Is There A Best Time To Schedule An Auction Closing Date And Time?

[sscot6]

I am fairly new to Ebay selling (although I have been buying for many years) and am about to begin listing a large number of items over several different categories. I plan to use BIN for some and auctions for others. For auction items, is there a best time to schedule the auctions for ending?

I have no data to back this up but in my years of buying, it seems as if the largest number of potential buyers are on the system Sunday afternoons and late Sunday afternoons, hence this would be the best time for auctions to end from a seller standpoint (i.e., the most buyers would be looking at the “ending soon” category and willing to place bids at that time). The second best time for auction endings has seemed to me to be Friday nights.

As I mentioned before, I have absolutely NO data to back any of this up other than my own observations. Is there any truth to this? Is there really a best time for scheduling auction ends and if so, what is it?

[kim_y_buran]

Yes, lots of people schedule the auctions to end on weekend nights, and as a buyer I absolutely hate that - it means that on those days I have 3-4-5 times as many listings to wade through, made more difficult by Ebay's nonsensical new presentation format.    It means that sometimes I miss a listing.  And, sometimes I will grow tired, annoyed, and say "*** that, enough for today".  

[divwido]

I only plan the start of maybe .5% of my auctions.  It really doesn't seem to matter and scheduling costs me.

[sscot6]

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@sscot6 wrote:

....Sunday afternoons and late Sunday afternoons.....

This statement in my original post is incorrect. It should say "Sunday evenings and late Sunday afternoons)

[argusmike]

@sscot6

This link is a little old, but still valuable:

https://www.ebay.com/gds/What-is-the-best-day-to-list-or-end-ebay-items-/10000000176793995/g.html

It looks like you are correct about Sunday evenings.

Mike

[ted_200]

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@argusmike wrote:

@sscot6

This link is a little old, but still valuable:

https://www.ebay.com/gds/What-is-the-best-day-to-list-or-end-ebay-items-/10000000176793995/g.html

It looks like you are correct about Sunday evenings.

Mike

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I was going to say that was the "old school" conventional wisdom on eBay (Sunday pm and evenings).

That guide was written in 2013, based on data from 1999-2003 and 2005.  So that's pretty "old" school. 

But last time this topic came up (few weeks ago), there still seemed to be consensus that was the best time... maybe with some qualifiers.  If it's Business & Industrial, for example, it might be better to end on a day/time that is typical for business and industry operating hours. 

I still run mine on Sundays, whatever that's worth...

[arisdisc]

Seller here in Ebay for almost 20 years.
After many years of experimenting, I've learned to have all of my auctions end on Sundays and it works just fine. 

Since I sell vinyl records and a fair chunk of my sales are overseas, I have mine end in the 5-6pm range. That way, in the UK, France, Germany etc - the auctions end at around 11p. If you're not doing International, you can end your auctions at a reasonable time, but Sundays between 5-9p is my recommendation.

[sscot6]

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it very much.

[miketuch11]

Absolutely. On a hot ticket item,

Sunday, 9PM Pacific

Alot of people say that the Sunday night feeding frenzy is a myth, but I can assure it's real.

[vintageista]

20 year seller and yes Sunday late afternoon/evenings are still good, but less than before, at least for me! This is a known fact for a long time, but this year doesn't seem to working quite so well. I have had Sunday evenings end with only 1-2 sales with 20-30 auctions ending during that time frame. Fun when it happens but no longer seems dependable.

Seems to depend on where you are in the server slot-machine, if you are on the west coast servers at that time you will do well! If you are lost in WI, or other smaller states - not so well! 

Fridays have never been very reliable for me, date-night perhaps, unwinding from work-week, not interested on being on a computer anymore...who knows? This past week, Friday was okay, Sat night was good, Sunday, not so much!

I try having a combination of auctions and FP ending every night around 6pm, sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn't! Still a guessing game and it is ever changing! GOOD LUCK!