When is the best time to sell a card?

rw2win · April 11, 2004 10:18PM

Lets say you have a card that you want to sell. It doesn't come on ebay very often. One is currently on ebay and will close in a few days. It is already at a price that would satisfy me. Should I wait a few weeks until after the current auction closes? List it before the current auction ends, or list it just after the current one ends?

I know there is no right or wrong answer...just curious.

MrRookie · April 11, 2004 10:30PM

I'd list it immediately after the current auction ends so that all the bidders who just lost the first one will still have it on the brain.

MorrellMan · April 11, 2004 10:40PM

Analyze the bid history of the current auction - if the price has been run up by two guys battling each other, bear in mind that one of them is going to be off the market. Also, compare conditions.

NBAFan · April 11, 2004 10:57PM

List it now with a BIN for the price you are happy with. If you wait, you may not get nearly as much for it. I had a card numbered 1/50 and some had sold the same card but like 3/50 (Not their Jersey #) a couple days earlier for $25 more than I got for mine. It really all depends on who is looking for what and when.

Vargha · April 11, 2004 11:17PM

Contact the number 2 bidder once the auction is finished and sell it to him.

Spigrimace · April 12, 2004 11:35PM

I'd contact all the other bidders and ask for offers. Sell to the highest one if it meets or exceeds what you want for it. Saves ebay fees.

In general, when is the best time to sell a card? When it's hot!

NBAFan · April 14, 2004 12:58AM

And then one of the people you contacted gets pissed off because they really wanted it and didn't get it, so they forward your e-mail to ebay and you get booted off for fee avoidance.

DeutscherGeist · April 14, 2004 3:54AM

You can't contact others who were on the bid history....I thought ebay frowns upon that...one could get reported. You can remind them that you will be putting one on auction soon, but that's it. I hate it when others do that to me. So what if I am #2 in bidding, I don't want someone I don't know emailing saying they have the same product for less money. I REALLY HATE that. Nothing in the world is really rare, especially not the baseball cards I am interested in. I don't need someone to come up to me and sell. I research the seller first and I don't do business if the seller has anything suspicious in their feedback---I don't care, no card is that important.

SELL A CARD WHEN IT IS HOT!!! THAT'S THE BEST TIME

Kevin Brown in a few weeks will be a hot item at this pace

sjeanblanc · April 14, 2004 4:52AM

When someone is willing to pay alot of money for it.

Scott Jeanblanc
jeanblanc@iconnect.net
Ebay UserId : sjeanblanc
----------------------------------------------
Collecting Nolan Ryan cards (68-94)

Rainman · April 14, 2004 7:27AM

i'm in a similar situation and am listing the card shortly after the auction ends. however, do NOT contact bidders of the first auction- i HATE when sellers do that to me and regardless of their feedback i will NOT bid. unless it's truly a 1 of 1 or very limited item, i'll find their item on ebay w/o them spamming me about it.

BigKidAtHeart · May 25, 2004 7:53AM

this is funny! Even though it has been discussed
at great length on these boards that Sunday is
the more common day to have your auctions end...
Clearly the best time to NOT sell is on Sunday!

Here is a very successful seller that runs 3 - 5 day auctions
that start on Monday or Tuesday and always ending on
Friday or Saturday! here is one of his Auctions.

He includes this info in his descriptions:

<< <i>I have impeccable feedback (more than 12,000 "twelve thousand" total positives w/no negatives). The secret to my success for selling on Ebay is to never run an auction on Sunday (a holy day). >>

Hard to argue with that kind of success!

kuhlmann · May 25, 2004 7:58AM

I have done my best buying on saturday and sunday. I learned the hard way not to end auctions on saturday or sunday. I have done great on monday nights. list on monday for 7 days and end on monday. Most people get on the computer monday nights after the long weekend and the first day back to work. anyway thats what i think.

magellan · May 25, 2004 7:58AM

nojo · May 25, 2004 9:03AM

Huh. I've always thought that Sunday was the best...I think I even posted something a loooooooong time ago on these very boards asking when the best time was, and Sunday was the overwhelming favorite.

I'll have to try out something in the middle of the week. I've got a bunch of stuff to sell anyways...experiment time I guess.

magellan · May 25, 2004 11:36AM

I jumped the gun on my last post there . What i intended to say was that I'd seen some auctions from the guy BKAH mentions above and it does seem as though he does very well .......But ......he has run so many auctions I'm sure there are many buyers who watch him closely and know when he lists and when his auctions end. Very good for him but my premise is that Sunday is still the best day for your auction to end on, I ran many wax pack auctions a couple years ago and tried all different days of the week striving to have product up every day so that potential buyers would link to my other auctions (Auction Lynx) from them. It turns out that Sunday was by far my best day and a particular time ( I think it was 9 PM EST) was even better. This is more anecdotal than scientific but you can bet any of my future autions will end on Sunday except perhaps holiday weekends such as next weekend.

Dave

Spigrimace · May 26, 2004 5:51AM

Oops, sorry. Just read this thread and didn't realize something I suggested is in fact against eBay policy:

From the ebay policies page:

Circumventing fees by soliciting sales outside of eBay

The following activities are not permitted:
Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay feature to offer to sell any listed item outside of eBay

Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay feature to offer to sell an item outside of eBay to any of your bidders in a Reserve Not Met listing.

Using member contact information obtained from eBay or using any eBay feature to sell duplicate or additional merchandise outside of eBay to underbidders

Sending unsolicited (without prior permission) commercial email offers to bidders for the same or similar
products that they have bid on in the past

What to do if you have been solicited for sales outside of eBay:
If you have received an offer to sell an item outside of eBay, please report the situation to us by sending a copy of the email with the full header included. We always need the full header of any email you send as evidence because it enables us to trace the pathway of the email. Please review what a header is and how to locate it.

---
Funny, I couldn't find any mention that you cannot stop an auction when someone conatcts you with an offer you wish to accept thus circumventing the final value fees.

BigKidAtHeart · May 26, 2004 6:59AM

<< <i>Oops, sorry. Just read this thread and didn't realize something I suggested is in fact against eBay policy... >>

And if you did that On Sunday
then you really will go straight to Hell!

When is the best time to sell a card?

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