Half of eBay Listings End with Zero, Zip, Zilch

December 4 2003--Samples of recently completed auctions reveal 54% of listings received zero bids, and only 23% received even one bid, leaving less than a quarter of all listings with multiple bids. "Sellers pay their listing fees but fail to make sales," says Andy Geldman of The Auction Software Review, the website sponsoring the research. "It appears that a significant portion of eBay's annual revenues are for non-performing auctions. Of course, there can be numerous reasons why an auction did not receive bids including poor presentation and unrealistic pricing by sellers."

The research examined the most frequently listed categories, concluding the Collectibles category, with 17% of total listings is the most popular genre – this will not surprise veteran eBay users who have long helped build this category by trading a huge variety of themed knick-knacks. However, eBay's strength in Apparel and Entertainment may come as more of a surprise – each of these groups comprises 11% of total listings.

Sniping, the common but antisocial practice of placing a bid in the seconds before auction close to win an item before other bidders can react, was also addressed. Fully 15% of successful auctions sampled were won by a last-minute bid. But opponents of sniping can take some comfort – 1 in 5 last-minute bids do not win the auction due to eBay's proxy bidding system, which allows buyers to enter their maximum price early on and have eBay automatically bid up to their limit.

"This research bolsters the view that sniping only works because bidders don't use the proxy system properly. But it also reveals that a large minority of buyers engage in the practice – perhaps undermining the community spirit on which the site is founded", says Mr Geldman.

Complete results may be found at: http://www.auctionsoftwarereview.com/article-ebay-statistics.asp

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The Auction Software Review is dedicated to helping members find the best software for automating, enhancing and increasing the profitability of their eBay businesses.




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