achieved by creating more informed eBay shoppers. Our listing analyzer feature does just that. It scans eBay items for potential risk and let's you know what it found, why it might be bad and what to do about it.

Q: If an item I am interested in has an alert, does that mean I shouldn't bid?

No. Alerts can appear for a variety of reasons. It just means that we noticed something that you might want to investigate before you bid. You'll notice that we typically advise our users to contact the seller directly and ask questions before bidding. It's one of the best ways to know you're dealing with a reputable seller.

Q: Why should I use gumshoo™ instead of going straight to eBay?

We're impartial. Unlike eBay, gumshoo™ receives no revenue directly from sellers. Our goals are to help eBay buyers find the right item and reduce their risk. We do this by filtering out irrelevant search results and informing you when we think there might be trouble. eBay simply can't provide this level of service to it's buyers because it must serve both the buyer and the seller. Serving the seller means making sure that listings don't get filtered out, even if they might be scams. eBay's only recourse is to remove an item from their database when they are certain it's a scam. This rarely happens and it means that there may be thousands of questionable listings on eBay at any given time.

Q: I've been a victim of auction fraud on eBay. Who should I contact?

eBay takes fraudulent activity seriously. The best defense is to avoid risky transactions in the first place, but if you have been a victim of auction fraud on eBay, you should contact eBay Fraud Reporting. You may also want to contact your local authorities or the US Postal Inspection Service if you believe the seller has committed mail fraud.

Q: Why should I care about misspelled eBay auctions?

As they say, to err is human. When a seller lists an item for sale on eBay, they sometimes misspell the item title. This makes their item hard to find. When an item is hard to find, it gets fewer bids. Fewer bids often translate into lower final prices. In other words, misspellings can save you money! They can also help you find items that you would have otherwise passed up. Oh, and if you happened to misspell your search terms, you might just be able to find the item you were looking for in the first place. Remember, to err is human.

Q: What does your junk filter do?

As we mentioned before, eBay has literally millions of items listed on their site at any given time. Some of these items are clearly junk. What do we mean by "eBay junk"?

Work at home scams
"FREE iPods"
"information only" auctions
and many others

There are many varieties of junk on eBay. We look for the most common ones and just eliminate them so that when you search, you get what you're looking for, not a bunch of junk. Great idea, huh?

The hide accessories filter is most effective when searching for electronics items. For example, searching for an Apple iPod on eBay will return a few listings for iPods and a lot of listings for cases and other iPod accessories. With the hide accessories option turned on, nearly every result is an iPod and not an iPod accessory.

Q: What makes gumshoo™ better than all the other eBay search tools?

Naturally, we think we have the best eBay search tool on the Web. Here's why:

We give every eBay shopper the information they need to make safer buying decisions
We have the most effective misspelling search available anywhere
We make the eBay shopping experience more efficient through our exclusive junk filtering and auction fraud scanning technology
We're FREE!

Q: I still see junk in the search results. What gives?

gumshoo™ uses a two-phased approach to detecting auction fraud:

Phase 1 - Auction title scan
When conducting your search, gumshoo™ scans eBay auction titles for potential scams. We look for a variety of phrases and keywords commonly associated with scams and fraud, but sometimes we miss a few. If you've noticed some "scammy" auction titles that we are missing, please let us know.
Phase 2 - "Deep" scan of the auction itself
When you click on an auction, it is scanned for potential fraud risk. This phase of scanning is the most comprehensive and looks for problems with seller reputation, location, item description and excessive shipping and handling.

Q: How do I get started selling items on eBay?

To start selling on eBay, you'll need an eBay account. You can get one here: Register for an eBay Account

Next, you'll want to visit eBay's "How to Sell" page, located here: How to Sell on eBay

We also recommend How to Buy, Sell and Profit on eBay and the eBay for Dummies series of books if you want to learn more about buying and selling on eBay:

That should give you enough information to get started. Good luck and happy selling! We hope to see you on gumshoo in the future when it's time to buy items on eBay.

We need your help!
We're continually working to make gumshoo™ scanning more effective but we can't do it alone. We welcome your comments and ideas. If you know of a scam that we're not catching, please let us know.