Save your first eBay search

A saved search is the whole app. You describe what you are hunting for once, and Dealerts re-checks eBay for it on a schedule you choose, around the clock, whether or not the app is open.

Here is the whole thing.

1. Type what you are looking for

   Start with the plain name of the thing. Brand and model do more work than adjectives — barco projector beats good projector. You can refine it with search operators once you see what comes back.

2. Set a price range

   A minimum alone is often enough: it removes accessories, parts lots and broken units without you having to name them. Add a maximum if you have a buy ceiling.

3. Choose a condition

   New, used, or either. Optional — but if you only ever buy one, setting it here is quieter than filtering in your head later.

4. Choose how closely to watch it

   Every search runs at its own pace, and you set it per search. Start somewhere in the middle; you can move it later, once you know how often this thing actually gets listed.

5. Set the hours

   Give the search a start and end time. A search that runs 06:00 to 20:00 will not wake you at three in the morning about a projector.

6. Test it, then save

   Swipe the search and tap Test to run it against live eBay results. If what comes back is what you wanted, save it. If it is full of junk, add an exclusion and test again.

What happens next

Nothing, from your side. The search runs on our servers, so you can close the app entirely. When something matches, you get a push notification with the listing in it — photo, price, and a tap through to eBay.

If the alerts are too noisy

That is a search problem, not a settings problem, and it is usually fixed in one edit:

• Add a minimum price. Removes most accessory and parts listings on its own.
• Exclude the word that keeps appearing. -(case,parts,broken,repair) does a lot of work.
• Lock an exact phrase with quotes if the words keep landing in the wrong order.

If you get nothing at all

Almost always too many filters at once. Widen the price range first, then drop the condition filter, then loosen the keywords. Test after each change so you can see which one was doing the damage.