Tips for Timing Your EBay Listings to Receive the Highest Bids

More consumers are shopping online than ever, and with the decline in our economy many people are resorting to selling their beloved heirlooms and treasures just to keep the roof over their heads. While this is an unfortunate trend, there are ways for online sellers to insure that their treasures reach the most potential buyers and sell for the maximum price. While it's important to have an attractive listing for your online auctions, the timing of your listing can make the difference between receiving a pittance or a higher bid than you had even hoped for!

The best combination of time of day, day of the week, and length of the auction must be considered to receive the best price for your treasures, or any product you choose to sell online. Also, is your eBay buyer most likely to be a stay-at-home mom, a college student, a retired person, a businessman, a blue collar worker? All these factors should be included as you decide when to add your auction listing to eBay or other online auction sites.

The Best Time of Day to List Your Treasures on Ebay

Since your listing will end at approximately the same time of day as it begins, think about how many people are likely to be online at that hour. At 6 a.m. most people are still in bed, getting ready for work or school, or just coming home from the night shift. At 6 p.m. families are having dinner. Since the last few minutes, or even seconds, of a listing will have the most activity, avoid scheduling your eBay listings to end when people are busy with their daily routines.

Studies indicate that the busiest internet browsing time is between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. PST. This is the time that the largest number of internet surfers are online, and your listings will have the most exposure, but you need to time your listing to appeal to your potential buyers and not just to the general public.

Auction items that appeal to a stay-at-home mom will probably have the most success after her morning rush is over; once the kids and hubby have been fed breakfast and sent of to school and work, and toddlers are occupied playing with toys and watching cartoons. Now Mom can enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet while she surfs the Web and checks eBay for listings that provide toys, clothes, housewares, educational materials, and other items her family needs. The best time to end your listings that appeal to stay-at-home moms is mid-morning, before she needs to break away from her eBay browsing to prepare lunch for any children who remain at home.

Vintage and collectible items were the mainstay of eBay in its early days, and are still popular items that online shoppers are looking for. Online shoppers often browse for vintage and collectible items to add to their own collections, or look to eBay to replace missing pieces of vintage dinnerware. Collectors may browse ebay to add to their collections of vintage toys, housewares, clothing, or whatever they collect (and there are collectors for almost everything). With collectible and vintage items, listings should end in the evenings when there is the most online shopping traffic.

These are just general guidelines, of course, but before you decide what time of day to end your auction, consider your market and what they may be doing at particular times during the day. Reaching the greatest number of buyers who may be interested in your auction is the key to getting the highest bid possible.

Choose the best day of the week to end your listing.

Again, it depends on which buyers you are trying to reach. On Sunday evenings, most consumers are unwinding from their busy weekend and often spend time browsing the internet, although men seem to be in the majority during this time period. For most leisure and recreational items that appeal to men, Sunday evening may be the best day and time for your listing to end.

Treasures that might appeal to stay-at-home moms may get more market exposure during a weekday, when Mom has access to the internet. Young people and college students are often too busy socializing with their friends on Friday and Saturday to be concerned with shopping online, so avoid ending your eBay listings on these days if this is your target crowd.

Women who work usually do the main shopping for their families' needs and may not have much time to spend online until the weekend. End your listing on Saturday or Sunday if you are selling clothing, housewares, and other personal and household necessities that make life easier for the working mother.

Ending a listing on Thursday or Friday isn't recommended by experienced eBay sellers. Consumers are busy planning their weekend activities, shopping for groceries and other necessities, and paying their bills at the end of the week. They may not know, on these days, how much disposable income will be left over from their weekly paycheck that they can afford to spend shopping online.

Avoid ending your eBay listing on a holiday!

Common sense should tell you that on a holiday or long holiday weekend, people will be busy with family activities, traveling, and other fun holiday stuff. There may be a few poor souls shopping online, but you aren't going to have the amount of eBay traffic you would otherwise.

Choose the most appropriate duration for your listing.

You can choose to run your listing on eBay for 1, 3, 5, or 7 days, or for a small extra fee you can have a 10-day listing. Hot items, such as music CDs, DVDs, and electronics, can be listed with a short duration. These items can be easily purchased in stores, and consumers want them now and are more likely to go buy them locally if they can't get them online quickly. They won't want to wait a week for the auction to end.

Hard-to-find antiques, collectibles, and unique or unusual items should be listed with a longer duration, at least seven days. It's worth the extra small fee to go with a 10-day listing, since your item will get longer exposure to more potential buyers.

Consider whether gift-giving holidays are coming up.

The Christmas and Valentine's Day seasons will bring many online shoppers to your eBay listings. Sellers of jewelry and other gift items will have the most sales during gift-giving holidays. End your auctions soon enough before the holiday that you will have time to get the gift shipped to the online shopper! Ebay also offers online gift certificates, and the days following the holiday are the perfect time to sell almost anything to online shoppers who want to redeem their gift certificates right away.

Selling on eBay can be a profitable endeavor, but consider that once you pay the listing fees, final value fees, and PayPal fees, a good chunk of your profit can be gone. Timing your online auctions with consideration for who your market is and the most likely time they will be shopping online can bring you the highest bids and the most profit.