The following is a list of great books that we recommend to learn about automating eBay sales and support tools:
1. “Building Your eBay Traffic the Smart Way” - Joseph T. Sinclair

An excellent beginning read for business owners unfamiliar with Ebay ecommerce concepts. The full title is actually “Building Your eBay Traffic the Smart Way: Use Froogle, Datafeeds, Cross-Selling, Advanced Listing Strategies, and More to Boost Your Sales on the Web’s #1 Auction Site“

I would put this book in the “executive summary” category - there is zero script or other code - also a very quick read. Each chapter ends with a cost-effectiveness review.

Sinclair also touches on the concepts of datafeeds to digital markets and cross-promotion. We highly recommend this book for business owners and operators as a good introduction to the major Ebay ecommerce concepts - a must-read for eBay business newbies.

2. “Developing eBay Business Tools for Dummies” Kaufeld & Harvey

Surprisingly good breadth - a light technical introduction to eBay tool integration. If you are having a buy-vs-build decision this book might help a developer.

Chapters on email automation, payment processing, eBay developer program, introduction to API. Not a reference book by any means.

3. “eBay Hacks 2nd Edition” David A. Karp

An eBay “cookbook” with numbered “hacks” that often include script or HTML snippets. More geared to a developer or techie. Also has hacks that i would call how-to for more complex tasks or arcane info that might not be self-evident - for instance Hack #30: Taked Advantage of Bid Increments describes rather pragmatically the way eBay increments bids and how to take advantage of said information. Recommended as a good reference - cookbook for eBay techies.