Coming Soon – eBay Marketplace Research

[bargainbloodhound]

***Coming Soon – eBay Marketplace Research, To Make You Better Informed Buyers and Sellers*** 

November 10, 2005 | 05:30AM PST/PT

Hi, this is John Bodine with Product Marketing. We know that sellers need information to run their businesses efficiently -- for instance, the price an item is likely to go for on eBay, or what types of items buyers are searching for. Likewise, buyers want to know the price they can expect to pay for an item they're considering purchasing. We're happy to announce that soon you'll be able to get this kind of information based on activity on eBay's sites with our newest service, eBay Marketplace Research.

eBay Marketplace Research, launching this week, will help you understand overall listing, selling, and searching trends across the eBay site, and give you the information you need to become a more informed buyer or seller.

Some of the features of eBay Marketplace Research include:

    * the ability to analyze key information like the average sale prices, average start prices, and average Buy It Now prices of items
    * the ability to explore the top keyword searches on eBay by category and by related keywords
    * charts to help you see buying and selling trends in the eBay marketplace
    * access to completed items data going back up to 90 days

eBay Marketplace Research is a subscription-based service, offered in three levels -- Fast Pass, Basic, and Pro. Choose the level that best meets your research needs on eBay.

To learn more, please visit the eBay Marketplace Research page. I hope you can also join the Product Marketing team for an online workshop on eBay Marketplace Research, scheduled for November 17th at 11:00 am PT. We've also created a new discussion board for eBay Marketplace Research for you to share your thoughts on this new service.

[xppman]

eBay Marketplace Research is a subscription-based service?

So more fees huh?

I'll stick with the good old search engines like Google and Yahoo for example.

[mandy]

Online auctioneer eBay Inc. on Thursday introduced a new service that allows buyers and sellers to search the price history of any product on its electronic marketplace worldwide for up to 90 days...

Gartner Inc. analyst Allen Weiner said competition in the online auction market is heating up, both from start-ups and other major Internet players who are pushing their way into the classified advertising market, including Google Inc..

EBay is looking for ways to make it easier for new users to take part, Weiner said. "Part of the big mystery of online auctions is their inefficiency," he said. "By offering pricing history, eBay is making people's time online more efficient.

"A lot of people are very inexperienced and really have no idea about how to set prices," Weiner said.

full article: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/11112005/80/s-w...rices.html

[bargainbloodhound]

"By offering pricing history, eBay is making people's time online more efficient.

They could make it even more efficient for eBay sellers if they included a tool that compared the average selling price of an item on eBay to the average price on Amazon/or web sites.  Of course once eBay sellers saw that the item they just sold for $1 on eBay is selling for $5 everywhere else, the number of subscribers to eBay's closed item data service might suffer a decline.  :twistedevil:

[Angel]

[quote author=bargainbloodhound link=topic=1223.msg4641#msg4641 date=1131744921]

"By offering pricing history, eBay is making people's time online more efficient.

They could make it even more efficient for eBay sellers if they included a tool that compared the average selling price of an item on eBay to the average price on Amazon/or web sites.  Of course once eBay sellers saw that the item they just sold for $1 on eBay is selling for $5 everywhere else, the number of subscribers to eBay's closed item data service might suffer a decline.  :twistedevil:
[/quote]

LOL  I was wondering when you were gonna get around to commenting on this wonderful new enhancement BBH 


Angel 

[bargainbloodhound]

this wonderful new enhancement

If you're a platinum power seller its a good deal, but if your monthly ebay sales are a  few hundred a month the $24.95 monthly could be better spent elsewhere...and you'd be better off using google or yahoo (and discovering that items sell for less on eBay).

[xppman]

I actually charge MORE for items I’m offering on ebay.
I shake my head when some buyer PAYS more to get my product on ebay.

IMO ebay is grabbing at what is left of the straw as they go further and further down the drain.

(I need a toilet flushing swirl type graphic here)…

[Kristijntje]

A Motley Fool article praising eBay Marketplace Research

...once again, eBay is using the massive size of its audience to its advantage. Many other sites offer auctions. Head out to Yahoo!, Overstock.com, and Amazon, and you will find consumer-to-consumer auction platforms. However, they have never been as lively as eBay and probably never will. Bidders go where the sellers are and sellers go where the bidders are. It's the perfect circle of competitive advantage logic. Now that eBay is ready to strut its stuff with its site's research, it's just going to make the Web's strongest auctioneer even stronger.

full article: http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2005/mft05111105.htm

[xppman]

I’m a subscriber to the Motley Fool.
I turned off the email letter a month or so ago because
I started seeing a trend were as Motley was acting like a Fool. IMO

I started noticing articles and passages that didn’t seem like they were…
Well lets say on the up and up.

I think many investors in stocks will and often do “over inflate”
outlooks on stocks they own for obvious reasons.
I’ve also noticed that many will “down play” market concerns as well.

Then I’ve seen many that will PROTECT their investment at any cost
instead of off loading and bailing when they knew they should have.

Don’t  know about the rest of you, but my loyalty lies with me
and NEVER to any stock or any given companies outlook statement.

If I was investing in any company. I would look far beyond
the “smoke and mirrors” BS the CEO and team state in those meetings
or those reports as well as what some sites or some "analysis" were reporting.

[Angel]

I hate the fact that ebay makes it so easy for people to see how much i'm selling and making (especially competitors).  That info is nobodys business but mine yet ebay puts it right out there for the world to see.  Im sorry but im from the old school of "stay out of my face and stay the hell out of my business"  

I do understand people shopping around and comparing prices but the cheapest isn't always the best and especially on ebay (you get what you pay for).  Also if competitors use this to price their items then it just feeds into the whole flea market mentally (that I cant stand), which is one of the biggest reasons I closed my store there.


Angel