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Here is the key to the age-old
question "What day and time should I end my sales?" IT DEPENDS ON WHAT
YOU ARE SELLING! This question comes up at every eBay Live conference
and most people will try to tell you that time is 7PM Pacific Time on
Sunday night. Well, that is a good time but it may very well not be the
best time for your items. These so-called experts will tell you that
this is the time when eBay has the most traffic. That may be true but
traffic does not always mean sales. I have several off-eBay web sites
where I offer different items for sale. A couple of these sites get
several thousand hits a month but I sell very few items from them. I
have another site that only gets about 150 hits per month but I
probably average 20 sales. Again, IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU ARE SELLING!
If you are going to follow someone's advice on when to end your sales
or any advice on eBay selling, you need to find out who this "expert"
is and what are his/her qualifications. How many items have they sold?
Do they really know what they are talking about? There is another guide
posted on eBay that has been viewed thousands of times. The person who
wrote it has a feedback of 55 and was actually only on eBay a few
months. If you check you will see that he is no longer a registered
user. I do agree with a lot of the things he says, but some are totally
off-base and it is sad that many new sellers may be reading this and
taking it as gospel. One of his comments is that "Sunday is considered
the best day to end an auction followed closely by Saturday and then
Friday." Not necessarily true! If you end something during the day on
Sunday, you may not be happy with the results. Sunday night is usually
good. Saturdays can be very strange. I have had really great Saturday
results and really poor ones. For me, Fridays are always bad. After
Sunday evening, I have had the best luck with Monday at 10AM Pacific
Time then Tuesday and Wednesday about this same time. Next would be
Thursday and the worst day would be Friday. But, maybe it is because of
the things that I am selling. You need to do your research. Do an eBay
search for items like yours and look at "Completed Items." Make a
spreadsheet or just write down the time, day of the week and selling
price. Then maybe do a chart comparing day of the week to selling
price. With about a months worth of data, you should be able to see
what day and time gives the best price. You might want to toss out
values for items sold on a holiday as these may give false readings. If
you are selling a unique item that has no history of sales, you might
shoot for Sunday evening. If you have several of these items, you just
need to try different ending times to see which ones work out best for
you. There is no magic time to sell an item on eBay and just about the
time you think you have it all figured out, it will come back and bite
you.
I sell a lot of new items and most of my sales are standard auctions but they also have a Buy It Now price. Most of my sales end with Buy It Now. These happen at various times of the day and night so the ending time is not as important as it would be for a straight auction item without Buy It Now. This is another thing you need to consider.
Again, I want to emphasize that you need to do your research based on what you are selling. If you are going to take advice from someone, make sure they know what they are talking about. Consider the source. Are they an eBay staffer who has never sold anything? Are they some eBay user with a feedback of 55 and no longer a registered user?
If this guide has been helpful, please click on the "Yes" button below. I would certainly appreciate it. Thanks.
I sell a lot of new items and most of my sales are standard auctions but they also have a Buy It Now price. Most of my sales end with Buy It Now. These happen at various times of the day and night so the ending time is not as important as it would be for a straight auction item without Buy It Now. This is another thing you need to consider.
Again, I want to emphasize that you need to do your research based on what you are selling. If you are going to take advice from someone, make sure they know what they are talking about. Consider the source. Are they an eBay staffer who has never sold anything? Are they some eBay user with a feedback of 55 and no longer a registered user?
If this guide has been helpful, please click on the "Yes" button below. I would certainly appreciate it. Thanks.
Guide created: 07/01/06 (updated 11/07/09)
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