GM + eBay = Crash & Burn
September 2nd, 2009In August, eBay partnered with General Motors to bring GM cars to eBay Motors. eBay claims over 1 million visitors and 1.4 million online searches of GM’s inventory. In fact things appear to be going so well according to a recent article that the eBay / GM deal is being extended at least another 3 weeks. Unfortunately a quick investigation of yourgmdealer reveals a completely different picture.
Sell Through Rate
Doing a search of GM’s completed listings currently yields over 39000 listings for the past two weeks. Going over the first five pages of 200 listings each yields no sales. In fact I’ve watched this seller for a few weeks and have yet to find a single sale after going through approximately 10 – 20 pages. However, yourgmdealer has received 9 feedbacks (more on that later) so there have been some sales. Based on eBay’s stated average of a 70% feedback participation rate that would mean yourgmdealer has made roughly 13 sales. This would yield a 0.03 % sell-through rate. That’s about 100 times worse than BUY’s sell-through rate. Be aware this is just an estimation so if any readers have a TeraPeak subscription let us know the real numbers and we’ll add them here.
Feedback
As mentioned earlier yourgmdealer has received 9 feedback comments. Of those six are positive and three are negative. Of the six positive comments three are from user 661henryglen all commenting about how easy the process is. Upon closer inspection we found that two of those three comments were left within 4 minutes of the transaction and the final comment was left within 4 hours of the transaction. This seems to be a common theme amongst the Diamond Powersellers.
All three negatives were left over a week after their respective transactions. In each case the buyer complained about “bait & switch” tactics or the dealer changing the price.
Used “Buy It Now”. Listed @ “wrong” price. Dealer refused to sell. GM no help !!
BAIT AND SWITCH. POST BIN RAISED PRICE BY 950 FOR “TRUE COAT” ALA FARGO.
no car to buy
These comments have left GM’s feedback rating at 57.1% and overall score of +1.
Impact On Sellers?
It has been stated multiple times by eBay’s Griff and blogs that having well established brands like BUY.com, GM, and other Diamond Powersellers actually helps sellers. This effect is due to the added buyer traffic and trust these sellers supposedly bring to eBay. This may in fact be true for those sellers that don’t sell the items these Diamonds bring to the site. However, what is the impact to sellers when a well known brand like GM fails?
September 9th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I see Shark1998 bought another car and left positive feedback for the dealer. Pontiac : Solstice (#350247676301)
YourGMDealers DSR’s are now visible.
Item as described 4.0
Communication 3.8
November 21st, 2009 at 5:30 am
בלו ביי – קונים מוכרים – מכירות פומביות, מכירות רגילות, לוחות ובארטרים…
更新: ……
October 20th, 2011 at 3:41 am
genuinely incredible post, cheers
June 20th, 2012 at 7:27 pm
What’s up?, is anyone able to recommend on free eBay software which can bid automatically just as the auction finishes? (I forget what this is called. Thank-you
September 19th, 2012 at 5:54 pm
marks goodwin
November 12th, 2014 at 5:24 am
Do you prefer Facebook or more Google? Vote now for your actual loved Social Network . When you vote now then you will quickly get a gift! Link to website is: theinfogate.com/thread-facebook-vs-google-55663698