posted on August 10, 2003 09:28:53 PM new
About ten days ago there was a discussion of what was the optimum, how to switch lengths while auction is on etc. It was really great and gave me a lot of new perspectives.
I would like to refer to it again.
Can someone direct me?
@@@@@@
I know you probably didn't pay much for that; but you never know, it could be worth nothing.
Especially the weekly and monthly charts. I've noticed that on Thursdays the numbers spike upwards for three days. I'm willing to bet that a very large percentage of sellers start their auctions of Thursdays and any auctions without bids get the extra three days for an extra dime treatment very near the 12 hour deadline. It didn't hit me till a week ago or so, but the spikes seem to bear out that theory. The spikes are always the same and late every Sunday night the numbers tumble.
-------------- sig file ----------- He who angers you controls you
posted on August 10, 2003 11:15:19 PM new
First of all, those graphs are great. Immediately went up on favorites list.
Correct me if I misunderstand your point. Assuming everyone wants their auction up over a weekend for maximum traffic; no one would want their auction to close on Fri or Sat (and probably Sun), I would just assume that the Mon downward spike would just be 3, 5, or 7 day auctions scheduled to end after the weekend. Wouldn't you have to know the proportion of 3 vs. 5 vs. 7 day auctions initiated then you would have to "back into" their start date to corroborate your theory. It is a great strategy and my question would be, I sure as hell wouldn't have come up with it. Do you think the average, (or I guess I should say the individual seller x their volume),is that sophisticated?
In over my head I think.
@@@@@@
I know you probably didn't pay much for that; but you never know, it could be worth nothing.
posted on August 11, 2003 06:14:40 AM new
The 'average' ebay seller is a housewife in Ames, Iowa selling clothes that she finds at garage sales and she lists about 40 auctions per month. The 'average' seller on ebay auctios-wise is a full-time seller that lists 3,000 auctions per month.
There may be more housewifes than full-time sellers but the full-time sellers list much more than the little guys overall. The housewife may have trouble with the old 'is it crap or Shinola' equation but the full-time seller knows every ebay trick in the book.
-------------- sig file ----------- He who angers you controls you
posted on August 11, 2003 06:46:31 AM new
I will preface this by saying that this is very un-scientific and based on personal observation only and may just pertain to postcards (the only thing I sell).
I think the time of year has to be taken into consideration when deciding when to end auctions. I have found, for example, that the same nights that are good nights to end auctions in the winter are not good in the summer.
In the winter, my best nights were sundays and thursdays....during june and up until mid-july, ending an auction on sunday was counter-productive! I have noticed a return to winter patterns in the last couple of weeks. Perhaps people are tired of the nice weather and have planted themselves back inside in front of their computers.
I list 7 days/week in the fall-winter-spring and try to stay away from ending auctions on friday and saturday nights in the summer. If i list on those days I will list 10-day auctions to end on a weekday. I tried a couple of 3-day auctions as an experiment after reading that thread but ended up extending 90% to 10-days and probably won't try that again!
posted on August 11, 2003 09:37:01 AM new
I think the 3 day durations are used a lot by sellers selling an iffy item that ebay may pull. If they list the item with a BIN on a Thursday or Friday ( weekends seem to have less ebay personnel on staff ) it will be over before ebay catches it if it is turned in by an ebayer and not caught by the search software.
-------------- sig file ----------- He who angers you controls you
