On eBay you run a auction for a specific length. Currently, your options are 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10 days.
But which length is best for a auction?
In this particular article, Ill provide you several pointers designed to assist in answering the query.
You may question the Reasons Why You might ever want to have less than the maximum exposure i.e. 10 days? Surely running a auction for the longest time might provide bidders more opportunity, and consequently a high deal price might result? Certainly eBay.com seems to consider so, because they currently charge a fee of $0.20 for the privilege of working a 10 day auction.
However, should you have a rather popular item or should you have many identical products to sell, it can pay anyone to have a shorter auction length. Also, it pays to consider the particular point of the auction carefully. Additionally, should you are running a Fixed Price auction, theres a small trick you can easily use to offer you extra exposure.
So, lets review the ingredients to consider in the setting of the auction length.
a Start/end day of auction
In my undertaking, for most groups, the weekend is definitely the busiest viewing period on eBay. I would estimate which around 50% of views of my auctions happen on Monday and Sunday. In setting auction length, consequently, the weekend peak may be significant to a achievement.
If you can easily arrange to end an auction on Sunday day, you get is generally considerably those that wait until the particular of the auction to bid, plus the increased viewing traffic numbers which appear throughout the weekend.
This means if youre posting an auction on Tuesday day, a 5 day auction may be superior.
Having mentioned which the weekend is the busiest for most groups, several may benefit from a midweek closing date. Things in this type might include those in which goods are available for company users.
If a item is targeted at businesses, you need individuals to bid for a item when they are at your workplace. In these cases, be sure a auction covers operating days, and concludes throughout function time. It has also been found which office equipment and provides sell effectively each morning.
Be aware of the time when you post a auction, because this is the precise time it might finish a number of days forward. Theres potentially a lot of difference between an auction closing at 10 oclock on Sunday day, and 10 oclock on Sunday morning. If you can pitch a auction to become the past, you may benefit considerably from those extra weekend audience. Note the section on Time Zones afterwards.
b Known popularity of the item
If you know a item is rather popular, and a previous undertaking shows which youll always market at or even more than the price you need, even outside of usual peak periods, then a 1 or 3 day auction may be appropriate. The advantage of a 1 or 3 day deal is that you can easily market more products, quicker.
c Awareness of eBay kind facilities following searching
Whenever eBays look can be used by an eBayer, the default is that it returns auction titles in the prescribe of how long auctions have left to run. Auctions which have moments, or seconds to run, might appear initially in the returned list. Auctions which have 9+ days to run are towards the end. And the list can cost many, many pages.
Experience shows which eBayers tend to look only at 1 or 2 pages in returned lists. This means it really is important you get a auction onto these first two pages at some point within the existence – another reason why a 1 or 3 day auction can be a lot better than a 7 or 10 day length.
Be aware too a excellent proportion of bidding activity occurs towards the particular of a auction. This really is natural bayonets . Buyers are on the lookout for bargains. If they will nip in with a bid towards the end of the auction, they may get the item at a superior price and there will not be time for others to top their bid. Buyers will also use “sniping” software, designed to position a bid at the newest potential time on auctions which are of interest in their eyes.
However, the searcher can re-order the returned titles list. A prevalent alternative is to re-order the list into “newly listed” sequence. The the top of list might now display auctions which have been newly added to eBay. This really is why there is often a shock of bidding activity at the beginning of an auction in addition to towards the end.
d Time Zones
eBays default is to start a auction from the time you submit it. As you know, this signifies it might terminate at which exact time, the quantity of days forward which you choose because the length. However, if youre providing a item internationally you should provide consideration to the time zone youre aiming for in terms of auction finish point.
For example, in the USA half of all eBay members live in the Eastern Time Zone. So an auction finishing at 10pm Pacific Time is fine for west shore eBay members, but over on the eastern shore this really is 1am! So youre effectively losing around 50% of prospective bidders at a critical point in a auction.
eBay does supply a choice whereby you can easily schedule a auction to start at a specific time and on another day. Truth be told you can easily set a auction to start any kind of time time and day about 21 days forward. This signifies you can easily start a auction based on the timing you believe might attract the many audience. There is a little fee for utilizing this feature.
This is a beneficial capability if you would like to create your listings ahead of time, and then have them released onto eBay in a phased sequence.
e Fixed Price auctions – Single Item
I said a small trick earlier. Actually, here it really is. With a Fixed Price auction for a single item you may consider managing a auction length dynamically. You need to be monitoring a auctions carefully i.e. throughout the day, to undertake this technique.
When bidders perform a look on eBay, you know the auctions with the smallest amount of time left appear at the best of the returned list. So it really is advantageous to keep the remaining time in your auction because short because potential. This really is a option in that you just get 4 attacks of which cherry for a single listing fee.
1. Begin a Fixed Price single item auction off with 1 day length. Wait for somebody to purchase.
2. When the auction just over 12 hours left, go into the auction and revise the auction length to 3 days. Yes, you can easily do this – because lengthy because there is at least 12 hours left. Wait for somebody to purchase.
3. When the auction just over 12 hours left, go into the auction and revise the auction length to 5 days. Wait for somebody to purchase.
4. When the auction just over 12 hours left, go into the auction and revise the auction length to 7 days. Wait for somebody to purchase.
5. When the auction just over 12 hours left, go into the auction and revise the auction length to 10 days. Remember this might cost a little fee on eBay.com Wait for somebody to purchase.
6. The auction concludes naturally.
This may search complicated, but it isnt really when you get the hang of it. Of course, any kind of time point throughout the process somebody may purchase a item and a auction closes automatically. If you have another of the same or similar item to sell, you can easily re-list it.
f Fixed Price auctions – Multiple Items
With a Fixed Price auction for several products, I might suggest you set the auction length to the maximum – 10 days, or 7 days if youre not ready to absorb the additional fee on eBay.com.
When you have several products it really is not advisable to use the ploy described above for Fixed Price single item auctions. This really is because because soon as you receive a bid in this instance it might be a Fixed Price sale, you will be unable to change the auction length even though you have many of the several products nevertheless to sell.
If you market all your products in the chosen 7 or 10 days, then the auction closes automatically anyhow.
g Value Based Formula
If you will be happier utilizing a value based formula in setting a auction length, here is my guideline of thumb for products which I have not tried to sell before:
Min Bid amounts Set auction length to
£5 – £25 $10 – $50 5 days
£25 – £100 $55 – $200 7 days
Over £100 Over $200 7 – 10 days
If youre selling products which from undertaking you know might definitely be bought at acceptable costs, then you can minimize the length.
I hope this outline of choosing the greatest auction length proves beneficial to you.