To list "Limited Time" or "Good 'til Canceled" or "Auction?

[themonitorman]

Hi Community,

Is there a strategy or thought-process one can use to determine duration/format for a Listing?

I have observed that in "Good 'til Cancelled" listings, you eventually accumulate Watchers, and most items will eventually sell - but there is no real pressure or incentive for Buyers to push that button. Also in Sale situations, you don't lose any Watchers during the re-list process.

In the case of "Limited Time" listings - when a Listing is set to automatically repeat - Watchers seem more inclined to purchase an Item if they see a deadline approaching. I've found 2 negative sides to this:

1) Every time a listing automatically repeats, I lose any Watchers acquired before the re-list;

2) Every time a listing automatically repeats, I have to update my own records with a new eBay ID# for that Listing.  Right now that's not too bad with only about 100 listings recycling every month. But as I keep pushing that number higher, that's going to get really time consuming.

I'm thinking there are probably certain types of Item, which do better as a Limited Time listing, and other Items which are better off listed as "Good 'til Cancelled" and still other Items which are better off listed as "Auction" format. But I have no idea how to approach determining which Listing format or duration to use.

Has anyone found a useful strategy for doing this, that they would be willing to share?

Thanks, and Best Regards,

themonitorman

[jonathankirkland]

Well I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I can tell you that recently someone on the forums here claims to have done some research and said they saw a fairly significant increase in sales when they used 30-day listings instead of GTC listings.

Personally, I am a really small seller (never had more than 30-40 items up at once), and I price everything extremely competitively and have never had any problem selling most all of it.

[mr_lincoln]

@themonitorman  Let me prefice my reply with the fact that I sell collectibles in numerous categories.

1. I prefer Auctions and eBay documented that 65% of all Auctions sell on Sundays.  Prior to that I actually fgured  it out that way through experience.  Definately end them over the weekend but Sunday seems best ... SOOOoooo

-5 Day Auction starts Tuesday ends Sunday

-7Day Auction starts Sunday & ends Sunday

-10 Day Auction starts Thursday, runs tow full weekends of exposure and ends on Sunday

Late int he day EST ending time is good ... gives the entire country more time to see the items

2. Fixed Price - I NEVER use GTC, period.  I use 30 days and relist FP items

3. Back and forth formats: I will occasionally switch things from Auction to FP or vice versa

4. Stretching your listings:  If I want to make my prepaid store listings go further I might run more Auctions on 10 day cycles.  I have found that Mon - Wed for what I sell are s ... l ... o ... w days, low View and Watcher counts.  Then long about Thursday Views and Watchers start to increase and contineu through the weekend.

5. Wait to Relist unsold items:  what I have observed is if I wait a few days to Relist an item it gets put up as a New Listing ... it takes a lottle patience because the tendency here is to relist immediately thinking you don't want anyone to miss the item ... but if its the 3rd time you've done that then what's a few more days so it might get returned higher in Search because it shows as a New listing?!?

[fashunu4eeuh]

Items that you have a pretty good idea of how you want to price can go fixed price. Items that are hot or "in demand" but are hard to price, can go to auction. If i have a one-of-a-kind item with no idea of a price, an auction can help maximize what i might get for it. If i have a one-of-a-kind item that i have a good idea of what i want to sell for, but no market data on price, i might choose fixed price with Best Offer feature. Common or staple items are less suited for auction than fixed price.