Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Even if you don't collect Soviet items you might want to take a look a this blockbuster "buy-it-now" sale on eBay last week. The listing includes numerous medals and documents that are top notch. I had the #2 selling item at the top of my Hot Finds. I've often wondered how using female models in traditionally male categories works out. I don't know if this auction proves anything but that uniform went well! The other item in this top selling list you should see is the Eva Braun item. Interesting...
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 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.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
You know something is good when three bidders chase it over $5,000 and the last day sees the final sale price spike by fifteen hundred dollars! Its been a long time since I've seen a blade not made in Japan sell for north of $7k on eBay so you might want to check out the classic V-42 Stiletto to see what all the fuss is about. Is it just coincidence that the same model of knife rang in at the #2 position this week albeit with considerably less fanfare. With edged weapons taking the top 3 spots you know one of them had to be a Japanese sword and this one represents that niche well. But perhaps the most intriguing item is the battle flag from a US Navy submarine. That is what I would put on my wall if I wanted to spend a couple of grand on a piece of history. The bomber jacket reminds me of a fad in the late 1980s when these jackets were the coolest things for teens to wear - my high school sweetheart had one that I would sometimes "borrow" from her.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
You know its bad when a user bids over 50 times in the same auction and loses! That is exactly what happened in the auction on the USMC captured Japan book. I can't say that I've read about the "incremental bidding" strategy in any of the forums or eBay chat rooms that I have visited. However, some bidders like to just keep dinking their bid up a few bucks over and over thinking that they need to slowly inch over the top. Many of these auctions saw some furious back and forth between just a few bidders in classic eBay auctions.
