If you have just installed L.O.O.T., you are a few minutes away from your first notification. This guide follows the order of the app's screens, so you can keep it open next to the app and follow it one step at a time.
If you haven't installed the app yet, start with the guide to installing on Windows, Android and macOS.
1. Create your account
You can sign up in the app or on the website, from the Log in page. There are two ways:
- Email and password. The password must be at least 6 characters long. Temporary email addresses, the kind you create on the spot and that expire after a few minutes, are not accepted: you'll need a real address for receipts and to recover access.
- Google. One click and you're in, with no email verification. On a computer, sign-in is completed in the browser, which opens by itself: if you don't finish within two minutes, the app stops waiting and you can simply try again.
You use the same account on every device and on the website. Your searches, plan and monitoring settings live there, not on your phone or computer.
2. Confirm your email
If you signed up with email and password, we immediately send you a message with a confirmation link. Until you open it, the app stays on a waiting screen.
- Open your inbox and look for the message from L.O.O.T. If you can't find it, check your spam folder and the Promotions or Updates tabs.
- Click the link. A page opens confirming the verification.
- Go back to the app and press I have verified my email.
If the message doesn't arrive, press Resend verification email. There is a short wait between sends, and the button shows how long. If you realize you mistyped the address, use Sign out / Change email and sign up again with the right one.
3. Choose a plan
After verification the app shows you the plans and won't let you continue until one is active, because without a plan there is no server searching for you. Payment happens on the website, by card, through Stripe.
- To try it out, there is a two-day free trial of the Starter plan. It still asks for a card, which is charged only if you don't cancel before the trial ends. The trial can be used only once per email address.
- If you already know what you're looking for, choose based on how many searches you want to keep active and whether you need the advanced filters. The guide to plans and subscription compares them.
As soon as the payment goes through, the app notices by itself and moves on, with no need to restart it.
4. Add your first search
A L.O.O.T. search is the link to a search you would run by hand on Vinted, eBay or Subito, with the filters already set. In short:
- On the platform's website, search for what you want, set the filters and sort the results newest first.
- Copy the address of the results page.
- In L.O.O.T., open the Searches tab, press Add Link, paste the link into Search URL and give it a name you recognize at a glance, such as “PS5 under 300”.
It looks trivial, but almost everything depends on the link: which listings you see, how many, and whether you miss any. We wrote a whole guide on it, how to build a search that works.
5. Start monitoring
This is the step people skip most often. Adding searches isn't enough: you have to tell the servers to begin.
- Open the app's Console.
- Press Start Monitoring. The button changes and offers to restart or stop monitoring.
From this moment monitoring runs on our servers even if you close the app or turn off your computer, and it starts again by itself if the servers restart. It stops only when you press Stop, or if your plan expires or a payment fails.
Why the first notification doesn't arrive right away
The first check of a new search doesn't send notifications, and that's on purpose. At that point L.O.O.T. records all the listings already there, so it doesn't flood your phone with dozens of alerts about things posted days ago. When it's done you get a First scan completed notification.
From then on it alerts you only about new listings, posted afterwards. For a popular item it can be a matter of minutes. For a rare one, or one with a very low maximum price, days can go by, and that's fine: it means the filter is doing its job.
On a computer, notifications arrive only while L.O.O.T. is open, including when it's minimized to the notification area or the menu bar. On Android they arrive even when the app is closed. If you want to get them everywhere, connect Telegram: we explain how in the guide to notifications.
