|
EBay lists millions of items on
any given day. Its community contains more than 100 million registered members
from around the world. The company information section says that "people
spend more time on eBay than any other online site, making it the most popular
shopping destination on the Internet."
But if you want your fair share
of the cash, never offer an item on a Friday night or Saturday, says Dan Vnuk,
whose family has sold more than 1,300 items on eBay. "People are just too
busy. Sunday is the best day to start an auction, with success waning as the week
goes on. I like Tuesday and Wednesday evenings." And
that's just a slice of the advice sellers have to dispense:
The most wonderful time of
the year
Some power-sellers swear by November and December -- others swear
at these sales-heavy months. After all, Vnuk has sold Christmas
ornaments in July, "but couldn't get a respectable bid on a
1960s high-quality aluminum tree three weeks before Christmas, so
I canceled the auction," he says. He plans to try again in
2005, placing the listing earlier than the official holiday season.
Meanwhile,
Alan Stein, a New Jersey resident who sells camera equipment via eBay, finds the
pre-Christmas days profitable. The secret is no more mysterious,
or hard to find, than an Economics 101 book. "There is a cycle to any kind
of buying and selling, so of course the holidays really heat up with buyers. And
there are a lot of sellers who reserve stock or put aside items they know will
be popular then," says Jim "Griff" Griffith, dean of eBay education
and author of "The Official eBay Bible." The law of supply and demand
dictates that when listings in a particular category are plentiful, the auction
prices drive downward.
That's why Chris Cameron, CEO and co-founder of SmartCollector.com
in Birmingham, Mich., urges sellers to look for hooks beyond the
obvious holidays. For instance, he says, the best time to sell Star
Wars collectible merchandise was the few months leading up to the
release of the final movie in the series. By summer, prices on related
merchandise slid right along with ticket sales.
Celebrity deaths also present a good time to sell
related memorabilia. "Buyers want it when they want it,"
Cameron says.
It should go without saying that auctions ending on
a holiday don't stand a good chance of fetching top dollar, "which
is why eBay will occasionally run free listing days then, because
it knows things will be slow," says Vnuk.
EBay's official stance is that there is no bad time
to sell -- but yes, the Internet phenomenon does occasionally offer
incentives in the form of unannounced discounted prices or no charge
on specific selling features, Griffith says. So, for instance, sellers
may purchase galley images at a fire-sale price for three days.
| 
