Seller's market - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

27 Mar 1999

The information I got from eBay's site suggests that only 70% of the
auctions which are completed result in actual sales.  What I get from this
is that nearly one in three auctions which result in a fee to eBay don't
result in a sale for the seller.

I would say that the items with "ridiculous" initial prices are not included
in this figure.  That situation seems quite plausible to me, as there is no
means availailable for "forcing" a sale.  The fact that someone bids
doesn't
obligate them in any real way, nor does the fact that someone lists an item
for sale obligate them to sell it if the price isn't sufficient.

It seems quite plausible to me that an individual might overbid on an item
in order to "queer" the auction, running the price up to where no one would
pay that amount, irrespective of the value of the item being sold.  This is
no different than publishins software with a virus, or spraying graffitti on
someone else's building.  There's really no penalty.

Dick

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Ford &lt;mikeford(a)netwiz.net&gt;
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
&lt;classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu&gt;
Date: Saturday, March 27, 1999 2:03 AM
Subject: Re: Seller's market

...
 >Auction prices would yield useful informaton IF . .
. and only if. . . there
...
  were a
completed sale to go along with a set of finishing prices published
on the web.  What's damaging to the usefulness of what we have now, e.g.
eBay, is that they allow an auction to run to completion, record the final
(winning) bid, and make no assertion whatever about whether the sale
actually happened.  As a consequence, putting your goods up for auction on 
The completion rate figure I have seen for eBay is 70%. Out of that 30%
that don't go through, a lot are from people who choose to list with high
first bids, ala the guy who keeps about 100 auctions going all the time,
each one for a single item like a hard drive sled, or a front bezel with a
first bid amount of $9.95. Only about 20% of those items get any bids, and
many sell with just a single bid. There are other equally harmless reasons
items don't complete, but if you see half a dozen auctions for similar
items, and each auction had a half a dozen different bidders, they final
prices are about as good an indicator of fair market price as I expect you
can find.

If I am serious about an item, or the price seems odd on some of the
auctions, I follow up and read the ads, or email the people. Many times
prices differences are fully explained by condition or shipping costs
revealed within the ad.