The time of day you list your auction items is crucial to your online success. When you consider that your auctions will end at the same time of day that you list them. So if you list your auctions at 3:00 in the morning, because you’re a night owl and that’s when you like to work, keep in mind that they’ll also end at 3:00 in the morning when there will be fewer people up and bidding. in your articles.
Since most auction bids occur in the final minutes of the auction, this could greatly affect the final price your auctions receive. Therefore, it’s important that your auctions start and end at times when your buyers are likely to be awake and bidding. The end date and time are the most important moments to control. The start date and time are the same as the end date and time for seven-day auctions. But if you use any of eBay’s other auction lengths, like 3 days or 5 days, start your auctions on a day that will end when most of your buyers are likely to be bidding.
For example, I used to auction children’s clothing in lots of 25 pieces and found that most of the people who shopped with me were mothers. My best time to make the list was around 8:00 pm on a Sunday night. By running seven-day auctions, that meant they would also end at that time the following Sunday. That gave me two opportunities to connect with my buyers, at the beginning and end of the auction.
Duration: Although seven-day auctions are the norm, there are times when one of the other lengths eBay offers may be right for you. eBay offers you the option of 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 day auctions. eBay charges a small fee of 10 cents for auctions that last 10 days. With the 10-day duration, you get the most time in front of your prospective buyer for minimal additional cost. This can work well for an item that may be slow moving. But some buyers may not want to wait 10 days for the auction to close and may look elsewhere, on or off eBay, to get the item faster.
You may think a 3-day auction is too short to get much action, but I’ve had a lot of success with 3-day auctions that started on Thursday and ended on Sunday night. In most cases, I did not experience any drop in price when I went to the 3-day duration. And I was able to move many more of the items I was selling without flooding the market, holding auctions for the same item, closer than the 7-day duration allows. Buyers also perceive that there is a reason to sell the item quickly when the auction is short. And they tend to commit to an offer faster, if the item is something they want.
Start and end times: eBay says that 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm (Pacific Standard Time) are the busiest hours on the site. Those are the evening and night times for all time zones in the US. If you find that your customers are from other parts of the world, you should adjust your times accordingly. Please note that if your auction starts at 1:27 pm, it will end at 1:27 pm, regardless of the auction length in days. .
Weekday: As I already mentioned, Sundays were the best day of the week to finish my auctions, when I was selling children’s clothes. But that wasn’t true when he was selling gothic clothing. Mostly young people shop for goth clothes, I discovered, and the best times to break up were Friday nights around midnight. When they were looking for new clothes but the malls were closed. Therefore, it is important to familiarize yourself with your customer’s clothing purchase. A lot of this comes with experience, but there are also tools that can help you do your research. Terapeak has a really good set of tools. Their packages cost between $7.95 and $16.95 but they offer a 14-day free trial. Andale also offers tools to help you find the best times, days, and items to list.
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