Two Internet firms recently conducted surveys tracking eBay-completed auctions and compared those results to figures from the same period a year ago. The results show prices are down as much as 25 to 39 per cent. What’s interesting is that the two sites did their surveys differently and still came up with similar results. AuctionBytes, which is a resource for online sellers, looked at specific categories, while TIAS, a site that provides shop windows for dealers, compared its members’ sales on eBay from January 1 to May of this year with the same period last year. AuctionBytes came up with a drop in average price of 25 per cent, while TIAS came up with a drop of 39 per cent.
Both David Steiner, president of AuctionBytes, and Phillip Davies, president of TIAS, said that the number of items listed on eBay had risen significantly and the law of supply and demand was just playing out.
TIAS carried out its survey after hearing numerous complaints from its users. About half of the TIAS dealers use eBay on a regular basis. The average sale price for an item in the period of January to May in 2000 was $83.52 for TIAS users, while the average price for that time in 2001 was $50.49. The number of items offered by TIAS dealers in that five-month period increased 63 per cent from 2000 to 2001.
Steiner said his site compared specific categories and found the average selling price ranged from 9.5 to 33.7 per cent lower than last year, while the number of items offered rose dramatically. For example, according to Steiner, in May 2000 there were 1496 GI Joe items in completed eBay auctions with an average selling price of $26.93, while in May 2001 there were 14,007 GI Joe items with an average selling price of $18.95.
Target items
Steiner was quick to point out that the one-of-a-kind and unusual items are still drawing good prices on eBay. For those dealers who depend on the online auction giant for much of their income, Steiner and Davies both said that it is extremely important to know the market and to look at what’s already being offered. It is also important to realise that when an item sells well online, other sellers immediately begin to go out searching for similar items and the subsequent listings begin to receive lower prices.
Davies also found another interesting statistic in his TIAS survey: the difference between what an item sells for on a fixed price site and what the item sells for on eBay are coming closer together. A year ago an item selling for $1 on TIAS would have made 92 cents on eBay. Now the ratio is $1 to 97.5 cents.
Kevin Pursglove, senior director of communications for eBay, said there may be a number of factors responsible for the decline in prices as noted by TIAS.com: “The natural volatility of the collectibles marketplace, a change (intentional or otherwise) in the product mix, the economy or changes in consumer buying habits all may have played a role. However, TIAS does not provide that level of analysis so we are simply guessing."
According to Pursglove the antiques and art sector increased by 18 per cent in the first quarter of this year. “The eBay marketplace has simply exploded over the past year or so. One of the categories that continues to experience very rapid growth is the collectibles area,” he added.
Studies show impact of supply and demand
IT APPEARS that simple economics may be catching up with eBay sellers, at least in the antiques and collectibles sector. Everyone knows the law of supply and demand: if supply is low and demand high, prices go up. If supply is high and demand doesn’t increase accordingly, prices go down.
