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MG MGA - Selling on Ebay

I have been buying and selling bits and pieces (often MGA related) on Ebay for about a year now. I have been following bidding patterns and always enjoy the final minute of frantic bidding.

My question from a seller's interest: Is there an optimum time and day of the week for an auction to finish?

My limited research to date suggests a weekday evening about 2130 hours local time. My logic would say a Monday as more people are likely to be at home after the weekend. Obviously, the seller also needs to take into account distractions on any particular night such as the big match on TV etc.

Any views?

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve,
I have just started selling on ebay, first item was an mgb restoration book, this sold on a Monday night about the time you suggest. I dont think I will try and sell my spare 1600 MGA prop shaft, Im not that confident yet. I did buy some MGA Grill parts from America ended up with an original grill using 3 separate parts to make one good one.
Regards
Dave MGADAVERED
Dave

My theory is end the auction on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday evenings between 9 and 10pm Eastern Standard time. This gives people on the west coast time to get home. Most working people don't stay up much later than 10pm. Friday and Saturday people go out, and Sunday and Wednesday people go to church in the evenings. Works for me.
Scott

I have bought and sold a lot of items, and I try to end on Sunday evening, midnight, west coast(US) time. This gives everybody time to check out the auction before going to bed, and I use Sunday because I feel that most people check the auctions on the weekend. If you are selling worldwide, you may have to adjust your times, but if you are selling just Europe or Great Britain, I would think you would adjust for Greenwich Mean Time.
I picked my times from somebody who is a self proclaimed expert on this, and lives on the west coast. He buys quite a bit, and he believes that he wins a lot of them because he is on the west coast, therefore it is only midnight for him, while it is 3a.m. for people on the east coast so they would be sleeping.
I know nothing about bidding programs.
Having read the 9.30/10.00 remarks above, I may have to adjust my buying. :)
mike parker

I've sold a lot of stuff on Ebay over the past year (not car parts ). I've found that it's more a matter of demand than timing as far as getting top dollar. If your item is rare, collectible, or in high demand, such as certain toys at Christmas time, you're going to attract more bidders, hence more bids to begin with. What I would really like to see, would be random time length auctions, so that those holding off till the last few seconds would be stymied. If there was something there that I wanted, it would then be in my best interest to bid my limit up front, rather than hope to outbid the bunch at the last few seconds. I imagine that would increase the overall price on many items. If Ebay had an option where you could have a time period of perhaps 7 to 8 days, or 4 to 5 days, say, of your choosing, with the end time determined by a random number generator--it would add considerably to the excitement.
R. L Carleen

I agree with Mike's observations -- end your auction on a Sunday night, most people are at home and if it is an item they really care about and want to "snipe" at the last minute, they'll set their alarm clock. :)

My trick for eBay selling is to start the auction on a Thursday evening between 6-8 pm (Pacific time) and use the "10 day duration" upgrade (20 cents extra I think?), so your item is for sale over the course of two weekends, maximizing the number of eyeballs it will reach. It will end in "prime time" on a Sunday night for US bidders.
Jim Paul

R.L. is correct regarding scarcity and demand. I have not placed any items on ebay since before Christmas, because I know that people are spent out. I will in a couple of weeks because I figure that people will be caught up.
BTW, I have sold 2 clarinets to Netherlands, 1 flute to Channel Islands, Great Britain, 1 clarinet to France. None of them went to US bidders. If you're trying for top dollar, I think it would be good to have it open to ship worldwide.
mike parker

Most of the auctions that originate from the US of A always end at some ungodly hour to us Aussies, so I use Esnipe to do the bidding for me, 5 seconds before the end..I have won a lot, and it sure beats setting the alarm clock!
Gary Lock

Gary

I had wondered how some people seem to time their bid so timely in the the final minute to prevent counter bidding. As a buyer I have lost a number of MGA 'Sutty' pumps to these late bids. Can you tell me more about Ensipe. It is new to me.

Steve
Steve Gyles

Steve, just go to www.esnipe.com and follow the instrustions.
Gary Lock

Thanks Gary.
Steve Gyles

I have bought and sold tons of stuff on ebay, including some MGs and several other cars. I like to start my auctions on Thursday evening and run them for 10 days. This gives bidders two full weekends to FIND my items and save them for future bidding. I end them at 7:00 to 8:00 PM Pacific (AKA ebay) time so that Eastern time bidders can still be up to snipe. Sniping is an art with seasoned ebayers. Running auctios for ten days, and starting them at a certain time costs a little extra. E-snipe is nice, but I have seen folks bid at the LAST second several times. I've even done it myself. Setting your watch to ebay time, or knowing exactly how far off it is, is not hard. Ebay is synchronized with WWV, The National Bureau of Standards. Most likely your cell phone is too. Mine is.
Chuck Asbury

The National Bureau of Standards is now called the National Institute of Science and Technology and their clock (which controls WWV) is available on line at:
http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java
I have my bookmark set for Pacific time, but you can change the time zone by clicking on the change time zone button and selecting whatever zone you want. The accuracy of the display varies from 0.200 to as much as 3 seconds and is displayed along with the time. For absolute accuracy, one needs to go to WWV or WWVL on a suitable radio, but for the purpose of making bids on e-bay, the above web site would probably do fine. Cheers - dave
David DuBois

There's really no reason to ever lose an auction to a sniper. If you lost the item because you were outbid, and you would have bid higher given the opportunity, then why wouldn't you have bid higher to begin with?

eBay does not work like a normal auction where you have to bid incrementally. When I bid, I bid once in the last few seconds with my maximum amount. If I lose the item then it sold for more than I was willing to pay anyway. The only reason I wait until the last second at all is to prevent new bidders who get caught up in the excitement of the bidding frenzy from jacking up the price.
Steve Simmons

Steve is correct. I have won many things by watching the last few minutes. I usually place a low bid, to hold the item on my ebay page. I then watch during the last few minutes, and place a bid acceptable to me within 2 minutes of end of auction. I have found that this will eliminate snipers that have placed a maximum early in the bidding process.
mike parker

Hi all,
Ebay is a super powerful place to sell your items, I have sold a variety of items including MGA parts. Ending time is very important. I have also seen that just listing (Balls out) Low first bid with no reserve serves as the best chance to get a good price, Along with high Resolution pics and alot of possible search words in your description. And answering questions in a timly manner , and treating your customers with respect and making sure there happy and reasonable shipping costs. Sorry for long wind but all these things are important including High Positive feedback to ease bidders minds .
Thanks Ric, (mgman7) on ebay
RJ Enck

Personally I feel reserve prices are a waste of money. Listing fees go up tremendously when you use a reserve. When I'm bidding I always prefer a straight starting price as opposed to a reserve auction.
Steve Simmons

I've never understood the point of having a reserve. Why taunt bidders by "accepting" bids you won't sell the item for? I understand why it's done in live auction houses, to enable the seller to pull an item that isn't going to be sold at his price, but an Ebay seller can cancel an auction at any time. Why not just make your minimum your minimum?
David Breneman

G,day from Oz,
I have bought a few bits on Ebay and have been happy with the results. What I would like to know is, if I became a seller and did not set a reserve, what would be a reasonable starting price,in proportion to my hoped for price? As an example, and say I wanted to sell an inlet manifold and hoped for a final price of around, US$50.00 or thereabout. If I start too low I then run the risk of having to accept a really low final bid? Is this the risk I have to take? Perhaps those of you with more experience could help with some advice please?
Thanks in advance
maurie prior

"but an Ebay seller can cancel an auction at any time." - not so. Once an item receives a bid the seller can no longer pull the item and is obligated to sell the item to the high bidder. The reserve offers you the protection of not having to sell the item for less than the reserve price you set. -M.S.
Martin Straka

Maurie, when selling without a reserve, the best thing to do is to offer the item at the lowest fair price. Not having a reserve will not affect the final sale price of the item but it will save you a LOT of listing fees.

The only point of a reserve that I can see is to try and lure people into the auction with the false impression of a really cheap starting price. The type of person who would bid in this case and not without a reserve is not typically the type of person who will end up the high bidder anyway.
Steve Simmons

Martin,
That's not quite right. You can pull an item any time up to 12 hours before the auction is due to end, whether bids have been received or not.
Regards Tony
Tony Todd

I was looking at a portable gas detector, and the bid was 9.99 US. I watched the item, and was surprised to see that the auction ended with an unadvertised buy it now. The buyer got the item for $30, and I would have gone to $100 easy. So it sometimes hurts the seller to pull an item.
I think that the purpose of a reserve is to give you a lower list price, possibly opening up to bidders and hoping that since they started the bidding, they will add another $5 to the bid, "after all, what's another $5?"
I don't use reserves because I think that they lie to the buyer.
mike parker

So Gents! How about some seller names so I can check out some MGA merchandise? I am looking for a firewall panel Thanks. Mark
MLS Somers

Tony,

EBay isn't too clear about this. They state:

Sellers are not permitted to cancel bids and end listings early in order to avoid selling an item that did not meet the desired sale price. This is considered to be reserve fee circumvention. Although there are legitimate reasons for ending a listing early, abuse of this option will be investigated.

But then they also say:

Reasons for ending listings early include:
* The item is no longer available for sale. (very vague definition that seems to include any reason to end the sale early)
* There was an error in the starting price or reserve amount.
* There was an error in the listing.
* The item was lost or broken.

-M.S.



Martin Straka

Hi all,
As I stated before. Low first Bid with no reserve is your best bet, You may sell an item for less than you wanted now and then but the majority of the time you will get the best price this way. If no one ever got a bargain I think it would tone down the interest. I do know that studying my own surfing on Ebay I usually pass by items with a reserve even if the price is low. If your item is in demand and you spell it right you will get a good price and will have bidders competing at the close of your auction. Most of the time My items have jumped to way more than I expected to get with 60 seconds or less to go.
Thanks Ric
RJ Enck

I'm going to try and sell my 57 roadster "driver" on e-bay in a month or two. I bought the car on e-bay a couple of years ago for my son who has out grown the car. I hope to at least recover my costs. Maybe when I get ready to sell I'll link some pictures here and you guys can guess/offer suggestions on the final sales price!
KC
Kelly

I am not a seller but I have noticed if an item has a high starting price often someone will post the same item at a lower starting price and they will get lots of bidders. For me any weekday in the early evening is a good closing time. Good close up pics and feedback help too.
MLS Somers

If you don't show pictures with the listing, it is an almost sure no sale. I look for these as the price is usually lower. Has anyone else noticed that MGA prices seem to be down on ebay right now, or is it my imagination?
mike parker

It's a bad time of year to sell an MGA. Most of the country is frozen over. Late Spring to early Summer is the best time.
Steve Simmons

Sorry Steve, I meant parts. It seems that the parts are going fairly cheap right now.
mike parker

A little humor about the eBay experience: http://www.geoffellis.com/ebay.html
Bob Muenchausen

Hey Bob! I thake that personally! LOL
MLS Somers

This thread was discussed between 28/01/2005 and 16/02/2005

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