Reader Lucky Hopkins replied to this with the thoughtful comments below:

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In your most recent newsletter, you touted Mpire Researcher as a wonderful free tool. I have been using that tool for the past month and very much enjoy the marketing knowledge I can gain from it. However, it is not the gospel when it comes to data. Below I will explain.

What I've found is that this tool focuses on quantity, not quality. When it states that a certain day, time of day, or duration is best, that may not necessarily be the case. Those recommendations are only based on popularity, not highest closing bids. Someone who sells a lot and likes to end their auctions on Friday nights may skew the numbers enough to have that appear to be the "best time" to close auctions. However, I doubt their profits would be higher than other sellers who better know when to close auctions for the best results.

I found one Power Seller recently who sold enough to skew the numbers on one of my searches. They always use 5-day auctions, so Mpire Researcher showed that as being the best duration. Only 2 of the 25 listings returned were 3-day, but those two brought significantly higher closing prices than most of the 5 or 7-day durations ranked ahead of them.

I agree that this tool is quite valuable, but those who use it must look beyond what shows on the surface to get the most significant data. In the 25 listings which are returned, some end up being nuggets of very valuable information on how to do things right, while others are just fools gold and part of the masses.

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Do I agree with Lucky? Oh, yes – absolutely! Let's think about what a research tool actually is ... it's a machine that takes humongous amounts of data and organizes and summarizes it. That's all. It doesn't matter who is compiling this data – whether eBay, Mpire or any of the other data systems in existence. The program simply follows the directions of the humans who gave it orders.

There are two important points about this data:

First, do the inherent flaws in any research system detract from its usefulness? No, it frees our time for the important activities that require a human brain.

Example: back many millenia ago when I was an eBay newbie, eBay saved six months of auction results, rather than the 30 days or so. I was looking for books that sold for $100 and up. I spent weeks finding this data. It was a horrible chore yet today a computer could ferret out that information in seconds.

Secondly, some auction tasks require a human brain while others don't. In my classes, I constantly point out that there are two activities that make money on eBay:

* Finding products
* Writing listings

Everything else is detail. And the thing about auction research is that it's only an INDICATOR. It's not the Oracle where a you-can-bet-your-life on it answer shoots out.

Having said that, is there any value in these indicators? You bet. If I'm selling an item and the research indicates that the best time to end my auction is 5PM, Pacific time, on Thursday, then that is where I will start.

But to just assume that's correct without testing is a very foolish way to conduct my biz. There is only one certain way to get answers to these kinds of questions and that is to test, test, test. What works for me may not be the right way for you to go. Testing is ultimately the only reliable source.

My students often get frustrated that there is no exact, black and white answer to some questions. But the other side of that particular coin calls for celebration! Why? Because most people are too lazy and too undisciplined to exert the patience to find out the correct answers for their business. They give up quickly and go on to the next get-rich-quick scheme.

Don't believe me? Then how can we account for the fact that only .003% of eBay sellers are making a full-time income as discussed in a recent blog entry? {eBay numbers of 430,000 successful sellers out of 141,000,000 registered accounts}

One last comment from Lucky needs attention:

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“Mpire Researcher is like most other tools; it can be quite useful, but only for those who are skilled enough to use it effectively.”

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Does this mean that unless you are a skilled auction seller, this research tool is useless to you? Not at all! There is no other way to become skilled than to do and do and do – until you understand what's going on. We're all novices in everything at some point in our lives. Learning to walk and talk are probably the two toughest skills we ever have to master. Thank heavens we learn those when we're too young to beat ourselves up for failing!

And you can gain very useful insights. For instance, here's a comment from an Auction Genius Course student named Sandra who definitely isn't a novice:

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“That research tool you mentioned in the latest newsletter is incredible! Thanks for the tip. In just a few searches I have seen ideas that I might never have happened upon. One example was the way people spell my keyword - it happens to be one that is frequently hyphenated and the keyword analysis showed what searchers used most often. I was astonished to see how people used capital letters. Blows my mind! But now I know and that knowledge can make me money. Hoorah.”

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The mpire tool is quite valuable and the price is certainly right since it costs nothing. :-)

Just use it as only one of your ways of getting the information you need to profit from your auctions. Be one of the .003%!

Free research tool