EBay Selling Pricing Information From Its Internet Auction Site
EBay Inc. has begun selling the price data generated by its Internet auction site in the hope that such information will set a benchmark for the value of a wide range of goods, a company executive said Monday.
The Silicon Valley firm, which has been the trading venue for items ranging from used office supplies and cars to a California town, tracks sales in the more than 27,000 auction categories on its online marketplace.
This year EBay quietly began licensing that information to about 20 customers, each of which pays $10,000 and up a year for access, said Randy Ching, vice president of platform solutions at the San Jose company.
Although the direct revenue benefit to the company is relatively modest -- EBay’s revenue is expected to be as much as $2.1 billion this year -- the company will focus on its data business in the coming year as it works to establish its information as the “de facto guide for buy and selling,” Ching said.
One of EBay’s data customers, PGA.com, on Friday launched a used golf equipment value guide based on raw data from EBay’s golf club and accessory sales.
Leigh Bader, an owner of the Pine Oaks Golf Course in Massachusetts and president of PGA.com partner 3Balls.com, said the value guide aimed to create standardized pricing guidelines for the resale of golf equipment.
Bader and his business partner have bought and resold golf equipment for years and even created their own informal buying guide.
Their data reflected sales only at their Boston-area online and bricks-and-mortar stores. But EBay gets its data from thousands of transactions in multiple geographic areas, Bader said.
“EBay has very credible data,” he said.
For example, PGA.com’s Value Guide sets the market value for a used Ping Eye 2 Driver at $10.09 to $19.08 based on 374 transactions.
Other customers include Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit Inc.’s ItsDeductible division, which depends on EBay information to help users of its TurboTax tax preparation software to determine the fair market value of their donated items -- from used jeans to gadgets such as cellphones.
Andale Inc. also of Mountain View, uses the data in its Sales Analyzer software that helps EBay sellers price their items most effectively.
The move to license EBay’s sales information was first reported Monday in the Wall Street Journal.
EBay’s stock dipped 18 cents Monday to close at $55.72 in Nasdaq trading.
