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Ebay - How many days

by MommyEnterprises
12 replies
For those that sell on Ebay, how long do you run your listings? I have been doing the 3 day auctions but think I should go with at least 5.
#days #ebay
  • Profile picture of the author Sleaklight
    For volatile items such as 10 or 10 silver ounce bars that I sell I post as one day auctions. Can't risk the value of it shifting a lot so putting it for more days can mean the value of such goes down or goes up. Best play it safe and post it on a day that it's value is good to high and do a one day auction.

    For other items like uhmm playstations, wii's, xbox360, stuff that does not depend on the stock market, I post 7 day auctions. You get more exposure, more people subscribed to the watch list and thus more potential buyers. I post them on Sunday evening to end on Saturday. I get the best results doing that. I sometimes do 10 day auctions, if it's a high ticket price ($1,000+) so I get as many eyes on it as possible.

    There's also marketing that I do for my auctions but that's my secret method!

    What kind of stuff are you selling? Is there a reason why you can't list for 7 days? It cost the same amount of money to list for 1, 3, 5 or 7 days. Only 10 day listings cost more.
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    • Profile picture of the author Lou Diamond
      Hello,
      I have been selling on ebay for many years.
      The three day auction works best for me.
      I sell old comic books,I get many repeat customers
      that keep buying from me.
      Signature

      Something new soon.

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      • Profile picture of the author timpears
        Many years ago I sold big time on ebay. At that time I figured that at ten days I got the most chance for more people to see my auction and therefore I would sell the most. I would hold mostly Dutch auctions with one hundred or more items per auction. Then a fellow I met was running three day auctions and doing very well. What I realized was that my action came the day I listed, and the day it closed. Few if anyone saw the auction in between. I never ran anything but a three day auction again. I changed over to selling web sites and listed three sites for three days, then three sites for another three days and had one day without any auctions running and do it all over again.

        It is like with the Google search. Few if any go beyond the first list or two. I got more out of more sites than I did by letting them go for a longer listing.
        Signature

        Tim Pears

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        • Profile picture of the author Ideefixe
          I'm a powerseller, and to answer your question (without a doubt).. Always go 5 days. Good Luck!
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          • Profile picture of the author VinceNouvel
            I do 10 days once and the item sold within 24 hours (Around 15 something item)
            Now I use 5 days most of the time and use terapeak to do some research on when is the best time to end your listing... Good Luck..
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        • Profile picture of the author Janet Sawyer
          Interesting that this should be posted today!

          I've never been interested in ebay until this last week. I needed to acquire something that my Daughter really needs for the next phase of her life.

          The search for this lead me to Ebay....

          Why? because I didn''t have the £800 ($1400.00) just lying loose right now, so I needed the same thing but cheaper.

          I found it, it was there looking at me, at £200 ($360) - but on a 5 day listing!
          I found it on day 4.

          I watched and watched for days on end.

          Eventually on the last day of listing and up to 3 hours to go, no bids, 2 hours to go, recheck.

          Horror
          someone obviously lost their nerve, someone bid........ 1 and a half hours before the end of the no reserve auction, now I had to make a decision, do I do it? and walk into the bidding war game room or walk away?

          Well, to cut a long 4 days short, they were on auto bid and I was there in person, I won with 32 seconds to spare! £235 ($425) winning bid! I won. My Daughter is well pleased! so am I.

          My Personal notes to all of you ebayers are this..........

          For a first experience as a buyer from ebay, did I enjoy it?
          NO not one darn bit.
          It was like 4 days focus on this, is it worth it?
          And then the last 3 minuites were pure .......... Argh! I'm bidding against a robot -

          The whole experience was quite bizare.

          5 days I think is the longest I could ever look at.

          Hope that helps.

          Janet


          Just as an aside, is there any way to tell how many people are watching the item?
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          • Profile picture of the author TorontoCarol
            I usually list for 7 days and try to end Sunday evening when I can. As for seeing how many people are watching the item, that information is available to the seller. If a counter is included on the listing that will show you how many people looked at the listing initially, but not who is actually watching the end result.
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            Carol
            Non-Techie Online Marketing Specialist

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            • Profile picture of the author macki
              I'm with Carol on this one. 7 days and ending on Sunday evening- when the West Coast has finished dinner and the East Coast is still awake. It's worked very well for me.
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          • Profile picture of the author Carlsbadd
            Originally Posted by Janet Sawyer View Post

            Interesting that this should be posted today!

            I've never been interested in ebay until this last week. I needed to acquire something that my Daughter really needs for the next phase of her life.

            The search for this lead me to Ebay....

            Why? because I didn''t have the £800 ($1400.00) just lying loose right now, so I needed the same thing but cheaper.

            I found it, it was there looking at me, at £200 ($360) - but on a 5 day listing!
            I found it on day 4.

            I watched and watched for days on end.

            Eventually on the last day of listing and up to 3 hours to go, no bids, 2 hours to go, recheck.

            Horror
            someone obviously lost their nerve, someone bid........ 1 and a half hours before the end of the no reserve auction, now I had to make a decision, do I do it? and walk into the bidding war game room or walk away?

            Well, to cut a long 4 days short, they were on auto bid and I was there in person, I won with 32 seconds to spare! £235 ($425) winning bid! I won. My Daughter is well pleased! so am I.

            My Personal notes to all of you ebayers are this..........

            For a first experience as a buyer from ebay, did I enjoy it?
            NO not one darn bit.
            It was like 4 days focus on this, is it worth it?
            And then the last 3 minuites were pure .......... Argh! I'm bidding against a robot -

            The whole experience was quite bizare.

            5 days I think is the longest I could ever look at.

            Hope that helps.

            Janet


            Just as an aside, is there any way to tell how many people are watching the item?

            That's the fun of it, Shop Victoriously as they say.

            I am not aware of a software that alerts you to watchers as a bidder, if you are a seller you can know how many watchers there are.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kate Carpenter
    I have been selling on eBay for years, mostly vintage collectibles from the 1950's. I use to always do 7 days, but most recently switched to 5 days,mostly because I needed the cash faster. But I found, as the others, that by day 5 most people looking have looked and are ready to bid. I make sure I post at the top of my listing that it is a 5 day auction so no one misses bidding.
    Timing, including time of year, has an impact of length of auction, too, I believe. Summer and holidays need longer auction times as people are busy with other things and don't hop on the computer as often.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chad Heffelfinger
    I have been a powerseller for over a year and a half and I used to do 10 day auctions because I sold digital items with Buy it Now and listed in multiple quantity, so the more exposure for the price is what I chose.

    Since the change of no more digital items I have adjusted several things and now I go with 7 day auctions and try to end them on Sunday night as well.

    It is interesting that since the change to physical items I list fewer auctions so my fees are less, but since I increased my price I sell more. So overall I am coming out ahead of what it used to be.

    There are a lot of variables, but 7 days on Sundays seems to work best for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author TomBuford
    Originally Posted by MommyEnterprises View Post

    For those that sell on Ebay, how long do you run your listings? I have been doing the 3 day auctions but think I should go with at least 5.
    Confused yet? Make sure to just test what works best for your product and your market. Some people will lose interest and jump on another product if yours is up too long, while sometimes the longer auctions will attract more of the right bidders.

    Test, test and then test again. As you can see everyone has their own experiences.

    Don't get discouraged. It shouldn't take long at all before you see a pattern that works for you.

    Cheers
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