Thursday, September 2, 2010

What Would You Ask Ebay?


Ebay is working with us to make an ebay video game inforgraphic. It will show all sorts of data about the video game category on ebay, but we need to know what info you're interested in. If you could ask ebay anything about their video game category what would you ask?

Here are some examples: What is the most expensive game ever sold on ebay? How many Super Mario 3's have sold on ebay since it started? What is the most popular game on ebay? How many games sell every minute?

They can't guarantee they have the answers to every question, but they will try to answer whatever you ask.

Leave your question below and we will ask ebay for you. Hopefully we will have the answer for you in picture form in a few weeks.

12 comments :

B said...

Would like to ask about price range for a new (sealed) game - all time high and low and average.

GamesOgre said...

JJ,

Your suggestions for sample questions are great. I would love to know the number of copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 sold on eBay! I'm not sure what sort of time frame they or you'll have data for, but it would be interesting to see a breakdown that includes: all time, annual, and monthly.

•In addition to SMB 3, I'm curious about the number of copies of other popular games like Tetris, the Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart 64, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc.
•Measuring quantity of sales, what are the 10 most popular games for various systems? I'm most interested in retro systems (e.g., Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Dreamcast, etc.), but it would be interesting to see modern systems represented as well.
•Similarly, comparing popular games across all systems, what are the most popular games overall?
•What's the ratio of new vs used games sold?
•What's the ratio of new vs used systems sold on eBay?
•To get an idea of the scale of eBay's video game sales, I'd love to know the sheer quantity of games and systems sold. Similarly, it would be interesting to know the gross sales of video games on eBay.

mndrix said...

I'd like to know:

* what percentage of video game listings end in a sale?

* for auctions that end with a sale, how is the number of bidders distributed? (what percentage have only 1 bidder, what percentage have 2 bidders, etc)

* what percentage of winning bids are placed within the last minute of an auction?

* what percentage of a video game auction's final value is acquired in the final 24 hours of the auction?

* what are the seasonal fluctuations in sales volume, bids per auction and percentage of listings that end in a sale?

Travis Hendricks said...

Some great questions above and in your examples JJ.

I would like to know:

- What publisher has sold the most games new/used on ebay?

- Which system has had the most games new/used sold on ebay?

- What accessories (not game or system) are the highest sellers ever on ebay?

- Which Final Fantasy game, from the main series, has sold the most on ebay?

Anonymous said...

why are final value fees so high for fixed price auctions for video games?

JJ Hendricks said...

@Travis, @ndrix, @GamesOgre - Great questions. I like all of them. I will give these to the ebay rep and see what they have and what they think will go well on an infographic.

Keep the questions coming.

Christopher said...

Funny. Just came here to curse eBay for whatever change they made that killed iGPC. For some reason cURL isn't accessing any cookie (login) requiring pages, it could be my server but most likely just something eBay changed. And I have 0 time to troubleshoot this kinda thing any more. So, iGPC UK price tracking, you lay to rest until a true coder can come up with the answer... any takers?

Christopher said...

My Q (either for eBay or JJ) - At what points during a game's sale life is the price likely to fluctuate?

Ie. We all know it comes out priced higly then drops steadily for a few weeks. At some point it levels out, stay that way, and then maybe increases again due to related releases or events. In a few years it then bottoms out at a FIFA X price of $0.00, or becomes rare as World Champs and just keeps going up.

But, whats the average game likely to do? Fall at a rate of $1 per week for 10 weeks, then stay at an average of half it's price for a year, or two, then drop some more? Or fall imediately at $1 a day for the first two weeks, then $0.10c a week for the next few years until it hits $3.00, or something completely different and unpredicatable?

JJ Hendricks said...

@Christopher - I have had this on my research list for a while now and I will be writing an article about it at some point. I think it would be great to know how the average game performs over time and to see a typical life cycle.

Christopher said...

Hmm... might have mentioned it before then :o)

But, small idea, link various price life cycles to the game's ratings, and the publisher (you've done that a bit before). My thinking is high rated games are more likely to hold their value for longer. Then again, the more popular ones probably sell better and are less likely to become future collectables, at least not expensive ones.

Just thinking of ways to predict how much a game might be worth over time, and know this as soon as it comes out. Pretty much all you'll have to go on is the history of the publisher / genre / series, and how much people like the thing.

Anonymous said...

the three most bought items on ebay are the highest in fees. just shy of 20% with paypal double dipping of 1.75-1.85% on the money transaction (which is the first thing that is taken out of the transaction.

video games, books / paper media and movies (all formats). most people would at least buy 1 of them if you are a frequent ebay user. since they are mainly low costing transactions, ebay likes to take %'s on the base of what sells the fastest and more efficiently on there web site.

while most things on ebay are at a discount, prices are those similar to selling locally through say craigslist without the need to pay building rent for a store. with the 15% hike up in price. scarce and rare items can change if no one else is selling the item. a good time to post an item if u know it'll sell.

selling an item under 10 dollars isn't worth your time. it's better to post a few items together like a console n games. people like that as it saves on shipping over all if there were to buy all those games seperate n pay for each individually to ship to your residents / business / where ever.

I would ASK Ebay, why is your service so lousy?

It's a poorly run company with a lot of upper management and poor customer service. The website does all the talking for you, and nothing new is talked about when you need an answer when you get a customer service person on the phone. They don't allow you to talk to any other department, and for you to send SNAIL MAIL to do any other sort of communications with them. I really don't understand it and don't support them anymore.

Anonymous said...

I sold thing on ebay. The buyers have paid thought PayPal. Its went though on there side. But still says pending in my side.

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