Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Except for books, research on factors impacting the sale of low-priced used products is uncommon. This study examines the relationship between Netflix user reviews of DVDs and their sale on Amazon as used products. An Amazon account was created by the authors, and a broad mix of 121 used DVDs were sold between 10/15/2012 and 11/20/2015. Using a low-price strategy, all sold within 57 days of posting on the site with 17.4% selling on the first day. DVDs with lower user ratings (valence) (p < .001) and lower rating volume (p < .05) took longer to sell. Valence and volume were not correlated (p > .05). In an OLS regression that included valence, volume, price, and release date, valence showed the highest beta (-.507, p < .001) for days to sale, followed by price (.237, p < .01), and release date (.168, p < .05). For Blu-rays which were well-liked blockbusters, volume predicted sales and valence didn’t. Valence appears to be an important word of mouth variable affecting sale of used products when the range of quality is broad.