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New Index Shows eBay Germany Gets Higher Prices than US Site
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
June 01, 2005
A new "Dropshop Index" compares the average selling prices of 20 different eBay items in the U.S with that of Germany. The first index, for the month of May 2005, shows a 59 percent premium was paid on eBay Germany for the same items sold on eBay U.S.
Dropshop is a leading provider of eBay selling services in Germany, which is eBay's largest market outside of the U.S. market with nearly 20 million registered users. The company offers services to eBay PowerSellers in the U.S. who are seeking to jumpstart sales to Europe.
Dropshop said the combined average selling price for the 20 items in the U.S. was $119.89 and was $184.03 in Germany
Jim Kingsbury, Director of International Market Development at Dropshop, said, "There is a tremendous opportunity for sellers based in the U.S. to cash in on this disparity in the amount of money buyers on eBay Germany are willing to pay for merchandise." The company is exhibiting at the eBay Live conference in San Jose next month.
Detailed data from the Dropshop Index can be viewed online.
http://www.dropshop.de/eng/dex
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yeah, right.
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If you list on the U.S. site, and indicate you will ship world wide, your auctions do get show up on eBay Germany.
I have noticed that some sellers on the U.S. site show a foreign keyword in their auction title, so that their auctions will also get picked up in keyword searches on a non-English eBay site where the item they are listing may be of particular/local interest.
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I indicate that I ship worlwide on my auctions but have never had as much as a bid from Germany. My international sales seem to come, for the most part, from English speaking countries. UK, Austrailia and Canada are the majority of international sales for me. I get a few from Taiwan and Singapore and very rarely from France but that's about it.
I think Ray is right that if you want reap the benefits of higher prices from Germany it would be helpful to learn German. German language auctions are probably the contributing factor to the higher prices. If the Germans or other non-English countries don't want to or aren't able to bid on English language auctions they are cutting down on the number of auctions available to them which shifts the supply and demand ratio in the sellers favor.
Irene's point is valid too. Even if you don't list in German, or French , or whatever. Offering to ship internationally opens your auctions to more bidders and the possibilities of bidding wars that may not occur otherwise. For me it's a no-brainer. My stuff is usually under an ounce so it costs about $0.20 more to send a shipment to Asia then it does to send it locally. For higher cost or heavier items it may not be as clear cut a decision.
-y
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This past year I've had quite a few auction winners from France, Germany and Italy. To be on the safe side, in case the winner doesn't understand English, I send an eBay invoice which, although sent out by me in English from the US site, I know will be received by them in their native language (I get a copy).
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Hey Irene,
How do your invoices get translated on the fly? Is there a setting in eBay somwhere that will do it for you or do you use some other software?
-y
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eBay translates the invoice automatically. I guess the invoice form is standard on all eBay sites anyway. I always select the option to receive a copy of the invoice so I can see what language the buyer sees in the e-mail. It helps me to know if I may be dealing with someone who doesn't speak English in case I have to do any follow-up correspondence.
In other words, I suspect that if someone from Germany registered on eBay US and bid from eBay US, they probably would receive the invoice in English. However, if they registered their eBay ID on eBay Germany, and bid on the U.S. listing directly on eBay Germany, they would automatically receive my invoice in German.
I haven't had the experience, but I also assume that if I had to use the Dispute Console to report a non-paying winner, the e-mails that eBay sends would also be in the foreign language.
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By the way, if you ship worldwide and would like to see how your current listings appear on any of the eBay foreign language sites, go to the bottom of the eBay home page and click on one of the eBay foreign sites. There is a keyword search box on the home page of each of the foreign sites. It's fairly obvious. Just paste one of your auction numbers into the box and click the button beside it. Your auction will pop up. Your title and auction description will be in English but everything else on the page will be in the foreign language.
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Germany is in my top 3 European sales sources, behind only UK and France. French sales have only recently edged out German sales.
I also have many repeat German buyers.
Another good reason to use eBay invoices.
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My European sales have been historically good, with many sales to Germany. I used to sell quite a bit to French customers, but not lately. Very little to France in the last few years. Probably a tie for me between Germany and the UK, then Italy. I've had a lot of Italian customers. Then Holland, Belgium, Sweden, etc. Sales to Asia have always been good. Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, S. Korea.
But hey, I only list (about) a paltry 40 auctions per month these days and I was never a big lister before even in the old days. A hundred auctions per month was what I used to average.
I dunno. All of my auctions are listed on the USA site. If they want it badly enough, they will bid. If they have to translate the page, then I'm sure it cuts down on Int'l bids. However, do not a lot of Europeans (other than the UK I mean) utilize English as a second language?
I don't speak any foreign language fluently, but I can read German, French or Spanish just enough to get the gist of some things (I do know words in those languages). They are probably the same with English, if not fluent.