EBay Help on Pricing and Timing

M

MissyMiaDesigns

Registered Guest
I have an EBay store and I'm wondering how others market their store. Do you pay to be added to search engine listings? Do you link to a Webring? Is EBay the best way to sell vintage clothing? What is a good time to end listings to get the most exposure and best price? I'd love to hear if others think I'm reasonably pricing items. My EBay user ID is MissyMiaDesigns. I keep active auction listings so my store listings hopefully get seen, too. I pay the basic monthly fee. Is it worth it to upgrade your store's monthly fee on EBay?

I've actually been selling on EBay since 1995. I started a new user ID to sell an estate I purchased. I also have an ongoing nightmare with my old user ID and PayPal account that remains unresolved. Long story best untold and in the hands of my capable attorney-needless to say, I'm now using MissyMiaDesigns.

Thanks so much!

MissyMiaDesigns
Mia
 
That's a lot of questions :)

And there is no definitive answer. What works for one person, doesn't work for another. There is no "best time" (other than not ending auctions at a time when you are unreachable by email for days). I guess the only thing is to get the best stocl you possibly can (things that someone else might desire and that you can get enthusiastic about, and keep the quality of condition high) and the right folks will find you. Market yourself who has great items versus individual items that happen to randomly have fallen into this seller's hands.. And as far as pricing, price it at least so that you cover your fees and make a little profit, but other than that, translate to customers why your item is worth paying for at whatever price you justify for it.

I am not trying to be oversimplistic in any way , but that is basically what it all boils down to. at least from what i have seen
 
How intriguing! I was thinking the exact same thing this morning and almost posted it to the group for discussion but Mia beat me to it!

I question I had was more along these lines:

Do you feel that your listings command better prices when they end in the evenings during the week or on the weekends?

Does anyone set their listings to end during the days and realize decent profits?

Am I the only one who obsesses about starting my listings between 9 and 10 pm (Eastern time - USA) so that the folks in California (3 hours behind) have time to see them and bid after they get home from work and eat dinner?

Am I picking this apart too much? :spin:

Thanks for any thoughts....patti
 
Patti,

You are NOT the only person who obsesses about timing your listings so west-coast folks see them! I end up selling a lot of stuff to the west coast, and seem to get better pricing on it than to the east coasters! So I try to list between 8:30 & 11:00 p.m. for maximum exposure! That also seems to work for international buyers, too, as the listings will be there new when they get up in the morning & if they check eBay b-4 they go to work!
 
Timing is part experience, part common sense. You can almost guarantee a so-so end if your item wraps between midnight and 8am (central US). Yes, you want to get the max number of people looking in the last minutes, but you have to know your market, too.
In general, ending during waking hours is a good tip, as is not ending during a holiday or major event. Now, if you deal in crochet doilies, ending during the Super Bowl may not be a big deal, but other things may feel the wave of people going to the TV instead of cruising auctions.

I've found using the scheduler is a vital tool. It's 10 cents, which I make up in ending at a good time...and with a 4 year old, you don't know if you'll get to sit and list at exactly the right time to jive with a good end in a week.

Jenn
 
I time my listings to end during that time too. Although I sometimes wonder because two close friends who shop obsessively on eBay and have great jobs/$ but both don't have home computers. They only shop during work hours. They also complain about not putting in high enough proxies for auctions that end when they're not at work...quote "if I saw I was outbid I would've bid higher." (As a seller doesn't it drive you nuts to here that?!?!)

About 2 yrs ago (when I was considering going from hobby selling to making a living) I did some market research on vintage boots and coats. Every couple of months I'd check the completed auctions (highest price first). Using a calendar...I'd put a checkmark on the date and time of 'auction end' for every item that sold for over $100. (approx.) ...The finish time wasn't specific just day/evening/over night. Anyway, I discovered that by far the highest $$ for boots came from auctions ending on Mon & Thurs night between 6 - 11pm. Womens coats did well Tues, Thurs evenings. There were also lots of high$ Sunday sales but they didn't really correspond to any specific time on Sundays. Of course, there were lots of items that did really well on other days/times too. Here's the puzzler.....I'm not sure the results occurred because more auctions where listed to end those days/times or if thats when buyers are in a purchasing mode?!

Anyway, i'm not sure if things have changed but maybe this info will help someone....or not. lol!!! :bouncy: (gave me something to do when my insomnia kicked in. :drool:)

TLC
 
Little Bea I am impressed with your market research!


I schedule my auctions to close at about 11 EST, so the PST people get a chance. I get a fair amount of international sales with that time too.

What seems to help more is listing a large group of items to run at the same time ( say 30 - 40) rather than spreading them out, especially if they are related types of goods. I get more bids from people on multiple items when I do that.

Hollis
 
Well, I've experimented a bit with ending listings at different times & days, and my own experience is that ending during daytime hours is a bust! Also, I've tried timing Sunday-ending auctions earlier during the day, and that was a flop as well. Interesting about Mondays--I never list to end on a Monday, assuming (and wrongly, it appears) that folks are busy getting back to work & school, and don't want to fool around on Monday night buying on eBay. I think I'll have to rethink that! In general, thus far, Thurs, Fri, and Sunday evenings are the best times I've found to end auctions. I've also never tried Wednesdays--has anyone had any luck on Wednesdays?
 
I have decent luck ending on Wednesdays....mainly because my online button discussion group has "Wild Wednesday" - our one and only day we're permitted to sell buttons to each other! So I list a couple of buttons later in the evening on Wed night along with other items and send a link to the group of my entire selling page (giggle, I'm bad, huh?) and I describe the buttons that are "somewhere in the list"! That pretty much forces them to look through the list if they don't use the sorting feature on the left. By the way, if anyone was watching my Big E Levis jacket it ended this past Wednesday and it went for $58. I've seen them go for more but I was happy to get that....I was only $3 short of paying for the parts I got to fix my truck.

Regarding research, at one time I listed a necklace to end on either Fri or Sat night and it didn't even get a bid. I did some research and noticed that a similar necklace sold for big bucks during the week so I waited a few days and relisted later in the evening (Tue, I think) and it sold the following week! Since then I've avoided setting listings to end on the weekends AT ALL including Friday nights and I've had better results with my listings.

I also think that it helps to have a "following" or some "groupies" who have added you as a favorite seller. I'm sure that helps out!

I'm going to try starting my auctions a bit later than I do now (10 pm EST) and try about 10:30 or 11 and see how it goes. I do sell many more items to the folks on the West Coast than the Midwest or the East Coast so I'd like to accomodate them even if it means staying up a bit later.

Oh, and I'm glad that I'm not the ONLY one who obsesses about these things! We should start some kind of a club or something...oh, wait, someone else already did and that's why we're here! LOL

:D

Patti
 
Oh, one more thing....I think that sales are good on Monday Nights because it helps to "de-stress" from that first day back at work!!!

patti
 
Patti, thanks for the info--I'm gonna try Wednesdays and/or Mondays for a few things and see what happens! Re: weekend auctions, I NEVER list to end on a Saturday evening--too many folks out then, I think.... But I have great luck ending on Sunday evenings--weird, huh? Actually Mondays might not be bad, as stuff probably gets a lot of views on Sunday, being they will be toward the head of the list if sorted by "ending first," and maybe people will put them on their watch list for bidding on Monday. I do think there's a lot of traffic on eBay on Sunday nites, whether they are buying then or just shopping.
 
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