posted on December 8, 2002 04:29:50 PM
A while back there was talk of eBay developing an API to let developers interact direct with eBay. Last I heard, the cost would be tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. As far as I know, nobody ever bought into it. The architecture was also supposed to have the effect of locking out developers who didn't pay up. Anybody hear anything about the eBay API recently?
posted on December 8, 2002 05:49:18 PM
I have a friend who is a big seller/ small developer on eBay. Right now, he just parses the HTML, but is thinking about using the API instead since the price dropped. Do any sellers have experience developing for this API; how easy is it, how useful is it, etc. Would be very interested to know first-hand accounts.
posted on December 8, 2002 07:04:28 PM
jrome - My understanding is that the API access costs thousands per month. If he's a small developer on his on, he probably shouldn't even bother.
posted on December 8, 2002 08:43:29 PM
Actually, I think they just SIGNIFICANTLY lowered the price, via PayPal. Something like $500/year, plus a transactional fee.
posted on December 9, 2002 04:27:45 AM
If you use a listing service to launch your auctions, you really want a company that subscribes to eBay's API program, which is a direct pipeline! Without it, you are going through the "sell-your-item" page & (as we all know here) can cause mucho "processing,processing" problems!
These are the ones I'm positive ARE on the API:
Auction Watch
Channel Advisor
Spare Dollar
Auction Hawk
Kermit
posted on December 9, 2002 08:56:23 AM
Thanks for the link, Vidpro. It looks like eBay has really slashed its prices for the API. In the past, it seems eBay did everything to discourage third-party developers. I remember when auction management software was banned from the Featured category. That hurt a lot of people. (Then of course, eBay would add their own version of the banned product, i.e., Mr. Lister, Sellers Assistant, etc.) Maybe eBay is trying a new approach.
posted on December 9, 2002 04:21:04 PM
Thanks for your responses. Looks like the developer can see the API before forking over the cash, so that's nice. The $1000/year seems reasonable, as every time eBay changes their document formats, it would probably take a couple days to update the software.
My friend had developed his own automated software, which just parses the html. Using the API would make it a lot easier to resell the software, since it would be easier to keep it up-to-date.
I guess eBay hasn't pushed the API too much since lowering their prices, since it seems there are very few providers to subscribe. It will be interesting to see if this price decrease leads to many more using the API, and more options for sellers.
