When it comes to durations, you have a wide range of choices: your auction
can run for 10, 7, 5 or 3 days, or even only one day if you have a good enough
feedback rating.
There’s a reason why you get to choose your duration, and that’s because
different durations are good for different things. To decide how long you should
list your items for, all you need to do is ask yourself a few questions.
Do you want to sell things quickly? If you’d rather sell now than in a few days,
even if it means losing a little of your profit, then go ahead and choose the
shortest duration you can get. If you’re the more patient type, on the other
hand, you might as well sell slowly.
How much is your item worth? Items with a higher price are worth re-listing
every 3 days or so using Buy it Now. The fees aren’t that big as a percentage of
the item’s cost, and you’ll sell more when you’re constantly higher up in the
search results.
Could your item benefit from competitive bidding? Not every item is going to
make bidders get excited and try to outbid each other. If you have items that
consistently attract more than five bidders, though, you should always list then
for as long as possible, to get the best price you can. People will be quite
happy to follow your auction for days, bidding the price higher and higher as
they go.
What did the seller getting the best price do? Go back to that completed items
display, and take a look at which durations the top seller uses the most often.
The chances are that what they’re doing works.
Can you ship quickly? You might find that customers get frustrated if they have
to wait for over a week for your auction to end, only to have to wait some more
for the item to actually turn up. If you’re running auctions with the longest
duration, try to have the thing packed and ready to go for posting the day it
ends.
Is there a rush on? If it’s the holiday period, or there’s a sudden surge in
demand for your particular item, then don’t list items for as long as you would
usually. It’s in your interest to have a quick turnover, then you should be
listing for the minimum of one day.
How visible do you want to be? You might have noticed that most of the effects
caused by varying item durations are basically caused by the fact that, by
default, eBay sorts search results so that items ending sooner appear first.
Since it’s the default, this is the view most people use – meaning that items
ending sooner get viewed much more.
If you’d like a few more tips about increasing your auction’s visibility on
eBay, make sure to check out the next email. See you there!
About the Author: Kirsten Hawkins is an Ebay and internet auction
enthusiast from Nashville, TN. Visit
http://www.auctionseller411.com/ for more great tips on how to make the most
from Ebay and other online auctions.
Source:
www.isnare.com