Timing your eBay Listings

The timing of any eBay listing is important, because in the final few hours before its end, it becomes increasingly more visible and prominent to visitors. This narrow window of time is when your item is most likely to sell.

To help find an ideal time, you can first eliminate when you don't want your listing to end. Assuming the majority of your buyers will be in the U.S., I would think you don't want your auction to end anytime between 11pm & 8am, since the majority of people will be asleep.

Also, you might ask yourself if your type of item would be used for work or personal use only. If for personal, it might be worth considering that during a lunch break or near the end of a workday (5pm), or mid-evening may be an appropriate time to list such an item.

For professional work-related items, perhaps it less likely that someone may search for these items in the evenings, but more during working hours. If you have a store, you may also view statistics to see what day of the week and what time of day most people visit your store.

My personal experience has shown that 11am to 8pm PST tends to be the most effective time ranges. Avoid holiday mornings and afternoons, as many people sleep in and usually go shopping and are away from computers in the afternoon.

Telephone Frustrations?

Are you tired of getting talking computers instead of humans when you call a company?

Go to http://gethuman.com/ and get the dial in numbers that will connect you to a person. Many companies have other numbers to get to their operator rather than '0'. Ex.: MasterCard - dial their number then press '0' three times in a row; at Chase - once the robot voice begins speaking, push in "*0".

I also heard that if your call gets transfered to a foreign company (India and Philippines most likely), you can request to be transferred back to a US assistant. Often it is too difficult to hear over the boiler room noises or to understand and communicate. You are legally entitled to this transfer so insist if you need to.

USPS Announces New Priority Short Distance Rate

Starting in March, when you ship short-distances, you can use the new USPS Priority Mail® Regional Rate^TM boxes - available online only - for shipments of up to 15 lbs and shipments of up to 20 lbs. Choose this new option when your buyer is close to home.

For example, if you ship a 10 lb package from San Jose to Sacramento, look at the savings:

Priority Mail® costs $9.80
Priority Mail® Medium Flat Rate Box costs $10.50
Priority Mail® Regional Rate Box A costs only $4.97

Look for the USPS Regional Rate box option when you print labels on eBay. Remember - you've got to use the box to get these fantastic rates!

Expensive eBay items

Sometimes my students ask what the most expensive thing was that ever sold on eBay.  A little research turns up the following items:

The most expensive item till date which has ever been sold is a yacht which was bought by Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire. It was in February 2006 that it was bought and the total cost of it was $168,000,000.00. The yacht had a retractable elevator, helicopter garage, eight guest cabins, 10 multi-level VIP Suites, fitness room, cinema room, salon and luxury office area. The sale of this yacht breaks the record set by Gulfstream II jet which was sold for $4.9 million.

Besides the ned yacht, there are several items which are declared as some of the most expensive. The most valuable baseball bat which has ever been sold is that of Joseph Jefferson Jackson, (who was known as Shoeless Joe). His bat was sold for $577,610; it was a handmade hickory bat. It weighed more than 40 ounces, which is heavier than many of the bats used today. He was one of the most famous baseball players of all times, known for his perfect swings.

One of the other most expensive items on eBay is the Harley Davidson sold by Jay Leno, the television host and stand-up comedian. It's said that he raised $800,100 which was used to help the victims of the tsunami of 2004.

Pope Benedict XVI sold his Volkswagen Golf automobile in May 2005 for €188,938.88. It was sold in the German webpage of eBay and is considered one of the most costly purchases in eBay. The GoldenPalace.com, an online casino placed the winning bid.

A surprise sale was a Cathedral pickle bottle for just $3.00. This jar of pickles was in the shape of a cathedral and was bought at a garage sale. The surprise is that this item was so rare that there were only five of these cathedral shaped glass bottles in the world. Later on it was sold for over $44,000.

In June of 2008 a charity auction raised $2.1 million.  It was for a chance to have lunch with Warren Buffett, who donated the money to a homeless charity. 

One of the most outrageous and expensive bids which was placed in eBay was of a human kidney. The description read that a functional kidney was for sale and the buyer could choose the kidney which he or she wanted. The buyer had to pay all the medical and transplant costs. It's illegal to transplant human organs for sale and so this sale was blocked. However, the bid amount reached more than $5 million. 

It's President's Day, so no mail service today

And it's a good thing, since I don't have my eBay packages ready to go....

In case you forgot here's this year's Post Office holiday schedule:

2011 USPS Holiday List

January 1 - New Years Day

January 17 - Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday

February 21 - Presidents Day

May 30 - Memorial Day Holiday

July 4 - Independence Day 4th Of July

September 5 - Labor Day Holiday

October 10 - Columbus Day

November 11 - Veteran's Day

November 24 - Thanksgiving Day

December 26 - Christmas Day

January 2 2012 - New Years Day

I'm on both the radio and TV today!

It’s been a busy day!  I’ve been interviewed twice already this morning!  I was on the radio talking about my upcoming class:  How to plan a wedding on eBay.  And then later the local television station interviewed me about saving money while I was at Goodwill. 

Here I am at our local Goodwill, talking to the reporter about how to find good deals.

The Goodwill interview was planned (the reporter called last night to see if I could do the spot) but since I was there I got a few things to resell on eBay—some Winnie the Pooh wallpaper border and a crewel embroidery kit, and some denim fabric. 

Just for Valentine's Day!

Love the candy hearts?

Make your own to include in emails, or on your blog, or whatever!

Go to CandyHearts to get started!

What Fun!