In online marketplaces, sellers can rely on alternative mechanisms to signal their quality when they lack rich transaction histories. Using scraped data on GPU sales from eBay, we find that certain image signals can substitute for reputation to increase conversion rates amongst sellers with less than 100% positive reputation, and conditional on making a sale, can realize a 5% price premium on average. However, the effects are only significant for less reputable sellers.

Workshop on Information Systems and Economics (WISE) 2022 in Copenhagen, Denmark