Imagine if the eBay items that interest you were regularly delivered to your hard drive in a color catalog. Sound interesting? That's what TIMEblaster promises to do.

TIMEblaster is a paid software program that allows you to set up and store eBay searches on your computer. You can then view the resulting items in "photo albums." The premise of the program is that you can evaluate a group of pictures much more quickly than you can a list of words.

Steve Taylor, an avid stamp collector, invented TIMEblaster to help him wade through auctions on eBay more quickly "get to the good stuff." Steve has a background in search and retrieval, and has a deep understanding of the auction-site search process. TB allows you to do more sophisticated searches than eBay's own search engine and stores an unlimited number of searches. (eBay's "Favorite Searches" feature allows you to set up a maximum of 15 searches.) You can schedule the program to update the searches at any desired frequency and any time of day or night.

You can use TB to "merge" search results. This feature merges the results of multiple searches, thereby eliminating duplicate items and combining the results into a single Photo Album. The Merge feature is useful for searches that are difficult to specify in a single search, and for searches that are identical except for eBay category. Here are some more useful features:

"BUY IT NOW" SEARCHING
In a hurry to buy something on eBay? The "Buy It Now" (BIN) feature allows auction sellers to name a price at which they would be willing to sell their item to any buyer who meets the specified price. For shoppers who are in a hurry and want to ensure that they get the item quickly, they can bid the Buy It Now price and end the auction.

TIMEblaster allows you to limit search results to BIN items, while eBay does not. eBay's new BIN option makes it more important for collectors to find new auction listings quickly, since a competitor may end an auction before you even know about it. The TB "search-BIN" feature is also handy when holiday shopping, when it is important to get items that can be delivered quickly.

SEARCH BY SELLER ID
You can create unlimited "seller" photo albums to track your favorite sellers' items (or to track your competitors' auctions). eBay also allows you to set up "Favorite Sellers" on your "My eBay" page (under "Favorites"), but imposes a 15 seller limit on the number of favorite sellers you can store.

EMAIL TO A FRIEND
The "e-Mail Photo Album to a Friend" option appears as a button on the first page of any photo album containing at least 4 items. It sends up to 8 items to the email address you specify - the recipient can view the album without having TB installed on their computer. TB limits the number of items emailed to 8 because the file can become quite large, and according to TIMEblaster, many ISPs block emails with large attachments.

For that friend or co-worker who rolls his eyes everytime you mention eBay, you can create an album containing fishing poles, CDs or whatever it is he is into, and email it to him so he can see that what eBay has to offer. And of course, you can use the feature to email an album to your spouse as a subtle hint for a holiday gift!

REFERRAL PROGRAM
The email to a friend feature ties into the TIMEblaster referral program. If your friend clicks through to TIMEblaster from the album you have sent them and orders a copy of the program, TB applies $4 to your account. See the FAQs for details: http://www.timeblaster.com/affiliate_faq.shtml

SUMMARY
I found the TB search tool very powerful. You can use the "Test Now" button to quickly test search strategies (you can also use the button to bypass having to download images when you are in a hurry). TIMEblaster uses eBay's API development tools.

TB has a free guide to searching on their site - if you spend a lot of time searching auction sites I recommend you invest the time in reading this guide. You can learn ways to find tune your searches and weed out items that are of no interest to you.

An "email alert" program such as AuctionGator would be a useful complement to the TB program. If your TB search results come up with 3 items that you are interested in bidding on, you can use AuctionGator to notify you 2 hours before the auction end times so you don't forget. AuctionGator is a free service available at http://www.auctiongator.com.

TIMBblaster continues to make improvements to the product, and I expect they will continue to add innovative features.

The best way to know if this program will be useful to you is to download it and try it out. TIMEblaster costs $41.95 annually, and there is a free 30-day trial available on the site. http://www.timeblaster.com.

Let us know what you think of this program. Give us your opinion in our discussion forums at http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewforum.php?forum=7&100