eBay For iPad Is Finally Becoming An All-In-One App For Buying And Selling
July 15, 2011
Despite increasing fees, eBay is still one of the most frequently chosen services for people to sell and buy used items. The company has slowly been improving and integrating their handful of iOS app, and, yesterday, the auction site giant added selling capabilities to their eBay for iPad app.
Preparing to post a product on eBay using your iPad is quite similar to the web site experience. After accessing the selling section by tapping on the new "Sell an Item" button in the bottom-left of the home screen, the settings for title, category, condition, item specifics, photos, description, pricing, shipping, payments, plus duration and start time will be clearly listed down the left side of the screen.
You can either prefill a few sections using the barcode scanning feature, courtesy of eBay's acquisition of RedLaser, or do it the old fashioned way of entering information into each section one at a time. Actually, the process seems even easier and quicker than using the web site.
There is one thing that immediately caught my attention, which is the lack of a feature I most often use: self-hosted photos. The app appears to only allow eBay hosted images. As nice and convenient as that is, it comes at a price. Your initial, otherwise known as a Gallery Image, is indeed free, but the up to seven additional pictures will cost you $.15 each. Not a complete deal killer, but worth a mention.
eBay for iPad v1.6 also adds Twitter and Facebook sharing to accompany the previous share via email option, the ability to easily view relisted auctions, an opportunity to review Giving Works information on charity listings, and more.
eBay for iPad is compatible with iOS 3.2 or later, and available in the App Store as a free download. The prefill through product scanning feature requires an iPad 2.