Section 132. Choose Pricing, Duration, and Location

132. Choose Pricing, Duration, and Location

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

129 Start the Sell Form and Choose a Category

130 Write the Title and Description

SEE ALSO

133 About Dutch Auctions

134 Add Pictures to Your Auction

135 Choose Auction Extras

136 Set Payment and Shipping Options

137 Review and Post Your Auction

Now we get to the heart of your auctionchoosing your pricing, the duration of your auction, and other important details. The title and description draw people's attention and get them interested. But your pricing and other important details help determine whether they bid, and if they do, what their bidding prices will be.

1.

Choose the Duration of Your Auction

If you haven't begun to fill out the Sell Your Item form yet, back up to 129 Start the Sell Form and Choose a Category to learn how to begin the process of creating an auction listing; continue with 130 Write the Title and Description .

From the Duration drop-down list in the Sell Your Item form, choose 1, 3, 5, 7 , or 10 days. If you choose 10 days, you have to pay an extra $0.10 for the listing.

The most common auction length is seven days, and for most auctions, that's the best choice. However, three-day auctions can create a sense of excitement and urgency that you can't get in a seven-day auction. A title that contains the words "Must Sell! 3 DAYS!" or "Fast Sale! 3 DAYS ONLY!" can go a long way toward drawing in bidders who smell a good deal in the making.

132. Choose Pricing, Duration, and Location

2.

Choose the Starting Date and Time

From the Start Time section, select the starting date and starting time for your auction. If you want the auction to start immediately after you finish filling out the form, enable the Start Listing When Submitted radio button. If you want to specify a starting date and time, enable the Schedule to Start On radio button and then choose the date and time from the drop-down list boxes. Choosing a starting date and time costs an additional $0.10, but it can be well worth that extra money because the time you begin and end your auctions can have a big effect on whether you have bidders and how high they bid.

Why is that? Why should one time be any better than another for an eBay auction? It's because of the existence of auction sniper s and those who like to bid close to the end of the auction to get the best possible deal. Many bidders haunt auction sites, checking which auctions are in the process of closing, or are near closing, and then they bid.

KEY TERM

Sniper Someone who bids at the last possible second at the end of the auction, in order to get the item at the lowest possible price.

So what does this have to do with when your auctions begin and end? You want your auctions to end at the time when you have the greatest possible audience. If your auction ends at a time when there is the greatest audience, the most people possible will notice your auction's closing, so you'll have the most bidders.

NOTE

When choosing the time you want your auction to begin and end, keep in mind that the eBay clock, which shows the current time on the site and time stamps auctions, is set to Pacific Standard Time (PST).

The United States spans four time zones, so you should pick a time for your auction to end when the maximum number of people are likely to be logged on to the Internet at the eBay auction site. It should be after work hoursmost people don't spend a lot of time bidding on auctions during work (or at least they shouldn't, if they want to keep their jobs). Your auction should end enough after work for people to come home and get online. Given that, you'd want your auction to end sometime after 6:30 p.m. PST, which is 9:30 p.m. EST. It shouldn't end too late on the East Coast because you'll lose a lot of bidders.

TIP

It's best for your auction to end sometime between 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. PSTthat's the time when you'll get the greatest number of active bidders.

Knowing when your auction should end will determine when it should begin. Auctions end a set number of days after you create your listingfor example, three, five, or seven days (which is your choice, as explained in step 2). Auctions end at the exact time you created them. So be sure to specify a start time that's the same time you want your auction to end.

Now you have a good sense of the best time to start and end your auctions. But how about the day of the week?

No great surprise here: Weekends are good. Consider either starting or ending your auctions on a weekend , when people have more free time than they do on weekdays. If you do, adjust the starting and ending time accordingly . If you're starting or ending on a Saturday, for example, don't set the time for the evening when people might be out for dinner or entertainment. I'd suggest early afternoon EST. That way, you'll get East Coasters before they go out for the evening, and you'll still get West Coasters during the early afternoon.

Sunday late afternoons or evenings are good times, too, and I suggest starting or ending your auction earlier than you might for workday auctions. Often on Sunday nights, people want to get to bed earlier than they do during the rest of the week to be rested before the week starts. From about 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST on Sunday is a good start/end time.

TIP

Don't end your auctions on a holiday. That's when people often travel or spend time with their families and are less likely to visit auction sites, so you'll get fewer bidders.

3.

Choose the Quantity and Starting Price

In the Quantity text box, enter the number of items you have to sell. If you are selling more than one item, you can sell using a Dutch auction format.

KEY TERM

Dutch auction An auction in which multiple items are up for sale. All the winning bidders on the items in a Dutch auction pay the same price for the items, the lowest successful bid.

In the Starting Price text box, enter the price at which you want people to start bidding in your auction. You learned in 127 Determine Your Selling Price and Estimate Your Selling Fees how to decide on what price you should get for an item. That doesn't mean, though, that that's the starting price you should decide onit only means that it's the price you can expect to get. If you set the starting price too highat your expected final selling price, for exampleyou can scare away bidders. Many auctions typically start with very low selling prices, as a way to get people to bid.

The starting price determines the minimum bidding increment . If you set a minimum bid of $1, for example, the minimum bidding increment is $0.05; if you set a minimum bid of $5, the minimum bidding increment is $0.25. The higher the minimum bid, the more money you'll get for each subsequent bid. The following table lists the bidding increment for each price range.

KEY TERM

Bidding increment The amount of money you must add to the current bidding price for your bid to be considered valid. The higher the minimum initial bid, the higher the bidding increment. For example, a minimum initial bid of $1 has a bidding increment of $0.05, whereas a $5 minimum initial bid has a bidding increment of $0.25.

eBay Bidding Increments

Starting Price	Bidding Increment
$0$1	$0.05
$1$5	$0.25
$5$25	$0.50
$25$100	$1
$100$250	$2.50
$250$500	$5
$500$1,000	$10
$1,000$2,500	$25
$2,500$5,000	$50
$5,000+	$100

When setting your minimum bid, balance the need to draw people into the auction against ensuring you get a fair price for what you're selling. A low minimum price will draw more bidders, but then each subsequent bid won't be much higher than the minimum bid. A higher minimum price might scare away bidders, but then each subsequent bid will be a larger jump above the minimum bid.

NOTE

When you create an auction, you must choose a starting price. eBay won't let you complete your form unless you include a starting price.

4.

Set a Reserve Price

You have the option of setting a reserve price a price under which you're not willing to sell the item. Why not simply set the starting price as your reserve price? Because that's likely to scare away potential buyerstypically you need to set a low price if you want to get people to start bidding.

You have to pay an extra fee if you set a reserve price. You're only charged that fee if the item doesn't sellif it does sell, the fee is refunded to you. The fee you pay depends on the reserve price you set. Items up to $24.99 are charged $0.50; those between $25 and $99.99 are charged $1; and items $100 and up are charged up to 1% of the reserve price, with a maximum fee of $100.

5.

Choose More Selling Details

If you want your item to be a Buy It Now item that can be bought at a fixed price rather than through the auction format, type a set price for the item in the Buy It Now price box. You'll be charged $0.05 if you list an item with the Buy It Now option.

TIP

You can use the Buy It Now feature only if you are selling a single item; you can't use it for multiple-item auctions.

You can also choose to make your auction a private one. In a private auction , bidders' IDs can't be seen by others. You might choose this option if you are selling very high-priced items and are worried that bidders don't want others to know that they are willing to spend a great deal of money. Or you might use it if you are selling some types of adult- related material and worry that bidders will not want it known that they are bidding on this type of material.

KEY TERM

Private auction An auction in which bidders cannot see the IDs of other bidders. The only one who knows who is bidding is the seller.

6.

Choose Your Location

You must fill in the city, state, and country where you live (or from which you will be shipping the item at the close of the auction). You can also choose your region, which increases the exposure of your auction. When you choose a region, your item is listed in the region listings on eBay. There's no extra charge for this, so you should do it. However, if you don't want your auction listed in the region auctions, select Do Not List Regionally from the Region drop-down box.

When you're finished selecting auction pricing and duration information, you're ready to add pictures and other auction extras, so don't click Continue yet. Only click Continue after you've added pictures (if you want to add them) and chosen auction extras. For information, see 134 Add Pictures to Your Auction and 135 Choose Auction Extras .

TIP

Click the Back button at the bottom of the Sell Your Item form page (not your browser's Back button) to back up through the pages of the Sell Your Item form if you decide to make changes to earlier selections you've made. Click the Continue button to advance through the pages of the form.