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Over the years, we've heard countless anecdotes from users telling us how ViewTracker™ has helped them in their eBay® business. But no example better exemplifies the value of ViewTracker™ than that of subscriber Robert Minnich. His story came to us back in 2004 and is described below.
Minnich's experience illustrates how optimizing listings based on the statistical clarity provided by ViewTracker™ can really pay off!
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Our Methodology:
Occasionally, there are times on eBay when a ViewTracker user is selling the exact same thing as someone else. It's actually fairly rare, but when it happens, it gives us a good opportunity to compare the results of those two auctions and see if ViewTracker is making a difference for our user.
We think the most useful data appears in the "Collectibles" category, where it's easiest to compare "apples to apples." Two identical coins, or two identical comic books, for example - in exactly the same condition - are easy to compare, since they're essentially the same item being sold by different people. And since the marketplace for this type of item is very large AND very liquid, large and unexpected variances in price are uncommon.
Case Study #1 - Bobby131313's Collectibles
In March of 2004, Robert Minnich (a ViewTracker subscriber and owner of Bobby131313's Collectibles, Inc. a frequent seller of sports cards, coins and other collectibles) listed a rare, limited edition autographed Michael Jordan sports card. Coincidentally, another seller (not a ViewTracker™ subscriber) simultaneously offered the same card from the same limited series of 50 units. The cards were in precisely the same graded condition, and the series numbers were sufficiently close to make that variable irrelevant.
By applying the knowledge gained through the use of ViewTracker™, Bobby131313 received over 400 more unique visits to his auction than his competitor received. (That was ascertained by comparing Bobby131313's ViewTracker™ stats with the publicly-viewable Andale hit counter on the competing auction page.)
In addition to the extra visits, Bobby131313's card sold for $170.00 more than the competing card!
After hearing this anecdote from Minnich, we began keeping closer tabs on these "identical item sales" to see if any additional patterns emerged.
During the first two weeks of December 2004 (the period of this study), there were three separate occasions when Bobby131313 was selling an item on eBay® that was being simultaneously offered by other sellers:
Bobby131313 Example #1
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2004 Topps Philip Rivers autographed card, "pristine" condition.
From December 1st-15th, there were 10 other identical cards sold by non-ViewTracker users.
Of the 11 identical cards sold, Bobby131313 received the most unique visitors with 123, while the average number of visitors among all competing auctions was only 58. (Fortunately, 9 out of the 10 competitors were using Andale's visible hitcounter!) In other words, Bobby131313 received over twice as many visitors as the average auction did.
Additionally, Bobby131313's card sold for $40.00, a 27% premium over the next highest price of $31.50.
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Ended |
Seller |
Visitors* |
Final Price |
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Dec. 15, 2004 |
hobbyman24 (Bobby131313) |
123 |
$40.00 |
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Dec. 11, 2004 |
robin19 |
59 |
$31.50 |
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Dec. 3, 2004 |
stovlpackerfan |
70 |
$29.99 |
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Dec. 13 2004 |
red_corvette01 |
55 |
$24.27 |
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Dec. 3, 2004 |
pittbo2p3t |
64 |
$23.00 |
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Dec. 3, 2004 |
sherm78 |
n/a |
$19.00 |
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Dec. 1 2004 |
valleyauction |
71 |
$18.50 |
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Dec. 1, 2004 |
rmbauctions |
23 |
$18.41 |
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Dec. 1, 2004 |
unavailable |
65 |
$18.38 |
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Dec. 13, 2004 |
mr.irrelevant |
77 |
$18.05 |
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Dec. 7, 2004 |
stem13 |
40 |
$14.59 |
* As of Dec. 16, 2004.
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Bobby131313 Example #2
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2004 Drew Henson "Sweet Sigs" autographed card made by Fleer.
This time there were two other competing auctions, all with the same card and in the same graded condition.
The card sold by Bobby131313 received 88 unique visitors, while the other competitors received 55 and 48 visitors respectively.
Bobby131313 received $41.05 for his card, a 14% premium over his nearest competitor, whose winning bidder paid just $36.00.
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Ended |
Seller |
Visitors* |
Final Price |
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Dec. 15, 2004 |
hobbyman24 (Bobby131313) |
88 |
$41.05 |
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Dec. 4, 2004 |
classiccardshop |
55 |
$36.00 |
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Dec. 14, 2004 |
jbail10 |
48 |
$35.12 |
* As of Dec. 16, 2004.
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Bobby131313 Example #3
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1903-P Morgan Silver Dollar, ANACS graded MS62.
For this item, there was just one other competitor during the first part of December, but the coin was identical.
The competing coin received just 18 unique visitors while the coin sold by Minnich received 49 unique visitors. The extra visitors pushed Minnich's silver dollar to $54.05, a 15.5% premium over his competitor's final price of $46.81.
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Ended |
Seller |
Visitors* |
Final Price |
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Dec. 9, 2004 |
Bobby131313 |
49 |
$54.05 |
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Dec. 12, 2004 |
pegriff |
18 |
$46.81 |
* As of Dec. 16, 2004.
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In the three items cited above, Bobby131313 received $135.10 vs. $114.31, the amount received by each auction's nearest competitor. So across all auctions, Bobby131313 earned (on average) 18% more than their nearest competitor, and 30% more than their average competitor. Remember, these are for the exact same items.
In these auctions and others we've monitored, it's apparent that the more visitors you bring to your auction, the higher your final price will be. ViewTracker gives you the tools to analyze your auctions and determine the optimum listing strategies for maximum traffic.
Or, as Robert Minnich puts it, "If they can't find it, they can't bid on it!"
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