I have a question for eBay sellers and buyers regarding the number of days it takes to get to the sale date. I generally only look for trading cards on eBay. More and more I am seeing new listings with bidding over 6 days, or even 8 days. I find this both annoying and unnecessary, but I am just a buyer and want to get to the sale as soon as I see something I want. I don't think longer bidding periods help a seller and maybe even hurts when buyers are impatient and go elsewhere.

Absent the proverbial whales, where two stupid buyers lock horns and keep besting each other, the serious bidders all come in at the end. Early bidding is just people raising the price 2 bucks at a time until it hits a few bucks. Best offers from serious bidders are generally made in the last minute, if not the last 10 seconds. I think sellers won't get a better high price if the auction is for 3 days or 8 days. Interested buyers always know when a new listing appears. But they might get a lower price if that buyer just puts it on watch and forgets, or worse, buys a BIN or faster auction. You also lose the impulse buyer, because the longer the wait, the more you realize you don't need it.

Any thoughts from eBay sellers or buyers? I would make all my auctions 3 days, no more. Of course I don't sell at all, so maybe someone likes a 6 - 8 day run up. I would be interested in any positive or negative data on the matter because I personally am tired of waiting to see if I'm spending my money.

Raven

Some of the sellers I use are card dealers who have multiple lots on sale and prefer the longer sales availability to enable them to maintain an efficient post sales service to their customers.

regards

John

Generally I first list all my cards as buy it now . If they don't sell after 6 months I lower the price and move them to auction so I feel anyone who wanted to buy immediately has had their chance .

Also unless things have changed recently ( I have not tried in a while ) in the UK auctions of less than 5 days used to attract a listing fee .

More days does mean more views and more watchers.

Hard to quantify if it means more in ending prices, too many unknowns.

You can list for 3, 5, 7, or 10 days. 3 day sales incur a fee, the rest do not.

I find it is more important when an auction ends. I find Sunday evenings to be the best, though many will have their own opinions.

I list for 5 on Tuesdays, to end on Sunday
I list for 10 on Thursdays, to end the on a Sunday.
1 list for 7 days on Sundays, again to end on Sunday.

3 day is only worth the premium if you have a HOT new item that might be the first to auction. I've never felt much need to pay extra to list for 3 days.

Ed

If you have something that's hot at the moment, you would want to put it up for auction. You might get two people who really want it and bid it beyond what you thought about asking for it and then get that third one who comes out of nowhere to win it at the end. A seven day auction lets collectors think about it and there's also more of a reason to watch it if someone puts in an early bid. You won't get an idea of how high it is until someone else bids - someone testing to see if the first bidder went just a few bucks over the starting bid.

But yeah, for a buyer, BINs are better. It's great to just grab something you want especially you see it as underpriced. It seems like I always catch an auction for something interesting with 6 days still to go. Sometimes, I keep an eye on one but often I let it go.

quote:

Originally posted by Raven:
You also lose the impulse buyer, because the longer the wait, the more you realize you don't need it.

I'm quite the opposite. If something is only available for bidding for three days only, I think twice about it.

Also, most companies pay their employees every other week or twice a month. A longer sale date allows people the time to allocate the money close to pay day if they need to have a bidding war or bid a large sum, even if it is at the last minute. That is also the reason you have a three-day period before you have to pay for it.

Three day auctions keep the auction at the top of the search without dipping too much, I see no difference in views between 3 or 7 or 10 day. Also watchers aren't necessarily buyers and these days are mostly bots. Watchers don't really mean anything. This isn't 2001 anymore. But ebay is a far cry from what it used to be.

Excellent informative comments so far. I didn't know that a 3-day eBay listing incurred a fee that a 5-day does not. So that's certainly a reason to go longer, but my own impression is that the ending price will be no higher for the extra days.

I agree with Studio-Hades that views and watchers mean nothing. I have even come across listings that say "in cart" and they just stay like that. Not sure if that is supposed to be a "hold" or a scam to increase interest. You can still process a BIN, even if it really is in somebody else's cart.

To Ed's point, its OK to pick a favorite day, but I think a time is more important. As a buyer, if you really want to win an auction, you must be online at the end. Setting your best price and leaving it, is why most people either lose items or vastly overpay for them. If the item is in demand, someone will run up that price to either beat you or just to make you pay a stupid amount on spite. You must monitor the end and know when to quit.

To that end, I am in NY. I can only talk about domestic sellers. There is a 3-hour time difference across the US from CA to NY. If a seller in another time zone ends an auction at 11:00 PM, that maybe be 1:00 or 2:00 AM for me. I have seen auctions that ended at 3:00 in the morning for me. Never will I stay up for that, so I don't even look at it. Sometimes it's in the middle of the day, which may be possible, but also inconvenient for working people. You will lose buyers. So I think the ending time can really help to dictate the highest price because it effects the number of buyers able to be online.

Yeah, depending on the day and how tired I am, I will stay up til 2am for an interesting item in NY (5am your time). If I can't, I will leave my highest bid as late as possible and sleep knowing I took my shot. It's weird. Some people do list at 5 or 6am ET. Listing items before going to work might the best time for some people.

Don't forget that the duration affects how many potential bidders get to notice the listing in the first place. Even in these modern internet days, not everyone looks in on eBay every day. Equally, not everyone has a stack of preset searches that let them know when an item of interest appears.

Put simply, not everyone who might bid on an auction will spot it the same day it is posted so having it stay up for 5 days or longer gives more people the chance to see it.

Also don't forget the different time zones around the world as that can also affect the time bids are made.

On the UK ebay there were recently changes and private sellers have been made to almost feel unwelcome now. Depending on your item it may get no exposure at all even if you pay to promote it. Collectables don't seem to be too affected as, if someone is looking for that item, they'll find it, but are less likely to 'stumble' across it randomly.
I know some listings I did last November took half a day to even appear on the searches after they supposedly went live. Everything sold, but 3 days to me would be far too short to get the maximum numbers to see it.
Some saved searches you don't get to see come up in your email notices until 24-48 hours after they were listed as well.
I rarely list auctions, but if I do it's always 5 or 7 days. I'd never pick 10 days though... too long.

quote:

Originally posted by JOHN LEVITT:
Also don't forget the different time zones around the world as that can also affect the time bids are made.

That is certainly true, but I really don't see that as much of a consideration anymore for most eBay sellers. So many have just restricted their business to domestic only. Also, due to eBay's shipping rules and the vagueness of international customs and postal systems, it's difficult for many eBay buyers to accept the risks of going outside their own countries or normal geographic areas to order items.

In the past I have bought cards from both Canadian and UK eBay sellers. Not anymore would I try it. I still see a lot of older autograph cards I would like that seem available only from UK sellers, but I can't figure out how much the whole package with conversion rate, customs and other taxes and fees would cost. I don't think the sellers know themselves until it gets posted. Never mind how much time it takes to arrive. I'm lucky if my domestic mail makes it through these days, between an incompetent USPS and the terrible weather that is not letting up this winter.

I have to buy only from US sellers now, like it or not. I would think the same would be true for all foreign buyers who, because of the shipping, find going to a US eBay seller cost prohibitive when it was acceptable before. Unless an eBay seller has an active international customer base, I don't expect foreign time zones would come into it.

Don't forget that the USA has time zones as alluded to in a previous post.