eBay reported an increase in revenue of 27%. First Quarter total revenue was $1.77 billion compared to $1.39 billion for the same period last year. Beneath these figures though are some interesting trends. During the last quarter 588 million items were listed which represented an increase of just 2% on the same period last year.

CEO Meg Whitman said “that the slower growth was the logical outcome of the companies efforts to reduce the amount of over priced items that cluttered up the listings.” It is no secret that eBay considered that the online auction was being clogged up with thousands of cell phone chargers, chintzy digital cameras, outdated MP3 players and other digital devices that had been listed with unrealistically high starting prices an so attract no bids.

The company is now trying to encourage smaller starting bids by tweaking their selling prices. eBay say that they can see these efforts are having an effect and prices are now more in sync with their marketing values.

During the last quarter 82.9 million active eBay users exchanged $14.28 billion in goods ranging from houses, cars to clothes and e-books. Performance has been down in the USA and Germany but this has been more than offset by increased turnover in the UK and the other eBay sites.