The best closing time for your auctions

I often hear eBay sellers tell me that Sunday night is the best time to have an auction end, because that is when the most people are at home browsing eBay for something to buy. And this makes sense, Sunday nights are the busiest for bidders, so why not schedule your item to end when the most amount of people are going to be bidding on it.

However, if you're selling a common item, high traffic nights might be the absoute worst time to close, because other sellers who also believe in ending their auctions on a Sunday night will schedule auctions to end at the same time as you. The busiest times also have the most competition and, accordingly, the lowest final prices. Having twice as many people looking for the laptop computer you have for sale is no advantage if you have ten times as many competitors. Other night or other times may work to your advantage.

You don't necessarily want your auction to close at the time when there are the most bidders. You want the time when there are the most bidders looking for your particular item. Who cares if twenty million people searching eBay on a particular Sunday night if buyers for your type of goods tend to prefer another time or day? The best closing time depends heavily on what you're trying to sell, if your item appeals to business people, you might find that ending your auction during business hours will work better for you.

'Popular' closing times can mean lower prices for common items, yes there are lot of potential bidders browsing auctions, but it's likely that your auction could be lost or overlooked in the flood of competing auctions.

Life on Mars car auctioned for Comic Relief on eBay

The brown Ford Cortina featured in hit BBC police drama Life on Mars is up for auction on eBay in aid of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day.

The car is described as having "one or two battle scars" from police chases. 100% of the proceeds form the auction go to help transform lives across Africa and the UK.

Comic Relief, with the help of eBay, are asking us all to sell unwanted items to raise cash for Comic Relief through eBay auctions. eBay will also donated the same percentage of the seller fees of the items you sell.

If you don't have an eBay account or simply don't have the time, iSold It will also sell your unwanted items on eBay and donate 100% of the proceeds to Comic Relief on your behalf. It couldn't be easier, just drop in to you local iSold It Store and they'll do the rest.

eBay seller Feedback 2.0

As mentioned in a previous blog the eBay seller feedback 2.0 is due to rolled out on eBay UK.

eBay have not announced a date for the launch of the test in the UK, however eBay developers can start testing their feedback 2.0 applications from March 9th which would suggest that the new feedback system is imminent.

eBay say about Feedback 2.0:

Feedback 2.0 pilot on global eBay sites
As of early March, eBay will be launching a Feedback 2.0 pilot on nine global eBay sites. Feedback 2.0 adds a new dimension to eBay’s feedback system, allowing buyers to leave optional, more granular ratings in four areas known as Detailed Seller Ratings: item as described, communication, shipping time, and charges for shipping and handling. Detailed seller ratings do not affect the overall feedback score.

eBay Auction Templates

Presentation on eBay is just as important as displaying products in a shop window, who is going to buy from a shop where all the products are randomly squashed on to a self, or just thrown haphazardly in to a store window surrounded by mountains of clutter.

Well the same applies for items you would sell on eBay, presentation is key. You photos need to be clear and uncluttered with your product being described accruately and fully. A great way to make sure that your descriptions and photos are displayed well is to invest in an eBay template. This allows you present your items in a neat and clear format, displaying all the regular information you would show, such as postage, returns policy & payments in an easy to find web advert. And, if you are running a business on eBay you also get the chance to show your company's branding clearly within the template, showing potential bidders that you are a professional seller.

Here is a couple of good examples of what an eBay template could look like;

You can see how well the images are presented, the descriptions easy to read and each company's branding prominently displayed. All these elements make a great product advert, and increase the number of bids on each item, driving the final auction price up.

iSold It offer a great package for eBay sellers to get there own eBay auction template and you can read more details about it here www.isolditonline.co.uk/business

Clear out & Cash In

So, you want to raise some extra cash. well eBay are running a great promotion at the minute, which helps you realise the amount of money you can generate by selling your unwanted stuff on eBay. Check out this link and you can go room to room to find the kind of things that selling well on eBay.

The figures are taken from research by The Centre for Economics and Business Research, and shows that you could generate up to £3000 just from your unwanted stuff.

Of course we all don't have the time to be photographing and listing these items on eBay, so remember there is always iSold It, which manage the whole process for you. You just wait for the cheque.

Death of Anna Nicole Smith causes eBay auctions to soar

It appears the untimely death of Anna Nicole Smith has caused a large amount of auctions containing memorabilia of the former Playboy model.

Average Prices of Listings have sored from £5 to over £50.

eBay Seller Feedback 2.0

eBay's new seller feedback system starts its pilot in the U.K. in late February. Feedback 2.0, which allows buyers to rate transactions on item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping & handling charges. In addition to the current positive, negative or neutral comment, buyers rate the sellers on these specific transaction aspects based on a 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest rating. The average of all ratings is displayed on the seller’s Feedback Profile page.

The system does sound a little cumbersome, but i think in general this system is good news for us sellers. Really good service is going to be rewarded with potential bidders can to see the difference between bad and good sellers.

In addition, old feedback will be archived. Later this year, eBay will be archiving all but the last 24 months of feedback history. User's total score will remain, but the percent will be based on just the last 2 years of activity. All comments older than this will be archived.