Seeking Auction Advice

[Roger Holmes]

I am about to list 18 items on that auction site ( IIRC we can mention it here).  All but one is model trains.  I haven't done any selling for years but used to try to close my auctions on Monday after 6pm Pacific time.  Any opinions on the best time to close an auction?

I believe that I recall a statistic that said it was something like Wednesday at 2pm which seemed counter-intuitive until you consider that most people surf the auctions at work.

Thanks.

[seusscaboose]

mmmm.. interesting question... I surf at night and occasionally on the weekends...

i do know one thing... i typically make it 5 days.. not 3

[victor miranda]

on e-bay
the brass locos seems to like to end at 9to 10 pm Sunday....

I have not been able to see much price differences
in the various ending times for the items I'd like.

I toss my bid as close to the end as I can get it
I say avoid 4 in the morning....

v

[wm3798]

There's no ebay restrictions here on the Wire, Roger, but we do have the 'Trading Post' section where you can float some trial balloons that we can take a stab at before you list them.  We likey the bargains!  Back when I was more active on eBay, I would usually close mine out on Sunday night.  This was primarily due to the fact that I would run 7 day auctions, and wouldn't get around to posting them until Sunday night!  So much for detailed marketing studies!!

Lee

[sundowner]

Thursday and Sundays nights are best. I read that somewhere and it seems to work.

[Roger Holmes]

Lee--I posted three on Trading Post and sold one. One is still on Trading Post.  Two that I'm going to list  on eBay are Corgi 1:48 PCC's so I figured those wouldn't spark any interest here.  One is a pair of shoes--new and never worn but I'm amazed at the number of used men's shoes on eBay .  The rest in N scale.

[SkipGear]

When I sold a couple estate groups for friends, I usually tried to end them Monday or Tuesday night. I found competing with the ton's of crap that ends on Sunday wasn't worth it. All the China and business sellers seem to end their stuff Sunday night. Ending on Monday, the items are close enough to the top of the list when somebody is searching via "ends soonest" over the weekend. Don't forget the west coaster are 3 hours behind so I usually tried to end stuff between 10 and 11pm. It also helped that I had a late day into work on Wednesday so I could ship everything out Wednesday morning before work. That was part of the planning.

I don't think there is a real strategy. I something is truely valuable, and you list it properly, it will be found. A friend from work had an old watch that he thought was worth something but wasn't really sure. He was bored one night and listed it at 3AM. After the seven days it was up around $1000 and he was impressed. He went to bed figuring it may jump a little at the end. He woke up to a final bid of $37,500. It turns out it was a lot rarer than he thought and a bidding war insued at 3am. If somebody really wants something, it will be found and bid on. The big issue is, you need two people to want that same thing to get the best price.

On the flip side of that, the best deals I havd picked up, either ended or were listed very early in the morning or the middle of the afternoon when most people are at work. I tend to stay away from those times for my own stuff.

[muktown128]

I pretty much do the same thing as Lee - list items as 7 day auctions ending on Sunday (late afternoon / evening).  This allows me to package and ship items within 1-2 days after receiving payment. 

I do occasionally check out auctions from work, but due to a recent change in my job I don't have as much time to do this anymore.  I used to sort by auctions ending soonest, but now sort by newest listed and then pick items to watch.  Like Victor, I also tend to be a last minute bidder.

Scott

[DKS]

There's no ebay restrictions here on the Wire, Roger, but we do have the 'Trading Post' section where you can float some trial balloons that we can take a stab at before you list them.  We likey the bargains!  Back when I was more active on eBay, I would usually close mine out on Sunday night.  This was primarily due to the fact that I would run 7 day auctions, and wouldn't get around to posting them until Sunday night!  So much for detailed marketing studies!!

This is actually recommended practice according some sellers. 7-day auctions ending on Sunday night works best for many bidders, since it's more convenient for folks to bid on weekend evenings. I haven't done any studies myself, but it seems as though my 7-day auctions ending on Sunday night were the busiest in terms of bids; plus, it was convenient for me to spend Sunday evening packing up the 80% of auctions that were paid almost immediately after ending, since the last-minute bidders were already online.

[CBQ Fan]

I have always had my best luck when listing on Sunday evening, say after 8:00pm Eastern.  But I also will jump on the discounted listing fees which seem to always be Tuesday and Wednesday.  This discount also tells me it must be a slower time for listing and sales so they are trying to increase the business.

[Roger Holmes]

Since the consensus seemed to be Sunday night, I just launched 18 auctions over the last half hour and started a small one last Friday to re-learn how to list an auction and that item already has a bidder.

I'll let you know next Sunday how things went.

[John]

Since the consensus seemed to be Sunday night, I just launched 18 auctions over the last half hour and started a small one last Friday to re-learn how to list an auction and that item already has a bidder.

I'll let you know next Sunday how things went.

Links?

[Roger Holmes]

Thanks, John.  Probably easiest just to search under my screen name, "judgeroger".

[Dave Schneider]

http://shop.ebay.com/judgeroger/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1
That Overland gas turbine looks cool. No need for one, but very nice.

Best wishes, Dave

[Roger Holmes]

Well my 19 auctions ended with 15 sales on Sunday night so things worked out pretty well.  All but one ended between 8 and 8:30 CST.  I even sold my (new) shoes!

The big ticket brass UP turbine sold for a decent price and the plastic Con-Cor version sold for a very decent price.  I had picked up four of the MT Ringling billboard cars fairly cheap and they sold for exactly half of sticker on each.  Made a little but not much on those.

The Undec B-mann Doodlebug went north of $60 so I will list the other two that I have. All of the other engines also sold well.

Surprisingly my two Triple Crown Roadrailers (25 cars total with a working EOT) had a lot of lookers but no sale.

Not surprisingly my B-mann Acela had a "Watch List" count of zero and no sale.

All in all the Sunday night closing advice was very sound and I thank all who suggested it.