How it works
How Snaffla turns a saved search into a deal alert
Checking marketplaces by hand means refreshing the same searches all day and still missing the good listings. Snaffla does the watching for you, works out whether each price is worth chasing, and tells you only when something matches. Here is what happens between saving a search and getting the alert.
1. Tell us what you're hunting for
You start by creating a search. The setup asks for the things a reseller actually cares about: what you are looking for, the category, where you want to look and how many miles around that place you are willing to travel.
You then choose how the search should behave:
- Which marketplaces to watch, up to the number your plan allows per search.
- How often you want alerts, within the speeds your plan includes.
- An optional minimum and maximum price, so you only hear about listings in your buying range.
- For vehicles, the make, model, year range and maximum mileage.
Each keyword on each marketplace uses one search slot, so a search that watches two marketplaces uses two slots. Your plan sets how many slots you have, and you can add more if you need them. Each plan also limits how many of those slots can watch Facebook Marketplace or Gumtree, and the rest can watch eBay.
2. We watch the marketplaces for you
Snaffla currently covers eBay UK, Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree. New listings are collected from those marketplaces on a schedule and stored in one shared database, then matched against every user's saved searches. Because listings are collected once and matched many times, the same coverage serves everyone rather than each search starting from scratch.
You never give us your marketplace logins, and your accounts are never connected to ours. You do the buying yourself, on the marketplace.
How quickly a new listing reaches you depends on the alert speed your plan includes, which is one of the main differences between plans.
3. Every listing is priced against the market
A listing being new is not enough; it has to be a good price. For each match we compare the asking price with comparable listings from our own data and place it in one of four groups:
- Under Market means the asking price sits below what comparable items are listed for. The biggest gaps are highlighted more strongly.
- At Market means the price is in line with comparable listings.
- Over Market means the seller is asking more than comparable listings.
- No Valuation means we do not have enough comparable listings to say anything reliable, so we say so instead of guessing.
The listing page shows the asking price next to the comparable prices it was measured against, so you can judge the valuation yourself instead of taking a label on trust.
4. You get the alert, with the essentials
When a listing matches, you receive a push notification on the devices where you have switched them on. Open it and you see the listing description, the price it is advertised for and the market valuation, and on plans that include it, a short summary that saves you reading the full description.
From there one tap takes you to the original listing on the marketplace it came from. You message the seller yourself, exactly as you would if you had found the listing on your own.
Push notifications need a browser that supports them. Settings shows whether yours does and lets you turn them on or off per device.
5. Keep track of what you buy and sell
Alerts are the point, but a flip does not end when you message the seller. Along the way you can:
- Save listings you want to come back to, and block ones you never want to see again.
- Track saved listings for price drops, on plans that include price tracking.
- Add what you bought to your inventory, record what it sold for, and see profit and items sold on your stats page.
Your feed shows recent listings only. Older ones are removed automatically, which keeps it focused on what you can still act on.
Set up your first search
Create an account, save a search and let Snaffla watch the marketplaces. Not sure which plan you need? See plans and pricing.