Frequently Asked Questions

DealHawkHQ is an automated eBay deal scanner built for resellers and bargain hunters. You set up alerts with your target buying criteria — search terms, fault keywords, pricing thresholds, and profit targets — and the platform scans eBay on your behalf, around the clock, surfacing listings that meet your criteria. When a deal is found, you're notified instantly via Telegram, email or browser push notifications.

We offer two ongoing tiers to suit different usage levels:

• Scout — up to 5 product profiles, 60-minute automatic scanning, and 10 manual scans/day.

• Hawk — up to 100 product profiles, 10-minute automatic scanning, and 50 manual scans/day.

Both tiers support Telegram, email, and browser push notifications. If you need higher limits or a custom plan, contact contact@dealhawkhq.com.

1. Go to Deal Settings and create your alert
2. Add one or more search bases (the eBay search terms to monitor).
3. Create a scan profile for that product to configure keywords, conditions, and scan frequency.
4. Head to Settings to add your Telegram Chat ID for instant alerts.
5. Run your first manual scan from the Scan page to verify results. The auto-scanner will then run on your schedule continuously.

DealHawkHQ supports eBay GB (UK), eBay US, and eBay DE (Germany). You select your marketplace in Settings under eBay API Settings. Your currency is set automatically based on your marketplace selection (GBP, USD, or EUR).

No. DealHawkHQ is a monitoring and alerting tool — it finds listings that match your criteria and alerts you. You then decide whether to purchase the item on eBay yourself. We never make purchases, place bids, or interact with eBay listings on your behalf.

Yes! DealHawkHQ has a native iOS app available on the App Store. The mobile app offers the full DealHawkHQ dashboard experience with native push notifications so you never miss a deal. The web dashboard remains fully responsive for browser users, and Telegram, email, and browser push notifications continue to work alongside the mobile app.

eBay alerts are instant notifications sent to you whenever a new eBay listing matches your saved search criteria. DealHawkHQ sends eBay alerts via push notification, email, and Telegram — so you're always first to know about new listings that match what you're looking for.

You create a search profile with your keywords, price range, and conditions. DealHawkHQ then scans eBay automatically every few minutes and sends you an instant eBay alert the moment a matching listing goes live — via push notification, email, or Telegram.

eBay's built-in saved search alerts can be delayed by many hours. DealHawkHQ eBay alerts are sent within minutes of a new listing appearing — giving you a significant head start over other buyers.

DealHawkHQ supports three alert channels: browser push notifications (including iOS native push via our app), email alerts, and Telegram messages. You can enable any combination in your Settings.

Yes. Create a separate search profile for each product you want to track, and receive simultaneous eBay alerts for all of them. Scout plan users can run up to 5 alerts; Hawk plan users up to 100.

Yes! DealHawkHQ is available as a native app on iOS via the App Store. The mobile app provides the full dashboard experience with native push notifications, so you never miss a deal.

No — you use the same DealHawkHQ account. Sign in with your existing email and password. All your products, alerts, scan history, and settings sync automatically between the web and mobile apps.

Yes. The native mobile apps support push notifications out of the box. You will receive deal alerts directly to your phone when matches are found. You can also continue using Telegram and email alerts alongside the app notifications.

Yes. The mobile app includes the full Manual Scan page with both Profile Scan and Quick Search modes, including all filters, scan modes, and category selection.

Yes — DealHawkHQ supports browser push notifications in addition to Telegram and email. Browser push is useful for instant, lightweight alerts on desktop and mobile browsers (where supported).

1. Open Settings → Notifications in your DealHawkHQ dashboard.
2. Enable the Browser Push toggle and follow the browser prompt to allow notifications.
3. Make sure your site is served over HTTPS and that VAPID keys are configured in the project environment (this is configured on the server side; admins set these values).
4. If prompted by the browser, click Allow — you will receive a confirmation and subsequent alerts will appear as system notifications.

Most modern Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Edge) and Firefox support web push.

Safari on macOS and iOS has historically had limited support; please check your Safari version and platform — if your browser does not support web push, use Telegram or email instead.

Confirm you allowed notifications in the browser (site settings) and that the toggle is enabled in DealHawkHQ Settings.

Ensure you are not in a strict privacy mode or using extensions that block notifications or remote resources.

Check that your browser has a running service worker for the site (our app installs a service worker at /sw.js). You can inspect this in DevTools → Application → Service Workers.

Try a full page refresh, clear site data for dealhawkhq.com, and re-enable notifications.

If problems persist, test Telegram or email alerts as a fallback and contact contact@dealhawkhq.com.

You can turn off Browser Push in Settings → Notifications, or remove the site permission in your browser's notification settings. Telegram and email alerts are controlled separately in Settings.

See the push notifications setup guide: https://dealhawkhq.com/docs/push-notifications (covers VAPID keys, environment variables and the service worker). The docs file in the repo is at /docs/push-notifications.md.

You can toggle between Scout and Hawk mode within the settings page. Please ensure if selecting Hawk mode you have added your free eBay developer keys.

We have two free plans, Scout and Hawk. We would advise all users sign up to eBay and enter the free API keys on this site to allow maximum limits. DealHawkHQ will look at removing this requirement as the site and userbase grows.

Scout users share a pool of eBay API keys managed by DealHawkHQ. Because eBay imposes rate limits per application, shared keys can become throttled under heavy usage. Hawk users are required to use their own free eBay Developer keys to guarantee uninterrupted, high-frequency scanning exclusive to your account.

1. Go to developer.ebay.com and click Sign In. Use your regular eBay account or create a new developer account (it's free and separate from your buyer/seller account).
2. Once logged in, click My Account → Application Access Keys (or navigate to the Keyset Management page).
3. Click Create Application.
4. Give your app a name (e.g. "DealHawkHQ Scanner") — this is for your reference only.
5. On the next screen you'll see two sets of keys: Sandbox and Production. Always use Production keys — Sandbox keys don't return real eBay listings.
6. Copy your App ID (also called Client ID) — it looks like YourName-AppName-PRD-xxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx.
7. Copy your Cert ID (also called Client Secret) — it looks like PRD-xxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx.
8. Go to DealHawkHQ → Settings → eBay API Settings, paste both values, and click Save.

After logging in to developer.ebay.com: click your name in the top right → My Account → Application Access Keys. Your keys are listed in a table. The Production row contains your live keys. Click View Keys to reveal the full Cert ID if it's masked.

No. The eBay Developer Program is completely free. You get a generous daily API call allowance that is more than sufficient for DealHawkHQ scanning.

eBay grants Production applications a default of 5,000 Browse API calls per day. DealHawkHQ is optimised to stay well within this limit even on Pro with many profiles. If you hit the daily limit, scanning resumes automatically the next day. You can see your daily API usage on the Dashboard.

A 429 error means eBay has temporarily rate-limited your API keys due to too many requests in a short period. DealHawkHQ will automatically back off and resume scanning. If you're seeing frequent 429s, consider reducing the number of active profiles or increasing your scan interval in the profile settings.

We recommend using a unique set of keys per DealHawkHQ account. Sharing keys across accounts will split your daily API call allowance.

1. Make sure you copied the Production keys, not the Sandbox keys.
2. Check that your App ID and Cert ID are saved in Settings (click Save, look for the green confirmation).
3. Confirm your eBay marketplace in Settings matches the market you want to scan.
4. Check the Dashboard for any scanner pause notices or error messages.
5. Try a manual scan from the Scan page — it will show a specific error message if the keys are invalid.
6. If still stuck, email contact@dealhawkhq.com with your username and we'll help debug.

Scout tier users can use the platform's shared eBay credentials without entering their own keys.

Hawk-tier users need to either connect their eBay account via OAuth (the preferred method — simpler, no manual key entry required) or manually enter their App ID and Cert ID in Settings.

Connecting via OAuth is the recommended approach as it handles token refresh automatically, so you don't need to worry about expiring credentials.

Both methods allow DealHawkHQ to make eBay API calls on your behalf.

A Resell Alert is the item you're looking to buy and resell — it holds your base data: the product name, expected sell price, eBay selling fees, outbound shipping cost, packaging cost, and the search bases (eBay search terms) you want to monitor.

A Deal Setting is a specific scan configuration for a product — it adds fault/condition keywords, a target profit, extra costs, condition filters, scan interval, and scan mode. One product can have multiple deal settings (e.g. one for "Buy It Now" listings and another for "Auctions ending in 24 hours").

Search bases are the eBay search queries that DealHawkHQ will run on your behalf. For example, if you're scanning for broken iPhones, your search bases might be: "iPhone 13 faulty", "iPhone 13 spares repairs", "iPhone 13 broken screen". Each search base becomes a separate eBay API call. Your plan limits how many search bases are active per profile.

The fault query is appended to every search base when building the eBay search. For example, if your search base is "iPhone 13" and your fault query is "faulty broken", the actual eBay search becomes "iPhone 13 faulty broken". This is useful when you want a single base term but always want to narrow it to faulty/parts listings.

DealHawkHQ calculates the maximum you should pay for an item (Max Buy) using this formula:

Max Buy = Sell Price × (1 − Fee Rate) − Ship Out − Packaging − Parts Cost − Extra Costs − Target Profit

If a listing's total cost (price + shipping in) is below the Max Buy, it's flagged as a good deal. All costs you enter on your product determine how profitable a listing needs to be before it's flagged.

This is the minimum profit (after all costs and fees) that a deal must achieve before DealHawkHQ flags it as a good buy. Set this to 0 to show all deals that break even, or higher to only surface listings with meaningful profit margin.

Words or phrases you don't want in the listing title. For example, if scanning for iPhones you might exclude "case", "screen protector", "charger" to avoid accessory listings. Separate multiple words with commas. Both the product and the individual profile can have exclude words — both lists are combined when filtering.

The opposite of exclude words — the listing title must contain at least one of these words to be included in results. Useful to ensure listings are genuinely faulty (e.g. "faulty", "broken", "spares", "repair").

Buy It Now only: searches only fixed-price listings.

Auctions only: searches auctions ending within your specified number of hours.

Both: searches both fixed-price and auction listings simultaneously.

You can restrict which eBay item conditions are included in your scan results. Available conditions include: New, New other, New with defects, Manufacturer refurbished, Seller refurbished, Used, For parts or not working, Open box. If no conditions are selected, all conditions are included.

When creating or editing a product or alert, you can optionally filter scans by eBay category using the CategoryPicker.

The CategoryPicker offers two modes: "Suggested" — categories recommended based on your search terms — and "Browse All" — which lets you explore the full eBay category tree.

Selecting one or more categories narrows scan results to only listings within those categories, reducing noise and irrelevant results.

Category filtering is also available in Quick Search on the Manual Scan page.

It is entirely optional — if no categories are selected, all eBay categories are searched.

Quick Valuation (marked as BETA) is available when creating or editing a Resell Alert product.

It estimates the current market sell price by searching eBay for similar Buy It Now listings using your search terms and filters (exclude words, must-include words, min buy total).

It then applies a configurable discount to the lowest matching BIN price to suggest a realistic sell price.

Click "Use" to auto-fill the Default Sell Price field with the valuation result.

This helps you quickly set profitable pricing thresholds without manual research.

The DealHawkHQ auto-scanner runs on a schedule based on your plan's scan interval. Every X minutes (e.g. every 10 minutes on Pro), the scanner checks all your active profiles, fetches matching eBay listings, compares them against your profit thresholds, and sends you alerts for anything that qualifies as a good deal. New results are also visible on your Dashboard and Scan Results page.

Auto-scanning runs automatically in the background on your plan's schedule. Manual scanning lets you trigger an on-demand scan from the Scan page — useful when you want immediate results or want to test a new profile. Manual scans count against your daily manual scan limit (10/day on Scout, 50/day on Hawk).

In Settings you can set a window (e.g. 08:00–23:00) during which the auto-scanner is active. Outside this window, scans are skipped. This is useful if you don't want to receive alerts in the middle of the night. Set start = end (e.g. both 00:00) to scan 24 hours a day.

Common reasons:

1. Your scanner was paused (check the Dashboard for a notice).

2. Your eBay API keys are missing or invalid (Settings → eBay API).

3. You have no active profiles.

4. The current time is outside your scanner active hours.

5. Your daily API call limit has been reached for today.

If your eBay keys repeatedly hit rate limits (429 errors), the admin may temporarily pause your scanner to prevent further throttling. You'll see a notice on your dashboard. Contact support if you believe this was in error.

Each result shows: item title, condition, buy total (price + shipping), estimated profit, and a green "Good Buy" badge if the deal meets your profit target. Results marked in green are deals worth considering. You can click any result to view the listing on eBay. You can also add items to your Watchlist to track them.

Each scan fetches up to 200 listings per search base from eBay. This is the maximum returned in a single call to the eBay Browse API. Results are then filtered by your keyword rules, exclude words, condition filters, and profit thresholds before being displayed.

The Watchlist lets you save interesting listings for later review. Items stay in your watchlist until you remove them or they're no longer available on eBay. Access your watchlist from the dashboard.

1. Open Telegram (mobile or desktop) and search for @DealHawkHQBot.
2. Start a conversation with the bot and send the command /start.
3. The bot will reply with your unique Chat ID (a numeric string, e.g. 123456789).
4. Go to DealHawkHQ → Settings → Telegram Notifications.
5. Paste your Chat ID into the field and click Save.
6. Toggle "Telegram alerts" on in the Notification Preferences section.

Yes. In Settings → Notification Preferences, you can enable email alerts, Telegram alerts, or both simultaneously. Email alerts are sent to the address on your DealHawkHQ account.

1. Make sure you've sent /start to @DealHawkHQBot — the bot can't message you until you've initiated contact.
2. Verify your Chat ID is saved correctly in Settings.
3. Check that "Telegram alerts" is toggled on in Notification Preferences.
4. Check your scanner active hours aren't preventing the scanner from running.
5. Check the Dashboard to confirm auto-scanning is active and your last scan timestamp is recent.

Alerts are sent within seconds of the scanner finding a matching listing. The delay between a listing going live on eBay and you receiving an alert depends on your plan's scan interval — on Hawk (10-minute scanning) you'll typically be notified within 10 minutes of a listing appearing.

Not directly — but you can toggle off both alert methods in Settings while the scanner continues running in the background. Results will still appear in your Scan Results page.

Email address changes require contacting support at contact@dealhawkhq.com as this is tied to your authentication. We'll update it manually.

Go to Settings and scroll down to the Danger Zone section. Click "Delete Account" and follow the confirmation steps. This will permanently delete your account and all associated data.

Yes. Your App ID and Cert ID are stored encrypted in our database and are only used to make eBay API calls on your behalf. They are never shared, logged in plain text, or visible to anyone other than you.

Each email address gets one account. We don't support sub-accounts or team accounts at this time.

Email us at contact@dealhawkhq.com. We aim to respond within 1 business day. For urgent issues, include your account email address and a description of the problem.