How Tracer works
No black boxes. Here's how to read every part of a listing — and exactly how we turn a raw auction into a profit estimate you can check yourself.
Part 1 · How to read a listing
Every row in the feed tells one story, left to right: what it is → what it costs → your ceiling → what it's worth → the verdict. Here's each piece.
Source pill & New badge
Which auction site the lot lives on — HiBid, GovDeals, GSA Auctions, PropertyRoom, PublicSurplus, or Triangle Liquidators. A green New means our scanner first saw it today. (The feed header also shows a green “1,200 new today” chip — tap it to see only fresh lots.)
The title — it's a link
Tap any title to open the real auction on the source sitein a new tab. That's where you actually bid — Tracer never bids for you.
Category & location
“Ships nationwide”means the seller mails it to you — bid from anywhere. A mile figure means local pickup: that's the drive, measured from the zip you set in the filters.
42m 09s left
Live countdown
Ticks in real time — no refreshing. It turns red and counts the seconds inside the final hour, when auctions actually get decided.
The star — your watchlist
Tap to save a lot; it turns amber and lands on your Watchlist page so you can check your shortlist before things close.
Bid — or Buy now
What it costs to enter right now. Bid is a live auction price (it climbs); Buy now is a fixed take-it price on some PropertyRoom lots — no bidding war, no countdown drama.
Fee & total to buy
The big number is the buyer's premium— the auction house's cut on top of your bid. The small “total to buy” underneath is your total cash to win at today's bid: bid + premium + sales tax + any freight to you. Resale-side costs (eBay fees, shipping to your buyer) live in the profit math instead.
Recommended max bid — your ceiling
The most you can pay and still clear a healthy (~15%) return, with the profit you'd make winning right at that number. When the live bid passes it, the figure turns amber — your signal to walk away.
Est. resale — tap to verify
What we estimate it sells for used. The ↗ link opens eBay's sold listings for this exact item — check our number against reality anytime. Triangle lots also show the seller's own retail tag and how far below it the current bid sits.
Profit & the math button
Profit if the auction ended at today's bid — expect it to climb. Tap Click for math for the full popover: resale − bid − premium − tax − fees − shipping, switchable between your max bid(the number to plan on) and today's bid, with the return % on everything you'd spend.
The confidence dots
How much evidence backs the estimate — more dots, more comparable eBay listings behind the number. Triangle lots say “from retail tag”instead: priced off the seller's own stated retail, not a keyword match.
Score & return
The verdict (explained fully in Part 2) plus the return— profit as a share of everything you'd spend. +100% means you'd double your money at today's bid.
Blurred numbers & Unlock
Everyone sees the top 8 lots free. Beyond that, profit stays visible as a teaser but the bid, resale value, and auction link are blurred until you start a free trial.
Filters & stackable sorting
Filter by source, category, score, min profit, ending window, local pickup, or distance from your zip. Sorts stack: pick several and the feed blends them — e.g. #1 highest profit, #2 ending soon — weighted toward your first pick.
Email alerts
Searching for something specific? Tap Alert meand we email you the moment a matching lot appears in a scan — you're first in line instead of refreshing.
Part 2 · Where the numbers come from
We pull the listings
About once an hour we scan our sources — HiBid (which itself aggregates hundreds of auction houses), GovDeals, GSA Auctions, and PublicSurplus government surplus, PropertyRoom (national police & seized-property auctions that ship nationwide), and regional liquidators like Triangle — and normalize each lot into one consistent format: title, current price (a bid or a Buy Now price), location, photos, and when it ends.
We look up what it really resells for
For each item we find recent comparable listings — the same or closest-match product — and take the median, then trim it about 15% underthe going asking price for a realistic quick-sale number. That's the estimated resale value.
Some sources publish a real retail price (Triangle Liquidators prints it on every lot). For those we skip the eBay guess entirely and price resale at a fixed discount off that stated retail — a firmer number than a keyword match.
And when a number is suspiciously big without the evidence to back it — a wild retail tag, a four-figure comp off a handful of listings, a bulky category eBay routinely misprices — we don't show it as fact. The listing says “no estimate”and links you to eBay's sold listings to check by hand.
We subtract every cost — buying it AND selling it
Resale value isn't profit, and neither is resale minus your bid. There are costs on both ends — what it takes to win the lot and what it takes to resell it:
When you win:
- Buyer's premium— the auction's cut on top of your bid, roughly 10–15% depending on the source (Triangle 15%, GovDeals ~10%, HiBid ~15%) — and $0 on GSA Auctions, which sells federal surplus at the hammer.
- Sales tax — charged on your bid plus the premium (e.g. 7.25% in NC).
- Getting it to you — local pickup is free; some lots add freight (e.g. Triangle trucks South Carolina stock to the Raleigh pickup point for a flat $5).
When you resell:
- Marketplace fees — about 13% of the sale price (eBay-style final value fee plus payment processing).
- Shipping to your buyer— a rough estimate based on the item's category and size. A phone ships cheap; a sofa doesn't. An estimate in V1, not a precise quote.
We hand you a ceiling — the recommended max bid
Auctions climb, so the useful question isn't “what's the profit right now” — it's “how high can I go and still make money?”We invert the profit math on every lot to the highest bid that still clears a healthy (~15%) return on everything you'd spend, and show the profit you'd make winning right at that ceiling. When the live bid passes it, the number turns amber — your signal to walk away.
Tap Click for mathunder any profit to see the full breakdown at either price — today's bid or your max.
We score it on profit and confidence
A tag reflects both the estimated profit after every cost andhow much we trust the number — how many comparable eBay listings back the estimate. A big profit off two listings isn't a “great find,” so the badge means strong and trustworthy, not just a restatement of the profit figure.
Estimated profit of $250+ after every cost, backed by at least 10 comparable listings, at a margin of 25%+ of everything you'd spend (bid, fees, and shipping both ways).
Solid estimated profit of $80.00+ with at least 5 comparable listings behind it. Real opportunities that don't quite clear the top bar.
Below the thresholds, or priced off too few comps to be confident (including items still showing "no estimate"). We still show these — clearly flagged — so you can judge for yourself rather than having them hidden.
Tracer is a discovery tool. It surfaces opportunities and does the math — it never places bids or buys anything on your behalf. Always confirm the details on the source listing before you bid.
See the feed