Question:
Any idea why eBay only gives the rather arbitrary choices of 3, 5, 7 or 10-day auctions?
Interesting question. Why not allow a choice of days in increments of one? — David "Once we decide that anything goes, anything can come home to haunt us." — Bill Moyers
Response:
Any idea why eBay only gives the rather arbitrary choices of 3, 5, 7 or 10-day auctions? Is there thought to be some highly optimum day of the week on which to end an auction? Are they afraid would try to end their auctions on the same day?
The biggest question for me is why no 1-day auctions. It would make great sense for things like tickets that will be worthless in 3 days, especially when you consider shipping costs. They probably use 3 days though to fight violations. It takes time for an auction that is breaking the rules to get reported or spotted (I’d guess most are reported, not spotted). Of course, there is BIN. But that does require a min. 10 feedback, so the scammers have to at least have an established account. Chris.
Response:
Any idea why eBay only gives the rather arbitrary choices of 3, 5, 7 or 10-day auctions? Is there thought to be some highly optimum day of the week on which to end an auction? Are they afraid would try to end their auctions on the same day? The biggest question for me is why no 1-day auctions.
I’ll take a guess–because auctions often aren’t even searchable until nearly 24 hours after listing (and sometimes later than that). It’s hard enough on the 3-day auctions when searches are slow. I doubt that eBay wants to deal with the irate sellers whose listings were unavailable to most viewers the entire time. Deborah Stevenson
Response:
Any idea why eBay only gives the rather arbitrary choices of 3, 5, 7 or 10-day auctions?
Because in some respects, ebay is mighty stupid. Is there thought to be some highly optimum day of the week on which to end an auction? Are they afraid would try to end their auctions on the same day?
Sunday is the popular choice, and in fact a larger group of auctions do end then. This increases crashes, because most auctions are seven days, and thus have to be started at the same time the system already has the heaviest load. Thursday seems to be a light day, which is why FLDs ar often on thursdays. If ebay had a lick of sense, they could offer 6 and 8, but not 7 day auctions, and cut their peak server load in half, and keep it there, no matter *what* day of the week was considered most popular. That way no auction would even be listed and end on the same day of the week. — "My family’s coat of arms ties in back. Is this normal?"
Response:
The biggest question for me is why no 1-day auctions. It would make great sense for things like tickets that will be worthless in 3 days, especially when you consider shipping costs.
Because they wouldn’t get into search fast enough. Better to have a 3-day with BIN. — "My family’s coat of arms ties in back. Is this normal?"
Response:
Do you mean you have to pay extra for a ten day auction? HUH? Am I missing something here or am I still pissed.
Yep, it’s an extra dime, the excuse being that it’s on the server longer. Of course, using that logic, they should give you a rebate on anything sold quickly by BIN, and a discount on 3-day auctions. — "My family’s coat of arms ties in back. Is this normal?"
Response:
The biggest question for me is why no 1-day auctions. It would make great sense for things like tickets that will be worthless in 3 days, especially when you consider shipping costs. Because they wouldn’t get into search fast enough. Better to have a 3-day with BIN.
"new today" browsing is effective enough to handle a 1 day auction. The problem with BIN is judging the value. Too little and you lose money. Too much and you don’t sell. With a true 1 day auction you’re *guaranteed* to sell the item and get fair value for it. Mondy.
Response:
The biggest question for me is why no 1-day auctions. It would make great sense for things like tickets that will be worthless in 3 days, especially when you consider shipping costs. Because they wouldn’t get into search fast enough. Better to have a 3-day with BIN. "new today" browsing is effective enough to handle a 1 day auction.
Sometimes, for category searches. Almost never for general description searches. A lot of items appear in categories not conducive to category searches and appeal to sellers who don’t do it. Deborah Stevenson
Response:
The biggest question for me is why no 1-day auctions. It would make great sense for things like tickets that will be worthless in 3 days, especially when you consider shipping costs. Because they wouldn’t get into search fast enough. Better to have a 3-day with BIN. "new today" browsing is effective enough to handle a 1 day auction. The problem with BIN is judging the value. Too little and you lose money. Too much and you don’t sell. With a true 1 day auction you’re *guaranteed* to sell the item and get fair value for it.
Only if everyone who’s interested in that item just happens to conduct a search for it that day (and at the *right time* that day — what if they conduct their search just 5 minutes before you list it?) How many bidders search eBay every single day? (Or even check their "Favorite Search" notification emails every day?) I only search every 3 days at *most*, and sometimes only every 5 days. So a 1 day auction would only get "fair value" as determined by the fraction of bidders who have nothing better to do with their time than search eBay every day of the week. ;-)
Response:
Sunday is the popular choice, and in fact a larger group of auctions do end then. This increases crashes, because most auctions are seven days, and thus have to be started at the same time the system already has the heaviest load. Thursday seems to be a light day, which is why FLDs are often on thursdays. If ebay had a lick of sense, they could offer 6 and 8, but not 7 day auctions, and cut their peak server load in half, and keep it there, no matter *what* day of the week was considered most popular. That way no auction would even be listed and end on the same day of the week.
I wish that I didn’t have to end my auctions on the same day of week as I listed it. So that means I could have the auctions that I plan to list end only six days later, rather than seven. Since I lose about a day before it is fully indexed for the searches, it would give me about 5 days to sell the item. With a 7 day auction, I get an extra day, but it means I get my payment one day later, and the buyer gets the item one day later. Besides people rarely bid before the last day on most of my items. I’d never go for anything less than 3 days, or anything more than 7 days. The 3 day items are barely online long enough to get noticed, and the 10 day items don’t really get noticed until the last day.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Sunday is the popular choice, and in fact a larger group of auctions do end then. This increases crashes, because most auctions are seven days, and thus have to be started at the same time the system already has the heaviest load. Thursday seems to be a light day, which is why FLDs are often on thursdays. If ebay had a lick of sense, they could offer 6 and 8, but not 7 day auctions, and cut their peak server load in half, and keep it there, no matter *what* day of the week was considered most popular. That way no auction would even be listed and end on the same day of the week. I wish that I didn’t have to end my auctions on the same day of week as I listed it. So that means I could have the auctions that I plan to list end only six days later, rather than seven. Since I lose about a day before it is fully indexed for the searches, it would give me about 5 days to sell the item. With a 7 day auction, I get an extra day, but it means I get my payment one day later, and the buyer gets the item one day later. Besides people rarely bid before the last day on most of my items. I’d never go for anything less than 3 days, or anything more than 7 days. The 3 day items are barely online long enough to get noticed, and the 10 day items don’t really get noticed until the last day.
I agree that 3 is too short and generally use either 5 or 7, depending on the day I list (I avoid ending on Fri-Sun due to a history reduced sales/bids on Fri/Sat and way too much competition on Sun). Occasionally I’ll use 10 days when I have an item that is relatively rare and I want as much exposure as possible where I try to list on Friday and end on Monday to capture 2 weekends.
Response:
I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money. 1. does it bring prices of no res auctions higher?
In my experience, no. 2. Does it increase sales of harder to move items like jewelry.
Again, no. I’ve experimented with it and I think it’s a waste of money. Better to relist an item that didn’t sell three weeks later when a new crop of buyers are looking. — David "Once we decide that anything goes, anything can come home to haunt us." — Bill Moyers
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I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money. 1. does it bring prices of no res auctions higher? 2. Does it increase sales of harder to move items like jewelry. I’m a proponent of the 10 day auction. Thanks for any info Ron
We use a ten day auction if there is only one of a rare item. Otherwise, seven day auctions are better for us. — Many thanks, Don Lancaster Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher, AZ 85552 Please visit my GURU’s LAIR web site at http://www.tinaja.com
Response:
I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money. 1. does it bring prices of no res auctions higher? 2. Does it increase sales of harder to move items like jewelry. I’m a proponent of the 10 day auction. We use a ten day auction if there is only one of a rare item. Otherwise, seven day auctions are better for us.
I agree with Don on this, but will also add a couple of other instances where it _may_ makes sense: 1) Listing a high priced item. Then the incremental cost of the 10-day listing is neglible. 2) You want to end the auction on a particular day and – for whatever reason – can’t start it a week earlier. But even in this case, I wouldn’t do it for cheapie items. jon — Jonathan Wayne
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money. 1. does it bring prices of no res auctions higher? 2. Does it increase sales of harder to move items like jewelry. I’m a proponent of the 10 day auction. We use a ten day auction if there is only one of a rare item. Otherwise, seven day auctions are better for us. I agree with Don on this, but will also add a couple of other instances where it _may_ makes sense: 1) Listing a high priced item. Then the incremental cost of the 10-day listing is neglible. 2) You want to end the auction on a particular day and – for whatever reason – can’t start it a week earlier. But even in this case, I wouldn’t do it for cheapie items. jon — Jonathan Wayne
I used to list 10 day auctions when it was "free" and I did it mainly for every opportunity to get a bid. Since I began selling/buying in 1997, I’ve noticed a major increase in the amount of items offered and notice that items really get their bids either on the 1st day or near the end of the auction. 3,5,7, or 10 day listings still seem to get most of the bids on the last day. I attribute this to the simple fact that it is nearly impposible to browse all the listings in any catagory on ebay on a daily basis and when I browse catagories, I only check certain listings that "end today." Mike
Response:
I agree. My habits are the same, I sort with "ending today". I think others do, too. I have experimented with 3 day BIN auctions with good results. Of course, there are many variables, and this makes it hard to form a hard and fast rule. YMMV.<GRIN — Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast USA Email me for current special offers on items from http://www.plansandprojects.com
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money. 1. does it bring prices of no res auctions higher? 2. Does it increase sales of harder to move items like jewelry. I’m a proponent of the 10 day auction. We use a ten day auction if there is only one of a rare item. Otherwise, seven day auctions are better for us. I agree with Don on this, but will also add a couple of other instances where it _may_ makes sense: 1) Listing a high priced item. Then the incremental cost of the 10-day listing is neglible. 2) You want to end the auction on a particular day and – for whatever reason – can’t start it a week earlier. But even in this case, I wouldn’t do it for cheapie items. jon — Jonathan Wayne I used to list 10 day auctions when it was "free" and I did it mainly for every opportunity to get a bid. Since I began selling/buying in 1997, I’ve noticed a major increase in the amount of items offered and notice that items really get their bids either on the 1st day or near the end of the auction. 3,5,7, or 10 day listings still seem to get most of the bids on the last day. I attribute this to the simple fact that it is nearly impposible to browse all the listings in any catagory on ebay on a daily basis and when I browse catagories, I only check certain listings that "end today." Mike
Response:
I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money.
Do you mean you have to pay extra for a ten day auction? HUH? Am I missing something here or am I still pissed.
Response:
**Mattsmith31** wrote Do you mean you have to pay extra for a ten day auction? HUH? Am I missing something here or am I still pissed.
Perhaps both? 
On the US site, there is a surcharge of 10 cents for a 10-day auction.
Response:
I used to list 10 day auctions when it was "free" and I did it mainly for every opportunity to get a bid. Since I began selling/buying in 1997, I’ve noticed a major increase in the amount of items offered and notice that items really get their bids either on the 1st day or near the end of the auction. 3,5,7, or 10 day listings still seem to get most of the bids on the last day. I attribute this to the simple fact that it is nearly impposible to browse all the listings in any catagory on ebay on a daily basis and when I browse catagories, I only check certain listings that "end today."
Yeah, all of my auctions used to be 10 days when they were the same price as the 7 day. eBay’s justification for an added fee for a 10-day auction never washed. Why didn’t 5, 7, and 10 ALL have had respective increases over the 3 day? The price increase for a 10-day (like the new fee for reserves) irked me mostly because eBay insulted our intelligence with their explanations, rather than just coming out and saying "we’re in it for the money and are adjusting our pricing model." (Well, maybe not SO blunt…) The advantage of a 10-day auction is not – IMO – 3 extra days of bidding (since most of the bidding is – as you said – on the final day (or final minutes for that matter!) It’s 3 extra days of exposure and a likelihood of more eyeballs. You may check only listings that "end today", but there are many, many peole who regularly scour listings (especially collectibles), bookmark them, and get ready to pounce/snipe at the appropriate time. jon — Jonathan Wayne
Response:
Any idea why eBay only gives the rather arbitrary choices of 3, 5, 7 or 10-day auctions? Is there thought to be some highly optimum day of the week on which to end an auction? Are they afraid would try to end their auctions on the same day? — Dan Smith
Response:
I’m thinking about starting to run most of my auctions for 10 days. What I’m wondering is it really worth the extra money. 1. does it bring prices of no res auctions higher? 2. Does it increase sales of harder to move items like jewelry. I’m a proponent of the 10 day auction. Thanks for any info Ron
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