eBay stats for the UK by scale

Yes there are "cheaters" who use the OO catagory for HO because they believe OO is a more widely viewed section.

My experiance is that these "cheaters" are making a big mistake as having tested the water I do better with HO product when it is placed in the correct section. I think the continentals will view the British HO section hoping to pick up a bargain and when visiting they ignore the OO section.

The .com eBay is the American site and curently there are 25709 HO items and 612 OO items. You have to view the "Toys and Hobbies" category rather than the "Collectibles" category. The British seem to take an entirely different view of railway models to the rest of the world. Hornby and Bachmann both consider themselves to offer "collectibles" and not "toys" or "hobby" products. The adult collector is almost certainly their biggest customer and British eBay have probably taken this onboard.

Thinking about it considering how massive America is and how big the hobby is said to be there it seems a little odd that eBay America has only about 10% more HO listings than eBay UK has OO listings.

Any ideas why this is?

Happy modelling (or should that be collecting?)
Gary

QUOTE (Gary @ 22 Oct 2006, 21:11) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The .com eBay is the American site and curently there are 25709 HO items and 612 OO items. You have to view the "Toys and Hobbies" category rather than the "Collectibles" category. The British seem to take an entirely different view of railway models to the rest of the world. Hornby and Bachmann both consider themselves to offer "collectibles" and not "toys" or "hobby" products. The adult collector is almost certainly their biggest customer and British eBay have probably taken this onboard.

Thinking about it considering how massive America is and how big the hobby is said to be there it seems a little odd that eBay America has only about 10% more HO listings than eBay UK has OO listings.

Any ideas why this is?

Whether the sale item is sold as a collectable or a toy is entirely down to the seller and how he views the item he is selling. Remember a lot of the outline being sold will be by people who have inherited or been given as an unwanted present model rail goods.

Maybe the reason the Yanks aren't selling there stuff is that they are probably happy with it.

One year on and there are now 16595 items for sale in total in model railways on eBay (deducting finescale and other and catalogues from total as before).

This is a reduction of 24% on this time last year.

OO gauge has performed in line with this.

Now there are 11950 OO items for sale. Last year there were 16012 OO items for sale.

Thats a drop of 25% on last year so interest in OO is remaining consistent.

Other scales look consistent as a percentage too.

So why are fewer items appearaing on eBay than this time last year?

A 25% drop is something serious for eBay. Are sellers using alternative online auctions?

Or is it something else?

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE I actually dont find e-bay particularly good for deals anyway.

That does not follow the logic of the statistics.

If sellers were getting good prices they would be putting more, not less, on eBay.

You are saying that eBay items go for much higher prices than you are prepared to pay as you never get good deals!

If this was the case then more and more sellers would be using eBay. Not the other way around.

A 25% drop in listings is a BIG drop by any stretch of the imagination!

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE (pedromorgan @ 16 Oct 2007, 11:25) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>also you have to remember that e-bay is no longer a novelty.

Peter

There is probably a lot of truth in that statement !

I had noticed a drop in items that I/we are interested in - usually, every week I do an eBay "trawl" - I have a list of items that I/we search for with the stuff I filter out - last year it took me, on average over an hour - now it takes me about 20 minutes - partly because I get quicker & partly because there is less to interest.

On eBay I wear two hats - Hat #1 is my traders hat - I will pay less to allow me a reasonable margin, I set a limit & that is it - no more.
Hat #2 is my modellers hat - I will pay far more for something I want myself & may go a bit higher, although all my bids go in during the last few seconds.

Another way I thing eBay is loosing it's momentum is the fact that is getting too fragmented - too many different ways to sell means less time to look which in turn means less "item exposure".

As far as model railways are concerned there are a few things that have changed which may very well be putting people off selling ;
The minimum reserve price is now £50.
Once a bid has been placed any "buy it now" is no longer available.
This results in higher starting prices & less initial interest for buyers.

Still always worth a look for buying & selling in my opinion & more conveinent that other auctions unless you live near one.

The UK eBay catagories are being used. If sellers put OO or 00 in the title is does not matter as they will plonk it in the OO catagory whatever. About 17.5% of the items listed are buy it now. Comparisons are like for like and the listing totals quoted include buy it now.

Buy it now is a useful service as a lot of eBayers don't want to wait for an auction to finish and want it now! Spares for example are one area where buy it now is just perfect. If I want something I do check buy it now prices and if something is on offer at what appears to be a reasonable price I won't wait.

There are several new alternative UK auction sites that do have quanties of railway stuff for sale but because there is no listing fee the items all start at too high a price with most remaining unsold. What is the point of spending time putting a listing together if all you are going to do is price the item at an unatractive level that effectively makes it a "buy it now" anyway! The sellers are living in cloud cuckoo land on some of these alternative sites!

This competition could be part of the reason for the eBay decline.

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE (Gary @ 16 Oct 2007, 22:14) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Buy it now is a useful service as a lot of eBayers don't want to wait for an auction to finish and want it now! Spares for example are one area where buy it now is just perfect. If I want something I do check buy it now prices and if something is on offer at what appears to be a reasonable price I won't wait.
Happy modelling
Gary

(Taking deep breath) - I agree, having said that I have often bought items on "buy it now" that have just come on, many times getting the item(s) for a very good price.

We often sell redundant (but always in good serviceable condition) electrical equipment - I often put a "buy it now" for about half of its real value just to get rid of it quickly, after all they have not cost us anything. These items are usually from upgrading projects & IMHO a waste to throw away (which actually costs money in a commercial environment).

eBay is really a bit of a mixed bag, many of us do not really like it, but still use it - it's the same with anything that dominates the market - a bit like microsludge.

UK shipping costs have risen by over 100% for small model railway items over 25mm thick and this type of package did make up the bulk of eBay model rail stuff. There is probably a lot of truth in that. If buyers are taking very high UK shipping costs into account when bidding then there is simply no profit in it for trade sellers so what is the point of using eBay?

That could certainly contribute to eBay volumes being 25% down.

The eBay share price dropped 6% in the last day or two.

Could it be that eBay shareholders are reading this topic...

Swapmeet attendances in the UK are rising strongly so all in all it does seem that the ralway modelling fraternity are rebelling against eBay!

Happy modelling
Gary

QUOTE (Gary @ 19 Oct 2007, 15:04) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That could certainly contribute to eBay volumes being 25% down.

The eBay share price dropped 6% in the last day or two.

Could it be that eBay shareholders are reading this topic...

Swapmeet attendances in the UK are rising strongly so all in all it does seem that the ralway modelling fraternity are rebelling against eBay!
This is all complete nonsense Gary!!

On 21/10/06 there are 16012 items in the OO category and 22364 in model railways on eBay (deducting finescale and other and catalogues)
On 16/10/07 there are 11950 items in the OO category and 16595 in model railways on eBay (deducting finescale and other and catalogues)
On 19/10/07 there are 13638 items in the OO category and 19131 in model railways on eBay (deducting finescale and other and catalogues)

In other words it goes up and it goes down!!

How can you derive long term trends from just two datapoints one year apart in a highly dynamic market place?! The volume of listed items fluctuates significantly on eBay, it varies with the day of the week and is strongly influenced by free listing days, by the dates on which new models arrive in shops, bank holidays, sporting event finals etc.

Trade sellers use eBay because there is a profit to be made! Whether small or large is another question.

Sales volumes are down by 25% comparing two random days a year apart yes, but without a chart plotting listing volumes against time at regular intervals over the year any attempt to pin long term trends onto this is foolish! So total sales up 21% in the last three days which means modellers are now rebelling against swapmeets??!! Of course not...

Share prices fluctuate heavily so eBay being down 6% today and up 3% tomorrow is irrelevant.

eBay shareholders are clearly not reading this topic - otherwise they would have objected to your blatant fiction-painting Gary! Did you make a bad deal or get ripped off on eBay at some point because you seem determined to paint a falsely negative picture...?

Or are you just using anti-eBay spin to reset the cosmic fiction balance after all the subversive pro-Hornby spin?

I would appreciate some data on swapmeet attendances, since this is a thread on stats and there are rather few to be spinning with.

QUOTE (fordy361 @ 19 Oct 2007, 12:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>The Charges that Ebay & Paypal charge are to high and postage cost are to much now. Its just not worth selling or buying anything on Ebay now. You are better going to a shop/swap meet or show.

I quite agree! As a tiny retailer by the time ebay & paypal have taken their cut there is precious little profit left in a very competitive market. In addition the current Royal Mail changes in charging structure mean that some items cost more to send out than they cost to purchase!
Swap meets are in very short supply down here near Brighton, most of the local ones having closed down due to the cost of renting premises putting table fees so high traders can't afford them! There actually seems to be less disposable income down here as the cost of living is so high. My ebay sales do seem to reflect this as a lot of my stuff goes 'up north'.
As for shows, the 2 shows that I was due to attend before Christmas have both just been cancelled - Newhaven Clubs Exhibition in Eastbourne due to the 'Elf n Safety' Gestapo (the school has 'no time to carry out a risk assessment' - this is despite it having been a regular event there for years!) and the 'O' Gauge guild exhibition due to fire damage at a community centre in Shoreham.

David Y.