Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Falling Down on the eBay Job

Two Sundays have passed and I haven’t put up anything for sale. Since I like to run 7 day auctions and end on either Saturday or Sunday evening this means I won’t have any more eBay earnings for January.

I had considered putting up auctions yesterday and doing 5 day auctions, but for some reason I sort of spaced. I’m not sure where my motivation went after getting off to such a good start in January. Maybe my goal is to low? I met my $200/month goal after only 2 weeks of auctions – but that was my annual goal roughly averaged. I may not have a lot of time to devote to this shortly so I need to use my time now to exceed the average goal so I can make (and exceed!) the annual goal.

I think I need to get a lot more comfortable paying 10c to schedule an auction so that filling weekends with eBay tasks is not my only option and I can spread it out.

At least posting about it has inspired me to get back to it…

10 comments:

  1. I've been thinking of selling a few things on ebay too. From your experience, does it make that big of a difference when you list the item? I've always hear of the timing you've mentioned but I've wondered whether that really were the case for most people.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm certainly no expert, but I have read some things that also validated my experiences. It seems the weekends are when most people may be browsing ebay. So I like to start and end my auctions on weekends, reasoning that folks browsing on the first weekend will see the item (for super cheap) and maybe put a watch on it or even bid. Then the closing weekend I reason that the more eyeballs you can get on your closing auctions the better. I'll be posting more info soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My experience has been that unless you're selling a hot/popular/rare item, most of the action happens right when you list and then about an hour before the auction ends. More people are home on Sunday afternoons/evenings which translates to more possiblity for action. You can read all kinds of things on Google about it, and the concensus is that Sunday evening EST is best because it's afternoon for the West coast people.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Agreed...I have been trying to launch the auctions in the 7-9p EST window

    ReplyDelete
  5. Have you really has success on the weekends? They are by far the worst time for me to end my auctions. Weekdays (Tues, Wed, Thurs) after 6:00 pm but before 10:00 pm are by far the best for me - get about a 30% premium when I list at these times over the weekend...

    ReplyDelete
  6. you can ebay, yes you can
    rah! rah! rah!

    dorky i know, but perhaps oddly motivating as well :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Through my ebays, timing is crucial. I like to set up the auction on a 7 day and have it end in the evening b/t 8-9 EST. I have had some experiences where it really didn't matter what time it was, but personally I've had the most success on the weekend regardless of the item. All in all each transaction will vary.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jeffrey, it's probably due to the nature of what we're selling -- you are selling specific collectibles with a niche target market, and I'm just selling everyday things and electronics. My guess is that people go "shopping" quite differently for those things.

    Also, if your bidders are primarily in Japan...there's a probability that weekday evening and weekend time are spent differently (that may or may not relate back to your items being collectibles etc)

    Interesting stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I've sold quite a bit of things on ebay (a hundred auctions or so), and I've found that 8 pm CST, Mon-Thur are the best times to end the auction. I mostly sell clothes and household items, very few collectibles.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...