The Auction Book by Perry Snider , LeAnn Snider Search Amazon for other books by or about Perry Snider. Rating: Reviewed by: Douglas Malcolm

The Auction Book, created by Perry and LeAnn Snider, is an interesting idea. Essentially what we have here is a hard copy version of the sort of spreadsheet you might make for yourself to track your eBay auctions. When I say "might make", I mean that literally - it's just the sort of thing that I always say to myself "Hey, I should make a little program (or spreadsheet, or database) to do XYZ". Deciding I want such a thing is easy - finding time to actually sit down and create it is another matter.

The book features 2 main sections, one for auctions in which you are the seller, and another for where you are the buyer. It's nicely bound in a spiral manner along the long edge of the 8.5x11 inch paper, and includes space for just about every vital bit of data you might want to track about an auction.

Frankly, because of the whole "I could make this myself in Excel" angle, I initially underrated The Auction Book's value. I've since come to appreciate it's elegant simplicity for three reasons;

1. It already exists. I know that sounds silly, but the fact of the matter is I still "track" any auctions I am involved in the old-fashioned way, which is to say, not at all. Emails pile up in my inbox, and everything gets dealt with in a very ad-hoc manner. Certainly non-optimal. It's all well and good to have a plan for getting organized with a custom created spreadsheet, but clearly the path of least resistance is to use a product already created to fill that need.
2. It's a physical hard copy ledger. All your information gets stored in one central place, and you don't need access to your PC to use it. Clearly, having something in hardcopy only has both minuses and pluses, but the advantages are clear.
3. Perhaps the most surprising advantage to me was the fact that it ISN'T more software. In certain situations, that can be a boon. Specifically I'm thinking of people new to computers and the online world. I recently spent several hours teaching an older relative how to use eBay. Being a yard sale and auction aficionado for years, he loves it... but he also needs a way to track auctions. Any software solution would just involve more training and potential confusion, which I wanted to avoid if possible. A product like this cuts right through the confusion, requires zero in the way of training, is quite useful, and more often than not, delights the user. I let this same relative keep my review copy of The Auction Book, and I understand he's still cheerfully using it for his auctions.

The Auction Book has sporadic availability at Amazon.com. If you can't find it there, try looking at the source here. Happy auction tracking!