BidBud makes Trade Me better. It enables features like...

For Buyers

Auction sniping

Everyone knows the best time to bid on an auction is right at the last minute — but who wants to be sitting around waiting for that? If you schedule a bid with BidBud, it will wait until just before the auction finishes and then start bidding automatically. Sure, you could just place an autobid, but that attracts attention to the item, and gives people plenty of time to beat your bid. Also, once you've placed your autobid, you're stuck with it. Leading to the next feature...

Bid cancelling

Because bids placed with BidBud won't be sent through to Trademe until just before the auction finishes, you can easily cancel them if circumstances change, or you change your mind.

Group bidding

For those times when you want a specific type of item and there is more than one on Trademe, you can schedule bids on those items and assign them to a group, and tell BidBud how many you'd like. It'll bid on all of them, one by one until you have as many as you want. No more bidding on multiple items and winning too many! Check this out on the group page.

Blacklisted members not shown in search

Blacklisted members are not shown in search results. If a category is overrun by a few large sellers that you don't want to see, just blacklist them and you won't be bothered by their listings any more. This also means you won't be distracted by listings from people you don't want to deal with.
Note: You have to add them on BidBud for this to work. This also enables you to make a note why they're blacklisted.

Images shown logically in search

When you search on BidBud, all images are shown logically, not in a haphazard manner based upon how much the seller has paid. If you set the display type of your search to "photo view", you'll see nothing but images so you can quickly look over many items. See an example here.

Automatically use "Buy Now" when it's added

If you ask someone to put a Buy Now on an auction, there's always the risk that someone else will take it. Not with BidBud! If you have a bid placed with BidBud, and a "Buy Now" is added to the auction, BidBud will use it instantly, before anyone else has a chance to react — so long as the buy now is less than your maximum. If it's more, BidBud will bid to disable the Buy Now. So next time you ask for a Buy Now, schedule a bid for that amount using BidBud, and make sure the "use buy now" option is selected.

Automatically accept Fixed Price Offers

If you find an auction that has a reserve higher than you're prepared to pay, schedule a bid for your maximum using BidBud. If the auction closes without selling and the seller sends out a FPO, BidBud will accept it for you, automatically and instantly, provided it's less than your maximum.

Filter by suburb

You can filter by suburb -- just enter the suburb in the "suburbs" box and only that suburb will be shown in search results. For multiple suburbs, just enter all the suburbs as one line and BidBud will take care of the rest.

Live auction updating

If you're signed in, auctions that are closing soon will be updated live — no need to refresh the page. You can watch as BidBud dominates an auction for you. The current bid is updated every 15 seconds.

Watchlist searching/sorting

On BidBud you can search or sort your watchlist — handy if you're watching a lot of items.

Bad feedback finder

Rather than having to scroll through twenty pages of feedback to find the bad ones, just click on the negative feedback tab under the member's feedback page, or enter their username in the member finder.

Improved listings

Large images are shown by default and you can make them even bigger by clicking — they're shown much larger than they are on the official site. Also, all links are clickable — no need to copy and paste.

Save your preferred search settings

Choose your preferred search settings, and with one click on the Set search defaults button your settings will be remembered and used by default in all future searches. This includes view format, sort order — anything you like.

One click access from Trade Me

If you're not ready to use BidBud to browse Trade Me, you can drag this View on BidBud/Trade Me link onto your bookmarks toolbar. If you click the link when you're viewing an auction on Trade Me or BidBud, the link will take you directly to the same auction page on the other site.

For Sellers

Fast, easy listing

You can list items in two simple steps, and photos are resized automatically before being uploaded, saving you lots of time.

Free custom end times

You can schedule BidBud to list your auction for you at any time you wish, therefore enabling custom end times for free. It's not restricted to 15 minute intervals either, choose any time up to the exact minute. You can do this here.

Automatic relisting

Once listed with BidBud you can have it automatically relist the auction as many times as you wish, truly set and forget.

Dutch auctions

You can have BidBud automatically decrease the price with relists, therefore turning the auction into a Dutch/reverse auction.

Automatic Fixed Price Offers

If your item closes without bidders, BidBud can offer it to watchers automatically, and you can even specify the minimum percentage of positive feedback. BidBud will exclude people with poor feedback from being included in your FPO with no extra work on your part.

Auction monitoring

BidBud will monitor your auctions, and if someone with bad feedback bids, it'll send you an email. It can also automatically remove the bid and blacklist the trader for you if you want. There's no need to check this manually any more.

Blacklist annotation

You can add notes to your blacklist so you remember why you blacklisted people. The date you blacklisted them is automatically added too.

Show your listings on your webpage

You can show all of your listings directly on your own webpage -- it's fully customizable to fit any page design. See the FAQ entry for more details.

All questions on one page

All questions are listed on one page, and you can reply to multiple questions at the same time (if the answer is the same)

Auction commenting

You can add a comment to multiple listings at once here.

Easily resell items you bought off TradeMe

Every item in your "won items" has a 'resell' button. Simply click that and all auction details will be loaded into a new listing ready for you to edit as necessary.

Search/sort your selling/sold items

You can search and sort all of your current/sold/unsold auctions, just like you can with your watchlist.


BidBud does all of the above, and there's more coming! Please let me know if you have any problems or suggestions!