posted on November 16, 2002 07:26:53 PM new
Ok, it's time to trot out the annual "do you end auctions on Thanksgiving Weekend" discussion. Will folks be too stuffed and involved in football games to bid OR will they be ready to take a break from the family and look forward to a little eBay shopping? What do you think?
posted on November 16, 2002 07:43:43 PM new
If you let them end on Saturday or Sunday, sure- no different from any other weekend. Auctions ending on Thursday or Friday night may be more iffy.
posted on November 16, 2002 07:44:46 PM new
I have been wondering the same thing. I keep hearing the experts say that online shopping is supposed to increase dramatically this holiday season. I guess we won't know for sure til it's over!
posted on November 16, 2002 07:54:04 PM new
I'm not planning on doing many auctions, but I actually cut down this time of year - What I generally sell does not work well for gifts, and I travel for about 3 weeks before Christmas and through New Year, so I get to start slowing down anyway on the auctions.
posted on November 19, 2002 08:19:28 AM new
Last year I went to find out, and sales were bad on Thanksgiving to the weekend. People just do not stay at home, they're either with the family or try to get away from the family.
There's only a six day widow to get all my Christmas auctions in starting with the Monday after Thanksgiving because I saw a big drop off after the following weekend. Then I go back in regular auction mode selling non-gift items, and sales stay good.
posted on November 19, 2002 12:43:44 PM new
Anecdotally, I have generally found auctions ending on holidays to get about the same results as any other day. This year I'm going to find out for sure by ending a whole bunch on every day of the T-giving holiday.
A lot of people are on the road during holidays, but a lot are also at home and don't have work interfering with their ebay action.
posted on November 19, 2002 07:42:01 PM new
In prior years I always made an effort not to end auctions on Thanksgiving weekend. My assumption was that buyers would be busy with the holiday, spending time with their families, and would not be on their computers looking for things to buy.
Then last year I totally zoned out on the dates, and by mistake I had auctions end on Thanksgiving Day and the weekend days following.
Remember last year? There were thousands of sellers screaming about that charity thing, and the implementation of Checkout, and other things. Yet at the same time eBay was doing some significant national advertising to bring in new buyers.
Well my auctions ended real well, and I got newbies that had some of those bidding wars that sellers love.
I think what happened last year is that lots of sellers were unhappy for various reasons, so lots of sellers took the Thanksgiving Weekend off, didn't have auctions end, and as a result listings dropped a but in my categories, which made my auctions stand out a bit more. Potential buyers were sitting around with family watching television, saw the t.v. ads, clicked into eBay, and a whole bunch of them found their way to my auctions.
So yes, I am having some auctions end on Thanksgiving Weekend again this year.
posted on November 20, 2002 12:08:10 AM new
Thanksgiving 1999 was my first ebay experience. I went to my brother's in Illinois and my sister in law's mother sold things on Ebay. That was the first I had heard of it. I spent about an hour surfing ebay at her house and I've been hooked ever since.
