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The eBay Auction Timing SecretThe Online Seller's News, May 18, 2010, Volume 10, No. 9 Tips, Tools, News and Resources for eBay, Amazon and independent Online Sellers
I have recently updated our eBay Tools page with more tools and resources for eBay and online sellers. Here is a link to eBay Tools. And, as many of you know, eBay isn’t the only place to sell. I just posted a new article that compares and ranks alternative auction and other online selling sites. Jennie Hunt’s Summer Toy Guide is live. Many of my readers bought Jennie’s Christmas Toy Guide and made a ton of money over the holiday season. Now Jennie shows you what is selling and where to get the hottest toys for summer. Jennie has been publishing her toy guides successfully for over 5 years and has a following of loyal readers. Here is what you get with the Toy Guide:
No guarantees of course –but one of my readers bought Jennie’s Holiday Toy Guide. She had never sold toys before but she wrote me an email in late January that she made over $2000 selling toys over the Christmas season, just from Jennie’s information. You can read about the Summer Toy Guide here Stamps.com is repeating their great $100-off offer they made to my readers last year. A lot of you took advantage of the $45 in free postage, free digital scale and $5 worth of supplies. Using a service like Stamps.com is a great way to save time and money on shipping. I was answering some questions on Jim Cockrum’s Silent Team forum when I came across a post with a reply by Jim that I found very interesting. The original poster was basically complaining about the new eBay regulations that we detail below. Like many of you, I don’t care for the “new eBay” all that much. I think management has made some huge mistakes that have permanently tarnished the brand and stunted eBay’s potential growth. But eBay is what it is. It is their company –not ours. And if we want to make money we just have to roll with the punches and accept their systems and policies. But here was Jim’s response that I found interesting. It is pretty blunt –but also pretty accurate: “You and I (members of My Silent Team - MST) have a HUGE advantage over 99% of the other eBay sellers out there. Our advantage is this: eBay can be inconsistent, unfair, irrational, confused and out of touch if they want to be...but as long as I'm making a profit I'll be there. We recognize that eBay is a TOOL to be USED and discarded at any point, and it's not our MOMMY that owes us love and fair rules to play by. We don't expect fair treatment from this tool, nor do we expect it to always act exactly the way we want it to, but still...there are a BILLION customers on that site so we aren't walking away. We are in this for our own business purposes only and they owe us NOTHING in return. We maximize our ROI any way we can and push each rule to the edge (without breaking any). Will eBay tilt in our favor from time to time? Yes, but don't count on it. They need SHOPPERS far worse than they need us so just take your lumps and keep the PayPal payments rolling in......” I could add one thing to Jim’s point that “eBay doesn’t owe us anything…” We also do not owe eBay anything either (except fees when we use their service). In the early days when eBay was a real community and eBay valued and respected their sellers, I use to feel that I owed them some loyalty. But, today, like Jim says they are just a moneymaking tool for me. And, in that respect nothing has changed. You can still make money selling on eBay today, even with all the new rules. The Silent Team is a membership service that Jim started a few years ago to help eBay sellers and other online sellers grow their business. Jim has collected dozens of experts on all aspects of online marketing and we all participate in the forums and contribute materials to the members. In just a couple of short years, Jim has built the Silent Team to over 4000 happy members. Page Mage is a web-based application that helps eBay sellers design
attractive templates to increase sales and also allows an easy way to promote
your listings on Facebook. My daughter-in-law, Lissa, has just written an
excellent article in AuctionBytes that explains how the application works and
how to get your first 24 listings for free. Here is the link to the
Page Mage article. Lissa is a Navy wife, mother of our perfect
granddaughter and the author of several books including co-author with me of
The Complete Idiot's Guide to eBay, 2nd Edition (Complete Idiot's Guide to...(Computer))
Lets get started with this month’s articles: [top] 1. The eBay Auction Timing Secret I always hesitate to use the word “secret” when writing about eBay because there really aren’t any secrets. Once someone learns how to do anything on eBay, it doesn’t take long for others to figure it out. But there are some things that are known, yet people either ignore them or never notice them. Auction timing falls into that category, so I guess it’s ok to call it a secret. There are two parts to auction timing: Picking the best ending day and time and ending your listings fractional minutes before your competition. If you have my Complete eBay Marketing System then you have seen my detailed auction calendar that gives the best days and times to end your listings. You should also use those days and times as a starting point, but then you really want to experiment for your product. For example, in general Sunday and Monday evenings between 4-7 PM (eBay time is based on the Pacific time zone) are the best time to end listings, as that’s when the most people are online. But, one of my products is a digital photo light tent to help eBay sellers take good photos. When I tested that product at different times and days it turned out that Saturday mornings and Monday and Tuesday mid-day were the best times. I still end some the listings for that product in the evening to catch the occasional user, but most of my listings end during the best times. So yes, use an auction calendar as a starting point, but test-test-test to determine the best day and time for your product. A good tool to help you out with that is HammerTap. The other part of auction timing is what I call fractional timing. (Maybe I should copyright that term?). This is nothing more than ending your listing a minute or two before most of your competition. The eBay scheduler and most schedulers available in the auction management services such as Vendio and Auctiva set their scheduling tools to end in 5-minute increments (Example: 5:00, 5:05, 5:10, etc.). If you look on eBay you will see that the vast majority of listings end in those 5-minute increments. So when I schedule a listing I use the tool that sets the listing at 5-minute interval that is closest to the time I want the listing to end. Then I manually change the time to 1 or 2 minutes earlier. For example, if my scheduling tool gives me a time of 3:45, I will go in and manually change it to 3:43 or 3:44. Why? Well, remember that eBay displays your listings at the top of the search engine as the time remaining gets low. By changing your listing to 1 or 2 minutes before the 5-minute interval, you listing will appear on top. Another way to use this strategy is to look at your competitors and determine when their listings end. Then submit your listing to end a minute or two before his or hers. This way, your listing will appear higher in search than your competitor’s. [top] 2. Bidstart Passes eBay in Stamps, Now Moving Into Collectibles One of the places to sell that I mention in my article on alternative selling sites is a company called BidStart. BidStart is a very interesting company. A few years ago they started up as an auction site for selling collectible postage stamps. Within no time at all, they passed eBay and are now the largest stamp auction site on the web, well ahead of eBay and a large percentage of their stamp sellers came from eBay. They later expanded to collectible coins and although they haven’t yet passed eBay I suspect they will shortly. Now they have expanded into all collectibles. If you sell collectibles, here are some of the things I like about BidStart:
Click here to learn more about BidStart. I think you’ll like what you see. [top] 3. Flap Your Way To eBay Profits OK – here is how this works: Sit in front of your computer and pull up one of your eBay listings. Now stare right at the listing while flapping your arms up and down slowly. It’s very important that you not flap too fast. Keep flapping for at least one full minute then refresh your page and check your hit counter. OK – you can stop flapping now. Sorry – I couldn’t resist. What I want to tell you about is Fflap not Flap –but it’s pronounced the same. So lets see how you really can Fflap your way to profits. One of my readers alerted me to a new eBay selling tool called Fflap. Essentially Fflap is a system that automates posting your eBay items to Twitter. (They are also working on adding Facebook functionality). It took me a while to understand the site, but once I spent some time looking it over, I signed up immediately and tried to use it. When I signed on I found the site was a little weak on instructions. I struggled to figure out how to do my first few flaps. But once you figure it out Fflap is pretty cool. Their basic service is free and their top (platinum) service is only $3.00 a month. It will be better for you. I contacted the operators and told them I was working on an article about their service and they helped me get started. They also agreed to create some good instructional tools to help new members. For example, here is a link to a blog post that explains how to do your first few flaps. And they are working on some additional learning tools as well that should be ready by now. As I wrote last year about Twitter, whenever you post an eBay listing to your Twitter account you create another inbound searchable link on the web that goes right to your listing. In addition your Twitter followers are exposed to your listings and you may get some sales that way. This works for both auctions and fixed price listings, but works better for fixed price as the listing stays up for a longer time. If you really want to optimize this tool, set up a separate Twitter account related to your niche. For example, one of the products I sell is Starbucks collectible mugs. So I could set up a separate Twitter account for that niche. If I get a lot of followers who also collect mugs, then I can Fflap those listings to that particular Twitter account and make sales directly to other collectors. As far as I know Fflap is the only eBay certified social marketing application and is listed in the eBay solutions directory. I find this pretty surprising, as most eBayers are pretty wired in to social marketing. [top] 4. New eBay Policies Taking Effect in June and July Well eBay is at it again. More policies aimed at making eBay look more and more like Amazon.com. Here are some of the changes that will take place this summer starting in June and going through September. Anonymous email system ~ First off is the new email process. Starting in June, buyers and sellers will have to communicate through eBay Messages and eBay will assign random anonymous email addresses to both parties. This means you will not be able to see the real email address of your eBay buyers. Of course eBay says this is for your “safety,” but in reality the process is designed to keep you from communicating with your customers independent of eBay and possibly directing them to your website or sending them offers directly via email. Here is what eBay says about the program: Starting in June, eBay will take steps to ensure that user information is kept even more secure and provide additional efficiencies to quickly respond to emails. Anonymous email addresses will be used onsite whenever buyers and sellers are exchanging emails (Ask a Question, Reply to Question).
Every user account on eBay will be assigned an anonymous email address which will be used during email conversations with other eBay users. When you receive an email from another eBay user, you simply click on the "reply" button in your email client (such as Yahoo or Gmail) to respond. When you click the "reply" button, the anonymous email address will be put in the "to" address field. Your message will be sent to the recipient's actual email address and their My Messages account via the anonymous email address. You can preview how the system will work by clicking "Preview how email intermediation works" in the Communication Preferences page under the Account tab in My eBay. Once you click the link, a test email will be sent to your personal email inbox so you can see how it interacts with your system. Buyer protection cases counted along with low DSRs ~ Starting in September eBay will count cases opened against you in PayPal or eBay no matter how the case is resolved, even if you are found to not be at fault. Here is eBay’s statement on the program: Opening a case with the eBay or PayPal Buyer Protection program is a clear indication of buyer dissatisfaction- especially when the buyer tries and is unable to resolve an issue directly with the seller. That's why, starting in September, the number of cases opened for items not received and items not as described will be considered along with low DSRs to evaluate seller performance.. You can monitor your status toward this new requirement-as well as track any cases-on your seller dashboard.
eBay says it will put protections in place to prevent one complaint from affecting a seller’s status. Changes in reminder emails ~ Starting in June, sellers can opt out of the eBay-generated Payment Reminder email and manage your own emails requesting payment from buyers. Here's how you opt out:
And one last change: Starting in September, Feedback emails will now be sent automatically by eBay for every transaction. The purpose of this is to generate more buyers sending feedback and hitting the DSR star reports. [top] 5. eBay Item Condition Policy Changes Starting now in cell phones and in June for everything else, eBay will require you to select from more descriptions in Item Condition. The item condition is now different for some categories. This sort of makes sense. An item condition for a book is entirely different than one for a digital camera or a pair of blue jeans. To select your item condition, you can now go to the Item Condition Lookup Table. You look for your product category, click on it and a drop down box will give you the various sub-categories. For example, the new item conditions for books are: Brand new, Like new, Good and Acceptable. Whereas the categories for Kitchen items are: New, New Other, Used and For parts or not working.
Here is an example of what those condition categories mean: Books: Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See the seller's listing for full details. Like New: A book in excellent condition. Cover is shiny and undamaged, and the dust jacket is included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. Very Good: A book that has been read but is in excellent condition. No obvious damage to the cover, with the dust jacket included for hard covers. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, and no underlining/highlighting of text or writing in the margins. May be very minimal identifying marks on the inside cover. Very minimal wear and tear. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. Good: A book that has been read but is in good condition. Very minimal damage to the cover including scuff marks, but no holes or tears. The dust jacket for hard covers may not be included. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with minimal creasing or tearing, minimal pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins. No missing pages. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. Acceptable: A book with obvious wear. May have some damage to the cover but integrity still intact. The binding may be slightly damaged but integrity is still intact. Possible writing in margins, possible underlining and highlighting of text, but no missing pages or anything that would compromise the legibility or understanding of the text. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. Here is what the item conditions look like for Kitchen Items New: A brand-new, unused, unopened, undamaged item in its original packaging (where packaging is applicable). Packaging should be the same as what is found in a retail store, unless the item was packaged by the manufacturer in non-retail packaging, such as an unprinted box or plastic bag. See the seller's listing for full details. New other (see details): A new, unused item with absolutely no signs of wear. The item may be missing the original packaging, or in the original packaging but not sealed. The item may be a factory second or a new, unused item with defects. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. Used: An item that has been used previously. The item may have some signs of cosmetic wear, but is fully operational and functions as intended. This item may be a floor model or store return that has been used. See the seller's listing for full details and description of any imperfections. For parts or not working: An item that does not function as intended and is not fully operational. This includes items that are defective in ways that render them difficult to use, items that require service or repair, or items missing essential components. See the seller's listing for full details. Like any new policy, this will cause sellers some work to comply, but this is one policy I agree with. I think anything that helps clarify item descriptions comes with benefits by preventing misunderstandings that lead to negative feedback and item not as described complaints. [top] 6. Used Book Sellers – The New Version of Scanlister is now Available. To those of you who purchased my book, How To Sell Used Books on eBay and Amazon, you might remember that I told you about Scanlister a few months ago. This is a great tool that automates listing your books on eBay’s half.com. I just heard from Ben Mannino who invented Scanlister and the new version is now available that incorporates the ability to also list on Amazon. Scanlister users asked for more scanning flexibility and the ability to
integrate with Amazon, and the new version addresses both. The USB scanner works
OK when sitting in front of a PC, but what about when you want to scan those
items in the basement, attic or a garage sale across town? iPhone users have
access to a handy little program called Redlaser ($1.99). It can scan any
barcode using the built-in I think the new version of Scanlister is an awesome one-two combination for generating profits from those gold nuggets found at garage sales, thrift shops and library sales. The new export function also adds the flexibility to get your Half.com inventory out to other platforms. Best of all, Ben offers a substantial discount to my readers and Scanlister comes with a money-back guarantee. If you sell books on eBay, Half.com, Amazon or other sites then you really want to take a look at Scanlister. [top] 7. New Wholesale Sources for eBay, Amazon & Online Sellers Before we get started, I still get a lot of email asking me if WorldWide Brands is worth the money. I have been working with them and using their service for over six years and they are still the only wholesale information source I recommend. And they have just lowered their price. So go here to watch their videos and read about their service. Even if you decide not to buy, there is a ton of free information on their pages. You can learn a lot about the wholesale industry just by reading their pages and watching their videos. Dealtree (a large liquidation company) and Best Buy have joined forces to provide the liquidation market with auctions for newly liquidated products. The new source is called Tech Liquidators. They specialize in liquidating damaged, devalued, returned, obsolete, overstock and liquidation merchandise. Their main focus is on consumer electronics, but they do have other products as well. For example, one current offering is for Callaway golf balls. They auction products by the pallet or by the truckload. A data sheet is provided for each pallet being offered. Products are received on a daily basis so check back often to view the newest auctions. The A1 Watch Co. of New York is a manufacturer, distributor and wholesaler of fashion watches. All Time Trading supplies discount traders with products in 30 different categories. Goldfathers wholesales 14K gold chain and 14 and 18K jewelry. PJEE Handbags is an importer and reseller of Fashion Handbags & Wallets. Prices start as low as $5.00 per bag with a Low Minimum order of $75. China Vasion is a wholesale distributor for electronics from China. One of the products they carry is an interesting line of surveillance and security cameras. Empire Scientific is a leading supplier of batteries, chargers, and accessories to retailers, wholesalers, distributors, and manufacturers in the cellular, video, and cordless telephone segments of the consumer electronics industry. Untimass sells a complete line of the popular RC toys including cars, boats and helicopters. The Cartoon Connection is a wholesale supplier of licensed Disney, Dora the Explorer, Betty Boop, and other cartoon-themed merchandise. That’s it for now. See you again in a couple of weeks. Skip McGrath P.S. If you missed the last issue, click here to read it. 
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