Power Sellers Unite

Patches · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 3:45 pm Post subject: Bidville Numbers Do Not Compute!

BIDVILLE Auction Statistics

The statistics and computations have been derived from a random sampling of Bidville Storefront Listings that I made. Bidville Storefront information was extracted onsite during Feb. 26-27, 2005.

Storefront listings
Total Bidville Storefronts at website Listing: 619
Sampling of Bidville Storefronts: 193
Percent of Bidville Storefronts sampled: 31.18% total Storefronts
Props/Sample/Invalid Storefronts: 25
Percent of Bidville Storefronts to prop Storefront 12.95% total Storefronts are props
NOTE: Props are defined as invalid or test Storefronts unavailable for query on the BV server but listed in the alphabetical Storefront Listing. These Storefronts always return a server error message when queried.

Feedback Sampling
Bidville Storefronts sampled: 193

Total number of Bidville Storefronts with Feedback that is less than or equal to 1: 124

FB = (-1): 4 Storefronts
FB = (0): 103 Storefronts
FB = (1): 17 Storefronts

The measured FB from Storefronts sampled shows that 64.25% Storefronts have a FB rating of 1 or less. VERY low feedback correlates with the 0.4% sell-through-rate previously noted at MedVed.

Feedback Earned Per Month
All sampled Storefronts were given an average FB/month value. Since many stores had FB=0 and were not weighted against their time-in-Bidville-operation, these values were then calculated further to determine the Average FB per Month for each store sampled, related to time-in Bidville-operation.

TOTAL FB tallied (All sampled Storefronts): 232.999
TOTAL Months in operation (All sampled Storefronts): 1742

Average Months per Storefront: 9.03 months
Average FB per Month, per Storefront, as measured months in operation: 0.13

(Note: Feedback includes all transaction types, sales and/or purchases that yielded one unique feedback for the transaction.)

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

Patches

That is very interesting. Right now their site says that they have 629 stores. How did you take a sample of the bidville storefronts.

Please tell us how you came up with the statitics I am sure others will be interested in this.

Patches · Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2005 5:42 pm Post subject:

I took a sampling of BV Storefront listings on the dates listed in the data I provided. Rather than picking-and-choosing, I selected arbitrary letters of the alphabet and each store was reviewed within that alpha-character. All stores within the alpha-character were reviewed as a sampling should be performed.

There were several high FB producers worthy of note, and all were stores that dealt with collections (i.e. sports cards).

Thank you for your interest.
More statistics will follow.....

nancybusinraleigh · Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 219 Location: North Carolina

Here is a total, unabridged, nothing missed tally of BidVille store stats and how they do not line up with claimed stores on the home page of BidVille. I took Patches data and decided it needed a complete and total viewing, so the data is below:

BidVille.com Home page stats reads
3,000,892 items listed
in 7,269 categories
and 642 stores!

Taken on March 17, 2005 @ 1:05 Eastern Standard Time

THE FOLLOWING IS A COMPLETE SNAPSHOT OF ALL STORES LISTED ALPHABETICALLY ON BIDVILLE.COM ON MARCH 17,2005.

For background reference as you check this list:
1. Stores listed below are those ONLY with ZERO feedback, AND no listed items in stores, AND no items listed in auctions. NO ACTIVITY AT ALL past or present can be determined.
2. Even if a store had nothing listed but had at least ONE feedback and/or ONE item listed as an auction and not a store listing, THEY ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS LIST.
3. Many stores not listed here were empty, no auction listings BUT had feedback from some prior activity.

The stores listed below my name only (no http address) are those that came up with this message when clicked on:
"There is an error in your request. Store not found"

So, the list below is truly ZERO activity of any kind noted either store or auction activity and no feedback.
AND the stores listed by name only, no http address are bad links and represent 17.9% of the 678 stores listed below. This does not match the claimed 642 stores found in the stats on the home page today. But if you were to take the 678 stores actually shown in the alphabetical listings, deduct the dead link name, the count would be 597 stores. However, there are many stores listed below where members joined back a couple years, no feedback, no activity, no auctions, no store listings so that tells us they are either paying $5 a month for nothing or BidVille has kept them in the data base for count purposes.

From personal experience:
When I closed my store (Original Threads), the pop up window said it would be there for 30 days then permanently removed - it never made it a week before it was totally purged from the system.

So does this mean that these stores are all recently 'closed' and still inside the 30 days? According to BidVille's own policy, yes. Although I find that hard to understand considering the data compiled.

TOTAL NUMBER OF STORES SHOWN TO BE ACTIVE ON BIDVILLE HOME PAGE STATS - 642
TOTAL NUMBER OF STORES WITH LINKS IN THE ALPHABETICAL LISTINGS ON SITE - 678
TOTAL NUMBER OF STORES WITH 'DEAD' LINKS (STORE NOT FOUND) - 81

"A" Stores (47 listed, 12 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either, and/or nonfunctional links - 25%)

http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10582
AMEN Goodies
AAA-Collectables
Airbrush by MecaBrush
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10996
A Step Back In Time
Allways Charming
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10773
axia
ATTIC FULL OF GOODIES
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10479
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10327

"B" Stores (41 listed, 4 empty, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links - 9.7%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10937
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11000
Busybaker
bcbooksandsuch

"C" Stores (65 listed, 18 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -27.6%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11070
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11192
cuchi's boutique
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10759
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11055
Char's Gallery
Canterbury Design and Decor
Commanderzoom's Goodies
Ceramics Plus
Choice Diggings By Heather
cccccccccccc
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10673
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11113
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11067
Capt. Plastic's Bargains
C&C Computer and Repair n More
Cunning Books
Chrissy's Place

"D" Stores (46 listed, 14 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -30.4%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10340
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10871
Doomahitchies & Thingamabobs
Duff's Stuff
Double MC Sportscards
Deelightful Items
dollardaze
down2biz stuff
ddfdfdfdfdfdf
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11152
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10377
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10357
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10485
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11194

"E" Stores (23 listed, 5 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -21.7%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11219
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10682
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11223
Elf Curio Shop
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11320

"F" Stores (16 listed, 4 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -25%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10843
Flametide Crafts
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11165
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11080

"G" Stores (37 listed, 6 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -16.2%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10698
Gilchrist Electric Tool Supply
GRAND SLAM SHOW
gw_gold
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11081
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11075

"H" Stores (32 listed, 6 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -18.7%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10318
Hawthorne Village Tea & Coffee
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10792
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10085
HONIES RESALE
Home Decor Gift Shopping Club

"I" Stores (6 listed, all functional - 0%)

"J" Stores (34 listed, 10 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links - 29.4%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10990
jerry's collectibles
Jo's Endless Treasurers
Jerry's Stamps & Collectible's
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10633
johns this and that
justforyoufashions
Just Stamps
Judy's Cuties Reborn Baby Doll
Julie's Latest Lingerie

"K" Stores (21 listed, 3 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -14.2%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10554
kingexhaust
K & K Creations

"L" Stores (31 listed, 8 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -25.8%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10387
Lone Rock Comics and Games
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11312
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11318
LB Exports, Inc
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10924
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10350
Linkz 4 U

"M" Stores (35 listed, 8 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional links -22.8%)
Mel & Mary's Treasures
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10545
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10286
Millenium Trading Int´l
Melissa 401
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11106
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10262
Midwest Tech Sales

"N" Stores (20 listed, 6 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 30%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11025
NOTEVENA RANCH GALLERY
Natureboy's Penthouse
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11138
NASCAR RACERS
Needless Things
adfgbadsfgsdf

"O" Stores ( 15 listed, 2 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 13.3%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10890
overtimesportsmart

"P" Stores (24 listed, 2 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 20.8%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11326
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11296
Primitive Lights Candles!
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10659
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10835

"Q" Stores (2 listed, 1 has items, the other does not but has auctions listed - 0%)

"R" Stores (23 listed, 6 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 26%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10820
Randy's Novelty's
Ron's Collectibles
Robert,s Sports & Goodies
Rare Books and Curiosities
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10448

"S" Stores (43 listed, 8 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 18.6%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10787
Shop Retro Daze
SportsCardAuction
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10728
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11232
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11220
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?storeid=10172
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10930

"T" Stores (74 listed, 16 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 21.6%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10615
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10445
Titancia.Net
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11317
test
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10360
Toyplanet Toys & Collectibles
The Auction Attic
Treasures By The Sea
The Book Wiz
TheDishWish
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11184
thehkjhk
hkjhkhk
Test (this is not a duplicate of the one shown
Test above, it is indeed a second one)
Teaserman's Comics and More
the gift shop

"U" Stores (6 listed, 1 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 16.6%)
UNITED PRODUCTS

"V" Stores (12 listed, 3 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 25%)
VGM SALES
VintageRedefined
VJ Merchandise

"W" Stores (20 listed, 6 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 30%)
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10961
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10692
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10884
We Sell It All
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=10753
http://stores.bidville.com/shop/?index=6&storeid=11021

"X" Stores - no stores beginning with X

"Y" Stores (4 listed, 1 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 25%)
YOUR AUCTION SALE

"Z" Stores (1 listed, 1 empty, no feedback, no auctions listed either and/or nonfunctional link- 100%)
ZK Home Fashion

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

Holy crap how long did that take you?

Very intresting stuff.

ahb · Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 242

psunite wrote (View Post): › docWrite("quote")how long did that take you?

:shock: I was wondering the same thing!

nancybusinraleigh · Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 219 Location: North Carolina

Well folks, it took a couple hours. I was supposed to go to physical therapy today and my back hurt so bad yesterday and last night that I wasn't going to go today........nothing worth watching on daytime TV and patches got me piqued with her sampling data, so I decided to start with the "A" store listings........

The more I saw, the more I felt it needed a thorough viewing.

But it's factual, directly off their own site.

What IS interesting and I should have done it as I counted the other data, is how many stores are empty.

On my list I have 152 which are empty - of those, 81 are dead links, many obviously 'fake' fronts with names like "ccccccccc", and "test" and "adlkjfdhg" and so forth, but they are still in the alphabetical list with a link.

There were many more empty, but if they had even so much as a single feedback behind their seller ID's, I didn't count them. Even if they had no auctions, no store items, but had at least 1 feedback, I didn't put them on the list.

So if I had to guess? I would say that the number of empty stores with no auctions listed either would be in the neighborhood of about 225.

Empty stores but with at least one regular auction listed would be about 300 of the 678 stores in the alpha list.

The numbers on the front page of BidVille are a sham, no matter how you do the math

goldreaper.rr · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Posts: 1228

With a Smile on my face I can tell you it isn't just their stores that don't add up. I am an EX-Bidviller and that is why the EX is in Caps! :lol:
They begged me to help them get started. I took them over 3000 auctions. 80 Members - After that was a downhill horror story!
With a Smile on my face!
Sincerely,
Goldreaper.rr
www.TheAuctionMan.net - With a Real Smile On My Face
The Bookloft

Dep-T-Dawg · Joined: 12 Feb 2005 Posts: 6273

nancybusinraleigh...
Geez.. :idea: I just randomly clicked on a bunch of those "LINKS" and not ONE store had ANY feedback~! Now am I just a crazy 'ole man or is THAT odd??
<><>
BTW, Nancy, hope your back is a lot better! God bless 'ya! (I KNOW
how that is!!) :cry:

goldreaper.rr · Joined: 25 Feb 2005 Posts: 1228

I add my Well Wishes Nancy!
Rest That Back, it can be painful I know!
Sincerely,
Goldreaper. rr

nancybusinraleigh · Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 219 Location: North Carolina

Thanks Goldreaper and dep t dawg, I'm calling the Dr. this morning...there has to be a better way to handle this back :wink:

You're right, dep t dawg, all 152 of those stores listed are dead, no feedback, no store listings, no auction listings.........no history of ANY activity at all.

Of the 152 listed, there are 81 that when clicked on come back with "store not found" (those are the ones by name only, no http addy because they are dead store links).

Those figures alone show the rate of empty stores to be just shy of 25% of all stores listed in the alphabetical links on site. BUT, there are more empty stores I didn't include....those would be stores where there was at least a feedback of "1" or if they had even as much as one normal auction style listing (not a store listing). So the actual number of stores with nothing in them is much higher than 25%, probably closer to 50%.

What IS disturbing and should upset every BidVille member is that the statistics provided by BidVille on their home page (updated several times daily) are totally wrong concerning store count. Even if you only take out the 81 dead links, the number of stores with live links (even to no activity seller accounts) is under 600, not the 642 claimed at the time of the tally I took.

Oh well, just reinforces that I left for good cause, management issues, and this is yet another example of poor management.

Their own policy states that when you close a store, it will remain 'active' or available to you to restart for 30 days, after that it will be permanently removed from the data base.

That is obviously not the case. When Patches did her sampling, some of the same stores found then are still there, long after the 30 day count. And as you can see, some of the names of the stores were nothing but "test" stores and some can't even be explained, such as the store named "ccccccccc" :roll: Bizarre? You bet!

I'm very glad I got out after only spending a month there, it was almost 'twilight zone' like, whew, some strange things happen there with the inequity of applied TOS.

work2hard4nothing · Joined: 05 Feb 2005 Posts: 135 Location: South Florida

Wow. That is very interesting. I would think that the same or similar results would be found for nearly all the auction sites that offer stores.

One thing, though. I notice Flametide Crafts was included in the list of invalid stores with no listings and no feedback :?: I just bought 4 craft books from her and she had many listings and a lot of feedback.

Just thought I'd throw that in. :oops:

nancybusinraleigh · Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 219 Location: North Carolina

According to BidVille, Flametide Crafts is a store that is not valid, and there is no seller by that ID on BidVille.

Here is the link to check it out yourself:

http://www.bidville.com/storefront/index.asp?catrequest=0&seed=&alpha=f&Nav=Web Page Name

That link takes you to the "F" store listings, at the bottom is the Flametide Crafts store link, click on it :)

It doesn't exist. The seller obviously has a different name on BidVille too, there is no seller known by that name on BidVille.

Guess you know them by some other name :lol: But many of the dead stores were there when I joined back in mid January......tells me they like to keep the numbers up for appearances, there is no other reason.

A site as small as BidVille shouldn't have much of a problem keeping up with stores in their data base. They surely didn't have any problem purging my store in less than the 30 days stated on their site :lol:

Aunt B's Attic · Joined: 03 Mar 2005 Posts: 80 Location: South Carolina

Wow, you really did your homework!! I posted a few thing there and sold nothing, so I pulled out.
Hope you are feeling better soon! Bet

nancybusinraleigh · Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 219 Location: North Carolina

Thanks Bet - I'll figure out this back thing soon enough - I don't 'suffer' well :lol:

I made a mistake, I posted the data on BidVille yesterday and sure enough, contrary to my hopes that people would wonder and start asking BidVille to follow their own policy to remove them by 30 days..........I am being taken to task as the 'messenger' instead :roll:

That's one of the many reasons I left that site though, they sure don't like you to ask too many questions, the members I mean, they get all upset if you question BidVille at all.

That's a mentality I will never comprehend! If a policy is stated, should it not be enforced? Obviously the policy is there for the benefit of all members, and leaving dead stores and 'test' stores all over the place isn't doing the remaining members any good.

Oh well, there are a couple sayings that would apply here -

You can lead a horse to water, you can't make him drink.
If ignorance is truly bliss, there are many happy idiots here.

You get the idea :wink:

That site has been around for 4 years and from what I have read on the boards over there, the problems are always the same. One has to ask WHY?