Buyers clustered from the same area (but not the exact same place)

[ayb_38]

I've noticed several times over the last 8 months or so that I often get buyers clustering from one area of the country. Is this common? For example, my last four sales have all been from Virginia. Another time, I had several consecutive sales from various places in Hawaii. I don't live anywhere near either of those places. It seems strange to me. Have others seen this type of pattern on eBay? What is that about?

[inhawaii]

I've seen similar patterns but I always chalk it up to COINCIDENECE.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

Coincidence.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

It's been happening since Cassini, so many, many years.  I used to think it was coinkydink too, but several especially weird ones have made me change my tune on that.  Along the lines of 5 ID buyers in 2 hours, when I usually get 2 per year & other anomalies that are way weirder than just a bunch in 1 region.  

[kds99]

I agree. When two buyers a few miles apart each buy a similar collectible item that has sat for six months makes me wonder.

[katzrul15]

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@ayb_38 wrote:

I've noticed several times over the last 8 months or so that I often get buyers clustering from one area of the country. Is this common? For example, my last four sales have all been from Virginia. Another time, I had several consecutive sales from various places in Hawaii. I don't live anywhere near either of those places. It seems strange to me. Have others seen this type of pattern on eBay? What is that about?

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Never know either - we had 3 orders from TN recently - all same day, all same product and all within 1 hour of each other.  No names the same, all different cities and towns.  Wondered when it happened, but all 3 orders went fine, etc.  lol

Things that make ya go hmmmmmm.................

[lepke1979]

No way to know for sure unless you helped make the algorithm. But most likely not always a coincidence.

Most likely what happens is you have a cluster of people that are looking to buy something and one of them chooses you. From that sale, the AI may decide to give you better placement to others in the general area (assuming you have what they're looking for). Someone from Tennessee liked you enough to buy from you. Maybe someone else from Tennessee will too. Thus possibly prompting someone else in the area to buy from you.

The other possibility is that it's just that time of day where more people in that area are shopping. So the sale triggered better placement for others to see you more and there just happens to be more people in Central Standard Time browsing at that moment as opposed to one of the other time zones.

Or both. Or some variation. Or none of the above. It's all just speculation. But one sale always seems to create another and so on.

Is why some sellers sell a few things that are fairly popular where they will maybe break even (possibly even lose money). So the algorithm/AI will hopefully give them better placement throughout the day to sell the stuff that actually makes them money. Basically an online version of a doorbuster. And some may even take any offer in the morning even if it's not the greatest. If only to maybe trigger other sales throughout the day.

[slippinjimmy]

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@ayb_38 wrote:

I've noticed several times over the last 8 months or so that I often get buyers clustering from one area of the country. Is this common? For example, my last four sales have all been from Virginia. Another time, I had several consecutive sales from various places in Hawaii. I don't live anywhere near either of those places. It seems strange to me. Have others seen this type of pattern on eBay? What is that about?

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For me it's not that rare a thing, somebody buys something from me and they tell a friend they saw something else I have listed (or maybe the same thing since I have a lot of MQ listings) that they think their friend is interested in.

I can see this happening easily when you are a seller of one particular line of products as in  your case where your listings are all(?) comics.

Just in the past couple of days, a cd I sell about once a month at best,  all of a sudden in the last 2 weeks 3 copies to the Seattle area.