posted on January 15, 2001 10:14:43 PM
For the longest time I've noticed most of my bids come in during mid-day. I live on the West Coast and usually I get bids around noon or afternoon. I can't figure it out because it seems most people would be at work or coming home from work. Hardly any bids come in after dinner when folks would be home. Can anyone confirm this or offer an explanation? When do your bids come in?
posted on January 15, 2001 10:21:11 PM
Hi Twinnie! {{{HUG}}}
Well mine seem to come in totally random, I haven't yet figured out a rhyme or reason to it. But as far as yours coming in during work time, all I can say is, do you know HOW MANY of my friends do their web surfing from their JOBS?? Hmmm amazing they aren't fired. (Unless maybe the boss is doing it too!!)
Rocker
posted on January 15, 2001 10:36:06 PM
Altho I get bids at all times of the day, it always seemed I got a disproportionate amount around 8-9:30 AM CST. So my theory is that people are just getting to work and doing a little bidding before settling in. I also get a fair amount from 12 noon to 2PM - lunch break bidders.
In my job, I am in and out of small offices all day long, and see plenty of people with eBay pulled up in their browsers. Once I even charged my hourly rate to show an executive how to improve his sniping technique.
posted on January 15, 2001 11:01:55 PM
As long as you don't snipe an auction I'm trying to snipe, I'll tell you what I do. I may not be the best technique, since I don't buy very often (I sell a lot more).
I open up two windows with the auction listing in question. I type in absolute highest bid I would really pay (I check ended auctions and bid either double, or one third more if I can afford it and I absolutely have to have it).
Then I press enter, I type in my user ID and password, and just leave it like that, so all I have to do is click on "submit" in the last few seconds.
Then on my second window I keep reloadoing the page to see if any new bids come in, and to see how the ISP and server is responding. Some people wait till the last 5 or 2 seconds, but I'm too chicken, I wait for the last 15-30 seconds (incase the server is slow in responding) and click on submit on my other screen, which I had ready.
Then I reload the listing to see if I won, and usually I do.
posted on January 15, 2001 11:28:21 PMmotive8, what I'm after is, what time of day do you make the most sales? It's hard to believe many people bid from work, but I guess it must be true.
posted on January 15, 2001 11:39:06 PM
I've noticed that about half the bids are completly random, 4am, midnight, noon, 11am PST, you name it.
The other half (roughly half anyways) bid between 6am and noon PST, regardless of the item. I haven't narrowed it down any more, but I occasionally add an H****ty counter which shows hourly hits for the last 24 hours.
Unfortunatly, I never really paid attention if these were newbies or experienced buyers, but I did surmise that some people (like some of my friends) log on briefly in the morning before going to work.
Then, as already mentioned, a lot of people quickly log on as soon as they get to work. A fair number of my bidders are college/university students (I can tell by their email .edu although that could be faculty too). These folks could be surfing the net during a spare or lunch break (also office workers could bid at lunch).
The second time slot that gets a fair bit of action (a distant second) is around 4-6 pm PST, which I found odd. I thought people would be going home, getting dinner ready or eating, etc.
Perhaps (due to the time zones) people do one least check before they leave work or school.
posted on January 15, 2001 11:44:01 PM
I forgot to mention, I, like most people, get a lot of bids as the auction is almost ready to close.
Most of my auctions end on Sundays between 9am and 1pm PST. Oddly, the earlier, the better! I would have thought people want to sleep in or go to church, etc.
Rocker
