posted on August 1, 2003 05:06:14 PM new
Hi, have often wondered the same thing myself. have found though that posting for 8PM Eastern time which ends at 11PM Western time works best for me. Since probably 80% of my auctions are purchased out West it gives them the full evening to surf and buy. I also use 10 day auctions and go from Thursday to Sunday.It sems to work out well.
posted on August 1, 2003 07:59:55 PM new
I'm sure you mistyped. 11pm Western time is 2am Eastern time. All Ebay times are western (PST) so if you want to end at 11pm Western time, set the auctions to launch at 11pm.
I had a similar philosophy. For a long time, I have listed auctions at 8pm PST. Every night. But even though there are many many potential buyers, I think I may be exposing my auctions to the same group over and over as people tend to have set habits when it comes to surfing.
Length of the auctions is something I used to have trouble with. I thought that 10 day auctions were best. Turned out to be an accounting mistake. Much of that ten days is dead time. Most buyers hit the last two days of an auction regardless of length - especially the last day - and especially the last few hours.
Of course, I am only speaking for my field which is DVDs.
As an experiment some time, instead of running the same set of auctions for ten days, try setting them for 5 and get two go-rounds in that ten day period. I have a hunch you will sell more than enough to cover the added expense if the auctions you've been listing have been successful.
posted on August 2, 2003 07:25:36 AM new
Truth is there is no best time , you are dealing with so many timezones and with buy it nows and auctionsniper.com it makes little difference. Most sales do come from the west coast as they are that much more savy with computers and online buying than rural or east coast.
posted on August 6, 2003 07:47:17 PM new
I'm pretty loyal to my ritual of Sunday evenings 7-8 western time. Seems to work well. It also depends what I'm selling. What audience are you targeting? Kids items would hit moms in the a.m., teenagers would not be online weekend evenings,etc.
posted on August 6, 2003 08:14:44 PM new
I sell DVDs targeted to primarily an adult audience. Not adult films, per se. But DVDs of films from the early 90's and before.
I do think there is a "best time". I know that Buy It Now and sniping belie that. Still, the most action on an auction comes in the last few hours. Most Buy It Nows occur within the last few hours.
If you can figure out when your targeted audience is greatest, you'd do well to end your auctions then.
My other theory is that every so often you should alter your closing time by an hour or so just to freshen up your audience a bit.
I think I have been too dogmatic about when my auctions should close. I'm running an experiment this week where I am doubling the number of auctions. One set at the regular time; an identical set three hours later.
