Statistics for auction quantities per country?

[LinxDragon]

Having recently purchased the ebid seller+ account before I realized that ebid was UK based, I'm wondering if there's some way to tell what kind of a market niche there would be for me, here in the USA where I reside? Over 5 millon articles sounds fantastic ... part of the reason why I signed up ... but it woudn't be worth my while if 95% of those items are located in coutnries other than the USA. Is there any way to tell roughly how many of those 5+ million articles are located in the USA? Is there a way to tell how many regstered ebid sellers are in the USA?

I'm asking these questions for several reasons. I know that shipping fees from USA, Germany, and many other countries have become simply staggering. Shipping something as small as a VHS tape would cost over $30 for global priority and most of my items are larger than that. This would limit most if not all of my sales strictly to the USA. Knowing the size of that particular market here on ebid would be very important.

Aside from that I use my own custom templates that I'll have to convert by hand, in order to use them here on ebid. We're talking several hours of work that I can save myself if I know in advance that it's not worth my time to sell here. Like I said, didn't realize this was a UK site because if I had, I wouldn't have joined. Initially followed other links on other sites to get here. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to make the best of it ...
Any helpful input would be appeciated.

[daysailer55]

There are quite a few of us USA-based sellers. I've sold all around the country - no problem. Good SEO titles and descriptions with pertinent keywords are critical on this site in order for your auctions to be found by buyers. Many of my auction listings are ranked higher than comparables listed on eBay on pure Google searches alone much less on Google Shopping.

That $49.99 is a great investment when tossed in with a little bit of sweat equity.

[Juliebabe25]

Ebid has over 1 million members.
Obviously as ebid was in the UK for 6 years before it opened in the USA 3 or 4 years ago.
I don't think there is a way of finding out how many members there are in the States.
But If you look at the thread where people come and say hello you will notice that it is about 50/50 UK and USA.

The best thing you can do to test your "niche" is to list as much as you can on ebid and see how it goes.
If you are a serious ongoing sellers, then the lifetime membership is a good deal.

[youmeus]

I am from the mid-west USA and have been here for awhile. I am more of a hobby seller but more than half of my sales have been shipped to the UK. So don't count them out. When you do the money conversion I think buying from US is still alright with many in the UK. Just start listing and come into the forums and keep your name out there so it becomes recognizable and I think the sales will start slowly then pick up.

And welcome, even if you are here by mistake!

[deanosaur1972]

There are quite a few of us USA-based sellers. I've sold all around the country - no problem. Good SEO titles and descriptions with pertinent keywords are critical on this site in order for your auctions to be found by buyers. Many of my auction listings are ranked higher than comparables listed on eBay on pure Google searches alone much less on Google Shopping.

That $49.99 is a great investment when tossed in with a little bit of sweat equity.

Absolutely 100% correct........... that is music to my ears!

Ebid has over 1 million members.

Sorry Julie but that comment about how many members eBid has is not relevant. With the excellent Google placement that eBid has then you are selling to your whole country or the entire world - if any seller is just aiming at the eBid membership then they are making a massive mistake. As dailysailer55 quite rightly says its all about keywords in the titles:

A Book should have Book in the title
A Comic should have Comic in the title
A Hamster Wheel should have Hamster in the title... (there was one seller on here who was doing this!)
A Flashy light for a car number plate should have...... you know it already!

It may sound a little obvious....... but a very large number of sellers are not doing this. If a buyer is looking for an item on google then he/she is certainly going to use the relevant key words to search, so sellers should be ensuring that they have the most relevant key words in their title. If a seller doesn't do this they are in effect making themselves invisible from the biggest market place and limiting themselves to people who don't use searches in either google or eBid and are purely relying on people browsing going through each category.

The sales on eBid would probably double overnight - because there are some sellers with some fantastic items for sale who don't sell because they miss out the basics..........

7 or 10 day recurring listings with a buy it now price........
The correct and relevant keywords in the titles.....

Simple as that.

Having recently purchased the ebid seller+ account before I realized that ebid was UK based, I'm wondering if there's some way to tell what kind of a market niche there would be for me, here in the USA where I reside? Over 5 millon articles sounds fantastic ... part of the reason why I signed up ... but it woudn't be worth my while if 95% of those items are located in coutnries other than the USA. Is there any way to tell roughly how many of those 5+ million articles are located in the USA? Is there a way to tell how many regstered ebid sellers are in the USA?

LinxDragon, again as above - the amount of members in the US doesn't really matter, get your listings up for sale in the correct manner and the whole of America is your buyer base (and the rest of the world if you choose). The google exposure via eBid is fantastic. When I joined up to eBid it never crossed my mind how many buyers there were on eBid because it didn't really matter - its irrelevant. The real satisfaction of getting sales from buyers who joined eBid about one minute before buying your item is pure satisfaction - and google satisfaction at that.

[Juliebabe25]

@Deanosaur
I do respect you as a proven ebid seller.
But what none of us really know is how buyers work.
Do they go to ebay and search
Do they go to ebid and search or
Do they go to Google and search ?
Or do they go to Google Shopping and search ?
Or what percentage of buyers do the above.

[kreativebargains]

Agree entirely with deanosaur1972, over 90% of my sales are to buyers who join simply to purchase one of my items. It would obviously be great if they then went on to use eBid regularly, and hopefully some do. A few turn into repeat buyers from me, but the important thing is if you want to sell on here, anybody who googles and uses your keywords will have a good chance of finding your items.

Hope you give it a real go and make a success on here.

[youmeus]

Keywords are important but there is another thing I have noticed. BIN prices are often very different from the bid price. Google picks up the BIN price so searchers do not see that they can bid less.

[deanosaur1972]

@Deanosaur
I do respect you as a proven ebid seller.
But what none of us really know is how buyers work.
Do they go to ebay and search
Do they go to ebid and search or
Do they go to Google and search ?
Or do they go to Google Shopping and search ?
Or what percentage of buyers do the above.

None of us really know how buyers work ???? We are all buyers.........

If I want to buy a Dan Brown Book chances are I will put "Dan Brown Book" in the search string

If I want to buy a Hamster Wheel - then I think its reasonable to assume anyone would search for "Hamster Wheel"

If I want to buy a Comic - most people would search using the word "comic"

So if a seller hasn't got "book" in the title - its not going to show in the search results..........
Likewise for "Hamster"
And again for "Comic" - there are many sellers who haven't even got the name of the Comic in the title let alone the word "Comic"

To me that is just basic common sense - by not having the keywords of your item will severely limit sales.

I have seen quite a few sellers on eBid who get no sales - because they are effectively selling to only those who browse through the category they have listed in. There is no keywords whatsoever that a buyer would be likely to use - so google and any eBid searchers are entirely ruled out of the equation. These sellers really should be selling 100's a month...........every month.

Overall its a very bad Ebay habit - where you can get away with not putting the relevant keywords in the title, you would still likely sell because of the number of Category browsers. eBid has a stunning listing placement within google - why not use it.

I am only stating the obvious basic keywords - nothing fancy here..........

Julie - surely you wouldn't search for a "Hamster Wheel" without putting the word "Hamster" in would you??

[Juliebabe25]

My point wa not what keyoards peple serach for but where do they go to first ?

Eg Google
Google Shopping
Amazon (for books and music)
ebay
ebid

Which of those do most people go to first.