Adding AI-Powered Tools to GarageSale for Smarter eBay Selling

GarageSale
1

Hello GarageSale Team,

First, thank you for your continued development of GarageSale. I’ve been a long-time user and really appreciate how the app simplifies eBay listing management, especially with features like templates, inventory tracking, and CSV import. GarageSale is one of the few Mac-native tools that provides this level of professional functionality, and it’s a big reason I continue to use it over web-only options.

That said, with the rapid growth of AI in everyday workflows, I believe GarageSale is in a unique position to take advantage of these tools and make life even easier for sellers like me. Currently, a lot of us are already experimenting with external AI tools (like ChatGPT or image enhancement apps) to help with titles, descriptions, and pricing. If these capabilities were integrated directly into GarageSale, it would streamline the workflow dramatically and keep sellers working inside the app instead of bouncing between different services.

Here are some AI-driven features I think would be extremely valuable inside GarageSale:

1. AI-Generated Titles & Descriptions

  • Suggest optimized, keyword-rich eBay titles based on item specifics, photos, or past sales data.
  • Auto-generate professional descriptions (with HTML formatting options) from short bullet points or CSV imports.
  • Save sellers time when creating bulk listings, especially when dealing with hundreds of similar items (e.g., trading cards, diecast cars, books).

2. AI Pricing Suggestions

  • Recommend competitive starting bids or Buy-It-Now prices based on recent sold listings, category trends, and current market conditions.
  • Display a “suggested price range” directly in the listing editor to help sellers quickly set fair but profitable prices.

3. AI Photo Assistance

  • Automatic background removal or replacement with a neutral white background (which many buyers prefer).
  • Lighting and sharpness enhancement for product images.
  • Intelligent cropping so the item is centered and optimized for eBay’s mobile view.

4. Category & Item Specifics Auto-Fill

  • Suggest the most appropriate eBay category based on the listing title or a quick photo scan.
  • Auto-populate common item specifics (brand, model, year, material, etc.) by analyzing text or images.
  • This could reduce the friction of filling out required item specifics, which can be time-consuming when creating multiple listings.

5. Workflow Automation with AI

  • Allow users to set custom rules (e.g., “For all diecast cars, auto-generate a title in the format: Hot Wheels – Model – Year – Series”).
  • Let AI assist with bulk editing when CSV imports are missing data or when details need to be standardized.

:chart_increasing: Benefits for Users and GarageSale

  • Time Savings: Sellers can cut listing creation time significantly.
  • Better Listings: AI-generated text is keyword-optimized, which could improve visibility and conversion rates on eBay.
  • Competitive Edge: With built-in AI, GarageSale would stand out among listing tools, especially as eBay itself rolls out AI-driven tools that aren’t always as customizable.
  • All-in-One Workflow: Users would no longer need to switch between GarageSale and third-party AI services for basic listing tasks.

:crystal_ball: Looking Ahead

Even starting small—like adding AI-powered title suggestions or pricing hints—would make a huge difference. Over time, deeper integration (such as AI-powered bulk editing or auto-filling item specifics) could become a cornerstone feature that attracts more professional sellers to GarageSale.

Is AI integration currently being considered for the GarageSale roadmap? If not, I would strongly encourage it. Many of us are already combining GarageSale with external AI tools manually, but having it natively inside the app would save time, reduce errors, and keep the workflow seamless.

Thank you for taking the time to read this suggestion. I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether AI-powered features might be part of GarageSale’s future.

Best regards,
Brian

2

One should be careful for what one asks for, especially when trying to jump onto the latest band wagon.

Adding this to GarageSale will only add to man hours required to maintain the GS. This would require the publishers of GS to hire specialists in the field and I frankly doubt the user base is large enough to support that.

The last time I checked the reason for the publishers of GS to restrict users of GS to 50 listings per month unless they paid a monthly fee was that the software upgrades were not paying them enough money to maintain GS. In order to make a living the publishers of GS, which are very few, had to resort to doing other work for hire in addition to maintaining GS. AI is only going to add to the expenses and headache of maintaining GS.

AI is being used by many so called eBay “experts” on YouTube to con people into purchasing various products. Any newb sellers should be careful.

Personally I find AI is a big time waster. I sell many vintage items that often require research on Google or Bing and their AI gets it wrong most of the time! The latest search told me that a manufacturer did not make any OEM parts for another name brand company, yet I am holding in my hands a 1970s part made by that exact company for a name brand company. My own 26 years of researching items was much faster at finding the answer.

AI is like Wikipedia where everyone can add whatever content they want as long as it appears on another website. Someone once wrote a review of the compiling application Real Basic on their website and stated that the product compiled applications that took advantage of multiple processors. I knew that was not true as I recalled reading in a early reference book for the product that Real Basic used shared thread processing. Another party added this false review to the Wikipedia page for Real Basic as if it was fact when it was a lie.

There is no way AI could have researched a WWII relic owned by a semi-famous person I sold on its own. I needed to decipher the stenciled text of a partial abbreviated name and address using abbreviation common to the era and military. I needed to search the county real estate records to obtain a full name. I needed to to do further searches connecting the individual to Find-A-Grave, military sites university sites and so forth. I did all that in 20 minutes when AI could not get past the first step of deciphering the text.

The reason to use GS over a webpage based service is that you do not have to wait for your images to upload to eBay servers or the webpage listing service. You compile your listings and have them upload to eBay, including the images, while you do other work. I even compiled listings on my laptop while sitting on the union lockout line in front a manufacturing plant. The second major reason is that you have backups on your computer. The third major reason is automating GS through AppleScript (or JavaScript). I even have some AppleScript to export GS listing to Facebook Marketplace.

The problem with AI generated content is that you have proofread everything as one mistake can mean a chargeback by a customer. I can create 100% correct listing faster.

I cannot stand the eBay AI generated descriptions which are overly wordy and sound like a sleazy sales pitch from a eBay manager. They read like a 19th Century novel where they use 50 flowery words when 12 would do.

My descriptions, which I generate instantly from my brain based on 26 years of experience, are much better as they stick with the facts in a few possible words as possible and can be read by someone with a elementary school age level of education.

I definitely do not want AI to be making any pricing suggestions. Way too many different variables for AI to get correct. LOL, next you’ll be asking AI to generate a shipping matrix of combined items for all your inventory.

Don’t need any photo assistance. Everything is bulk edited in Photoshop with Actions to automate tasks. I don’t remove backgrounds! Don’t need to add sharpness - or make lighting enhancements for 99.999999% of photos as I shoot all items outdoors in natural light. Some photos with lots of white are fixed in bulk using a Action in PhotoShop. I can also manually remove small defects such as a fleck of dust that settled on a iteme. All photos are manually cropped after opening them into multiple tabs and then they are auto saved using a Action. I am very quick at cropping with 26 years of experience.

Automated cropping tools I experimented with don’t do a good job. Background removal tools leave jagged edge on objects are full size and give the products a sterile artificial look as opposed to how the item will look in real life.

I do not use item specifics and any required ones are auto filled in using a AppleScript or a existing template.

Do not want AI suggesting a category. AI would no doubt suggest to list a book in books as opposed to a category where it might do a lot better such as a book signed by famous artists being listed under paintings instead of books. AI would be suggesting categories based on what other sellers are using as opposed to my experience.

I’d rather see the publishers of GS continue to devote resources to maintaining GS and not jumping down a bottomless rabbit hole.

3

I had been thinking for some time about writing a post exactly like this one. I completely agree with @brian106, integrating AI would be an outstanding evolution for GarageSale. I fully agree with everything he wrote; it would truly be a sensational breakthrough… I also use GS over any other web-based solution, but recently I had to start an (extremely expensive) plan with 3dseller looking to sync my ebay database with a future e-commerce. And here I discovered what AI can do writing tiles and description from images. This would be a major develop for me and many other sellers…

4

Definitely agree with OP on this.

Poshmark does something right now where you upload a picture and they AI scan it and develop a generic description of it along with size and brand etc. Makes listing on there so much faster. You still have to clean it up a bit but it pulls info off images very nicely.

We do have that with UPC listing that has been around for sure and appreciated but some AI based on just images like Poshmark is doing would be great!

Hopefully something like that can come to GS AI.

5

I tried AI online tools that generate a description based on the photo.

In two recent tests it generated 5 to 6 paragraphs of text consisting of incorrect information, generic information that is entirely worthless, multiple lines talking about the competition of the photograph itself, and way too much b.s.

That all has to read through and corrected, which takes more time that very quickly typing 5 sentences that exactly describe the item for sale, with a sixth sentence already being present in the description as its part of the template as its used for all books.

AI does not do so well with vintage books without UPC codes. It also cannot access the condition of books as that requires you the seller to leaf through each page of the book and examine the cover panels, hinges, spine for hundreds of condition issues.

AI can’t state that there is a 1/2" diagonal crease on page 123, slightly tanned end papers, dogears on the top corners of pages 345-350 and so on.

UPCs are also not 100% reliable. I have two copies of a DVD. One is the older versions with the thicker case and the newer one is less valuable as it has a slim case. The manufacturer reused the same UPC for the later edition. If you go on eBay and look up the UPC both editions are shown. You can only tell them apart if you have both copies or notice the slight difference in how the inner paper liner wraps around the spine. So which copy is the buyer looking for?

1 Like
6

AI is not a substitute for us, or at least it shouldn’t be seen that way. It’s a tool that can help speed up the work. What I’m really looking for is anything that can save me from typing out endless listings from scratch. Even if it makes mistakes, correcting them is still much faster than starting from a blank page.

1 Like
7

Its not a question of a few mistakes. The content is 100% unusable in tests I have done. In two recent tests it generated 5-6 paragraphs of nonsense, including text describing the sample images I uploaded, which have no bearing on the item in question.

Its also missing critical information dimensions, condition issues and various other details such as how is the item going to be shipped, which are already in my brain.

In the time it takes to just read through all this nonsense I can generate a new listing from scratch. This starts by duplicating an existing template based on a shipping scenario for the item - i.e., I know how much its going to weigh when packed just by looking at it.

I don’t need to enter a package size unless its over a cubic foot or exceeds one of the length surcharges OR is one of the rare packages sent via UPS, with 99.99% of items having no package size.

I don’t need item attributes as the most commonly shared ones are already filled out with “N/A” within my templates. Any attributes added due to a particular category are automatically filled out with “N/A” by double clicking a AppleScript app on my desktop.

I then quickly type a description with only relevant facts - size, condition. Instead of 5-6 paragraphs of worthless information I have 5 typed sentences of facts and in the case of books another sentence added by default within my book templates.

Look at how AI is used on my eBay account…

Its telling me I should lower the prices on “X” number of items as my prices are “X” more expensive. In one case it found a single booklet for sale by someone else and its telling my prices are higher when in fact my price is not for one booklet but a whole lot of booklets so my price is lowest on eBay by far.

Its hiding my descriptions for mobile users by default and instead showing a bunch of random gibberish including text taken from my TOS. No buyers are going to click to see the full description when they are showed gibberish - make me look like I did not even go to grade school.

eBay experimented with inserting excerpts from description below the BuyItNow button and above the shipping details. In one case this wrongly implied that a part never required lubrication when in fact that applied to the motor for the machine that the part was from.

AI keeps displaying “opportunities” at the top of my Active Listing page to lower my shipping time to one day, promote listings, make offers and other nonsense even though dismissed them. To eBay the word “no” means “yes”.

8

I don’t care about AI. GS is already the best tool for its purpose in the world that I can find. I’ve been trying to switch to Windows for 3 years now and I keep coming back to GS.

4 Likes
9

Look at how out of touch eBay is with the day to day business of selling…

They are concentrating on adding worthless AI while lacking a basic security measure on their site.

eBay does not even bother to verify account mailing addresses with USPS’s Address Verification API.

Most major online platforms, such as Amazon, will compare the shipping address you provided to USPS’s database of addresses and make sure it in the correct form, even making suggestions as to the correct form to use.

Not eBay because they could care less about their user’s safety.

I was unable to print a shipping label on a recent order as eBay’s system said there were more than 40 characters in Address Line 1.

The buyer had included one version of their street address on Address Line 1 and also added the town and zip code. On Address Line 2 they included another version of their street address and added the state two letter code.

Both versions of the street address were also entirely wrong as they were not in USPS’s Address Verification System.

The time to correct this was when the buyer registered there account - they would not be able to enter incorrect information in the first place.

10

It’s a fact that eBay is making poor and often useless choices. However, don’t confuse the real potential of AI with the ineffective solutions eBay has developed. The usefulness of AI largely depends on the type of product you’re selling. If you’re listing a painting or an antique artifact, I agree with you, AI won’t be of much help. But if you’re selling standardized items like postcards, where the location is clearly printed on the card, AI can read it and automatically generate a structured title for thousands and thousands listings at once (e.g., year – place – region), while respecting the 80-character title limit. I’ve already tested this, and it makes my work much easier. Of course, it’s not a final solution, titles still need to be reviewed, but consider the time saved (and consequently the cost savings, since employees can dedicate that time to more valuable tasks). I believe this was the point of the original post: AI shouldn’t be dismissed outright, as it can be a very effective tool when used properly (for the proper work).

2 Likes
11

I really appreciate all the feedback everyone has shared so far. I have a few follow-up questions for those who responded:

  • How many auctions do you typically list each month?
  • How many active listings do you currently have?
  • Lastly, are you using the regular GarageSale license or the Pro subscription?
12

FWIW, both yours and another commenter’s messages here appear to be written by AI. That, plus asking for this kind of private information, does not really help your cause! And in both cases, both messages were “TL;DR” for me.

13

“Funny you thought my post was AI — it wasn’t, and I wasn’t asking for anything private. If it felt ‘TL;DR,’ that’s fine, just scroll on. I was simply trying to gauge whether GarageSale users are mostly occasional sellers who don’t need AI features, or heavier listers who’d actually benefit from them.”

14

What are you even talking about? English must be your second language or you like making stuff up.

A wrestling coach told us you do not become a great wrestler by practicing fantasy moves you see in the movies or in fake professional wrestling, but learning the fundamentals and do them without thinking - i.e., muscle memory.

While eBay concentrates on adding new A.I. features which have been worthless so far they can’t do the fundamentals.

They can’t add the most basic security check to account registration - i.e. address verification with USPS’s API. That way we know the address actually exists and is in the correct form to be used by carriers. That way orders due to get cancelled due buyer addresses. That way less sellers get ripped off by buyers.

The can’t even fix their listing form to allow decimal values for packages so they can display the correct rates to buyers. Of course the reason for that is so they can rip off their users with inflated shipping costs. eBay’s rounding rules violate postal regulations. PirateShip does use eBay rules - they use USPS rules.

15

This topic was automatically closed 10 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.