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Welcome! My name is Doug and I'll be your guide throughout this site. I've been selling and bidding on eBay & online auctions for a number of years now. When I started, there were no sites like this to help either beginners or experienced auction users. So I decided to create one. Since 1999, it has been my goal to provide sane, free eBay secrets and unique tools for eBay and other online auction sites. I sincerely hope you find it useful.
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What's New:
Oct
10
Listing Type Influence on Best Match Rankings: Books Category
Filed Under Best Match | Leave a Comment
According to my analysis, the book category and the sub-categories under it heavily favor the auction-style listings under the Best Match search algorithm. This means that fixed-price listings in the book category are disadvantaged in the search results. Sellers who list in the book category using Buy-It-Now listing format should reconsider if they want to be found at the top of the search results.
Oct
9
Listing Type Influence on Best Match Rankings: Baby Category
Filed Under Miscellaneous | Leave a Comment
Things get interesting as we examine the Baby Category for the impacts of listing type (auction style or fixed-price) by category and sub-category under Best Match.
As a whole, the Baby category favors the fixed-price style listings, however the sub-categories vary widely - (three of them favor fixed-price style listings and three of them favor auction style listings).
The following sub-categories appear to favor auction style listings in the Best Match search results:
- Baby > Bathing & Grooming
- Baby > Keepsakes & Baby Announcements
- Baby > Toys for Baby
The following sub-categories appear to favor fixed-priced listing styles under eBay’s Best Match search results:
- Baby > Baby Gear
- Baby > Feeding
- Baby > Nursery Decor
See the original post in this series to review the methodology I used to conduct this analysis.
Oct
8
This is the second post analyzing which listing type is favored by the Best Match algorithm for a particular category or sub-category.
This post analyzes the antiques category and finds that the Best Match algorithm strongly favors auction style listings for the Antiques category in general and the sub-categories. Specifically, my analysis indicates that auction-style listings have a statistically significant favorable effect on the following sub-categories:
- Antiques > Asian Antiques
- Antiques > Decorative Arts
- Antiques > Ethnographic
- Antiques > Furniture
- Antiques > Maps, Atlases & Globes
- Antiques > Rugs & Carpets
- Antiques > Silver
- Antiques > Other
Also of note is the fact that the Architectual & Garden appears to favor fixed-priced auctions, although the analysis is not statistically significant.
Methodology
Here’s the methodology I used to determine which category favors traditional style auction listing types and which favor fixed-price auctions.
I calculated the ratio of auction style listings to fixed-priced listings on the first page of results for each category. Then I compared that to the ratio of auction style listings to fixed-price listings category wide. If the difference was in excess of 25%, I considered the category to provide a significant advantage to auction style listings. If the difference was in excess of -20%, I considered the category to provide a significant advantage to fixed-priced style listings.
Some other details:
- The category or sub-category needed to have more that 1,000 listings to be evaluated.
- Auction style listings that also feature a Buy It Now price were considered to be auction style listings in this evaluation.
- The first page of the listing results was limited to 25 listings.
Oct
7
This post analyzes the Art category and finds that the Best Match algorithm strongly favors auction style listings for the Art category in general and the sub-categories. Specifically, my analysis indicates that auction-style listings have a statistically significant favorable effect on the following sub-categories:
- Art > Direct from Artist
- Art > Art From Dealers & Resellers
Methodology
Here’s the methodology I used to determine which category favors traditional style auction listing types and which favor fixed-price auctions.
I calculated the ratio of auction style listings to fixed-priced listings on the first page of results for each category. Then I compared that to the ratio of auction style listings to fixed-price listings category wide. If the difference was in excess of 25%, I considered the category to provide a significant advantage to auction style listings. If the difference was in excess of -20%, I considered the category to provide a significant advantage to fixed-priced style listings.
Some other details:
- The category or sub-category needed to have more that 1,000 listings to be evaluated.
- Auction style listings that also feature a Buy It Now price were considered to be auction style listings in this evaluation.
- The first page of the listing results was limited to 25 listings.