What is the best time to start and end an ebay auction?

Hi all,
As my title say, i always end my auction on 10pm PST.
Is it good or bad?

Thank you for any suggestions,
JEFF

Most people will have a different idea in regards to finishing times, but for me it comes down to one thing, and that is knowing your market.

For me, when I do list on eBay, I am going after a general market mostly, nothing specific. I pick a Sunday afternoon, usually around 5.00 or 7.00pm, because this is the most likely time of the week that you will find families all together. The weekend has wound down and most people are now just relaxing, soaking up the last few hours of the weekend.

It's the perfect storm, you have everyone in the one spot, nothing much important on their mind, so they shouldn't simply forget about your listing, so in a numbers game, you have increased your odds.

You need to ask yourself if you are hitting your target market at a time like 10pm. For people working early, 10pm is probably too late, so you won't be hitting that market.

A 10pm time slot indicates to me that you are chasing a younger demographic, possibly one that isn't working and one that has a good memory and not to involved in late night television to remember your listing ending and bidding.

If that's your market, then you have it nailed, if it's not, then you may want to take a closer look at your demographic and try to target them a little better : )

Thanks for the comment and idea fudjj.
My main market was video games.
Based on my experience as a gamer, i think 10pm wasnt bad since many gamer online or play early till midnight.
However, i really like to heard some other opinion, ideas,etc.
I might get something from it.
I am from SEA, so i really have no idea on hows the teenagers at PST (Pasific Standard Time) made their living, but if you ask me about SEA, that is the peak time (10PM).
I really really love to hear comment from other member.

Thank you again sir!
JEFF

Sounds like you know your market and have taken that into consideration with your start time Jeff.

One thing I would say is I have been involved in the games market myself and while it does depend on the type of games you are selling, it can be younger kids and their parents that also buy.

I don't have any firm data break down on the demographic of our old customers, but I was personally surprised at how many questions we would get from parents wanting to purchase for their children, other members of their extended family and friends.

So maybe an idea would be to just change it up a little on some titles. Test the water and see what the results say from varying the times on a few titles.

Cheers

Hi Jeff,

I suggest you use the SaleHoo Research Labs, just click on the link above. :) Create a research project by entering a keyword(s) for a product you are considering selling on eBay, ex. video games, and you will get among other results, recommendations on the ending day and time. :) I got this result below
Ending Day Ending Time PST (GMT -8)
video games Tue 6:00pm
This is based on eBay.com's successful listings and you are advised to consider using them in your own. :)

Hope this helps!

I would agree with marc, if you could do the auction for 10 days, start it on a saturday and have it run for 2 sundays.

You know, sunday being the end of the weekend and the dads etc have finished the lawn and tip runs, still recovering after the sat night footy party.

Sit down at the puter and do some shopping.

Yes Sunday does seem to be one of the best days (if not the best day) to end an auction, so far today I have read a few write ups with the same suggestion. T0pSales has the pointed out a really concrete situation as to why this may be.

You might find this article helpful as well - Link hidden: Login to view

Also, Auctionbytes has an Link hidden: Login to view that can tell you when you can end your auction and if it would be a good day to end your auction. Just thing you might want to check :)

Cheers!

Sunday nights have been the magic time for me, in almost every niche in which I've ever sold. I typically run one-week listings -- I've experimented with shorter and longer, but the results were inconclusive and not really worth getting into. One-week listings have worked really well for me, especially ones that end on Sunday. Depending on the product either in the mid-afternoon, or around 10pm US eastern time. (Basically, if it's a "family product" -- televisions, furniture, books, etc. -- the afternoons tend to produce more last-minute bids; if it's a "personal product" -- jewelry, small electronics etc. -- it tends to do better ending later.)


Frank

Thank you for all the reply!
I've been thinking to try the 3 days auction start on friday - sunday, or some other days after saw the interactive auction calendar link posted by richellemonfort, that is a good link of help.
Any comment of success rate for 3 days auction?

Thank you again for all the time you all gave to replying this post.
JEFF

I wouldn't even consider a 3 day auction format personally, unless I new I had a fast moving product, and then I would make the most of the 3 day format for quick turnover.

For me, it's all about market exposure. The more people that see your listing, the higher the chance of converting a sale at a decent margin. I've never seen a survey that didn't indicate that weekends weren't the highest user visiting times, so my start time is always on a Thursday so I get two Friday evenings, two weekends and a full week of market exposure to maximise my chances.