eBay Sell-Through Rate Explained - Many Have It All Wrong

STR (Sell Through Rate) is a term commonly thrown around but as resellers do we really know what it means and how it is actually calculated? From what I have seen and heard from many KZbinrs on this topic, they have it all wrong. In this video I am going to tell you why and show you the only real accurate tool to deliver accurate sell through rate data and you may be surprised by what you see.
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[@FlippinAintEasy]

I stand corrected that you do NOT need a store subscription to use the Product Research tool. This used to be the case but it is no longer necessary.

[@biffboffo]

Whether people like it or not, “sell through rate” has become the colloquial term for the ratio of listed to sold as they appear on the app. It’s not the best or most accurate description for this metric, but it’s the term that people use, and it has gained wide acceptance in the community. It’s beyond everyone’s control. It’s far too late to argue this point or to attempt to correct people. It’s about as worthwhile as trying to organize a reseller union or a PL strike. Language takes on a life of its own. “Sell through rate” is still probably the best and fastest way to make a snap decision on a buy. The research doesn’t have to be 100% accurate to give a somebody a good idea about the product’s recent demand. I don’t need a digital thermometer to tell me if it’s hot outside.

[@primokimo]

I agree, however, it is imperative for good communication to understand that both exist and to understand both. I invented new math when I was young and the kids are still doing it today. I intend to lower my fist and stop directing people off my lawn BUT still 100% is the most you can sell of anything.

[@robsomething4435]

Thank you. This has been a pet peeve of mine for years. STR is basically the ratio of total items available (active + sold) in a given time frame divided by the qty sold. It's mathematically impossible to sell more than 100% of what was actually available. A 100% STR would be a situation with any number sold and zero active.

[@V.J-cs2xh]

Very good explanation of STR. This understanding highlights the difference between a seasoned reseller like yourself and a neophyte (and you know who I'm referring to).

[@la6136]

I'm glad you are explaining this. I have seen a lot of people calculate their sell through rate as number of items they sold / number of items they listed that month which is also inaccurate. These people will claim they have a 50% or 70% sell through rate but they don't take into account the TOTAL number of items they have, not just the items they listed this week or this month.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

And to add to the confusion, lets say you have 2 sellers both of whom have 200 active listings and 200 sold listings. Seller 1, exactly 90 days ago listed 400 drafts and has since listed nothing more. Seller 2 has listed a total of 400 items over that same 90 day period and as recently as yesterday. Which seller was most efficient? I would say seller 2 because their items have not has as much exposure or chance to sell than seller 1, yet if you look at both accounts, you would think the seller's performance is the same.

[@AmySnively]

@@FlippinAintEasy Yes!

[@funknjewels]

Whew. I was scared I was the only one out there that understood math is math lol. 100% = all listings sold and there are 0 currently active..great video!

[@vynilrob9719]

I've long since stopped looking at STRs...I don't think it hardly applies to my niche, which is comics. Unless it's a really hot book, they're gonna sell when they're gonna sell. Great vid, sir!

[@collector_and_gamer]

Same with sports cards.

[@mikemetco1966]

Hi, Jon What a proliferation of videos lately. Good stuff. Wondering if you have any time left for reselling. lol (I know you do, as you have been killing it recently}. I was quite impressed that after your early live with Jride on Friday (an excellent interview BTW, I encourage any of you who missed it to catch the replay) that you felt a little bad that you didn't do your community based live, so you did a SECOND LIVE LATER THAT DAY. I applaud your dedication to the channel, and us, your viewers. This, along with your worthwhile content, puts you, in my opinion, way ahead of many of the other content providers in the space, Speaking of great content, I would like to address this video. I have been unclear for quite a while on the dynamics of sell-thru-rate, an important yet misunderstood parameter. Your explanation of the subject really cleared it up for me. and I'm sure I will be able to apply this information, moving forward, to make myself a better reseller. If i haven't mentioned it (yeah, I know, I have said it a million times), I appreciate you, sir. Mike from NY

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Thank you my friend. I have been burning the candles at both ends and even had time yesterday to win $700 on the ponies althewhile listing between races. Thank you for the kind words and we truly appreciate you!

[@mikemetco1966]

Glad you are taking time for some valuable and much needed recreation, lest we burn out. Presently, I am watching an episode of "House of Cards" between listing sessions. I don't consider it goofing off. One hour of TV sandwiched between about 8 hours of listing is a sensible schedule. Mike

[@TheDogWalksTheDog]

Great video I was given this formula from someone in the reseller Nirvana group For calculating your own sell through rate Hope this helps Example You have 1877 active items and 602 sold. 1877 + 602 = 2479 So then we do: 602 / 2479 = .24 .24 × 100 = 24%

[@FlippinAintEasy]

For the most part it looks right.

[@TheDogWalksTheDog]

@@FlippinAintEasy The most part ?

[@AmySnively]

Hey Jon! I appreciate this video and the quick timing of it. I commented on the Jride interview vid that 100% is a perfect sell through rate and there’s no such thing as 400%, etc. I’m so happy to see you agree. What happened to that video, BTW? I wanted to go back to see if anyone replied to me…

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Hello Amy. That video is still there, but you may need to check under live and not video.

[@jovialjuggler1645]

Easiest To Comprehend Explanation Thus Far!!! (Quoted From Jon On A Previous Comment) "As I mentioned in the video, if you see 50 solds on an item and only 25 active, at the very best 50 out of 75 sold over that timeframe, not 50 out of 25. This is where people get confused".

[@DMEphemera]

I knew it was fuzzy math from the 1st time I heard it. I took very high level math at Penn State in early 1980s. Had a 4.0 gpa in all math classes. This form of str had me scratching my head fom beginning. Glad someone finally brought it to light. Kudos to you for doing it!!!!!!!!

[@primokimo]

Thanks Jon!

[@TheFlippingSportsGuy]

it drives me insane whenever i hear STR on youtube from resellers, its never explained the right way. I call it the EBay STR, not real world STR

[@jovialjuggler1645]

This Right Here! I So Wish I Would Have Known What STR Was When I First Started Reselling. I Wouldn't Have Bought/Listed/ Wasted Time On The " I Think This Might Sell Items ". Would Have Saved Me A Lot Of Time, Aggravation And Money. One Off's Are A Totally Different Animal. They Are Listed Knowing They May Take A While To Sell.

[@Kens-bin]

Listen to him for sure . Since I took his advice, I am constantly packing . This weekend was crazy in sales.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Great job!

[@amazonseller9995]

Sell thru rate will never be 100% on a high volume item because some sellers will overprice their items. Probably many sellers. I’m sure if they all listed their iPhone 15’s at $99 it would be 100% or very close.

[@5797029]

I try not to think about sell through rates.

[@LandsharkPicker88]

glad that someone finally did a video on this. STR = sold / (active+sold)

[@BeardedPicker]

Do you even watch my shows?

[@jonm4501]

I have been doing this on my own for years by comparing total listings to sold listings. It helps reveal desirable china patterns vs the duds for example. Where I get concerned is when there's zero listings and zero sold. Do I have a total dud or a really rare item? AND if you come to the conclusion thats its really rare, then you have to figure out if its desired, AND if it is, is eBay the right place to sell it.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

My other concern is that a VERO item like P90X...

[@user-mp9cd7sd4t]

Math is simple, and it doesn't lie. I have only seen you and one other reseller that calculates it correctly. The question you have to ask yourself is: If these resellers are calculating such a simple equation wrong, what else are they doing wrong in their business?

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Many of these resellers are hyperfocused on the work of reselling but not the data. Many disregard the data when the data is telling a story about the business. If you disregard the data it will hurt you in the long run.

[@TravisInDallas]

I actually noticed a long time ago that the Product Research sell through rate is about half of what you get with the sold/listed on the app. I have only seen 100% STR on unique items. 1 listed and it sold.

[@jovialjuggler1645]

Keep In Mind For Those Who Scan Bar Codes For Search/ Sold Results....The Results You See Are Only A Portion Of The Listings As Not Everyone Lists With Bar Codes Alone.

[@nicpicker158]

Agree 100%, it is not possible to have over a 100% sell thru, the calculation that people are doing is a good quick way to get an idea of how well an item sells, we just need to label what it is correctly, it is NOT sell through rate, more like a sales ratio. Calling it sell thru rate can cause confusion when trying to use the Product Research information, make us sound silly when talking to other businesspeople, and construe information on how well an item can actually sell. A lot of the time when and item has more solds then listed, the listed ones that have not sold are usually priced too high. People making new listings then copy that higher price and those do not sell either, this now begins to lower the "sales ratio" but when in all actuality if that item was listed at market value, it might sell immediately.

[@jovialjuggler1645]

Math Is The Only Thing In Life That Won't Lie To You!

[@brandondeakins564]

This is mostly just semantics, you are saying the method people use isnt actually STR (correct, it's not) but that's just semantics, it's become common practice to refer to active vs solds as STR even though it's not the actual definition of STR. It's just a technicality that doesn't change any decision making. 2 active bs 10 sold being 500% "STR" or an 80% STR doesn't change anything, the supply and demand and volume and velocity of sales is still exactly the same regardless of the terminology. As for your iphone example, by using the upc you left out all active and sold transactions where people didn't fill in the UPC.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

@@brandondeakins564 it’s not semantics. When you assign a value of 500% sales through rate (I don’t care how you came up with that number) it’s just wrong. In the video I did state that if you are comparing the two (solds vs active) to determine if the item has sell-through, there’s nothing wrong with that as it is a quick way to determine that. As for the UPC code being used vs the title it was the most consistent way to get the exact item vs using the title and having unrelated accessories popping up in the search results. I am willing to bet the sale through rates are similar if using the UPC code vs using the actual title. Talking about semantics SMH. 🤦‍♂️

[@brandondeakins564]

@@FlippinAintEasy it is LITERALLY just semantics. Semantics: Noun, the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. Your entire point is that the quick way isn't actual STR, and I concurred with that. We don't disagree here. BUT the sales volume and velocity does not change whatsoever no matter what you call it. We can stop calling it STR and start calling "florkenspiel" and claim it has a 500% florkenspiel and it would still have the exact same MEANING (ie volume and velocity of sales) You are correct, 500% STR is impossible using the actual STR definition, but the meaning behind the "fake KZbin definition" providing 500% vs the actual business definition providing 80% MAKES NO DIFFERENCE, their MEANINGS are the same. Literally semantics my guy. Lastly, the phones may or may not be similar using the upc.(this will vary wildly basic on each item) Test the upc 013388560738 you will get 2% STR, then type out "resident evil 7 ps4" and you will get 20% STR. So ya, using UPC isn't accurate So maybe next time, check criticism to test it's validity before replying back with snarky, passive aggressiveness.

[@bniesen01]

I don’t have an eBay store and I can access product research on the app.

[@Lifeisshort5]

Well, the best sell thru rate is knowing from personal experience. You know what sucks and what doesn't when you list a bunch of stuff. It also changes throughout the year often.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Experience is your best calculator.

[@KCNewYork]

Having an eBay store is not necessary to access the Product Research tool.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

This may have changed then because it was a requirement to use Terapeak.

[@BoofYou]

Your example needs to be more realistic. You need to search for comps for condition, color, carrier, locked/cracked/etc. But someone also doesn't want to be too specific, so its more nuanced. But overall yes, its not possible to sell more than there is of something. The very best it could possibly be is 100%. Say 5 sold and no active -- 100% str. 5 sold and 5 active -- 50% str. But again, you need to scroll thru quickly and make sure those are accurate comps, because the results can throw other things in. In the end, use whatever method that gives you a way to quickly make decisions. We just need to have the right expectations on how fast it'll sell and how to optimize the str. I appreciate the research tool on the app now, tho, instead of having to use a browser.

[@certifiedrhodess356]

Would if there are 0 listed but 4 sold within the last 90 days?

[@biffboffo]

Then you should buy if the price is right.

[@certifiedrhodess356]

@@biffboffo I get that. I’m talking about the sale thru rate of that what would the percentage be then

[@biffboffo]

@@certifiedrhodess356 Infinity, or undefined.

[@DMEphemera]

100%

[@hustle-n-grow]

Jon you love stirring the pot🤣

[@FlippinAintEasy]

No, not at all. I really don't. I think there is mass confusion on this topic and I kind of dove into it. Maybe its my presentation but not the intention.

[@hustle-n-grow]

@@FlippinAintEasy yeah, it's been a confusing topic. I think Ebay's info is more reliable but I also think that the usual way people calculate is good if you sell on your own site but hard to Guage on a site like eBay. I think it's possible to be over 100% because there's multiple sellers of the same item, but it's not possible for a single seller to be over 100%

[@FlippinAintEasy]

@@hustle-n-grow let’s say you have a total of 100 items being sold by 20 different sellers and that is all that is listed in 90 days (100 items). It is impossible to have 101 sales for that same item. It’s just not possible. As I mentioned in the video, if you see 50 solds on an item and only 25 active, at the very best 50 out of 75 sold over that timeframe, not 50 out of 25. This is where people get confused.

[@hustle-n-grow]

@@FlippinAintEasy I've seen other answers on math sites but I see what you're saying. I will say that I've never seen over 100% from eBay, so that would be what to go by I'd think

[@mayakoyama9130]

I was happy to find out terapeak would be available on mobile and I don't know if I'm just dumb or what my problem is, but I still can't get terapeak to work properly. No matter what I do, I still find lots of listings in the website search that aren't on terapeak, and vice versa. The numbers never correspond at all. So i still feel don't feel like I'm getting accurate results using terapeak. Wish I was a better ebay reseller but I guess I never will be since I still can't properly figure out how to get a sellthrough for my items in ebay search.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

I hope the message does not come across that somehow you are a bad seller because you are using a certain method to figure out if an item is worth buying because that was not the intent of this video. It is to say that many resellers, including myself have been calculating sell through rate wrong for quite some time. You cannot sell more than the number of items that are offered for sale no matter how good the item is.

[@mayakoyama9130]

@@FlippinAintEasy Oh no, I'm just complaining about myself that I still can't seem to figure out terapeak when other people think it's great.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

@@mayakoyama9130 it’s different and I’m sure not for everyone

[@robertandjodijackola4901]

How many times have you scanned a bar code and not many or even no listings. Then type it in the search for that item in your phone, and find many listings. Just good to be informed before buying an item to sell. Informed buying is key, to my success

[@FlippinAintEasy]

It happens all the time. I was only entering in the bar code so I didnt have to type all of it along with the specs (512gb vs 256gb) knowing that there would be a large number of items displayed. I would think with or without the UPC number, the ratio is about the same.

[@the_Texas_Bandit]

I equate all the effort I put into it with deposits in my checking account. All the other "statistics" are argueing points. I am old. Kinda. I was in retail in various forms for 50 years. I have indeed, seen it all. Now, I mow hay, have 5 stores on Ebay, and have a tax bill you would not believe. My recent girlfriend kicked me out because I want to make money. She is 7 years younger and thought old guys should retire and hang out around the house. ...... right.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

The weekly/daily deposits are indeed the #1 statistic every seller should focus on. Everything else is secondary.

[@dirtisbetterthandiamonds]

What's that saying? People talk, but numbers dont lie. You just have to put them together correctly.

[@colewilliams767]

I agree with a lot of what you are saying but I don't think you fully understand this.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

What did I miss?

[@brettcantrell8650]

"Sell" through rate buddy, not "SALE" through rate. Good video though.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

This is what happens when you use voice dictation instead of typing it out. I fixed it. lol

[@heavensentssmokingchannel9847]

I’m a math guy, And just because there are 2 different methods for calculating sell through it doesn’t make one inaccurate. They are just different interpretations. One is not more accurate than the other, they are just different.

[@FlippinAintEasy]

Wouldnt you agree if you are leaving key components out of the equation you will get inaccurate data? Using solds and actives alone you are using very inaccurate data.

[@SPAMbanshee]

@@FlippinAintEasyi was the buyer for several retail stores and we calculated sell through rate the way you are explaining it.

[@mayakoyama9130]

So I am just wondering what search you all have been doing to calculate sellthrough- are you using best match or a different filter? I'm a clothing seller and the best match search usually gives twice or 3 time as many results as sorting by price. I think ebay jams a lot of unrelated items into best match, at least for clothing. But I've also had this happen when searching in terapeak itself. This just makes things more confusing and more inconsistent when trying to find sellthrough. Because I'll be like, are there 50 or 150 items on the market for this search? Makes a huge difference.

[@primokimo]

It's like secret math though. The rest of the business world uses one way and eBay resellers use another? That's why it's not "common sense" to me. oh snap! I'm TRIGGERED!

[@FlippinAintEasy]

@@mayakoyama9130 I have always used best match on the fly using the app at yard sales only to give myself an idea

[@m3Tesla]

All the math makes my brain cell hurt 😞