How to get notified when an item is listed on eBay

Two ways to get eBay alerts

Whether you call them eBay alerts, new listing alerts or listing notifications, there are two ways to get automatic eBay search alerts. eBay’s own saved searches are built into your eBay account and cost nothing. An independent service like Spotter Otter watches the same kind of search and sends you an email for each new listing that matches.

You can use both: eBay’s for browsing, a Spotter for the one item you can’t miss. Start with eBay’s, because you already have it.

How to set up eBay search alerts with a saved search

1. Search for the item. On ebay.com or in the eBay app, type the words a seller would put in the title, such as Milwaukee M18 impact driver or Le Creuset Dutch oven 5.5 qt.
2. Add filters. Narrow the results with the filters beside the results (or under Filter in the app): price range, condition, Buy It Now or auction, free shipping, and item location. The filters you set are saved with the search.
3. Save the search. On the website, select Save this search near the top of the results. In the app, tap the save button (a heart) at the top of the results.
4. Turn on updates. eBay can tell you about new items for a saved search by email and through eBay app notifications. Check the notification settings in the app and the communication preferences in your eBay account so they’re switched on.
5. Manage it later. Your saved searches live in My eBay under Saved, where you can open, edit or delete them.

eBay renames buttons now and then, but the steps stay the same: search, filter, save, turn on updates.

What eBay’s alerts do well, and where they fall short

Saved searches are free, use every filter eBay offers, and sit right beside your Watchlist. For keeping an eye on a category, they’re hard to beat. They’re less suited to waiting for one specific item:

• Updates can arrive as a summary. Saved-search emails tend to group new items together rather than arrive one listing at a time, so a well-priced Buy It Now listing can sell before you read about it.
• Old and new sit together. When you open the search, listings you’ve already seen appear beside the new ones unless you sort by Time: newly listed.
• Blocking junk takes syntax. To drop cases, parts and empty boxes, you add a minus sign before each word (-case -parts) in the search itself.
• App notifications need the app. If you’ve turned them off, or mostly shop from a computer, they’re easy to miss.

How to get eBay email alerts for new listings with Spotter Otter

Spotter Otter watches eBay in the United States (ebay.com) for new listings. Each saved search is called a Spotter. It only alerts you to listings posted after it starts, and each listing alerts you once, so every alert is something you haven’t seen.

1. Create a Spotter. Enter the item keywords, using the same seller words as above.
2. Set your price. A maximum price keeps alerts to listings worth opening. A minimum price skips the cheap accessories and spare parts that share the item’s name. Prices are in U.S. dollars, before shipping.
3. Choose the details. Condition (any, new, used or refurbished), listing type (any, Buy It Now or auction), free shipping only, or local pickup only within 10, 25, 50 or 100 miles of your ZIP code. For car parts, vintage pieces and anything else with a year, add an item year range.
4. Require and block words. Put the words a listing must contain in Must include and the junk in Exclude. No minus signs or brackets to learn.
5. Start it. Start it now or choose to start later. How often a Spotter checks depends on your plan, and there is a free plan.

When a new listing matches, you get:

• An email for each new match, linking to the listing on eBay.
• Your Alerts page on the site, which keeps the last 30 days of matches.
• Browser notifications while Spotter Otter is open in a tab.
• An optional daily report email that rounds up the day’s matches across your Spotters.

There’s no app to install. Spotter Otter works in any phone browser, and the emails reach you wherever you read mail. If a listing can’t be fully confirmed against your search, it’s labelled Maybe match so you can judge it yourself. Spotter Otter never buys, bids or makes offers: you open the listing on eBay and decide.

Or describe it in your own words

Instead of filling in each field, you can write one sentence. Spotter Otter’s AI, Luna, takes something like Patagonia Better Sweater, women’s medium, navy, under $90 and turns it into a search plus a list of must-haves (here, the size and color) for you to check and confirm. A maximum price is always required.

Must-haves are checked the way a person reads a listing, with the wordings sellers use: Large is also L, LG or Lrg, and 30x32 means a 30 waist and 32 inseam. A listing that states a different value is left out; one that doesn’t say gets a Maybe match. You can also start from a photo of the item, its tag or its box label, which Spotter Otter reads for the brand, model number or style code (see shop by photo), or paste a link to a store’s product page or an eBay listing to watch for the same item.

Write a search that sends alerts worth opening

Whichever tool you use, an alert is only as good as the search behind it:

• Lead with the model, not the category. Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM finds that lens; Canon lens finds everything Canon ever made. Model numbers, style codes and part numbers are the most reliable words in any title.
• Learn the seller shorthand. NWT is new with tags, NIB or BNIB is new in box, OEM means made by the original manufacturer, and “for parts or not working” is an eBay condition, not a bargain.
• Use a minimum price to skip accessories. A search for a camera body also catches straps, caps and batteries that mention the same model. A minimum a little under what the item itself ever sells for removes most of them.
• Exclude the usual noise. case, cover, box only, manual only, for parts, replica, and lot if you want a single item.
• Watch out for denials. Excluding cracked also drops the listing that says “not cracked.” Exclude words that only appear in listings you don’t want.
• Don’t require a word sellers write several ways. Requiring one spelling hides the listings that use another. Make a second search for the other wording instead.

Which should you use?

Not getting eBay alerts? Check these

• Look in spam and promotions folders. Alert emails from eBay and from Spotter Otter can be filtered there. Add the sender to your contacts so the next one lands in your inbox.
• Check the search still finds things. Open it on eBay and sort by Time: newly listed. If nothing new has appeared in weeks, loosen it: drop a required word or widen the price.
• Check whether a Spotter paused. A Spotter that matches more than 100 new listings in a day pauses itself so your inbox doesn’t flood. Narrow it and start it again.

If eBay’s updates aren’t enough on their own, an eBay saved search alternative compares the two side by side.