When I sell on eBay here's what is currently scheduling logic. 1. Start all listings at 7PM eBay time (PST). That makes it 10PM Eastern. Why? -- It's after supper for most people. -- It's before bedtime for most people. People like to see the results of their bidding. And it only costs a dime to use the scheduler. 2. List things with a starting bid of at least $20. Why? -- The eBay/PayPal fees don't make it worthwhile selling for under $20. Group items if you have to to get to about the $20 level. 3. Ship for free. Why? -- The S&H DSR is the one that takes the worst beating of the 4. -- People like the idea of free shipping. Just make sure you add the S&H into your opening price. 4. At this time of the year start your 7-day listings mid-week (Tues, Wed or Thurs). Why? -- Sunday football may cause people to forget or ignore an item. -- Monday football may cause people to forget or ignore an item. -- Friday many people are out for the evening and may forget or ignore an item. -- Saturday football may cause people to forget or ignore an item. So, what do you think?
I think you have it pretty well figured out... the only thing I do differently is start my auctions much lower and hope for a "bidding war"; sometimes you win with this strategy, and sometime you lose, but overall I've done quite well. I always offer free shipping with coins or comic books. I rarely do BIN, as I still enjoy the true auction format.
Whew!! You might want to target those folks that only use the latest Crest toothpaste and mouthwash. :rollling: But seriously, if you believe you have all your bases covered and End Zones protected, go for it. Way to much anticipation for me though.
Get rid of free shipping. Some bidders won't price that in. If the bidders price that in, the price will appear lower from the search page and the item will appear lower priced. You will in return get more page views. I personally usually post my items Saturday.
I think you have a very good plan. But, football games are also being played more frequently on Thursday night too these days. I don't know if you want to be more restrictive...but every Thursday there is a nationally televised NCAA game on ESPN at 5pm PST. I'm going downstairs to watch it in a few minutes. So, you might want to have that in the back of your mind.
I would agree with you on some of your points. Here's my take: 1. Yes, listing items so that the auction ends in the evenings is advantageous for the seller because this is when most people are on line surfing the web. 2. Disagree. I start all my auctions at 99 cents. This attracts more attention, and more bidding. Many ebay surfers will automatically screen out items that have a starting bid over $5, $10, $20 etc, or they'll screen out listings with no bids. By setting an artificially high opening bid, you are preventing yourself from getting the cheapskates to bid, ie those that will only bid with a start of .99 $. This setting of the initial bid at a low amount is the key to enticing potential buyers to bid on your item early, generating more interest, and garnering you more profits in the long run. I've found this technique to work particularly well for bullion coins, because I know they will normally sell for close to melt anyways. You want to start a bidding war on your items, more bidders will help you achieve this. 3. Ship for free. Agree to a certain extent. Again, you'll attract more business if you offer free shipping. I usually charge enough shipping so that it absorbs some of the cost. Typically I'll charge under $2.00. Most buyers don't seem too upset about that, most of the coins I've sold on eBay are in the $20-40 dollar range so they're only paying a small percentage of the total price in shipping. My DSRs haven't suffered as a result. 4. There is a fair amount of research out there that shows that the best time to end a listing, if your intent is to generate competition and as a result higher sales prices, is Sunday evenings between 7-11 pm EST. Again, most people are on line, relaxing while surfing the web getting ready to start their week, they may even have Sunday night football on in the background. People tend to be willing to shop/buy online during this time frame. Completely agree with the seven day listing, the longer the listing, the better. The best evenings other than Sunday are Tuesday, Wed, Thursday.
The search function searches lowest price with shipping. I have it set to my default search, and I'd imagine anyone else would too, because shipping is money. Kinda kills your line of thought.
I'm with RaceBannon on this. I always end Sunday evening, ship free, and almost always start at 99 cents. The only exception to starting cheap is when it's a "corner" coin that won't draw a bidding war. Then I protect my investment with a sensible starting price. I like the automatic 5 stars with free, fast shipping. When I charged my actual cost or less I would often get 4 stars for S&H. Lance.
1: 10pm eastern is a bit late. Ever considered scaling it back to 9? 2: To me, it's not an auction if you are going to start the bidding at the price of the item. I don't give those a second look. Bad idea. 3: Doesn't matter to me. I use the search function set to "Price including shipping". However, if in the end, the shipping is stupid, I would be inclined to ding you on that one point, which cannot be done with free shipping. So as a whole, good idea. 4: Doesn't matter to me, I am not a sporting person, but I can see the rationale. My .02 as an eBay buyer.... take it for what it's worth.
Your schedule is good for US coins. But, if you sell foreign coins... always consider starting them at unusual hours to align with mid to late evening in the countries most likely to be bidding. Also, avoid Tuesday, as this day has become crazy flooded with coins and your coins listed on this date will not be as visible. I haven't looked at the number of items ending in US coins on this day, however. And no matter what anyone says - stay with free shipping. Not only do people already consider shipping fees in their bid, but free shipping gets an extra bit of appreciation that translates into better rapport and thus better bids.
This is how I do it. My typical search criteria goes like this: The country I'm searching for, price 0.01-$.4.00, U.S. only, sort by ending soonest. Then I usually just look at the next 24 hours. I also have shipping cost displayed and if it's more than $3 I almost never look at it. It depends on what you are selling though. If it's expensive coins then people looking for them probably won't search that way and are more likely to be searching for that exact item. One thing I've noticed when I sell is that almost all Buy it Now orders come in the daytime. I think people are bored at work or on their commute and search on eBay. I hardly ever get a buy it now at night, and when I'm waiting for a payment, I have most of them waiting for me when I get to work in the morning, again suggesting people are web surfing during their commute.
If you haven't already you should check out Ebays Turbo Lister. It will allow you to create listings save them to upload later and upload all of them at once whatever time you way. 10c isn't much for the scheduler, but add that to a couple hundred or couple thousand listings down the road and it adds up. I sell items under $20 and although I'll probably never get rich this way, multiple small sales help keep my powerseller and Top Rated seller status which saves me 20% on fees You are right, about this one even when I pay more for shipping than I charge I have gotten less than 5 stars. I still like my listings ending on Sunday, but I can see your logic. Anyway good luck:thumb: P.S. I have been finding that adding a Buy it now to my listings even when the start price is .99 gets me fewer hits. I think people who search the new listings will either look at auction only, or Buy it now. I think lots of people automatically assume Buy it now prices are too high. Several times I have listed a coin with a buy it now and a low start price and the coin ended up selling for well over the original Buy It Now.
