What is Community Counts with eBay?
Community Counts is a program that identified the most active eBay Communities, across a few different metrics. It is a census, of sorts. With all the transactions and activity that occurs regularly on eBay, we wanted to isolate a period of time and report on which pockets around the country are the most prolific bidders, buyers, listers, and sellers – even community and charity activity were tracked.

What were the prizes?
Well, beyond bragging rights…yes there were prizes. The #1 most active eBay community, Lumberton, NJ, received a $10,000 donation to Burlington County Animal Alliance in their name. We’ll also host a party in Lumberton celebrating their eBay achievement. Nashville, TN earned a $2500 donation in its name toward Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee and #3 through #10 will earned a $1000 donation each on its behalf.

When did it happen?
Community Counts with eBay ran from November 1 through November 21. This was the inaugural year for the Community Counts program, and we hope to continue each year.

How were points earned?
Simple. By transacting on the site, and participating in Community activities like Blogs, Reviews & Guide and eBay Groups. Specifically, these were the ways to earn points:

2 points Bidding / Winning Buying Listing Selling The 2 points were tabulated for a bid, a win, a purchase of a Fixed Price or auction-style listing with Buy It Now, a new listing, or a sale (a listing that closed successfully) that occurred between 12:00:01am PST November 1 and 11:59:59pm on November 21, 2006. Note that a bid (bid placed) and a win (highest bid at the close of the auction) counted as separate point-earning activities. Activity was tracked to the registered eBay member who placed a bid, purchased a Fixed Price or auction-style listing with Buy It Now, won an item, listed an item, or sold an item. Points were credited to the ZIP code that was on record for that registered eBay User ID. 1 point Discussion Board Posts Group Activities (posting, scheduling an event, submitting a photo) Writing a Review/Guide eBay My World Creating or posting to the eBay Blog Detailed Terms: In the Community bucket, 1 point was tabulated for any post to a discussion board, chat board, or Answer Center board doing any type of eBay Groups activity (i.e. posting to a Group discussion, scheduling an event, or submitting a photo), writing a Review or Guide, or creating or commenting on an eBay Blog from 12:00:01am PST November 1 through 11:59:59pm November 21 2006. You must have been a member of an eBay Group first and then engaged in one type of Groups activity in order to have earn points. Activity was tracked to the registered eBay member who posted their contributions, and was credited to the ZIP code that was on record for that registered eBay User ID. 3 points Any eBay Giving Works activity (bidding, buying, listing and selling) Finally, all actions related to eBay Giving Works, our dedicated program for charity listings, counted as a whopping 3 points! Learn more about eBay Giving Works » Any bid, win, purchase, new listing, or sale (a listing that closes successfully) that occurred through the eBay Giving Works program from 12:00:01am PST November 1 through 11:59:59pm November 21 qualified for 3 points. Note that a bid (bid placed) and a win (highest bid at the close of the auction) counted as separate point-earning activities. Activity was tracked to the registered eBay member who placed a bid, purchased a Fixed Price or auction-style listing with Buy It Now, won an item, listed an item, or sold an item. Points were credited to the ZIP code that was on record for that registered eBay User ID. Note also that there was no-double counting, i.e. a transaction activity on eBay Giving Works counted for three points each, but not incrementally two additional points by virtue that it was a transaction-related activity. *To index for population and eliminate fractional results scores have been calculated at a per capita basis and multiplied by 1000.

I live in a really small town – How did my community compete with bigger cities?
Community Counts recognizes the value of all local communities, whether they are large or small. To create a “level playing field,” point totals were adjusted for population differences, as follows:

• The total number of point-earning instances per eligible activity type was calculated for each ZIP code. (i.e. the number of times that point-earning activities such as bids, new listings, board posts, etc. occurred for that ZIP code.) This was the Total Instances Per Activity Type.
• The Total Instances Per Activity Type was divided by the population for that ZIP code as reported by the US Census data for 2000. This was the Total Instances Per Activity Type
  Per Capita.
• The Total Instances Per Activity Type Per Capita was multiplied by a scoring factor as described in the How It Worked page. This was the Raw Points Per Activity Type.
• Each of the Raw Points Per Activity Type were added together for each ZIP code. This was the Raw Points Total Per ZIP Code.
• The Raw Points Total Per ZIP Code were multiplied by 1,000 and rounded up to make a whole number. This was the Total Points Per ZIP Code.

The Community with highest number of Total Points Per ZIP Code won. Ta Da!

Will any personally identifiable information be released or published?
Absolutely not. Though activity at a user level was tracked, the data tables that became part of the Leaderboards and ZIP code rankings were only at an aggregate community level. Community Counts adheres to eBay, Inc.’s privacy policy.

Are the results in the leaderboards the actual numbers of transactions, Community and Charity activity?
No, because all data was calculated per capita, they are displayed on a reverse mill rate basis, meaning that the per capita data is multiplied by 1,000 prior to its displayed. Obviously this was done for all ZIP code data, so it’s the same across the board.

How can I see how my ZIP code did if it is not listed among the leaders?
Simply type in your ZIP code into the search box on any of the pages of the Community Counts site.

I type in my ZIP code and it displays no data or an error message. Why is that?
There are a small number of ZIP codes for which we cannot display results as these zips were not part of the population database used. Likely reasons for this were a) the ZIP is a new one added since the 2000 U.S. Census b) the ZIP is designated as a special military zone or postal distribution center c) the ZIP had less than 100 residents can not be accurately “counted” for this specific program.

How were the charities decided?
Once all scoring was finalized, eBay provided an online voting mechanism for the collective winners to choose from among a list of nonprofits serving those particular winning ZIP codes. We included among the available choices nonprofits that have benefited in the past from eBay Giving Works.

I have other questions that don’t seem to be answered here. Who can I contact?
Visit eBay’s Help pages and click Contact Us. Please indicate “Community Counts with eBay” in the body of the message. Click here to visit eBay Help pages.