posted on May 18, 2001 10:16:55 PM
If your sales are like mine, most bidding takes place on the last day within the last few hours of your auction. Since I sell non-unique items, BIN has been a huge benefit for me, as I can relist something as soon as it sells, rather than listing multiples and having them compete against each other.
It seems to me that if eBay would offer a one day auction option, and if I listed the same item everyday, I could very realistically sell 20 to 25 of the same item each month, instead of the 10 I currently do by running three day auctions that are not BIN'd.
Does a one day auction option seem like a benefit to you all?
Are there any good reasons why eBay doesn't offer the option? The only one I can think of would maybe be the potential of fraud in a relatively short period of time. One way to limit this would be to offer the option only to sellers with a certain feedback level, like dutch auctions.
posted on May 18, 2001 10:28:34 PM
I think people might only bid on the last day but I like to list auctions for at least 7 days to give people time to actually see the listing. Of course, I'm sure it all depends on what items you sell.
posted on May 18, 2001 10:50:42 PM
It's not a bad idea, but it would require eBay to change their current search indexing. Despite their advertised time of "a few hours", I find it frequently takes between 12-24 hours for my items to show up in search. That would sort of kill 1 day auctions right off the bat.
posted on May 18, 2001 11:18:27 PM
vwbell hit the nail on the head -- as long as it takes for items to show up, a one-day auction would be pretty unrealistic.
I've compared various auctions of identical items, and noticed that 3- and 5-day auctions rarely bring prices equivalent to 7-day auctions. An item has to be extremely hot, it seems to me, to do well in a 3-day auction, relatively speaking. Can't imagine doing 1-day-ers.
posted on May 19, 2001 05:41:48 AM
You can also, if you wish, list one of your items every day, or every other day, so you always have auctions ending.
The problem with listing one every day is that they compete against each other. People will not bid as high on the item closing today, knowing that they can bid on the one closing tomorrow.
Gang, the type of items I sell are usually the really hot items of the moment. I sold Razor scooters over Christmas, and at any given time, there were 2000+ auctions going for them. Most scooters didn't get bids until the last hour, because of the sheer volume. I mean, why would you bid on a scooter closing in 6 days when you could bid on an identical one closing in 6 minutes?
If eBay were able to get the auction listed in the search functions within an hour, would it be a viable option for some items?
posted on May 19, 2001 08:50:42 AM
I dont mind one day auctions if the ITem was to get the veiws to get the bids.
When I frist started with online auction in 99 I was selling on yahoo I had a few auction that were featured end in less then 2 to 5 mins of being listed there.
But I have been listing on ebay for over a year and find it to be very different frist thing I notice is that it takes as long as a day and a half before the item gets more then 1 or two views and get in to there search.
in fact my best selling on ebay comes from 10 day auctions I get 75% more items ending with bid then I do with 5 to 7 day listings.
Yahoo is slower now not as many items listed but still I can list an item there and in 6 to 12 hours I can have 30 to 100 views on my newly listed items.
Ebay is good and it has the bidders but it is big and slow when it comes to updateing its data base it take 5 times longer then a site with less listings.
if many sellers if just 20% or 30% of the buyer and sellers would make the plunge and all choose anther place to list and buy items ebay could have some competition again in all reality you could sell your Item faster on yahoo then on ebay and for less just based on the fact that your items get in there search faster.
yes some say they lack service but look at the posts just on this board here 90% of the emails sent to ebay are autosponder replys just like yahoo.
and then look at the cost as well
item start bid $9.99 7 day listing ebay .30
yahoo .20 feature you item on ebay $19.95 on yahoo you choose your price can feature your item 7 days for as little as .70
every one is complaining auction manager services are chargeing to host auction pictures Yahoo host your pictures for free.
ebay charges .25 to have your item in there gallery feature yahoo all your items get in there gallery veiw by piture only for free its done with out then asking.
a person who pays ebay $100 a month for listing and fvf on sales can sell on yahoo for under $25 and there is no fvf.
there are people paying thousands of dollars a month to sell on ebay that could be doing the same thing on yahoo for a few hundered dollars and not have to pay for auction manageing because yahoo offer this too as part of there service.
thinkiing your buyer wont fallow you is silly when you the seller save thousands a year on selling you can afford to sell for less in a market place that is less flooded with items.
posted on May 19, 2001 12:47:57 PM
No offense,but a 1 Day auction would be ridiculous......How would people have time to see it?
You have to remember that just because you are only getting bids on the last day...a 5 or 7 day give people lots of time to see your auction....A lot of people wait until the last day,but they need time to see the item beforehand. JMO
posted on May 19, 2001 01:13:45 PM
Would you ever go to an auction house that didn't have a "preview" period? For really high-class stuff, the preview period is several weeks.
Just consider the listing to be mostly preview and only about 6 hours of auction.
You missed my point entirely. My point is this: I think that for NON-UNIQUE items, most people bid on items that are about to end. I mean, why would you bid on a Barbie that is 6 days out when you can bid on an identical one closing in 6 minutes, 16 minutes, 26 minutes, etc? You wouldn't, most likely. All things being equal, most people would bid on one ending sooner.
Of course if you were selling antiques or other rare items, you would want to run a 7 or 10 day auction, as you may be listing the only one on eBay, and so you would want to attract a large number of eyeballs. In my case, this just isn't so.
The way eBay is set up know, I run 3 day auctions and sell 9 or 10 identical items within a 30 day period. With one day auctions, I feel pretty certain that I could sell 20 to 25 of the same items. The reason I don't list them once a day is because they begin to compete against each other. If the bid for the item ending today gets too high, many buyers will quit bidding, since another one will close tomorrow. One day auctions would limit that tendancy, I think.
Does anyone else out there sell identical items time and time again? Do you think one day auctions would help you sell more items within a 30 day period?
posted on May 19, 2001 02:44:10 PM
Torley
I know my post got a little long winded but the point was that one day auction would work better at a smaller online site where there is less items for sale and the data base is updates far faster then 24 to 48 hours after auctions were launched.
