posted on September 4, 2006 09:26:17 PM new
Sorry, I can't help you with that, but I'm wondering if you've considered that move carefully. So many of us have commented that most of our bids come in the last hour or so (and maybe that's the time frame you're looking at). Of course, it's your decision.
posted on September 4, 2006 09:45:44 PM new
Eagle,
I know what you're thinking and we've done it manually before - and I'm not sure there is any service that will allow you to end auctions when they receive a bid.
I understand your strategy and we've used it to our advantage in the past - by adding a warning statement to a listing to the effect:
Warning: This auction can end at any time prior to its scheduled end date and time - awarding the item to the highest bidder at the moment. So, please don't count on waiting until the last minute to place your bids. It may be too late.
The goal, as we've intended, is to get buyers motivated to place their bids early. I don't think the BIN option gets the motivation the way this does. I know it's not near the adrenaline rush of a live auction when you hold your breath hoping the auctioneer won't encourage any more bids before striking it off to you... But, you get the idea.
Let us know if this is what you're intending and - if you figure out a way to do it in a more automated way rather than doing it all manually.
Wayne
Never explain -- Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
~ Elbert Hubbard
posted on September 4, 2006 11:48:50 PM new
Can't say I know of any program that does it either. I can't say I have ever looked for one though. I have no use for such a program. I find that most of the time the majority of high bidding goes on in the last 10 to 30 seconds of the auction. If I ended them early I would be cutting out countless numbers of high bid's.
A good example is a auction I had end tonight. If I had ended this one early I could have lost $100 or more. Here's a copy of the bid history.
US $331.01 Sep-04-06 16:59:32 PDT Winning bid
US $331.01 Sep-04-06 16:57:39 PDT
US $326.01 Sep-04-06 17:00:28 PDT
US $316.01 Sep-04-06 17:00:11 PDT
US $300.00 Sep-04-06 15:40:35 PDT
US $275.00 Sep-04-06 15:38:52 PDT
US $251.99 Sep-04-06 14:06:58 PDT
US $250.00 Aug-31-06 18:30:57 PDT
US $226.99 Sep-03-06 21:58:37 PDT
US $201.99 Aug-31-06 07:55:18 PDT
I know I personally don't bid until the last 30 seconds of ANY auction unless it's one of those must have items. Even then I usually don't place my max bid until the very end.
1 out of 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Take a look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem alright, you're the one! - Kyle Stubbins, CMS
posted on September 5, 2006 07:13:03 AM new
Buy It Now does not allow 1 day listings. You can add BIN to an auction but there are extra listing fees and some people will put a bid instead even if its a penny difference.
posted on September 5, 2006 08:47:34 AM newBuy It Now does not allow 1 day listings.
It would seem to me that it would be counter-productive if you are only listing for one day. I could see it for 5 or 7 day listings, but only one day? Auction is ending shortly anyway.
posted on September 5, 2006 11:23:15 AM new
eagleedc: Actually, I think your idea makes a lot of sense from a cash flow standpoint.
If you only need one bid and you get that one bid on the first day of a seven-day auction, it's smart to end the auction then to get the payment process rolling.
Six (or five or four) days delay in payment can make a difference.
In fact, if you decide you need to receive, say, $300 by September 12, just end enough auctions today to meet that goal(assuming your payments-received average time is seven days).
I would even have it as a daily sales goal and run enough auctions to keep that cash streaming in.
The only downside I can think of is that you may startle some people. I once offered some individual pairs of earrings at auction, and one lady bid on many of them. I ended those auctions with her bid and she was outraged, teetering on the brink of refusing to pay. She had assumed she would be outbid on some of them.
posted on September 5, 2006 01:57:10 PM new
I know this is a stupid question-but if she had assumed she would be out bid on some of the auctions,and didnt want to pay for all the auctions she bid on,why bid on them in the first place??
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you dont want to hear the truth....dont ask the question.
1 out of 4 people are mentally unbalanced. Take a look at your 3 closest friends. If they seem alright, you're the one! - Kyle Stubbins, CMS