Where to Buy and Sell
 Our
list of online auction and e-commerce sites will show you best
places to bid, buy and sell goods. These great sites include
auctions, as well as ISBN based e-commerce sales sites and more!
When to end your auctions:
Every great auction
ending has a great beginning! When your auction ends is a major key
to it's success because your auction ending time is determined by when you start
your auction.
There are 5 lengths of auctions on ebay: 1, 3,
5, 7 and 10 day auctions. So if you begin an auction right now, this
second, your auction ends exactly however many days later you have chosen for
the auction length.
For instance, if you run a seven day auction
(a standard length), and were to start it right now, then it will end exactly
one week from now.
We feel the optimal day to end your auctions
is on Sundays, in the evening. Read on and learn more.
End
Game - What time your auctions should close
OK, great, so now what? Time for some
strategy. Literally, no pun intended. You want your item to get seen by as many people as possible-
the more people that see it, the more bids you may get, which of course drives
up the final sales price. So, you obviously want your auctions to end
during a time and day when the most prospective buyers are lurking around out
there.
When is the best time for this? Our
experiences have shown us that auctions ending on a late Sunday afternoon into
Sunday evening have the most success. Why? Well, first of all its a
weekend day, which means most people are off from work and will have time to see
your auctions.
So, what about ending your auction listing on
a Friday or Saturday? Well, Friday afternoons most people are
exhausted and frenzied from the work week, and are resting or getting ready to go out for the evening.
And Saturday late morning is not terrible- we do see some eager ebayers trying
to spot deals at this hour, but many people are not only recovering from the
past week of work, but also from whatever they subjected themselves to on Friday
night as well- so they may sleep in.
Of course, Saturday
afternoon is great, right? Well... it's OK, but still not ideal (a close
second to Sunday night). Some ebay volume picks
up here, but now many prospective bidders are either catching up on shopping, or they're at
the park, on the boat or out in the yard with the hedge clippers or the dreaded
lawn mower.
Saturday night then? Well, some activity is seen
here, but you'll miss all those folks who didn't catch the big movie Friday night, and
went to the second night's showing- this is especially true during summer blockbuster
film season!
Sunday Mornings?
Nope. Church and/or the same reasons as Saturday morning.
Sunday afternoon? Well,
still some yard workers here, but hey... now the activity is picking up...
and, voila! By early evening, the time is RIGHT... After dinner on Sunday evening, people want
something recreational to do, to take their minds of the coming work week,
without going out and partying- no energy after a socially packed weekend, after
all. They want something relaxing and fun to do... preferably at home so
they can unwind before bed... Hey... of course... ebay!
Okay, so now you have
the idea. With this little bit of knowledge then, you should ideally be
aiming to end your auctions between say 7:00 pm to around no later than 11:00 on
Sunday night. 7:00 pm is just after most folks dinner time, so that won't
interfere with their ability to log on and bid. Don't go too late into
Sunday evening, as most people are in bed by 11 to 12 or so on Sunday night, and
you want to catch them before they drift off.
Also, remember that auction ending times on
ebay are in PST and you should adjust accordingly if you live in Central,
Mountain or Eastern time zones. So, if you live in New York city and you
want that treasured item to end seven days later at 8:30 PM ebay time, to
reflect the three hour time difference, you will actually start your auction at
11:30 AM EST.
Click here for:
Official ebay time
ebay link
How long to run your auctions
What's great about the
ebay system is that you get to choose how long to run your auctions, and
when to start them to hit your targeted ending day and time... It may seem
complicated at first, but seasoned ebayers are used to doing the calculations
fairly quickly. So, if you are trying to sell an item on a Tuesday, and
you want it to end at the optimal 7-11 PM Sunday time we discussed (ebay PST),
you would pick a 5 day auction. Or if it's Thursday, you could use a three
day auction, etc.
Of course, you can run
one day auctions on Saturday evenings, but then you won't be leaving much time for
people to find your auction. "But," you might ask, "since most activity occurs at the end
of the auction, who cares, right?" Well, it does still matter, as many
people will save your auction in their 'favorite auctions' on My ebay or
bookmark them in their browser and come back a few days later... Remember, most people
will bid only in the last hours or minutes of an auction, or if they are pros,
they may be even using a bid sniper to snatch up items unannounced in
the last few seconds. So you want to be savvy about this, too.
Ten day auctions are
good, and can get more bids just from the nature of the longer bidding session.
Plus, you are spreading the auction over two weekends, which means you will have
exposure on two Sundays, which is the busiest auction day. Just make sure
and try to start your auctions so they will end on that second Sunday (see
when your auctions should close
above). This means you want to start your ten day auctions on Thursday
evenings, and allow for time changes depending on where you live.
How
to set your item Starting Price
When pricing your auction items, remember
to keep the auction fees at your site in mind. For instance, if you
want to start your item at around ten dollars, you would want to price it
just under the ten dollar level, say at $9.97 or $9.99 or whatever.
Why? Well, if you price it for ten
bucks and it only gets one bid, you just automatically just lost money.
Here's how it works: The listing fee for
items starting at ten dollars is 60 cents, whereas any item priced under ten
dollars is only 35 cents. So, if you had priced your item at $9.99,
you would have only paid 35 cents for the insertion fee, and would have
netted $9.64 in profit (before the final value fee and any extra promotional
fees).
If you price the same auction starting at
ten dollars and only get one bid, you make ten bucks, but spend 60 cents on
the insertion, so now you just netted $9.40. That extra penny you
thought you were earning just cost you 24 cents. This is no big deal
by itself, but when you start looking at hundreds of auctions a month, and
higher insertion fees for higher dollar stuff, it adds up fast... It pays to
watch the bottom line as an auction seller!
Also, its very important to use a little
psychology when you start an auction listing... Online auctions are like any
other online business: it's all about traffic. Setting a starting bid
at an odd number makes the auction listing stand out to potential buyers who
are scrolling through those endless auction listings. If they see your
item and several similar items and yours looks like it has bids, people will
be more likely to visit your auction description and possibly bid. By
setting an odd number, it looks like bidding activity has already occurred!
By the time the prospective buyer gets to the item and realizes it has no
bids, it won't matter, as they may already be hooked on your glowing
description and beautiful item photos.
Also, from a marketing standpoint, people
who see a listing scrolling by for $24.98 are far more likely to check it
out then one going by for $25.00. It's just human nature (not to
mention you'll reap the insertion fee savings as mentioned before).
$24.98 seems... well, like 24 dollars and some change. Whereas $25.00
seems like 25 bucks which is a quarter of 100 dollars which is 10 percent of
1000 dollars which is...whew!
Well, that's how the mind sees it.
25 bucks as opposed to $24.98 or $24.97, etc, just seems like so much
more of a person's hard earned bread... hard to believe we are only talking
a few pennies difference, but its the same reason why almost all retailers
from Wal Mart to McDonalds use non round numbers to price their items.
For more advice on insertion and final value fees:
See our auction fees article
Pros
and cons of Ten Day Auctions
Pros
Many of the extra bids you get in ten day
auctions are small, first level placeholder bids. These are from bidders
whose "My ebay" favorite auctions section is full- these people usually
just want to keep track of the auction and come in and bid later.
They know it doesn't cost them anything to do so, so they will bid the small
minimum opening bid of your auction.
Or, these early bids could be from the dealers
hoping to score your item for close to its small open bid price. Even if
these early bidders do not bid to win, they are creating extra action on your
auction, which is a good thing for sellers- it may bring in more bidders later
on who have noticed the activity on your item. And the extra bids may
drive your item price higher, getting serious bidders to engage in a bidding war
at the end of the auction.
Cons
The extra fee price on 10 day ebay auctions
has recently been doubled to 20 cents, which will further cut into your profit
margins, especially if you list your auctions in two categories (see
auction fees). These add up!
You have to wait longer for 10 day auctions to
close- this extra time is bad for sellers. As an auction seller, you need
turnover on your auctions- faster deals means faster profits.
Also, this delay may turn off some bidders,
who may not want to wait the extra time for the auction to end. However,
if your item is especially rare or in high demand, you shouldn't worry about
this, as these won't be your serious bidders any way. If prospective buyers want
that prized treasure you have up for auction bad enough, they'll wait for it.
Learn
more about:
Buy It Now Auctions
Reserve Price Auctions
See
tips for Bidders
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