Last month, when we announced BidSlammer's last set of new features, we said we still have a few irons in the fire. Here is the next round of features!
TL;DR: Screen Shots
If you prefer, you can skip this article and go directly to the new BidSlammer screenshots page that showcases all of our new features.
Update to the Preview Box
Last release, we introduced a preview box that opens underneath the form. It summarizes several need-to-know parameters for the auction of interest.
We have added the following to the Preview:
- Relists - if you try to enter a snipe into the Add Snipe box for an auction that has ended, it will direct you to load the relisted item instead (if it was relisted).
- Item Conditions - these are now displayed. Example values are New, Used, Broken, etc. Item Conditions also show in the search results.
- Buyer Requirements - we will pre-check the item for seller blocks. When possible, we will see if you are eligible to bid on the seller's listing, for example, if the seller does not ship to your country.
- Bidding History Charts - one of our coolest features yet. See below for details.
Remove from Watch List
For auctions listed in your Watched tab, there is now a Remove from Watch List button. This will remove the auction from both BidSlammer and eBay.
Message Browser
The next feature is the Message Browser, which is an improved way to read through your emails, Gmail-style. This is a Power Pack feature. No more sifting through My eBay and waiting for all those page loads! Through us, you now have the ability to load up to 3 months and see them on one page. After 3 months, messages are deleted permanently from our system.
This feature is disabled by default for privacy reasons. You must turn it on first in BidSlammer Preferences.
The Message Browser also has the ability to search through all of your messages simultaneously. It is very fast, because we used technology that caches the messages in your browser.
Where applicable, each message has a "Reply" link, which takes you directly to the message on My eBay. But we do not send the messages. You will still use eBay's system to send messages, so that the emails use eBay's masthead. We are not involved in the sending in any way. After you send messages, you can import them into BidSlammer, too.
Image Gallery and Inspector
In the left sidebar on your Dashboard, you will see two new options for photos: Image Gallery and Photo Inspector.
The Image Gallery, shown in the snapshot below, is a spread of every photo from every auction, styled in the popular Pinterest format.
Your Image Gallery defaults to private, but you can set it to Public in your BidSlammer Preferences and share the link with others. None of your personal information ever appears -- only the public URLs to the photos.
The Image Inspector is a slideshow, but with the ability to zoom in on high-definition images.
Real-Time Bidding History Charts
We saved the best for last! We think this next feature is so cool that even eBay might eventually try to adopt it. Surely someone will.
We want to make this feature available to all users, but it use one heck of a lot of CPU power to crunch the data to make it available in real time. So instead of requiring an upgrade, we're offering it FREE via promotional offer. We are still in the testing phase and starting the process of enabling this for all accounts, which will require several months. Watch for your invitation in the upcoming month or two.
A picture says a thousand words. We think this is true of our new Bid History Charts that are now built into the Preview box when you load a new snipe.
We think these charts provide far more insight into the data than a table of data. Charting the bid history gives a whole new perspective on the auction. The charts betray the bid patterns and the strategies your competition uses. A lot of neat patterns arise. 
Customers tell us that in general, they look at the bid history for these reasons:
- To see if Proxy bids lurking in the shadows.
- To see if their snipe prevailed in a last-second bidding war.
- To see how many bidders are interested in the auction.
We think the charts show all of that in a single glance:
The X-axis is linear time, going left to right. However, to make things interesting, we connect the dots in the order that the bids were placed. This brings attention to how the proxy bidding system calculates the current price, i.e., the second-highest bid plus one bid increment.
We hope that you enjoy the new features. Good luck sniping!