Thursday, May 8th, 2008
When the going gets tough, the tough get selling…
… And these are the top places where they’re doing it.
According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of eBay, 42% of US adults are currently turning to sites like eBay to save money on purchases.*
“Our research has shown that the local business climate is one key factor in fostering entrepreneurs,” says Todd Stottlemyer, president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, America’s leading small-business association. “eBay clearly offers everyone additional opportunities to start, grow and maintain a business, whether they’re looking to market globally or simply to earn additional income in the current economic climate.”
The list of top-10 eBay** selling markets last year, by rank:
1. Los Angeles–Long Beach, California – 196,089 Los Angeles residents sold 24,051,645 items for a total of $1,396,037,518.
2. New York – 158,859 New York City residents sold 12,621,651 items for a total of $1,045,503,913.
3. Chicago – 172,972 Chicago residents sold 10,229,844 items for a total of $908,708,440.
4. Philadelphia – 120,900 Philadelphia residents sold 7,069,212 items for a total of $584,383,915.
5. Dallas – 85,484 Dallas residents sold 5,003,292 items for a total of $754,493,210.
6. Orange County, California – 75,486 Orange County residents sold 6,945,490 items for a total of $636,654,084.
7. Washington, D.C. – 112,462 D.C. residents sold 5,024,888 items for a total of $393,720,726.
8. Houston – 76,450 Houston residents sold 4,297,389 items for a total of $528,872,858.
9. Nassau–Suffolk, New York – 70,714 Nassau–Suffolk residents sold 5,396,880 for a total of $400,253,200.
10. Fort Lauderdale, Florida – 39,623 Fort Lauderdale residents sold 2,838,954 items for a total of $631,845,063.
In total, the sellers in the above 10 markets generated over $7 billion in GMV in 2007, accounting for 55% of all sales by US-based eBay sellers. Which I guess is interesting in and off itself. For me, however, what was more interesting, was the finding that 1 in 10 US adults is currently selling personal or household items via online sales and that 30 percent of all adults surveyed said that they are likely to sell their personal or household items in the next three months to earn extra cash.
I’d like to see a similar survey targeted at eBay buyers. It would be interesting to see the parallels and discrepancies between the two lists.
One final note, I was pleasantly surprised to see the town normally stereotypically associated with self-worth, leading the pack of charitable sellers. Los Angeles sellers donated the most of any city in the country via ebay Giving Works.
* The Current Economic Climate survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of eBay between April 7 and April 9, 2008, among 2,363 U.S. adults ages 18 plus, of whom 215 are currently selling personal or household items to earn extra income as a result of the current economic climate. This online survey is not based on a probability sample, and therefore no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
**To identify the top-10 eBay selling markets in the United States, the survey examined eBay seller transactions between the period of January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2007. The top 10 markets were then determined using a weighted measure that took into account the number of sellers, quantity of items sold and amount of sales generated within each market.
Tagged: census, charity, ebay, ecommerce, harris+interactive, sellers, survey, top+10
TheBrewsNewsOn 05.08.2008 at 11:39 am Said:
WOW! In Dallas, there were 85,484 residents who sold almost $755M on eBay.
How were the “residents” calculated — based on the number of eBay selling IDs? Hmmm…. okay…. how about people such as myself who sell under 3 different eBay IDs? So, maybe there are not REALLY 85,484 *different* eBay sellers.
And out of those 85,484 eBay selling residents in Dallas, how many are interested in meeting with “Griff, the Voice of eBay Radio” on May 29th?
To date, there are only 48 *different* people signed up to meet with Griff when he comes to Dallas in 3 weeks. And those who have signed up have been asked to “be nice”.
“1 in 10 US adults is currently selling personal or household items via online sales.” I’m guessing that most online sales by the “non-professional” seller who simply wants to get rid of that extra set of tires or the old bedroom set is using Craigslist to sell online.
And… when the going gets tough, the tough get going… to Craigslist.
Anyone who wants or needs cash quickly (in tough times) is NOT going to turn to eBay where it would take weeks, at best, to turn household items into cash. In contrast, if the price is right on Craigslist, a resident could have cash in hand in only a matter of hours.
Selling on eBay is hard work. How about spending just one day with a “resident” who sells on eBay and then you can honestly say that the TOUGHEST online seller of all is the one who can actually survive on eBay.
The ColonelOn 05.08.2008 at 1:27 pm Said:
no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
enough said.
Patricia1On 05.08.2008 at 1:38 pm Said:
Hmmmmm….strange they should publish this now. I was just looking at the various sites that track ebay’s listings and even with the special 50 cent listing fee listings only bumped up a bit. Nothing like in the past. Actually they should be doing a brisk business because lots of people are losing their jobs and selling things in order to pay their bills. I guess they’re just turning to good old fashioned yard sales and local classifieds rather then get mixed up with the hornest nest ebay has become this year. Incidentally…I just sold a room air conditioner thru craigslist…no fees, no hassle. It was a beautiful easy transaction and the fellow we sold it to turned out to be a movie extra and was a very amusing guy. I think we enhanced his experience and he enhanced ours 
MechelleOn 05.08.2008 at 2:46 pm Said:
That’s great for eBay- rah rah - I wonder how they’ll do this year.
According to the boards the market isn’t doing so hot- I know my gross sales have dropped by appx 40% since eBay’s January 29th announcement. I might attribute the down turn to the economy if it weren’t for the fact that e-commerce is the only market currently having any growth and quite a bit at that. All those shoppers apparently don’t mind paying higher prices either- because of course they have to be buying any where other than eBay and they seem just fine with that. Surprising considering an auction can be won for 99 cents these days. Of course I have noticed the starting bid of 99 cents is rather rare at this time- I certainly wouldn’t start an auction that low right now.
I wonder of all that GMV what the net profit was for all of those sellers individually? I’ll bet eBay makes 10x the profit than that of the sellers as a whole. Still they kick us in the face, and call us trash, where is the gratitude? they surely would be nothing without us slaving to get what we have while all they have to do is screw up the infrastructure, call us trash, terrorize us, kick us around, under cut our work by running off site ads along side our auctions, and they make so much money from it that they are sitting on 5 billion dollars and just don’t know what to do with it all- but they sure are already basking in the vision of another 3 billion to sit on by the end of 2008.
Again where is the gratitude? - we have paid your bills. I wouldn’t count on that 3 billion quite yet if I were eBay
SandiOn 05.08.2008 at 3:14 pm Said:
Los Angeles sellers donated the most of any city
Is that the area getting credit for the sales of such things as Madonna tickets, going to the opening of Sex & the City, etc? Or were those listings taken out so they did not skew the results?
GaryOn 05.08.2008 at 3:21 pm Said:
hmm….. the residents of Locust Grove Arkansas have shifted 100% of ebay sales to the River.
RBH trying to push the company agenda? This is not very blogworthy.
MechelleOn 05.08.2008 at 3:29 pm Said:
It doesn’t surprise me that LA is a large charitable contributer- there are a lot of wealthy people there and we all know wealthy people donate to avoid paying their taxes.- partial joke
Also the population of LA is staggering- if the numbers were calculated relative to population it would be a much more credible interpretation, but we all know eBay doesn’t exactly make the grade in performing statistical analysis- and clearly those they contract with to perform these irrelevant measurements aren’t top of the class either. Then again they can only be as accurate as the data provided and again eBay’s data isn’t exactly topnotch.
Though I do have to say (because I am a Californian) California is a very liberal minded population and do actually have a relatively high occurrence of donating money, food, and time to charitable organization of various purposes. Though I guess in certain cities another word for charity could be community service. LOL
Doctor-DealsOn 05.08.2008 at 5:47 pm Said:
RBH,
Approximately 43 percent of the nation’s cargo comes through the ports of LA/Long Beach. To save shipping costs many companies set up shop in the greater LA/LB area to distribute their products. In addition, the greater LA/LB areas are very densely populated so it makes every bit of sense that the majority of eBay sales and Giving Works contributions come from this area.
More interesting data might come from Per Capita comparisons, though LA/LB most likely would still show strongly in overall sales either way. Looking at it another way, probably about 55% of the overall US population is in those same 10 demographic areas.
The more interesting 42% of US adults turning to eBay is a bit scary for me. While it is great to have them as customers, the natural progression of selling stuff and filling their PayPal accounts with the proceeds. I am not so keen on having 42% of the US population as mostly inexperienced “competition”. Especially when their cost structure for “stuff” just laying around the house is far lower than the products I have to buy to re-sell.
Guess they all have to learn somehow??? Maybe after selling a few items they will be not so quick with the bad Feedback. “Walk a Mile in My Shoes” type of experience…Maybe eBay Staff and Management should all be required to spend one month trying to earn a living SELLING on eBay instead of going on those “Sabbaticals”??? Then they would have a “REAL” appreciation for what professional sellers go through dealing with both eBay and Buyers before they are so quick to futz with the marketplace in the ways they have recently.
Thanks,
DD
Patricia1On 05.08.2008 at 5:55 pm Said:
I live just outside the Long Beach/Los Angeles area. Not many people I know buy or sell on ebay. In fact, I stopped bringing up ebay to other people because their reaction was always the same…they don’t shop there because they don’t trust them. My neighbor and friend buys from Amazon and Overstock but won’t touch Ebay (shrug) We used to have sellers wheeling in their pile of Ebay boxes into the post office. I rarely see them anymore.
AmberOn 05.09.2008 at 10:05 am Said:
Weird that there are so many of us from CA, although thankfully I’m nowhere near LA.
Patricia1On 05.09.2008 at 10:15 am Said:
I’m about 20 minutes from Long Beach - 40 minutes from Los Angeles.
MechelleOn 05.09.2008 at 10:31 am Said:
I am in Santa Cruz- about 40 minutes from eBay head quarters
Patricia1On 05.09.2008 at 11:11 am Said:
Strange that ebay posted the above figures. Auctionbytes just came out with an article with a survey by Neilson Online. Seems page views on ebay are down over 11 percent from last year. Don’t know if I’m allowed to post this link here:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m05/i09/s00
It sure seems to bear truth with how I’ve noticed my hits are down.
MechelleOn 05.09.2008 at 12:03 pm Said:
My husband is from Orange county- so we visit his mom there often. However, she is moving to yucka Nevada LOL- my sister and my husband’s brother- who are married- live in Reno so she is moving there for family presence.
I told my husband we should get the Disney trip in before she clears out to avoid hotel costs.
Patricia1On 05.09.2008 at 12:14 pm Said:
Good thinking - I’m less than 10 miles from Disney - every night about 9:30 pm I can actually hear the fireworks over there.
AmberOn 05.09.2008 at 12:24 pm Said:
LOL, I’m in the Sierras–quite close to “yucky” Nevada. Went to college at UNR. 
I only visit So. Cal when I have to. Same with the Bay Area.
MechelleOn 05.09.2008 at 1:57 pm Said:
I grew up in Truckee- familiar?
I live in the Santa Cruz Mountains- near the Monterey bay not the city- There is no better place to live in the state- in my opinion. I totally love it here- the air is moist - it only gets hot a total of about a month in the summer and it is spread out with nice weather in between- and even on the hot days it is cold at night. Oh, and it is very beautiful
My sister graduated UNR also
I hate the drive down south it is forever- you can hear the fire works at my mother in-laws house too you must be relatively close to each other.
AmberOn 05.10.2008 at 8:34 am Said:
“I grew up in Truckee- familiar?”
Very familiar LOL I just love their downtown shopping area. But even Truckee is so built up anymore as people have been priced out of Tahoe.
Plus this winter they got nearly 10 feet of snow!
I’m at a much lower elevation and in a much smaller town. Wouldn’t trade it for the world. I can always visit the city–but prefer to raise my kids here.
permacrisisOn 05.11.2008 at 8:53 pm Said:
“When the going gets tough, the tough get selling… And these are the top places where they’re doing it.”
Hoo Wee….for a minute there I thought you were going to start rattling off alternative sites with a lead-in like that. And if you had, you would have earned a fan for life.
Hey, it could still happen.
Someday, if you DO broach the subject of alternative sites, we can talk about why ebay remains number one in comparison to the others. (It is not for the reasons most people think.)
By understanding what makes ebay stand head and shoulders above the rest, then you truly understand what it is you are throwing away.
KathyOn 05.12.2008 at 8:06 am Said:
When the going gets tough this seller goes elsewhere. Please remove 5 selling IDs off the Suffolk New York Numbers because I am closing down my seller IDs and going to another site. Most of us are selling in other venues along with eBay.
We are on Ioffer, Plunderhere, Goantiques, Amazon, and many, many other places.
eBay got a bit greedy this year and my number of listings here went from 1,200+ to 40….Next month there will be 0.
I know eBay won’t care because after almost 9 years, 100% feedback and an average of 4.85 DSR, I was told I had NO track record. Yes, like a new person, or a scammer….I didn’t matter.
If I don’t matter, than neither does eBay.
CrunchyPostingGoodnessOn 05.14.2008 at 12:39 pm Said:
I think it is interesting that people have sold that much, but it really isn’t that significant unless you take in account several other factors:
1. What percentage of the sale went to fees vs the seller’s pocket?
2. Did the survey count the sales when the auction ended, or when the buyer actually paid?
3. Did the survey take into consideration which sales ended up in a charge back, non-paying bidder, or SNAD?
I would also asks the question, if eBay is resulting in so many sales, then how is the fear of buyers leaving eBay justified? According to those numbers, it would seem that there are still a ton of buyers using eBay.
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