Last week, we reviewed one of the more popular auction management solutions providers, Andale. Today, we break down a long list of auction management software and hosted solution providers.

Currently there are more products in the auction management marketplace than you can wave a cursor at — over 25 offering hosted or desktop Windows/Mac platforms for eBay, by our count. These programs vary widely in features, services and pricing (particularly pricing which seem to change with the weather on some sites.) A majority is geared only to eBay, several support Amazon, Yahoo! and other venues. They range from free sites such as AuctionSubmit and eBay's TurboLister (without image hosting,) to high-end, a la carte sites such as Vendio and Andale.

Site selection should be based on your current and future needs. Small volume sellers are probably best served with the modestly priced sites with limited features — but easy to use applications that get the job done. The 'flash and filigree' features that you don't use can actually slow you down. Those who wish to grow their business, medium to high volume sellers who intend to also sell on Amazon, Yahoo! etc., and those who use sophisticated features like research databases and advanced bulk listing tools, may want (and need) to pay the extra bucks for the more comprehensive sites or software.

Read the small print: A number of sites that seem reasonably priced at first glance, charge extra for small amounts of increased image storage, per-listing fees and levy closing fees on successful sales. So a "plan" that starts at $9.95 per month can easily cost considerably more for even modest use once the dust has settled on your sales.

Here is a list of auction management sites and software:

AAA Seller Hosted. Supports eBay and eBay Motors. Plan #1 ($9.95) includes 25 MB of image hosting but only 15 free listings. Plan #2 ($19) offers 125 MB of image hosting and 125 ads. Free trial available.

Andale Hosted. Supports eBay, Amazon and Yahoo! 40 listing ($10.95), 110 listings ($34.95,) 1,100 listings ($229.95).

AuctionGenie Desktop. Mac OS X only. Supports eBay. $40 annual fee.

AuctionHawk Hosted. Supports eBay. Various plans beginning at $12.99 (no lister) to $44.95 (50 MB storage and unlimited listings). 21 day free trial.

AuctionHelper Hosted. Supports eBay. Offers an elaborate three-tiered plan: The basic package charges 1.95 percent of gross merchandise sales with a minimum fee of 15 cents and a maximum of $1.25 per transaction, plus a two cent eBay API fee for each item sold. All plans come with 20 MB of mage hosting storage, with additional space at an extra charge. 14 day free trial.

AuctionSage Windows Desktop. Supports eBay and Bidville. Sold at $30 for 3 months, $50 for 6 months and $80 per year.

AuctionSubmit Desktop. Windows Supports eBay, Yahoo! Amazon. The price is right: freeware.

AuctionTamer Desktop. Windows. Supports a wide array of auction sites including U.S. and many international eBay sites, Amazon U.S. UK, Yahoo! U.S. and UK, BidVille, Sell Your Item, GunBroker, uBid, Dell Auctions and Wine Commune, among others. Unique in that it serves seller and buyers: comprehensive seller plans are $22.95 per month, $149.95 a year with image storage extra — four to seven cents per image. Supports two sniping software programs for buyers. Fourteen day free trial.

AuctionWizard 2000 Desktop. Windows. Supports eBay, Yahoo! and Player Auctions. $75 for the first year, $50 renewal. Offers a 60-day free trial period.

Auction Works (MarketWorks) Hosted. Supports eBay U.S. eBay Motors, eBay UK, AU, Ca and Yahoo! Charges two percent of final value price on sales with a ten cent minimum and $3 maximum per item. Flat two percent fee for AuctionWorks storefront sales. Four plans starting at $14.95 for 100 MB of image hosting space to $99.95 for 1GB of image hosting space.

Auctiva Hosted Supports eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon. Various plans starting at $9.95 monthly with 3 MB image hosting to $109.95 per month including unlimited auction hosting.

eBay Blackthorne (formally Seller's Assistant) Desktop. Windows. Supports eBay U.S., UK, Australia and Canada sites. A well-reviewed, end-to-end desktop software offering two programs: Basic for 25-100 sales at $9.99 per month and Pro for 100 or mare sales at $24.99 per month. Thirty day free trial.

ChannelAdvisor Hosted. Supports eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon. Three plans ranging from $29.95 per month for 500 closings to $99.95 per month for 2000 closings.

CORESense Technology Hosted. Supports eBay, eBay Motors, can be integrated with Yahoo!, Amazon, Froogle and Overstock. Per channel and integration pricing.

DEK Auction Manager Hosted. Supports eBay. Offers two plans: Option #1 - $39.95 for up to 150 auctions per month, including image hosting. Option #2 - $9.95 per month plus two percent of sold items, includes image hosting.

eBay Turbo Lister Desktop. Windows. Supports eBay. Free downloadable auction management software from eBay. eBay's Picture Manager option is $9.99 for 50MB storage and $24.99 for 1GB per month, as well as most other products offered by the third party sites and software.

Elister 2.5.8 Desktop. Supports MAC OS X only. Thirty day subscription $9.95; 6 month subscription $29.95.

Foo Dog Software (Shooting Star) Desktop. Windows. Supports eBay U.S., UK, Canada and Australia. A well-reviewed desktop platform vaunted for its ease of use. $60 flat fee.

Garage Sale Desktop. Mac OS X only. Allows Mac OS X users to create auctions quickly using an intuitive Mac-like interface; integrates with iPhoto and offers WYSIWYG text editing; built-in image editor; built-in auction scheduler. Supports almost all eBay sites and eBay Motors, excluding eBay China and a few others (check full list). Free trial allows three auction uploads. Single user license $24.99; Family license (up to five computers) $44.99. Requires outside image hosting.

Infopia Marketplace Manager Hosted. Supports Amazon Auctions and zShops, Bidway, BizRate, CNET Auctions eBay, eBay Stores Google Adwords, Yahoo! Auctions and Shopping, among others. For large sellers, pricing begins at $99.95 and varies based on inventory size and customization.

InkFrog Hosted. Supports eBay. A high value site with two options: Premium at $7.95 that includes 400 images but limited use of the lister. Pro at $12.95 includes 1,000 images and full use of the lister.

Make-A-Store Hosted. Supports eBay, Yahoo! and Amazon. Highly automated software for bulk sellers. $299.95 set up fee; $44.95 monthly base fee plus ten cent listing fee and 45-cent order processing fee.

MarketBlast Desktop. Mac OS and Windows. Supports eBay, eBay Motors and Stores. Highly automated "soup-to-nuts" software with a 100+ page user manual. $99 flat fee. Requires outside image hosting.

Meridian Hosted. Supports eBay. A high value site that claims fully automated, hands-free enterprise listing. With six plans beginning at 1-25 listings for $9.99 monthly, up to 3001 and more listings at $69.95. One month free trial.

Sold! Desktop. Windows. Supports eBay. $79.95 flat rate for the first year, $39.95 renewal. Image hosting at $4.95 per month or $49.95 a year; (50MB storage.)

SpareDollar Hosted. Supports eBay. Probably the best buy in eBay auction management. Monthly fee of $8.95 gets you 50MB of image hosting space and a complete and easy to use workflow system for eBay auction and Store postings. The one major shortcoming is frequent time-outs, requiring repeated log ins. InkFrog recently bought SpareDollar with a transition scheduled for June 1, 2006. InkFrog states it will not alter the cost for 90 percent of SD users, but we have heard this before and only time will tell. Offers a one month free trail period.

SpoonFeeder Hosted. Supports eBay. Four plans beginning with a basic licensing fee of $19.95 up to Premium Deluxe at $199.95. The bottom tier free Bronze plan includes unlimited listings and image hosting, up to the Platinum plan at $19.95 monthly, offering up to 2,000 completed sales, which are billed at two cents each.

Vendio Hosted. Supports eBay. Formally known as "Auction Watch," Vendio is a major player in the auction management field, with a wide array of a la carte features and plans ranging from $30 per month (no per listing fee, 1.25 percent final value fee up to $4.95 per item,) up to an Annual Listing Plan (at $250 and six cents per listing). There is also a Pay-As-You Go plan (ten cents for the first 50 listings, five cents per additional listing and a one percent final value fee. Like Andale, Vendio offers state-of-the art technology — at a price.

Zoovy Hosted. Supports eBay, Yahoo!, Amazon, ePier and Ubid. Features store and Web site building tools and three plans: Bronze at $25 per month with 5MB image storage and 25 cents per sell through; Silver at $50 with 50 MB and ten cents per sell through; Gold, at $100, 100MB and five cents per sell through sale.

Bear in mind, whichever auction management site or software you choose, sooner or later it will give you fits. The nature of the beast is such that all services suffer occasional outages, failure to properly upload images to their server, listings or images to eBay, and other headaches. Many sites offer a free trial. It's advisable to post as much as possible during the trial period to gauge a site's performance — from uploading to checkout.

Frank Fortunato is a contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com and an avid eBay seller.