Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Well I missed the exact cut off day for this to be the official 1st quarter report but hey Jan 16 - Apr 10 is pretty close. It will definitely do if you take a minute to look at these charts and see what they reveal about the category. I figured there are about four different ways to slice this apple and I've presented each of them here for you to see. What I think you will find is that there is an amazing equilibrium in the category from week to week. I'd love to see a comment in the response section if any of these figures interest or surprise you.
Total # of Items Listed in WWII eBay - 90 Days History

Total # of Sold Items in WWII eBay - 90 Days History

Total $Sales in WWII eBay - 90 Days History

Average $Sale Price in WWII eBay - 90 Days History

Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Talk about some killer uniform pieces. I'm using that term loosely to include flight jackets but still - each of the items in this top selling list went for more than $2,000+! I'm thinking that the paratrooper jacket that came in at #2 may have been helped by the insignia on the sleeve. As you click through to see these listings its no surprise that they did so well in bidding on eBay.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Talk about bullet proof bids! The best selling British item over the last month had an armor plated high bid. It withstood a series of attack bids and three snipes to hold on for the win. Click the bid history if you want to see for yourself how it played out. Some of the other auctions in this top selling list were taken with a single bid because the auctions demanded such a high opening bid. The paratrooper helmet was an exception with three bidders in at over $1k. The auction was won by...you guessed it...a sniper. The final listing to make the top list includes some really neat historical information that is worth the read.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
When you see an auction with forty or more bids what is usually happening is that a single bidder is responsible for 1/2 of those. I like to call it the "dink" strategy of bidding. You increase your bid by as little as $5 per bid hoping to just barely top out the high bidder. The interesting about these auctions is that you can never predict which items will strike up a bidding war. Take the top item in this list - who would think that the most competitive item in the category (based on bidding) would be a Swedish sling? Go figure! Here is something you can do just for run. I arranged these five auctions by the # of bids they received. Can you put them in order according to which ones sold for the most on eBay? Do that in your head real fast and then click on the links to see if you can confirm the guess. If you do well post it as a comment in response to this blog post.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
I've seen plenty of insurance bids on auctions but its pretty weak when you make that bid be only $1 stronger than your current high bid. In the auction for the German paratrooper helmet that is what the bidding history revealed. Going into the last few minutes the high bidder "padded his bid" by a total of $7 with four insurance bids. However, if he was trying to hold off the snipers it didn't work. A pair of snipes came in during the final seconds and the one for $1332 carried the day. I mention that because the other three items in this list started off with a really high minimum bid and only got the one bid that counts.