Saw this thread on another forum, and I thought I'd ask here. What night is best to end a coin auction on eBay, from what you've seen or experienced. I was thinking maybe later in the evening on a Saturday, what say y'all?
Thanks Goldstone. It seems like 6-9 p.m. on a Sunday is best. According to them. I normally end my auctions whenever, usually in that time frame, but there have been several occasions when they end early at 7 a.m. Not much of a difference of what I could have got, price wise though. Thanks for the link
I always stop and read this type of thread. There are a significant number of sellers who prefer Sunday evenings. One of my coin buddies likes Saturday evenings. I have had good luck with Friday nights. Heck I even sold a coin on a Thursday morning before. So there is always the exception to the so called best time. But there are a lot of other variables too like poor photos, high pricing, high shipping fees, crappy coins and bad feedback that would cause a no sale no matter when it ends.
One thing to consider about Sunday night is this: If everyone and their brother ends auctions on Sunday night your coin could get lost in the shuffle. Your common date ho hum coin could fall through the cracks and get ignored.
I will give you an answer that you probably will not see anywhere else and definitely not in the future. Back in the days of yore (2004) there was an eBay seller who sold a complete set of uncertified Lincolns from 1934 - 1958 twice per week. They ended on Thursday and Sunday. He used STOCK photos and that is why this data cannot be recreated. Anyhow, I chose the dates 1934 through 1939 each day and here are my totals; Thursday . $223.18 . $159.67 . $141.11 . $172.71 . $185.19 (AVG) Sunday . . $184.97 . $107.63 . $163.73 . missed . $152.11 (AVG) (The periods are just to help line the columns up.) There is nothing I know of that was different between the 2 auctions except that they ended on different days. Read whatever you want from the data, but I am pretty sure that Thursdays were not worse than Sundays. Personally, I think it more a question of coins per buyer rather than just the total number of buyers. I am not sure Thursday is still better, but for popular coins (where there are significant buyers), I doubt that the day makes a significant difference. On the other hand, I firmly believe that there is a definite difference with odd ball ending times. I have managed some nice deals buying coins that end other than convenient evening times.
WOW! That is some interesting data, thanks RLM. This is what I wanted from the thread, personal experiences and stories of what time is best to end auctions. It seems as though that seller had some good luck on Thursdays... And yes, odd ball ending times can sometimes be great steals on the items! I haven't came across one yet, but when I do, I'm sure I'll post it in Coin Chat. Thanks Again RLM
I prefer the bulk of my auctions to end on either Fri. or Sat. between 6-11pm, but no earlier ending than 8pm on the Fri. I usually do pretty well with this method and do not for get time zones (so I need to have them ending at like 6 or 7 Pac. time so they do not get to close to midnight on the east coast) and beware of holidays, I ended a wave of auctions on a holiday once and bombed out royally. set them to end with out checking the calender... so beware. Now, you need to try and price everything that you wish to sell vs. how much it has sold for recently / or if people are even buying it at that time (if no one is buying or bidding that item currently just put it aside for awhile). Usually If I pick 20-30 things that are currently selling, mine all sell out or maybe only 2 left over and the things that sold went for prices that I am happy with... Now do not forget to pray or rub your Buddha or wear your lucky socks... because I also factor luck into about 30% of the success of a wave of sales,,, also make sure to be home the last say 5-6 hours of your auctions to answer questions to the best of your abilities. Ok, that is it from the amateur corner over here, now maybe some of the veterans will take a swing at this thread/ OP
I think you can narrow it down just by using common sense. Any time, after 6 p.m. but before 11 p.m. should be good, most any night of the week. The 'vast majority' (not all of course) of people who will be buying probably have a regular job they work. Depending on when people have to get up in the morning, I'm sure certain percentages start dropping off after 9, 10, and you've probably lost almost everybody by 11 p.m. At least during the week. The 'vast majority' of people can't bid on ebay during the work day. So any time between 11 p.m. to 4 p.m. the next day, I would think would be pretty lousy. Many people have long commutes and may not be home by 4 p.m. I look at it from my own standpoint as well. If I find something that's really good and I want it bad, I will make every effort to be there when it ends, if I am able to. Depending on how bad I want it, I will adjust my schedule for ebay items occasionally. Sometimes that means waiting a little later for supper or pausing my show on the DVR. Sometimes it means staying up later than I would like to. Which that last one kind of irritates me. I'd say the 10 p.m. EST, time slot is prime time, most any day of the week, for the entire U.S. Not too late for New York and it would be 7 p.m. on the west coast, which would be ideal. After supper, yet before people are going to bed. Somebody listing an auction at 11 p.m. on the west coast, will likely do poorly at the end, any day of the week.
Wouldn't it depend on what you are selling, take for instance; You have a rare coin, with maybe 1-2 of the same date-mm at any given 7day time frame on ebay. You would want a high volume time frame to get more views. But say you have a common date coin, with 10+ or so auctions of the same date-mm/grade within any given window. Wouldn't you want a time frame where there is no other competition within a 3hr window to cut your competition?
BUT, if you have them ending later than 11 p.m. then you won't have any competition and you won't have the same number of bidders than you would at a better time... You get put in a tough spot.
I am a buyer not a seller. I buy raw relatively inexpensive coins and tokens. I have gotten really good deals by looking for auctions that end at odd times, that is, late evening or early am (before people get to work). No bidders on them. I have to work hard, not many auctions, but you can get some deals. Most of the deals were from inexperienced sellers. I always thought I got best deals on Monday or Tuesday evening, because there are fewer bidders. I got some really good deals and convinced myself it was the only time to buy. Then there was auction of large number of tokens from a collection by a large seller, most ending on Monday or Tuesday evening. I thought I was going to get some deals. They all had plenty of bidders and what I thought were fair prices for the seller. I was very disappointed I did not get great deals. So I revisited weekend and noticed what some of the other posts noticed, there are good deals that get overlooked when there are a lot of auctions and I got some bargains that way as well, including common date AU mercs for a couple of bucks (including postage).
