- eBay's Sold Items filter is free, accurate, and the foundation every paid tool is built on top of
- Terapeak Product Research is free for any active eBay seller — most people don't realise this
- The free methods all work; what they cost is your time — 3-5 minutes per product
- Privy's free plan offers 5 lookups/month; the 7-day trial gives 20 lookups, no card required
The first time someone tells you about ZIK Analytics, the assumption is that you need it. £40 a month, slick interface, dropshipper-friendly dashboards. The implication is that without it, you're flying blind.
You're not. eBay's own data is sitting in plain sight, free, and most of the paid tools are just a prettier wrapper around it. If you're a UK reseller — sourcing in person, flipping at home — you almost certainly don't need a £40/month subscription. You need to know which free methods actually work and where each one breaks down. Here it is, honestly.
Why you don't need to pay £40/month for eBay research
Paid tools like ZIK Analytics are built primarily for dropshippers researching products at scale across multiple categories — that's where the dashboard, AliExpress integration, and bulk analysis actually pay off. If you're a reseller flipping charity shop finds, validating items at home, or pricing stock for your eBay store, the data you need is already free. eBay surfaces sold prices, sale volume and competitor listings on every search result. The trick is knowing how to read it.
For a longer comparison of paid vs free, see our ZIK Analytics alternative breakdown.
Method 1: The sold listings filter (free, always works)
eBay Sold Items filter
FREEOpen eBay, search the product, and tick "Sold Items" under "Show Only" in the left-hand filter list. Results now show items that actually sold in the last 90 days, with the real sale price stamped on each one.
What you get: 90 days of sold prices, sale dates, listing titles, and the format the item sold in (BIN or auction).
Where it breaks: No competition score, no profit calculation, no sell-through rate. You count sales manually and do the maths in your head.
This is the foundation. Every other tool — Terapeak, ZIK, Privy, all of them — builds on top of this same data. The difference is convenience, not access.
Method 2: Terapeak — what it is and when to use it
Terapeak Product Research
FREE for sellersFree for any eBay seller with an active account. Found in eBay Seller Hub under the Research tab. Shows 90-day sold data, average prices, sell-through rates, and category trends. eBay quietly bought Terapeak in 2017 and made it free — most sellers don't know.
What you get: deeper sold data than the basic filter, average sale prices, STR, top sellers in a category, and historical trends.
Where it breaks: separate interface from the listing page, slow to load, no profit calculation, no buy/pass verdict, requires switching tabs constantly. For a deeper review see our Terapeak review.
Method 3: eBay's Product Research tool (free with a store)
eBay Product Research (in Seller Hub)
Free with store subeBay's own Product Research tool, accessed via Seller Hub. Available to sellers with a Basic store subscription or above (£21+/month for Basic on eBay UK).
What you get: richer category-level data, easier filters, slightly more polished UI than Terapeak.
Where it breaks: requires a paid eBay store. So technically free if you already have a store — but it's not free if you'd be subscribing for this alone.
Method 4: Manual STR calculation
Sell-through rate by hand
FREEThe formula: (sold listings ÷ total listings) × 100. Run a search with the Sold filter on, note the sold count. Switch the filter off, note the total. Divide. Multiply by 100.
What you get: a single demand-vs-competition number. Above 40% is healthy. Below 20% means saturated.
Where it breaks: you do this on every product, manually, every time. The free STR calculator handles the maths but you still type the numbers in. For benchmarks, see what is a good sell-through rate on eBay.
All four methods above genuinely work. Sellers built businesses on them long before paid tools existed. What they cost isn't money — it's time. Three to five minutes of clicking, counting, and calculating per product. Across a sourcing trip or a stock review, that adds up to hours.
Privy combines every method above into a 60-second workflow.
Free Chrome extension. Sold data, STR, profit after fees, competition, and a buy/pass verdict — surfaced automatically on every eBay listing you open. 5 lookups per month free forever, plus 20 free lookups on the 7-day trial.
Get Privy Free →How Privy compares to the free methods
The free methods aren't fake. They work. Privy's role isn't to replace them — it's to combine them into a single view so you stop switching tabs. Here's the honest comparison.
| Feature | Sold filter | Terapeak | Privy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Yes | Yes | 5/mo + trial |
| 90-day sold data | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sell-through rate | Manual | Yes | Auto |
| Profit calculation | No | No | Live |
| Buy/pass verdict | No | No | Yes |
| Runs on listing page | No | No | Yes |
| Time per product | 3–5 min | 2–4 min | ~60 sec |
Privy isn't a ZIK replacement for dropshippers researching at scale across categories. It's a faster way to do the same work UK resellers already do for free — without the tab-switching. If you're sourcing seriously, that time difference matters. If you research one item a week, the free methods are perfect. Both are true.
For more on the underlying process, see how to research eBay products, the beginner's guide, or the clothing-specific research guide.
Frequently asked questions
Use eBay's built-in Sold Items filter to see what items actually sold for in the last 90 days. Calculate sell-through rate manually (sold ÷ total listings × 100). Sellers with active accounts can also use Terapeak Product Research free in Seller Hub for deeper data. None of these tools cost money.
ZIK costs around £40/month. Free alternatives include eBay's Sold Items filter, Terapeak Product Research (free for any eBay seller), and free Chrome extensions like Privy that combine sold data, profit calculation and STR into one workflow. ZIK is built for dropshippers — most resellers don't need its full feature set.
Yes. eBay's Sold filter is free and built into the site. Terapeak Product Research is free for sellers in Seller Hub. Privy offers a free plan with 5 lookups per month and a 7-day trial with 20 lookups, neither requiring a credit card.
Use eBay's Sold filter for any search to see what's selling and at what price in the last 90 days. Look for items with 10+ recent sales, healthy median prices, and active listings that aren't dramatically outpacing the sold count. That's the free signal of demand.