Those of you that sell on ebay often....

Escaflown4 · Post by **Escaflown4** » Thu Oct 14, 2004 11:37 pm

What time period do you guys find the highest amounts of bids and prices for your books? Like beginning of the month? middle? End of the year? Please let me hear your experiences.

whetteon · Post by **whetteon** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 8:47 am

Anything of note ending Sunday evenings around 6-10pm central time. I can never win anything on the cheap around this time period.

wrunow · Post by **wrunow** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:51 am

whetteon wrote:Anything of note ending Sunday evenings around 6-10pm central time. I can never win anything on the cheap around this time period.

I gotta agree with Whetteon on this, I try to schedule my auctions to close around 10-11 pm est, that way some are still awake on the east coast and it is close to 8pm prime time on the west. In the case of a holiday weekend it would be a monday night, same times.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 10:44 am

For three or so years, I ended everything on Sunday, between 6-8 Pacific. However...I discovered that my auctions were getting lost in a sea of .01 crap, mounds and mounds and mounds of absolute garbage that no one wanted, and idiots listed by the thousands.

The benefit of having the MOST people looking was FAR overshadowed by there being warehouses full of crap to wade through.

Kind of like being at San Diego...SURE, there's plenty of stuff to buy...but there's literally tons of crap you have to sort through to find it...and if they can't find it, they can't bid.

Then, I discovered the joys of Tuesday and Thursday. Monday is bad, cause it's the beginning of the week. Friday and Saturday is bad, cause no one's home...but Tuesday and Thursday...well, there aren't THAT many auctions listed, which means your chances of exposure are MUCH, MUCH higher, and my bids have ended higher as a result.

So, there you have it. If you're selling mounds of cheap stuff, do it on Sunday, like everyone else. If you're selling specialty stuff, I'd stick to Tue and Thur, and ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS run your auctions 7 days, unless you can't for some reason. That way, you always get at least ONE weekend in.

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:02 am

Why are you guys selling stuff? I thought we were all hoarders!

Escaflown4 · Post by **Escaflown4** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:12 am

There's only so much you can hoard before you run out of space....

BodaZoffa · Post by **BodaZoffa** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:21 am

I run my auctions for 7 days, & try to time the ending near the middle of the month (2nd pay day for most). I end my auctions either on Tuesdays or Sundays as close to 9:00 - 10:00 pm as I can get.

I will look at eBay first to see what is up for sale. I usually check & see if the guys that list the 10,000 Valiants individually have their's up for sale. If they do I'll wait a week. I hate these guys, because your auction will get lost in the 129 page list of Valiants that are for sale.

Boda

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 11:59 am

I sell Valiant only to raise money to buy more - the stuff I need. I'm not hoarding any more, just trying to complete my CGC 9.8 and Variant/Premium set, as well as accumulate as much promo and Valiant related stuff as I can find.

depluto wrote:Why are you guys selling stuff? I thought we were all hoarders!

whetteon · Post by **whetteon** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:46 pm

depluto wrote:Why are you guys selling stuff? I thought we were all hoarders!

who said I was selling valiants? and why is everyone so defensive all of the sudden?

psst...by the way Depluto, those Rai's you sold me just arrived in the mail today!

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:51 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:Kind of like being at San Diego...SURE, there's plenty of stuff to buy...but there's literally tons of crap you have to sort through to find it...and if they can't find it, they can't bid.

That sounds like a fun day for me, although it does get pretty tiresome leafing through boxes of Image crap. Cons around here have pretty much dried up. The big one in Orlando is only about 10 percent comics now.

Anyone know if that big con in Atlanta is worth a damn?

DawgPhan · Post by **DawgPhan** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:05 pm

depluto wrote:
ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:Kind of like being at San Diego...SURE, there's plenty of stuff to buy...but there's literally tons of crap you have to sort through to find it...and if they can't find it, they can't bid.
That sounds like a fun day for me, although it does get pretty tiresome leafing through boxes of Image crap. Cons around here have pretty much dried up. The big one in Orlando is only about 10 percent comics now.

Anyone know if that big con in Atlanta is worth a damn?

which one? Dragoncon is fairly large, but it is mainly a sci-fi kinda deal. I find that smaller shows are really the right place for me...the dealers are more likely to bring their "junk" to blow out and I love buy junk..however I hate flipping through unsorted boxes...I will look through every single comic you have in they are in order...I might look at 50 comics if they are not in order before I give up. I have tons of books that I am looking for I can always find something worth $.25 at the large cons I think that time fees and space force the dealers to bring the items that are going to bring in the BSDs...

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:54 pm

depluto wrote:
ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:Kind of like being at San Diego...SURE, there's plenty of stuff to buy...but there's literally tons of crap you have to sort through to find it...and if they can't find it, they can't bid.
That sounds like a fun day for me, although it does get pretty tiresome leafing through boxes of Image crap. Cons around here have pretty much dried up. The big one in Orlando is only about 10 percent comics now.

Anyone know if that big con in Atlanta is worth a damn?

I used to LOVE long box diving for hours and hours on end...

...a funny thing has happened in the last 2-3 years, though...

I no longer have any patience for it.

Maybe I'm getting old, but the thought of me being a 32 year old man, sitting on some dirty floor somewhere leafing through mounds of crap priced at $1 on the HOPES that I might find that Harb #1 or Spidey #289 just leaves me...well...

....kinda disgusted.

And that's happening more and more and more these days.

Sigh.

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:33 pm

some bargain boxes aren't such a great bargain when you add in the aggravation, that's true!

One of my favorite dealers has real good bargain boxes. If you only pull one or two books, he charges a buck each, but if you get at least 10, the price goes to .50 a book. If you buy 50 or more, the price drops to 40 cents a book. They are in absolutely no order, but they are definitely worth going through. I almost always come out with several books that are probably worth at least $5-$15. At his last show, I came out with almost a complete set of the Bronze Jonah Hex series for .40 a book, and the average condition was probably VF/NM as they were all bagged and boarded. He also doesn't have a problem with me pulling the boxes off the floor and sitting them on top of a box on the table while I look through it as long as I put it back on the floor when I'm done. That way I don't have to roll around on the floor looking through boxes and trying to avoid being stepped on.

The worst dealers are the ones who are disorganized, want you to search through their stuff and then don't even offer you a reduced price for all the searching you had to do.

Shakespeare · Post by **Shakespeare** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:27 pm

I'll post an alternate question...when are you guys watching?

I know that I'm more likely to be watching an auction here at work than I am at home, because at home I'm playing with the wife and kid and auctions are the last thing on my mind, as my wife is often on the computer doing freelance at that time anyway.

I figure a lot of professionals are like me, in that they're more likely to be on the internet at work than at home. I've been ending auctions on Tuesday-Thursday afternoons, and it seems to be doing fine. Especially if it's worth a lot, as people who work on computers are more likely to have the funds to buy big ticket items (grand generalization, I know).

For bargain hunters, I end things on a Tuesday-Thursday night.

TLC55555 · Post by **TLC55555** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:48 pm

Personally, I think the number of folks using snipe software is growing. Due to this, I believe that ending an aution on a specific day will become less of an issue.

depluto · Post by **depluto** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:44 am

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:Maybe I'm getting old, but the thought of me being a 32 year old man, sitting on some dirty floor somewhere leafing through mounds of crap priced at $1 on the HOPES that I might find that Harb #1 or Spidey #289 just leaves me...well...

....kinda disgusted.

Sounds like you've merely evolved. That and you probably already own all the cool comics.

When I'm quarter-bin diving I'm mainly looking for stuff I don't have, although I wouldn't pass up a Harbinger 1!

Philflound · Post by **Philflound** » Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:40 am

It's been documented by Comics Buyers Guide in the past that there are too many auctions on a Sunday. If you have a nice item that is sought after, then you will sell it regardless. If you are selling common fodder, or even halfway decent, but not spotlighted items, then they will get lost in the shuffle.

They mentioned that the highest realization of a price would end on a FRIDAY, not Saturday or Sunday.

It all depends on where you live. I live on the east coast. I try and put something really late during the week, like 9-12 at night, so the west coast is home from work too, and the east coast is still awake.

Phil