Does time matter?

chumchum

This maybe a little off the page for this forum. But I figured you guys list alot of auction. I was wondering if the the day or ending time really matter in the final bid price? Are their better times and days to end?

Thanks

striperbware

Excellent question that I also wondered about. I have not tried to sell any guns, so my input is from a bidder's perspective only. I would say that the ending time regardless of the day of the week could influence the final bidding price. An auction that ends at a time when internet use it at its highest will statistically get the most looks near its end with all other things being equal ( the type of gun for example ).

With a lot of bidding activity it is possible or even likely that someone will bid beyond what they would otherwise, possibly even paying more than the gun should go for. People can easily lose their cool and forget their own ground rules when they sense fierce competition. Most buyers on here have a good idea of the price a gun should go for, but there is always the novice with more money than brains, or the guy who is drinking too much and gets the internet bidder's version of beer muscles and wants to show the rest of the bidders how tough he is by outbidding everyone. I dont know how often either of these happens, but it must happen with some frequency.

The AUTOBID feature works in the favor of both the seller and the buyer, and if I see a gun that I really want to buy, and I think I will not be near my computer to outbid someone at the time the auction is ending, I will enter my top dollar bid using AUTOBID and then walk away. This feature nullifies the ending time for a buyer who is very interested in that particular gun, and also helps the seller get most or all of what the gun is worth most of the time ( if he chooses a NO RESERVE, no opening bid auction .

mark christian

I can tell you for a fact that here on the west coast we need to keep a close eye on ending times. I had more than a couple of guys from back east e-mail me when i first listed items to PLEASE have the auctions end before 9PM otherwise they have to go to bed. About 80% of my firearms sales on the site have gone to areas in either the Central or Eastern time zones so ending an auction at 8PM here in CA means an 11PM end in (say) Virgina and that can cost you bids. Early or mid afternoon endings on work days will mean that a lot of folks are at work and can't bid so I find early evening endings to be best.

amblerrl

eight o'clock central time and end it on saturday or sunday night.

cbxjeff

Yes, time matters. I like to end my auctions around 9:00 EDT. That gives the guys on the west coast to maybe get home after work and watch the end. Some might say that why don't just bid 1-2 days before the end? Some just don't do that and want to watch & bid until the last minute.

golferboy426

yep with over 2000 sales I like to end on a weekend afternoon , If a weekday I always try to end between 9-11 PM eastern time. The new beta version if it ever gets release will let youpick the start/end time so listing will be much more convient

armilite

I list more on another site than on here, but I also buy items as well.
I would always wonder why some seller would end an auction at 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning. Actually any time in the morning or early after noon. The majority of people working in this country work between the hours of say 6am to 5pm why would you want to have your auctions end when the majority of the populace is at work. Granted many people have access to computer at work but many more don't. I try to end my auctions between 7-9 pm on Sundays or Mondays. The Sunday thing works well as people are winding down from the weekend. The Monday thing also works well as that first long day of the week is over and many people are still suffering the weekend effects. I also notice that particularly on Mondays my computer generally runs a little slower and the web sites seem to be a little slower also. That tells me that more people seem to be on their computers on Mondays. I would like to see a study of this and it would not surprise me at all if indeed Monday was the busiest computer day of the week. Another thing that is important is actually the watcher list. If no one is watching your auction it does not matter what time or what day of the week it ends. If no one is watching then no one will bid on it.

dandak1

Yep, I am on afternoon shift, have been for the last 7 years and I can tell you the majority of auctions I am interested in end when I am at work (no computers allowed!!).[:(]

garanch

Another piece of information:
Start your auction on Thursday evening and run it for 10 days. That way your auction goes thru 2 full weekends and will end on a Sunday evening of the second weekend.
My experience is that I get the most bids on weekends. (may not be true for others) but it works for me.

beantownshootah

Yeah, ending time matters.

For obvious reasons, the more bids and bidders, the higher the eventual sale price.

Many bidders are trying to bid at the very end of auctions, hoping to "snipe" a better price.

So the most competitive auctions will have an ending time when there are a lot of potential active bidders online (eg Sunday evening).

If the auction is ending at a time when there aren't a lot of active bidders (eg say 3:30 am on a Wednesday), then the price may not get as high as it would otherwise.

Obviously, this sort of thing applies more to true auction (ie no reserve) type listings. For fixed price, or "buy it now" type listings, it makes virtually no difference when they end.

chumchum

Thanks, I never really thought about it till someone asked me. I just usaully ran my auction starting at the price I wanted and ran it till it sold. Now I understand a little better why some of these guys I see respond to some post will say start it at a penny and let the market decide. Of course they don't offer with that suggestion the method to also get the most. From this post I see most of you guys pretty much agree on the best ending times and days.

Thanks for the info. It give me something to consider on my next auction. Just my luck, my shift changed at work from Sunday and Monday off to Thursday Friday and Saturday.