Key Findings

1) As you can see on the screen below, inexperienced bidders place more bids per auction than experienced ones. It is interesting to see that there is proportionally more inexperienced bidders shopping for glasses than for staplers or ties.  Are they random shoppers coming on Ebay hopping to get a bargain on a trendy item?

Overall, we see that inexperienced bidders are highly likely to have the most bids per person. They are not bid snipers in this data set. 

Legend:

Size of each square: It represents the number of bids per individual in any particular auction.  The bigger is the square, the more bids were placed by this person

Color: Red means that the bidder is inexperienced i.e. he/she has not participated to many auctions..  Black means that the bidder is experienced. 

2) Sellers’ rating has no noticeable impact on the price.  However, this may not be the case for brioni tie and tape dispenser where seller’s rating seems to have an impact.  Oakley sun glasses seems to be an exception.  This is the most popular items in this data set, and user’s experience seems to have no whatsoever influence.

Legend:

Size of each square: It represents the winning bid of the auction in $.  The bigger is the square, the higher was the winning bid for that auction i.e. square.

Color: Red means that the seller was not awarded many positive ratings by different buyers who have brought from him i.e. he/she has not send the good on time for instance.  Black means that the bidder was awarded positive ratings by different buyers who have dealt with him.