Reputation value is one of the important factors that maintain the order of internet transaction. However, there exists great controversy about reputation value in many empirical studies. By collecting transaction data of taobao.com, this paper studies empirically the effect of the seller’s reputation on transaction results for a few kinds of commodity of different characteristics, and finds that the characteristics of commodity have important influence on the reputation value. The greater the value of commodity, or the lower the standardization degree of commodity, the more significant the effect of reputation on the sales of the seller’s commodity and the more credit evaluation index and transaction mechanism can play a role. In addition, reputation value has diminishing marginal effect. Our study provides a good explanation for the inconsistency of empirical conclusions on the reputation value.