Compensating for the upcoming Daylight Saving Time change on 11/3

[a_c_green]

Somebody check my math, please, because I'm going bonkers trying to do this in my head:

I have 7-day auctions that will begin on this coming Sunday night, October 27th, to end a week later on November 3rd. We turn the clocks back at 2:00 a.m. on the morning of the 3rd. ("Spring forward; Fall back")

Sooo... if I want an auction to end at 10:00 p.m. Chicago time on the 3rd, I need to start it at 11:00 p.m. this Sunday, right? Start it an hour later than its intended ending time, right? I know it's going to run for 7x24 hours regardless.

[wastingtime101]

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@a_c_green wrote:

Sooo... if I want an auction to end at 10:00 p.m. Chicago time on the 3rd, I need to start it at 11:00 p.m. this Sunday, right? Start it an hour later than its intended ending time, right? I know it's going to run for 7x24 hours regardless.

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Yes, that's my understanding.

If we're both wrong, hopefully someone else will come along with that info.

Edit: I just looked it up to double-check and we're both correct. Auctions will run for 7 days x 24 hours.

Starting at 11pm with clocks falling back means it will end at 10pm the following week.

[gloryglorygifts]

I'm sorry. I don't understand what difference it makes?  Doesn't ebay adjust for any time changes? 

[dnasilver]

What about locations that do not change their time? It is not across the board. We wish the USA would get rid of these time changes since it is not done everywhere in the USA.

[nevilletetts]

Does it matter?  It is one to three hours in the US at the most.  I've never understood the panic that overtakes some people regarding daylight savings time.  Best of luck to you.

[dbfolks166mt]

     First eBay operates on Pacific time not the sellers location time. So, even under normal situations if you want an auction to end at 10:00 P.M. Chicago, Central time you would start the auction at 8:00 P.M, Pacific  time. I use the auction format almost exclusively and I am in Virginia. I start all my auctions at 8:00 A.M.  Pacific time and they end at 8:00 AM Pacific time or 11:00 A.M. Eastern time.

     You are in Illinois and eBay is in California and both change their clocks for daylight savings time so the change is transparent so if you want your auction to end at 10:00 P.M. Central time you would start the auction at 8:00 P.M Pacific time. The only time there would be a need to adjust is if you lived in a state that did not change their clocks for daylight savings time and you were wanting to base the auction end time on your location as the seller. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@gloryglorygifts wrote:

I'm sorry. I don't understand what difference it makes?  Doesn't ebay adjust for any time changes? 

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No, that's the whole point underlying the original question.  As noted in the original post, if you choose a 7-day duration for your auction, then the duration of your auction will be 7 times 24 hours.  When we change our clocks, the ending time changes by one hour. Twice a year, there will be posts on these boards by sellers asking, "Why did my auction end an hour earlier (or later) than it was supposed to?"

[hartungcards]

"Doesn't ebay adjust for any time changes?"

Yes, they do, and they often do it wrong, wreaking all kinds of havoc.

[gloryglorygifts]

I still don't see what the big freaking deal is. We are talking about an hour. One hour is not going to make or break a seller. Ebay will tell bidders how much time they have left. Whatever floats peoples boats....

[nobody*s_perfect]

Apparently some sellers have  opinions about what time their auctions should end.

[marnotom!]

Keep in mind that just because the clock is going to go through some magical transformation, it doesn’t mean that people’s schedules will automatically adjust.

I fully expect to be woken up by my ten year old at around 7 AM instead of the usual 8 AM-ish the morning of Sunday, November 3.

[dbfolks166mt]

"Doesn't ebay adjust for any time changes?"

Yes, they do, and they often do it wrong, wreaking all kinds of havoc.

     Why doesn't this surprise me in the least? 

[wellingnorth]

Hello there

I'm posting from the UK where daylight savings has kicked in a week earlier.

Just for your information on ebay.co.uk we've had an issue where unlike previously where an auction starting a 8pm before the clocks went back finished at 7pm afterwards, this time the auctions have finished at the same clock time, ie started at 8pm, finished at 8pm and will have run for however many days plus one hour.

I have no idea if ebay.com is running off of the same code as ebay.co.uk but it seems possible so it might be worth checking this before proceeding. You'd be able to work out what's happening if you start an auction now that will finish after the clocks change, then have a look at the finish time you're shown.

[lacemaker3]

@wellingnorth,

That information doesn't appear to be correct for listings on eBay UK.

Here's an example of a listing (from a seller you recently purchased from) which shows that eBay UK is correctly adjusting the ending time to compensate for the end of British Summer Time (BST). This is equivalent to daylight savings time in the UK.

This listing is ending 4 days from now (at 22:11:43 GMT/UTC not BST, on Oct 31 2024), but the ending time is one hour later than when it was started (at 21:11:43 UTC during BST, on Aug 31 2013, 11 years ago).

[wellingnorth]

Thanks for the reply @lacemaker3 , there was a typo on the seller name you've picked there, but never mind! I am not sure whether buy it now listings may be treated differently, but I guess also the end time may be determined when a listing is started, so a buy it now that started in 2013 may not work in quite the same way as an auction started in the last week.

Anyway, this has 100% been happening with auctions on ebay.co.uk (the clocks went back here today)

Here's an example of a listing from ebay UK, this started at 23-Oct 14:25 and finishes 30-Oct 14:25 (not 13:25 as you would expect)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226414117977

It's a bit hard for me to be sure what's happening on the US site because I'm in a different time zone, but what I suggest is either make a 7 day auction listing yourself and see what the end time is.

Alternatively do a search for something like 'clothes'. Set it to show 'auctions' only and sort by newly listed. You'll be looking for 7 day listings to ensure that they cross the time change. For me ebay shows a different time zone on the results page vs the item page so I can't be sure what is happening exactly, but if I look at an auction that started in the last hour it says time remaining 7d 0h where as usually it would say 6d23h straight away - to confirm this find a 3 or 5 day auction (ie finishing before the clocks change) listed in the last hour and you will see it says 2d23h / 4d23h rather than 3d0h / 5d0h.

Anyway, making your own listing and checking the finish time is probably the surest way to know, it's just a heads up really that this issue may be affecting ebay.com as well if you're concerned about the times that your auctions finish.