Auction site count

#1

Sorry if this has been asked before.

How are the count numbers generated? Is there a script/program running somewhere, going to each site, grabbing the amount of items in every category and adding them all up to generate the count numbers? Or these numbers are readily available at each site?

My main concern is, how accurate are these numbers? According the numbers, sites like iOffer, eCrater, and CQout etc., are on the top and should have lots of traffic, but how come when I go to those sites, intuitively I don't see much bidding/transaction going on as in ebay??? Or I am all wrong?

Thanks for any answer!

#2

bump noobs answer me

#3

I don't know how they get the figures - but iOffer and Ecrater are not auction sites so you won't see any bidding. iOffer is a reverse - let's make a deal - type of site.

Ecrater just offers free storefronts. You can't really tell how sales are going by the numbers or even perusing the site because many people don't leave feedback at all, and because they only let you put a sold sign on your item for 2 weeks. Also, remember, the numbers only reflect the number of listings - not sales on the sites.

#4

I don't know exactly how the numbers are generated, but my guess is that they're usually fairly close to accurate. One thing to keep in mind is that it's very difficult to tell what the level of bidding/transactions is just by looking at one of these sites. One reason is that many buyers off eBay do NOT leave feedback. Another is that fixed price listings often sell a lot better off eBay than auction style listings, so a site may very well have very decent sales EVEN IF you don't see a lot of bids on auctions.

It has been my experience that some of the sites near the top like iOffer and eCrater do NOT get as much traffic per listing in general as some of the sites further down the list. One way that you can try to evaluate the level of traffic on different sites would be to go to Quantcast.com, write down how many unique monthly visitors a site gets, then divide that number by the number of stores or sellers on the site if you can find that information. Compare a few sites that way, and may get a general idea of how much action an average seller gets on some of the different sites.

I might post some numbers later on if I can figure any of them out. Too many things going on at the same time right now.....