| Selling
on eBay? Timing is important | | |
| "It's a way to get certain
categories to list more items during that period of time. For some sellers --
not all, some -- there is a seasonal drop-off in the summer, depending on what
they sell," he adds. The incentive, however, is available to all categories.
As the clock ticks
Griffith's
rule of thumb: The rarer the item, the longer the auction. Commodity items often
respond better to shorter time spans. Your job is to figure out which end of the
spectrum you belong -- eBay presets the auction lengths at one, three, five, seven
and 10 days.
"For the most part, the seven-day listings give
you the best possible chance in collectibles from a cost-benefit
standpoint," Cameron says. "If you make it a shorter listing,
you just don't have enough time for people to see it and get involved
in the bidding process. Then you have to pay that fee for listing
it, regardless."
The real skill, sellers say, lies in figuring out
when to stop and start the auctions. Cameron uses TV Guide as his
bible. "When you look at peak programming times in each time
zone in the evening -- like 'American Idol,' 'Desperate Housewives'
-- you see the absolute collapse in traffic patterns on eBay,"
he explains. "You are competing for the eyes and attention
of the retail buying population, so while your auction might be
compelling, its ending can't compete with Teri Hatcher."
Vnuk won't start his auctions before 8 p.m. in the
Midwest, to allow people on West Coast time to get home and get
online.
Stein times a lot of his auctions to end at 12:30
p.m. EST so that he hits lunchtime in his neck of the woods and
the start of business on the other side of the country. With that
same math, 3:30 EST works well, too.
Additionally, Stein ends auctions on Friday nights
during the winter, when people are home, but either ends auctions
on Friday morning or another day of the week altogether in the summer,
because people leave early on that day for vacations. He avoids
Sunday mornings as a stopping or starting point, as folks don't
usually take laptops to church. "But you'll certainly get lots
of arguments from people that their strategy is the best,"
he says.
Barbara Weltman, author of "The Complete Idiot's
Guide to Starting an eBay Business," is the first. She insists
there is no wrong time to list anymore -- the worldwide audience
means you'll draw notice all the time. However, she says, it's probably
a good idea to time your listing so that it closes at a convenient
time for you. Potential bidders often have last-minute questions,
and successful sellers want to be available to answer them to increase
bidding activity.
Besides, that international marketplace twist can
be more of a pain than a pleasure Vnuk says, after he paid $60 to
ship several plastic model kits totaling $20 to Taiwan. If you don't
want the shipping hassle, stick to targeting U.S. buyers using U.S.
time zones.
"There is a mistaken belief that eBay is some
brand-new economy," says Griffith. "In a sense, the technology
has created a new type of marketplace, but the rules of economy
still hold true. The name of the game is know your business and
then compare and track it based on the competition."
| 
