Question for UK eBayers

[ewt]

What is the optimum time for an auction to end?

I'm going to be selling quite a bit of stuff on eBay, some of it I'm going to try to deal with tomorrow.

I expect nearly everyone has an opinion on this but I'm still interested in hearing yours...

Comments

[devvie.livejournal.com]

I've never done anything like that, but I think Mubsy might have so she'd have a more well informed opinion.

[morgaine-x.livejournal.com]

I'm told it's Sunday evening.

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

I think I'd agree with that.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

thirded. people hanging about on the net before work the next.

[mubeimmik.livejournal.com]

This is not -always- true, but 95% of the time, yes. Another thing to do is check in the sold stuff and look at the highest selling items similar to yours and see if there's a trend in ending times.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

I usually gauge my eBay auctions to finish between 7pm and 10pm on a Sunday evening. More people are likely to be in front of their computers rather than at work or in the pub at that time, and the banks and post offices will be open the following morning.

[daneres.livejournal.com]

Yup, Sunday afternoon/evening. Having said that, I don't seem to have suffered much if I've listed things to end on other days, especially since sniping is getting more widespread. If an auction doesn't end too late in the evening, there is more chance items will get paid for by Paypal the same day so if you are listing several items simultaneously, you have fewer trips to take to the post office. It's also sensible to work out when you can get to the post office to post things out - you don't want negative feedback because you haven't been able to get things in the mail as fast as the buyer would like.

[edwards.livejournal.com]

List around 7pm Thursday on a 10 day auction.
Reserves put people off (and are now £50 minimum)
Buy It Now quite often works well :)

Thursday-10day means two weekends of exposure.

Also, remember to promote your auctions in appropriate places, such as newsgroups for selling (usually prefixed FA: ) and for auction sections of forums you're using - though many forums discourage it to stop people joining just for eBay spamming, so make sure it's appropriate.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I prefer weekends.

[ewtikins.livejournal.com]

Nope. I think I'm going to go for evening of 22nd, and morning of 26th at hazyjayne's place.