Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions and troubleshooting tips for WaxEngine, covering signup, card scanning, pricing, automation, and eBay connection issues.

General

What is WaxEngine?

WaxEngine is a web app for eBay hockey card sellers. It uses AI to identify cards from photos, a 5-pillar engine to price them, a 4-tier system to manage active listings, and a direct eBay connection to publish, send offers, and end listings, all from your browser.

Is this a desktop app? What do I need to run it?

No, WaxEngine runs entirely in the browser at app.waxengine.com. There is nothing to download or set up on your computer. Any modern browser works (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), and it works on phones and tablets too.

How do updates work?

Automatically. Because WaxEngine is a web app, every improvement, fix, and new feature is live the next time you load the page. You never manage versions or upgrades.

Does it work for sports other than hockey?

The app is purpose-built for NHL hockey cards. The AI identification, player database, and market intelligence features are all tuned for hockey. The underlying architecture could be adapted for other sports, but out of the box it is hockey-focused.

Where is my data stored?

Your data lives securely in the cloud. Card images, inventory, pricing history, and settings are stored in a managed database with row-level security, meaning your data is only ever accessible to your account. You can disconnect your eBay account at any time from Settings.

How much does it cost?

$24.95/month or $249/year (about two months free on annual)
14-day free trial with full feature access, no credit card required
Founding members: the first 10 subscribers get $19.95/month for life with unlimited scans
Every plan includes 1,000 AI card scans per month; extra scans are $4.95 per 250-pack
No per-listing fees, cancel anytime

Do I need my own API keys or an eBay developer account?

No. You connect your eBay account through eBay’s official sign-in (a couple of clicks), and WaxEngine handles all the API plumbing behind the scenes. AI usage is included in your subscription, you never manage AI keys or pay AI providers separately.

Card Scanning

How accurate is the AI card identification?

The AI (a combination of Gemini and Claude vision models) is highly accurate for most hockey cards, especially for major sets like Upper Deck, O-Pee-Chee, and SP Authentic. It identifies the player, set, year, card number, and parallel from your photos.

Accuracy is highest when:

The photos are clear and well-lit
You include the back of the card (the card number on the back is the most reliable identifier)
The set branding is not obscured by a sleeve or case

Parallel identification can be challenging for variants that look very similar to base cards (e.g., subtle foil differences). You can always correct any field before proceeding.

Can I scan cards in bulk?

Cards are scanned one at a time, upload the front photo (and optionally the back), review the result, then move to the next card. Scanned cards accumulate in the review queue, so you can scan a batch of 20-30 cards and then review and publish them all at once.

What do I take the photos with?

Anything. A phone camera works great, you can even use WaxEngine on your phone and upload photos straight from the camera. Flatbed scanner images and webcam captures work too. Clear, well-lit, straight-on photos give the best results.

The AI identified my card incorrectly. What should I do?

Edit the incorrect fields in the review panel before saving. The most common misidentifications are:

Parallel variants (base vs. subtle parallels)
Insert sets from recent or obscure products
Serial numbering that is not clearly visible

If you notice a consistent pattern of errors for a specific set, make sure your lighting is adequate and include a photo of the back with the card number in frame.

What happens if I use all 1,000 scans in a month?

You can buy extra scans at $4.95 per 250-pack, or wait for your allowance to reset at the start of your next billing cycle. Everything else in the app keeps working normally.

Pricing

How does the pricing engine determine a price?

The engine uses five pillars in priority order:

Your own sales history, Previous sales of the same card
Progressive broadening, Sold comps with increasingly broader matching
Active competition, Current listings on eBay for the same card
Cumulative comp database, Historical sold prices gathered as you use the app
Category fallbacks, Aggregate pricing when no specific comps exist

Click any suggested price to see a full breakdown of which pillars were used and how the final number was calculated.

What do the confidence colors mean?

Green (HIGH), 3 or more sold comps with exact or near-exact matching
Yellow (MEDIUM/LOW), 1-2 comps, or pricing based on active listings only
Red (NO DATA), No comparable sales found; using category-level fallbacks

Why was my price capped?

The engine applies two competitive caps:

If your price is more than 15% above the cheapest active listing (with 2+ competitors), it caps to 10% above the lowest
If your price exceeds 120% of the active median, it caps to the median

These caps keep your listings competitive. The pricing notes in the breakdown explain exactly which cap was applied and why.

Can I override the suggested price?

Yes. The price field is always editable. You can accept the suggestion, type your own price, or adjust after reviewing the breakdown. The suggested price is a starting point, not a mandate.

Performance Tiers

How often should I run Analyze?

Daily is ideal. Analyze pulls live listing data from eBay, so tier assignments are only as current as your last run. If you enable the automation engine, the daily analysis happens automatically in the cloud.

What are the four tiers?

Based on eBay’s 28-day listing cycle:

Relist, Stale listings with no meaningful activity; end and relist for fresh search placement
Offer, Listings with watchers; send negotiation offers
Fresh, Recently listed; give them time
Performing, Getting views and interest; no action needed

What happens when I relist a stale listing?

The listing is ended on eBay and queued so you can relist it with an updated title and price. Ending and relisting gives the listing fresh search positioning in eBay’s algorithm.

How do offers to watchers work?

When a listing has watchers, WaxEngine can send those watchers a discounted offer through eBay’s offer system. The discount is calculated automatically based on listing age and watcher count (between 5% and 20%). A cooldown period prevents sending repeated offers to the same watchers.

Can a card move between tiers?

Yes. Every time Analyze runs, cards are re-evaluated. A Performing card that gains a watcher moves to Offer. A Fresh card that ages out with no activity moves toward Relist. Tiers are dynamic, not permanent.

Automation

Is the automation engine safe to use?

Yes, with appropriate caution:

All automation is off by default
Use Dry Run to preview exactly what would happen before enabling anything
Safety caps limit how many offers and endings can happen per day
Reports document every action taken
Ending listings is the only destructive action, and it never auto-relists without you

Do I need to leave anything running for automation to work?

No. Automation runs in the cloud on a daily schedule. Your computer can be off, your browser closed, the pipeline runs regardless, and you review the results whenever you next log in.

What if something goes wrong during an automation run?

Each stage runs independently, a failure in one stage does not stop the others
Every run produces a report you can review in the app
Safety caps limit the blast radius of any single run

eBay Connection

How do I connect my eBay account?

During onboarding (or anytime from Settings), click Connect eBay. You sign in on eBay’s own site and click Allow. That is it, no developer account, no API keys, no tokens to manage.

Is it safe? What can WaxEngine do with my account?

The connection uses eBay’s official OAuth system. WaxEngine never sees your eBay password. The permission covers listing management: creating, revising, and ending listings, sending offers to watchers, and reading your orders and feedback. You can revoke the connection at any time from Settings or from your eBay account.

My eBay connection stopped working. What do I do?

eBay connections occasionally need to be renewed (eBay expires them after about 18 months, or if you change your eBay password). Go to Settings and click Reconnect eBay, you will be walked through the same quick sign-in as onboarding.

Are there eBay limits I should know about?

eBay imposes its own selling limits and API rate limits. WaxEngine is designed to stay well within them for normal usage, and bulk operations are automatically throttled.

Troubleshooting

I can’t log in

Use the password reset link on the login page
Make sure you verified your email after signing up
If you signed up with a different email address, check which inbox got the verification message

Prices are not updating after I save

Make sure you clicked Save Selected, not just edited the field
Refresh the page and check the listing again
If it persists, report a bug

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