If you collect retro games, the listing you want is usually gone within the hour it goes up. A loose EarthBound at a fair price or a complete Pokémon Red under market doesn't sit around. So how fast an alert reaches you, and how much junk comes with it, decides whether you get the game.
There are five realistic options in 2026. This is what each one actually does, based on its own published pages as of November 2026. One of them is ours, and we say so where it matters.
The short version
| Tool | How you get alerts | How fast | Repro filtering | Free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eBay saved searches | Email digest, eBay app push | Email roughly once a day; app push faster but unpredictable | None built in | Free |
| RetroSnag | "Every few hours" | Title keyword filter (repro, custom, homebrew, bootleg...) | Up to 3 wishlist items | |
| AutomatedSearches | Email, text message | Not stated; pitched as faster than eBay's daily email | Not described | Free account |
| uBuyFirst | Desktop app | "Sub-second" (their claim) | General custom filters | 30-day free trial, no public price |
| CresvaMent | Discord, email | eBay checked every 45 seconds; Discord in under a minute on paid plans | Ready-made retro trackers exclude repro, reproduction and bootleg listings | 1 tracker, delayed alerts |
eBay saved searches
The default, and free. Save a search, turn on notifications, and eBay emails you new matches, or pushes them through the eBay app.
The weak spot is timing. The email arrives as a digest, roughly daily, which is far too slow for anything collectible. App push is quicker but not something you can count on. Filtering is whatever eBay's search supports: you can add -repro style minus words to the query, but there's no maintained repro list and no seller-feedback threshold on the alert.
Good for: a slow-moving niche item you'd buy if it ever turned up.
RetroSnag
A newer, retro-focused service covering games, Pokémon cards, comics and vintage toys. You add wishlist items with a maximum price and get an email when something comes in at or under it.
What it does well:
- All-in pricing. The cap includes shipping, so a $40 cart with $25 shipping doesn't sneak through.
- Region and condition fields. NTSC-U / PAL / NTSC-J, and Loose / CIB / Sealed.
- A repro keyword filter that drops titles mentioning repro, reproduction, custom, homebrew, aftermarket, bootleg, replica or fan-made.
- Simple setup. Email only, no app.
The trade-off is speed. Their FAQ says they check eBay "every few hours" and send one bundled email. For a game that sells in 20 minutes, a few hours is too late. The free plan covers 3 items, and a paid plan is announced but not priced yet.
Good for: casual collectors with a short wishlist who want a tidy email, not a race.
AutomatedSearches
A free web service that sends email and text-message alerts for new listings on saved eBay searches, favorite sellers, ending-soon auctions and price drops. It isn't retro-specific and doesn't describe any filtering beyond the search itself, so you'll get every repro and every box-only listing that matches your keywords.
Good for: text alerts on a broad search, if you're fine doing the filtering yourself.
uBuyFirst
Desktop software aimed at professional eBay resellers doing arbitrage. It claims sub-second listing notifications and offers custom filters. Alerts arrive on the desktop app, so you need to be at your computer. There's a 30-day free trial; pricing isn't published.
Good for: full-time resellers who sit at a desk and work many categories at once.
CresvaMent
Full disclosure: this is us. CresvaMent checks eBay's video game firehose every 45 seconds and matches each new listing against your trackers.
- Delivery: Discord (an embed with photo, price, condition and a direct link) and email. On Pro and Ultra, Discord alerts are real time, usually under a minute after the listing appears. On the free plan, Discord alerts are bundled hourly and email every 4 hours.
- Ready-made retro trackers. Every game with a deal page has a tracker you can start from in one click. Those trackers are already tuned for that game: they exclude reproductions, bootlegs, box-only and manual-only listings, and the usual title noise. Each deal page shows the exact exclusion list under "How we filter".
- Filters you control: include and exclude keywords, keyword groups, price range, eBay condition, free shipping only, and minimum seller feedback score and percentage.
- Live price context: each game page shows current asking-price ranges for loose, CIB and sealed copies, so you can set a sane maximum. These are asking prices from live listings, not sold prices.
- Price: free for 1 tracker, Pro $9.99/month for 10, Ultra $39.99/month for 50.
Where it falls short: the maximum price applies to the item price, not item plus shipping. If you want an all-in cap, turn on "free shipping only". There's also no NTSC/PAL field. The ready-made trackers are tuned for the US release of each game.
Good for: collectors who want to see a listing within a minute, without wading through repros.
How to choose
- How fast does the item sell? If it's gone within the hour, you need sub-minute alerts: CresvaMent's paid plans or uBuyFirst. If it lingers for days, eBay's own saved search or RetroSnag is fine.
- Where do you want the alert? Phone via Discord: CresvaMent. Inbox: RetroSnag, AutomatedSearches or eBay. Desktop: uBuyFirst.
- How bad are repros for this game? For heavily reproduced titles (EarthBound, Chrono Trigger, the Pokémon carts), a tool that filters repros saves you a lot of noise. RetroSnag and CresvaMent both do it; eBay doesn't.
- How many games are you watching? One to three: any free plan works. Ten or more: you'll be on a paid plan somewhere.
Whichever you pick, set your maximum from current market prices, not from memory. Retro prices moved a lot in the last few years. The deal pages show the current asking range for each condition.