Unwrap Personalized 2024 Selling Recap - Is Everyone A Top 5% Seller?

[valueaddedresource]

Check your eBay messages to see if you got the 2024 "personalized" recap...apparently there are a lot of top 5% sellers out there. 😂

The UK boards were discussing it today when some of the posters there thought it was a bit odd they all were told they were in the top 5% for their category, when they believed that wasn't anywhere near likely to be accurate.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Business-Seller-Board/Unwrap-your-personalised-2024-selling-recap/td...

They still have a weekly chat over there, so someone asked about it and it was dismissed as being accurate and that one thread isn't representative of millions of sellers - which is fair enough, I suppose.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Chat-with-the-eBay-Community/Weekly-Chat-with-the-eBay-Community-Tea...

But I've now checked with about a half dozen US sellers and they too were also told they were in the top 5% in their categories - with one even showing that their listing quality report says they're ranked 216 out of 2,660 sellers in that category for GMV, which would be about ~8%.

It's a minor point and not really significant in the big scheme of things I suppose, but now I'm curious....is anyone *not* a top 5% seller? 😂

[ekmadonna]

Count me in as one of the TOP 5%. Says I have Out Performed 99% of sellers in the Category of Price Guides and Publications.

[luckythewinner]

The UK boards were discussing it today when some of the posters there thought it was a bit odd they all were told they were in the top 5% for their category

I have six selling accounts. Two are top 5% in a single category, two are top 20% in a single category, and two are not top anything in any category.  

[dbfolks166mt]

Yea, I am in top 5% with less that 75 items sold all year. 

You must have sold the only 75 that were listed during the year. 

[dbfolks166mt]

I'M ONE.......lol

You’re in the top 5% for Kitchen Storage & Organization

Top performer alert! You’ve outperformed 97% of sellers in your category. Keep aiming high.

Have 3 active items in the cat and can't imagine I've sold any great amount in that category, lol. 

Let’s hear it for this year’s star item

Give a round of applause for your top sale of the year: LARGE Nativity Stable ONLY Wood w Light 15" High 22" Long HANDMADE, $177.40. Keep those hits coming.

Top item is still for sale?  and the price is $65...so not sure where the $177 is coming from......  doesn't show up in Product Research as sold. 

     Some of these are actually funny. If these are being generated by AI one has to question the I part of that. Reminds me of an old accounting question from early in 2000

"A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60? "

[robbie31415]

 funny I've sold like 1000% more mice. But I'll take it.

[dbfolks166mt]

No, I haven't seen a message come through like that , but I'm in the habit of deleting messages that aren't from my buyers without reading them. 

     With the new message format who knows where the heck the message may have gone or maybe I am just not in the top 5% of anything. I wonder what the board members are getting that just have a separate posting account. 

[splendidthreads]

I had to laugh when it said I outperformed more than 98% of all sellers in the figurines category.  😄😀😁

I didn't list very much this year, and most of my figurines were sold on Etsy. I don't see how it's possible that I was that high in such a broad category.  I think they've done some fuzzy math.  

[fbusoni]

@valueaddedresource 

Liz, this get right back to our discussion here about how eBay manipulates sellers.   

I reckon that for every one of us who laughs at these sorts of ham-handed attempts to test our critical thinking skills, there are 10,000 sellers who are simply elated.

They close the email and think, "Wow, eBay is a pretty darn good place to sell after all!"

Now, I am very pleased to report that I outperform 99% of other sellers in books.  😂

[readabouthorses]

This is both funny and disturbing at the same time!

[valueaddedresource]

Apparently I missed the other thread on this yesterday because of the weird sorting issues going on in the community right now, but it looks like while most of these posts say 5% too, there were at least 2 at 10% - still not sure where they are getting these numbers though. 😂

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Year-in-Review/td-p/34837297

[fbusoni]

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@valueaddedresource wrote:

Apparently I missed the other thread on this yesterday because of the weird sorting issues going on in the community right now, but it looks like while most of these posts say 5% too, there were at least 2 at 10% - still not sure where they are getting these numbers though. 😂

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Year-in-Review/td-p/34837297

---

@valueaddedresource 

Probably the PT Barnum Encyclopedia of Diversions and Misdirections.

[luckythewinner]

I don't think eBay is lying about the numbers. I think people here don't realize how easy it is to be in the top 5%, 10%, or 20% of a category. After all, what does "outperform" really mean?

On eBay, there are roughly 16,000 categories, 20 million sellers, and $80 billion in GMV. That means the average seller is selling $4000 in total across all categories, which amounts to just 25 cents in each category. 

What if

"You’ve outperformed 98% of sellers in your category"

means

"In your category, you’ve outperformed 98% of all sellers"

and not

"You’ve outperformed 98% of sellers who sell in your category"

?

(All numbers done before getting coffee, feel free to check my math)

[klhmdg]

I got the message but like most messages from eBay I deleted it.

They always want me to do something that makes no sense or borrow money from them.

Now I need to go find the message so I can have smoke blown up my .... too!

[hartungcards]

Everyone's in the top 5% thanks to the recent "surge in interest" on eBay.

[ittybitnot]

I wonder what the board members are getting that just have a separate posting account.

@dbfolks166mt 

Though a total of ONE is of course no indication, I just checked my "messages" for this posting account.  I am not a top 5% seller notice recipient, so there is that.  LOL. 

It is early, and have not had my coffee yet this morning, but I keep thinking the message "math" is also sort of off.  How can you be both in the top 5% AND outperforming 99% of others in the category?  Would that not make one in the top 1%?