The Online Auction Users Association recently completed an independent evaluation of six Web-based auction management systems http://www.auctionusers.org/eval/wbams.shtml.

The reviewers were OAUA members, all of them experienced online auction users, who volunteered to be part of the OAUA product evaluation team. They signed confidentiality agreements and certified that they have no connection to the products they evaluated.

Steve T. of OAUA developed the methodology, the evaluation tools and wrote the final reports based on the reviewers' reports. Each auction system was evaluated by at least three testers, and the final reports are a compilation of their assessments.

The Evaluation
Auction management tools help sellers organize and post their items to auction Web sites like eBay. Web-based auction management systems are just that - you access the programs via the Internet. This is opposed to software that is installed on the seller's computer. The advantage of using computer-installed software is that you can do much of the work offline, a definite plus if you have a dial-up connection and are paying for Internet access by the minute. OAUA will be releasing a review of auction management software in the future.

Here are the six Web-based auction tools OAUA evaluated: Andale, AuctionFlow, AuctionWatch Auction Manager, AuctionWorks, GoTo Auction Manager and ManageAuctions. Three of the programs are free to use, and three are paid services. The cost of the services seems to have no relationship to the overall ratings. For example, the highest overall rating was given to GoTo Auction Manager, a free program.

This is a very nice comparison of the auction management systems available to auction users, and well worth reading. I'm looking forward to OAUA's review of the auction management software, which will be released soon.

Editor's Note: You can read about the Online Auction Users Association (OAUA) in a recent issue of AuctionBytes at http://www.auctionbytes.com/Email_Newsletter/27/28/28.html#oaua.