Best time of year to sell on Ebay ?

Madman

Madman

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What time of year would you think is best to put train items up for sale on Ebay. I don't know if the UK would be any different from the USA.
 
Spring is the best time to sell anything. Lead up to Xmas is also good...
 
I'll go along with Trev on that one. I also find the time is an important factor too. Most of my listings start on a Thursday evening and are scheduled to end 10 days later (Sunday) between 1900 and 2100 hrs. As most people tend to go back to work on Monday there are not so many potential buyers 'down the pub'. There also seems to be a poorer selection of TV programmes on Sunday evenings so surfing the net is more likely. Works for me in the UK anyway and you get two weekend exposures out of it too.
 
ebay mike said:
I also find the time is an important factor too. Most of my listings start on a Thursday evening and are scheduled to end 10 days later (Sunday) between 1900 and 2100 hrs.
Click to expand...

I do the same too. Try to avoid selling in the run up or just post to major holidays, when buyer's budgets may be depleted. Christmas can be a double edged sword : Singles might be treating themselves, family types may not wish to be seen to be too self indulgent ;)

Not all items are suitable for selling on Ebay, concider selling here or via a "commission sale" too. Remember when listing, every picture is worth a thousand words. Don't post what is pricipaly the same picture 10 times. And try to give yourself the largest market possible, look into the practicalities of shipping your item overseas and listing worldwide.
Max.
 
Having been selling G scale bits on ebay for 10 years now I would say that start of May to end of August is the best time as people are building or expanding their garden lines. There is also a few weeks before Christmas when people ask for stuff for presents. The market in the UK however has been much reduced over the past 3 years and I've been struggling to sell items from my collection that are either unused or in mint condition.

End of March and April are bad times to sell in the UK as many in the hobby are saving their cash to spend at the big garden rail shows are trying to raise money to spend at them.

The best time to buy is late September and October when people decide to end their hobby after the summer and other who want to raise money for Christmas. February can also be a good time to buy when people have to pay their Christmas credit card bills!
 
As Mike said, the ending time of Sunday evening is when most G scale listings seem to end. That's when I schedule most of my listings to end. The duration of the listing is another issue however. Seven days is the most popular, it seems. But the thought arises that a short listing time might get someone's attention, in that they would want to act on it before it goes away. On the other hand, a lengthy listing might allow complacency. Buyers figuring that the item will be there after they have viewed all other listings in their category. By that time, the buyer may have expended his funds.

What Stephen pointed out about March and April may explain why my sales are limp at the moment. In this case, a long listing time would be beneficial.

I suspect that the discussion we are having is why marketers have a job.
 
It generally seems best to end an auction in the evening on any day other than Friday, Saturday or Monday. Many end on Sunday simply because the default listing in 7 days and Sunday seems to be the day that most people have the time available to list items, also in the UK there have been free listing weekends, once or twice a month, although eBay are stopping this next month.
 
Yes, the free listings are still going on here. Evilbay takes enough of my money with their other fees. It's about 15% !! As usual, the middle man, is the business to be in.
 
I'm about to sell ( or at least try to sell) my car on eBay. It will have to be pick up only, posting a car is impractical. Hard to find cars seem to sell well on eBay, this is a 2.5L CRDi with a chassis and got rave reviews when new... I think fees for "expensive" items are less than 15%, I hope they are... But yeah the free listing fees are a ripp off, even though it costs nothing to list the other fees are amazing. An Item I sold for AU$1.25 cost me AU$6.30 in fees to sell....
 
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