posted on March 2, 2002 05:44:45 AM new
I am new to the auction process. Can someone offer some insight or guidelines on how long to run a listing? What are the pros and cons of a long run time vs. a short. Is it better to offer a small quantity or a large qty?
posted on March 2, 2002 06:35:11 AM new
Everyone seems to have different ending days, different length running times etc.....I find that my 7 day auctions that start and end on Sunday nights do the best for me.....I usually start them about 8 pm EST.....I seem to get the best bids on that day/time. I will also run auctions on Monday evenings also......seems that people are still in the "buying" mode from their Sunday night spee's......
As far as listing in quantities.....I think that depends on what you are selling. I'm getting ready to list some of my daughters American Eagle jeans and I will put these up in lots of same sizes as I think they will do better....but they will all be the same size.......so I think it just depends on what you are selling.... But you've come to right place to get your advice......I'm sure others will give you tips from their experiences.....
posted on March 2, 2002 06:38:53 AM new
My experience is that it doesn't matter how long your auction runs as much as when it ends/begins.
Excepting 3-day auctions of course except on things that will sell as soon as you post them, hard-to-find, highly sought collectibles.
I try to schedule mine to end around 11:00pm ET Sunday night -- which is 8:00pm PT. This means that people surfing after church or just settling in for the night and you catch all four main US timezones.
So if I launch on Thursday, I use 10-days. Tuesday I use 5-days, and Sunday, I use 7-days.
You'll get the bulk of your hits right after launch and the bulk of the remainder as the auction winds down. This is because people can view "new auctions" and "ending auctions" in a separate listing.
Also in regular listings, the ones ending soonest appear at the top (normally).
posted on March 2, 2002 07:06:58 AM new
I list my auctions for 7 days as well. Any longer is mostly a waste as most bidders will not keep paging through to get to an end of a catagory or search option. As for as ending days, various ending dates will work best. Many people that would bid on a Sunday night may not be able to bid on a Thursday night and vise versa. Most bidders will look at 3-4 pages of items when checking out the auctions. So naturally the closer to the ending date your auction becomes, the more looks it will get and the majority of bids will come in on the last day or two. Because of work schedule or what ever reason, many great bidders cannot look at auctions on certain days because they are too busy with other things in life. Many people that work have a schedule that they need to follow. The trick as a seller is to vary the ending days so everyone has a chance to see your auctions.
What I do is my first listing is on a Sunday. The relist (if needed) is on a Thursday and I will occasionally list on Mondays as well just to shake up the rotation once in a while. On the free auction sites that have auto-relist, I run my auctions for 5 days so they will end on a different day of the week each time. I have had success doing that as well. Sometimes it takes 4-5 relists to hit on the person that has a day off and is seeing the auction for the first time. If I had run those auctions to always end on a Sunday, there is a very good chance that those people would have never even seen the auction let alone bid on it. My advice to you is to experiment with different options and use what you like. I think you will find that there is no real set pattern and stagering auctions once in a while will be with pleasant results for you.
Good luck,
bp
posted on March 2, 2002 07:08:33 AM new
I agree that auctions ending on a Sunday get better results than on other days. Wednesday has always been a good shopping day as many newspaper advertisers would attest to.
Prime time (statistically speaking) for eBay hits is about 6pm PST. Starting a listing to end around this time is ideal.
If you are selling an item-x and found that there were 35 item-x's in the closed auctions list and all sold between $12 and $15, you can pretty much guarantee getting at least $12 no matter what the duration. Buy it now at $15 might be even more attractive for someone who doesn't want to go through the bidding process. Researching the ebay market price of a popular stock standard item can help you price accordingly.
For things which are more obscure, the longer the listing the better. I notice that pricing guides and collectibles indexes never seem to jive with ebay. The longest you may list something is 120 days in an ebay store for a fixed price item. For an odd or unusual item which you have no idea of the value, you could start it high, and revise the listing after a certain time dropping the price. Eventually (hopefully) with the proper exposure time and a reasonable price, the item will sell--and without re-listing!
My favorite listing schedules include starting a 10 day auction 6pm PST Wed to end 6pm PST Sunday and 7 day auction 6pm Wed or Sun.
posted on March 2, 2002 07:11:15 PM new
Sorry about the mixup--it's not Wed-Sun, thanks. I meant start Sunday end on Wednesday for a 10 day auction. Also works great for 3 and 7 day auctions whatever duration is appropriate.
---------starting on sunday...
SUN-MON
MON-TUE
TUE-WED <-- 3 day auctions end wed
WED-THU
THU-FRI
FRI-SAT
SAT-SUN <-- 7 day auctions end sun
SUN-MON
MON-TUR
TUE-WED <-- 10 day auctions end wed
I don't particularly care for auctions ending every day of the week, I prefer the two day work week much better they'd be Sundays and Wednesdays.
posted on March 2, 2002 07:17:26 PM new
I run 5 day or 7 day auctions depending on when I start them. I try to end them sometime between 9 and 10 p.m. (Eastern) for reasons already mentioned in other posts. I have found that ending my auctions on Sunday, Tuesday, or Thursday works best. Most of my afternoon BIN sales come on Thursdays. Avoid ending on Saturday night.
they'd be Sundays and Wednesdays.