Ebay sellers, what are your timing strategies?

[BassGMan]

Hi guys. Another simple question for you fellow comic sellers on Ebay. If you don't wanna give away your secrets then just pass on by. I was just wondering if anyone wants to share what has worked and not worked for you guys regarding when you list (and therefore end) your Ebay comic listings. What is the best time to have an auction close, begin, and so on. 10-day, 3-day? Any special features that work really well for you? Personally, just out of convenience I have been listing everything on sunday late afternoons through the evening. Usually 20-50 auctions at a time, usually similar book auctions (same run or character), and all one-week listings. I figure Sunday is a huge day for Ebay, lots of people online enjoying their weekend, but also lots of competition. You guys do any better with auctions closing on weekdays? I have always assumed that closing in the evening, say around 6:00-10:00 p.m. Eastern time is a good bet. How are those weekday afternoons though? People bidding from work? Just curious as what techniques you guys use. Thanks-----Sid

[aardvark88]

I like Sat. evening PST & avoid ending on the same day as a big Heritage Signature auction. Too many Sun. evening listings now.

[thecomicsheet]

I ran some analysis on this several months ago trying to figure out if there were advantages to selling on Sundays versus other days of the week and by selling during certain hours of the day. This is what I can remember, I'll try to run this analysis again soon:

 

Sunday typically has about 60 - 80 percent more volume than other days. Prices realized by sellers are about average for the week.

 

Monday prices realized seem to be lower.

 

Friday and Saturday prices seem to be higher.

 

The effects are not large (only about 1 or 2 percent on average), so it doesn't usually concern me overly much (but I never list on Mondays!) I have listed on Fridays and Saturdays and had good luck.

 

I do recommend 7 day auctions. I seem to get about half my action in the first day or two, then only a few bids until about a day before the auctions close, then I get the last half of my bids in last day bidding and last minute sniping.

 

For expensive items I think it pays to run a 10 day auction. Start it on Thursday and end on Sunday. You get 2 weekends of people looking at your auctions.

[sterlingcomics]

I used to post Sunday evenings with moderate success. I used SupaPimp's Wednesday idea and it worked out fine as well. I personally think there's too many variables to get a concrete answer here, but if you pay for some of these biz sites that can collect statistics from eBay you can definitely plan appropriately based on concrete info and not the direction of the wind.

 

I definitey agree though that the auctions need to close between 6pm-10pm. Try to time it so bidders coast to coast don't have to both rush home from work or stay late to bid.

 

Also, thecomicsheet provides good info. Bids do tend to come immediately and at the end, with a lot of dead space in between. I do Thursdays for 10 day items for large items as well.

[thecomicsheet]

I like Sat. evening PST & avoid ending on the same day as a big Heritage Signature auction. Too many Sun. evening listings now.

 

Good advice, if you are selling, stay away during and immediately after a Heritage auction.

Your sell-through will drop like a rock.

[sterlingcomics]

good point!

[OldGuy]

I haven't noticed a big difference as far as when I start/end auctions. The biggest difference I've seen came when I opened my auctions to Canadian bidders. Those crazy guys are willing to pay some high postage rates to pick up some books! In the auctions I listed today I opened shipping to the entire world, so we'll see how that affects things. As long as their willing to pay shipping then who am I to stop them from bidding?

[Timely]

I do recommend 7 day auctions. I seem to get about half my action in the first day or two, then only a few bids until about a day before the auctions close, then I get the last half of my bids in last day bidding and last minute sniping.

 

For expensive items I think it pays to run a 10 day auction. Start it on Thursday and end on Sunday. You get 2 weekends of people looking at your auctions.

 

Never use 10 day auctions. Bidders only bid a day or two after the auction begins and a day or two before the auction ends, those "middle days" are dead space. Why pay $$$ for 3 more days of dead space.

 

The reason the mid days are not good has to do with the way ebay lays out its "pages." Years ago every single page was listed and accessable at the bottom of the listings. You could view any of the 132 Golden Age pages that might be listed. Try accessing page 65 now. Since ebay only lists the first (or last) 10 pages you have to go page by page to get to page #65. It's a dumb idea that should be reversed by ebay.

 

Timely

[texasknight]

I do recommend 7 day auctions. I seem to get about half my action in the first day or two, then only a few bids until about a day before the auctions close, then I get the last half of my bids in last day bidding and last minute sniping.

 

For expensive items I think it pays to run a 10 day auction. Start it on Thursday and end on Sunday. You get 2 weekends of people looking at your auctions.

 

Never use 10 day auctions. Bidders only bid a day or two after the auction begins and a day or two before the auction ends, those "middle days" are dead space. Why pay $$$ for 3 more days of dead space.

 

The reason the mid days are not good has to do with the way ebay lays out its "pages." Years ago every single page was listed and accessable at the bottom of the listings. You could view any of the 132 Golden Age pages that might be listed. Try accessing page 65 now. Since ebay only lists the first (or last) 10 pages you have to go page by page to get to page #65. It's a dumb idea that should be reversed by ebay.

 

Timely

Not True...

You can scann through all listings easily, and without stopping at page 12 to get to page 15...

See below on a Captain America search

page 2

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&ht=1&satitle=captain+america&sosortproperty=1&sorecordstoskip=50

 

page 21

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&ht=1&satitle=captain+america&sosortproperty=1&sorecordstoskip=1000

 

Just change the Skip To at the end of the web address...

This also works nicely as you can go to the end of the listings and see the auctions that have just been added, and sometimes find a nice buy it now that you can pop before it gets anywhere close to the majority of those looking for the same items.

[lighthouse]

Never use 10 day auctions.

 

10 day auctions are a good idea when you offer an item that has very little duplication on eBay. Most people don't spend much time browsing the listings, they type in what they are looking for.

 

If I am selling a 9.8 copy of Batman 608, the auction doesn't need to last very long. There are tons of others just like it.

 

But if I am selling a 9.8 copy of Batman 8, there is absolutely an advantage to running the auction 3 extra days.

 

And on truly obscure material that isn't terribly valuable, just not easy to find, a longer auction can increase your chances that the all-important second bidder will find it.

 

Plus, if you are paying the extra $20 to feature your auction, it's a no-brainer to run it 3 days longer. It doesn't cost you any more for the extra feature time. And that one featured auction is a big shiny object dragging people to your other listings. Even if it doesn't get you more bids on that item, it will certainly get you more bids on your other items.

[BassGMan]

Yeah, I've cetainly noticed that dead time between days 2-6 for anything X-Men/Spider-Man/Wolverine/Batman and etc. Those days are practically useless on popular characters and books. The more obscure stuff, books that don't come up with more than a page or two full of listings will do OK throughout the week. All about being spotted I guess. Would those books mentioned above make better 3-days, or do days 2-6 still hold some kind of significance? -----Sid

[wrcomics]

I currently close my auctions between 2 and 5 in the afternoon although I have read that I would get better results if I closed them between 6 and 10 like mentioned earlier. Might be worth an experiment or two, but I guess you have to allow a couple of weeks to establish the new closing times after running them in the daytime for so long. A couple of things I do is promote the daylights out of my auctions using a newsletter that is sent to subscribers that are previous customers. I also promote through my website at www.wrcollectibles.net with featured auctions on my home page and a "closing soon" comics auction page. I also post to marketplace newsgroups and I place a post in the marketplace here as well. Although I've picked on him from time to time, Steve Mortensen at Colossus Comics and Larry Kahm also do an excellent job of promoting their comics auctions too.