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eBay Lets You Know What it's Worth

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

November 11, 2005, 11:55 AM

Feel like you're not getting a good deal on that moose head you just bought from eBay? The popular auction site unveiled a new feature Thursday that will assist both the buyer and seller in understanding what the going price is for items sold on the service over the past three months.

The premium offering, called Marketplace Research, will allow any user to see both in graphical and text form trends in listing, bidding and pricing of items. Analysts say the service will give prospective sellers an idea of the eBay value of their items, as well as giving buyers a hint at how much they should expect to pay for an item they may want.

Also, many say the feature is a clear win for power sellers, who will be able to better judge what items will sell well, thus increasing their profits and the chances they will list more items on eBay.

It could also mean better deals for the buyer, as sellers would be more responsive to set prices lower in order to make their items more competitive.

Three tiers will be offered by eBay based on need. A two-day subscription, called "Fast Pass," will cost $2.99 USD for 48 hours of use. The service will include two months of historical data and allow up to 10 saved searches, as well as display the top items eBay users are searching for.

For $9.99 USD, the same options can be extended to a monthly service plan. For a $24.99 monthly fee, eBay will include the full three months of historical data as well as 100 saved searches, top searches, and leading searches by eBay site.

For those who do not subscribe, 15 days of history would be available through eBay's competing listings search, the auction site said.

The new service is available now from the Subscriptions option on a user's My eBay page.

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By dleffel

edited Nov 23, 2005 - 12:26 AM

www.savedsearchpro.com allows you to save unlimited searches and get emailed daily as new eBay items appear that match your search.

Score: 0

By ZenWarrior

posted Nov 14, 2005 - 9:01 AM

Now, if only eBay will fix newly acquired Skype so its paying customers can get the telephony service for which they paid.

Right now, the money I paid for Skype's usually barely working and typically god-awful telephony service certainly wasn't a very good bid to buy.

Trying to have a Skype-based phone call that truly works is a bid this Sk-Yikes! customer loses out on at least 90% of the time.

(Skype + Hype) + Your Cash = Sk-Yikes! (a.k.a. another eBay rip-off?)

Score: 0

By jmbadger

posted Nov 12, 2005 - 6:26 PM

While this "service" may provide a helpful guideline for inexperienced bidders, it's no replacement for doing research and paying attention to what is on the item's page.

I don't know how many times I have gotten excited by a low-priced item then saw a truly outrageous shipping fee.

I have occasionally paid "more" for an item, but because of reasonable shipping the total cost was much less.

Though I don't begrudge them the right to make money, I am not fond of power-sellers. Their shipping fees are (in my opinion) much higher than the actual cost of postage.

Score: 0

By gawd21

edited Nov 12, 2005 - 8:44 PM

I charge 100% of what it costs me for shipping, not a dime more. I only use USPS, I HATE UPSlow. USPS will ship you all the boxes you need for free. I keep several in stock at all times. I start the bidding at what I want to make and let it go from there. If it costs $3.85 to ship then that is what they pay. I don't charge to drive to the post office, in most cases the postal officer will pick it up. "Anywho" I agree with your post and it coincides with one of mine down a bit.

Score: 0

By Banquo

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 10:42 PM

Making this fee based is really stupid; all you have to do is search completed items and you can see what something is selling for, and it won't cost you a cent. Unless they are planning to do away with showing completed items, in which case they can go (insert your favorite expletive here) themselves.

Score: 0

By googun

posted Nov 13, 2005 - 11:43 AM

You'd think that with the sea of money they are making, they could offer this service for free, to give something back to the people who made it the success it is.

This feature is not expensive to develop or implement (I am sure any number of developers would do it for a nominal fee), so it is difficult to see the charge as anything other than a money-grabbing exercise.

Score: 0

By VikingBlade

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 4:35 PM

If eBay really wanted to help the consumers, they would be listing the lowest online retail prices. It's sad to see people overpay for "popular" items on eBay when they could have bought it retail for cheaper.

Score: 0

By Banquo

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 10:39 PM

You mean like Macy's sending customers over to Kimball's when they don't have the item the customer wants? Sorry but that doesn't happen in real life. I doubt eBay is going to start sending away business just to be nice.

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Nov 12, 2005 - 12:44 AM

Progressive does it, and it seems to be working pretty well for them.

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 4:38 PM

Yes.

Score: 0

By W@KK0

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 3:47 PM

Hmmm... sounds like AuctionMatrix for World of Warcraft...

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:13 PM

sounds like a win win situation for ebay and its power sellers.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:53 PM

Sounds like you are not a power seller.. I gurantee, if you could do a poll of TRUE power sellers, it isn't advantageous AT ALL.

I sell cars. I have a dealer ship. There is a billboard with car prices ALL over the city right next to my dealership. I see I can buy the same car at another dealership across town for $500.00 less. Where do you think the customer is going to go? To that other seller.

Ebay is trying to sell this feature, to make a profit above what they already rake in on auctions, that's the point.

Not only is this feature pointless, its going to hurt the sales overall for power sellers. They live off of margin, this month demand for a product, like an ipod Nano may be much higher, higher demand equals higher profit, because it will sell more, but buyers will see that its $20 more this month than last.. So they will think they are getting ripped off (or from their perspective) when in fact demand is what is driving the price up.. ITs an AUCTION, hello!?!

Retail can use this feature, it doesn't belong on an auction site. Anything sales, this would be bad. Anyone that disagrees, you obviously haven't sold anything on commission or earn a living selling from profit..

Score: 0

By GroovyMojo.com

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 1:22 PM

Yet again, eBay unveils new features for a price, when instead they should be adding the features for free to simply improve their service. We get this kind of "service" because of lack of competition.

Score: 0

By GeorgeSantayana

posted Nov 12, 2005 - 3:06 PM

eBay is an unquestionable success, and, if it were a private company, it could have been content to stay with low prices indefinitely.

But eBay is a public company, and its shareholders demand it grow geometrically. It has to cut costs, raise prices or expand into other markets even if, apart from appeasing shareholders, it makes no sense. It's growth for growth's sake--the business equivalent of cancer.

Score: 0

By horsecharles

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 3:43 PM

i totally agree(they should follow the lead of online discount brokerages)- & the fees border on usurious. Ehh, moot point- Google will put them out of their misery soon....

Score: 0

By nightops

edited Nov 11, 2005 - 12:44 PM

Hmmm...yeah. Joe Blow really isn't going to use this more than once just out of curiousity. However, Power Sellers/businesses/people who LIVE on eBay might get some valuable use out of this...

::EDIT:: Of course, it will probably be the same advice you'd get from just browsing the current auctions for about 10 minutes...hehehe

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 12:12 PM

I don't think this will be a good idea. I know that if I want to go by the standard price of something on eBay then I would just look, however, I think people that aren't smart enough to do this should pay what they can get it for and get what they can sell it for, not set by what others have listed and sold things for. I think this will just cause the price of things to go up, thus eBay will make more money from the % they charge.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:42 PM

wow, I have to agree. This will be bad over the long term..

If customer A can't do closed auctions research over the past 3 months themself, and they pay more for an item, that's why its an auction..

Otherwise what's the point?

Score: 0

By jmickelonis

edited Nov 11, 2005 - 12:37 PM

I don't think that's what they're trying to do. I think they're showing the going price *on eBay* for those items. If that's not the case then well, Betanews should really clearify things in their articles. I've noticed articles are becoming increasely vague lately anyway.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:45 PM

No, I read it, perhaps your comprehension level isn't as sharp but its *EXACTLY* what Ebay is trying to do, level the playing field. This will be overall bad for a power seller, because it will be too easy for users to see at a glance what they COULD have paid, but its the urge to BUY RIGHT NOW!!. If they see that X item SOLD for 20 dollars less last month, then buyers will simply say, "eh, I will just wait for the price to go down..."

This is a feature for lazy people...

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 12:43 PM

I should do some more research into it, but I don't really feel like it right now, so my whole statement may be just a bunch of BS. I do feel that eBay is doing this for profit gain only. Even if they are only listed the going price on eBay it's self, not everything sells for what it should and I have seen some really high priced items and some really low priced items and then you get the really high priced with high or low shipping and then the really low priced items with the REALLY high shipping. All of those factors will play a roll in the cost of the item and I don't feel that this service will do the buyers or the sellers any good at all.

Some reason my coffee doesn't seem to be helping today and I am pretty tired so this might not make sense.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:46 PM

Go with it, I agree with you 100% Do your research, but the results would be the same, GREED is the key factor here.. and its not something that will benefit power sellers..

Score: 0

By smith288

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 1:50 PM

"I do feel that eBay is doing this for profit gain only."

Is there somewhere that says eBay is a social services organization?

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:47 PM

No, but they are nickle and diming us with $1 for this and $5 for that.. They COULD include this service for FREE, there is no reason to charge for it, so that's why its a profit gain.. something to get buyers to think they need it.. even if only 10% buy into it, its still mo money, mo money for Ebay.

Score: 0

By fewt

posted Nov 12, 2005 - 12:45 AM

Ebay is just unbelievably expensive. It's almost not worthwile to put anything up for sale anymore with all of the associated fees people pay.

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Nov 12, 2005 - 8:00 PM

I sell only things on eBay that I just don't want anymore. If it didn't sell I would through or give it away. I add the fees in the starting bid and that is it. I do agree that they are way over priced, and that back in 99 they were worth selling. They got to big for their pants and are to greedy.

Score: 0

By googun

posted Nov 13, 2005 - 12:00 PM

I also use eBay to sell off my unwanted belongings. It's a good way to shift stuff, but I sometimes find I get better prices by selling at a boot sale.
eBay's prices are high considering the seller does all the work to make the advert, and the advert space on the server must cost eBay almost nothing. The charges are such as selling low-priced items is not really worth the effort. Definitely greed is needlessly taking a hold of eBay.

Score: 0

By gawd21

edited Nov 11, 2005 - 1:59 PM

The point is that it is pointless and will not really help anyone, but to add more money to eBay's pocket.

Score: 0

By rijp

posted Nov 11, 2005 - 2:47 PM

EXACTLY!

Score: 0

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