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Although we've heard countless anecdotes from users telling us how
ViewTracker™ has helped them in their eBay® business during the past year, until now we
had never taken the time to study this anecdotal evidence in depth.
But starting in December 2004, we will begin analyzing and presenting a few of our users' experiences
so that you can reach an informed opinion as to whether or not ViewTracker™ is right for you.
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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, Sellathon™ began (in December 2004)
to keep 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 have
been 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.
| Ended | Seller | Visitors* | Final Price |
| Dec 15 2004 | hobbyman24 (Bobby131313) | 123 | $40.00 |
| Dec 11 2004 | robin19 | 59 | $31.50 |
| Dec 3 2004 | stovlpackerfan | 70 | $29.99 |
| Dec 13 2004 | red_corvette01 | 55 | $24.27 |
| Dec 3 2004 | pittbo2p3t | 64 | $23.00 |
| Dec 3 2004 | sherm78 | n/a | $19.00 |
| Dec 1 2004 | valleyauction | 71 | $18.50 |
| Dec 1 2004 | rmbauctions | 23 | $18.41 |
| Dec 1 2004 | unavailable | 65 | $18.38 |
| Dec 13 2004 | mr.irrelevant | 77 | $18.05 |
| Dec 7 2004 | stem13 | 40 | $14.59 |
* As of Dec 16th, 2004.
Numbers will undoubtedly increase once this report is online.
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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.
| Ended | Seller | Visitors* | Final Price |
| Dec 15 2004 | hobbyman24 (Bobby131313) | 88 | $41.05 |
| Dec 4 2004 | classiccardshop | 55 | $36.00 |
| Dec 14 2004 | jbail10 | 48 | $35.12 |
* As of Dec 16th, 2004.
Numbers will undoubtedly increase once this report is online.
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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.
| Ended | Seller | Visitors* | Final Price |
| Dec 9 2004 | Bobby131313 | 49 | $54.05 |
| Dec 12 2004 | pegriff | 18 | $46.81 |
* As of Dec 16th, 2004.
Numbers will undoubtedly increase once this report is online.
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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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