User 222762

Q2 Predictions for eBay Business Segments

@Patricia: But that is what I am saying. Half a million listings (converted or not) is a tiny drop in the bucket as far as eBay profits are concerned. They have 800 million listings a quarter. More concerning to eBay profit is the gradual shift in business model to lower/free listing fees. They will need to do this to stay competitive and that is a big source of profit.

As for listings numbers, you can't really compare single day readings as they can be affected by promotions, boycotts, or even the weather. You need to compare the total for the quarter and I think that shows a different picture. But hey, I am not a seller so I am pretty sure I know less than you about this.

Q2 Predictions for eBay Business Segments

#1 No actually they use 7 day listings and actually, eBay does more like 800 million listings per quarter. So buy is 0.75% of total listings at most (unless I am missing something which is probable). And given their miserable conversion rate, I think they are completely irrelevant to eBay's revenue.

#2 Again, I don't quite understand these things but if they are priced higher than other sellers on eBay then nobody will buy them in most cases. In cases where they are the only supplier of a specific good, they might get the sale. So I don't see why this is a weakness for eBay. It keeps a backup supply on the site.

Also, this is not very scientific survey, but from checking a few listings, it seems to me buy listings are priced the same as on their merchant site.

Q2 Predictions for eBay Business Segments

I'm a little slow but can someone explain buy.com to me. It looks to me like they have about 500k active listings and they use 7-day listings. That's about 6.5 million listings every quarter if they maintain this level of listings (which I think they have).

EBay, on the other hand, posts approx 700 million listings a quarter. So, unless I am missing something, buy is less than 1% of eBay listings. If that is so, its pretty insignificant given how much noise has been made about it.

Q2 Predictions for eBay Business Segments

I have been following eBay for a while and have a few observations.

First, I always use eBay as a reference when I buy anything online and, even today, I usually find it offers the most value on the internet for about 90% of my purchases. I can't even start to calculate how much money I have saved using eBay.

Second, the economy is tough and some sellers will obviously feel the pinch. It is so easy to blame the party that continues to make money as the culprit but the fact is retailers all over the world in every venue are having to tighten their belts.

Third, its really funny to go around to a few eBay blogs and it is always the same group of posters bashing eBay in every forum possible. I say it is funny because looking at the graphs above, I would seem that as a whole, eBay sellers are selling more than ever and eBay buyers buying more than ever. I suppose there are lots of people like me out there especially now that every dollar helps.