Christmas Auction Listing Strategy

zackary71

With the Private Seller promotions starting on Friday, interested to know what members' thoughts are on 'when to list' ? It would be madness to follow normal convention and start a 7-day listing this Sunday evening. I've got 2 rare Collectibles listings prepped, and unsure what to. The first is UK Market, and veering towards a 10 day listing Friday eve, to end Boxing day 6-7pm, or a 7 day one to end 23rd early evening. The other is more likely to have USA and Far East/ worldwide interest. I'm thinking 10 day listing to end c. 5pm UK time Boxing day. It at least finds a happy...ish medium of appealing to 3 different time zones, and for USA + China, 26th December is a normal day compared to UK. Decisions decisions. What are others planning ?

soolin

Boxing Day was traditionally a good day to end auctions but in these current conditions I’m not sure there is any real guaranteed strategy. I do have a concern that people will start spending this final week before Christmas and then panic at Christmas realise they have overspent and stop buying anything that is not entirely necessary. I am not expecting great eBay sales on my account after Christmas and going into the New Year. 

TripleH

I've decided not to list anything unless buyer collection until February now, but I am only looking to clear odds and ends and don't use Ebay as a source of income.

soolin

TripleH said:

I've decided not to list anything unless buyer collection until February now, but I am only looking to clear odds and ends and don't use Ebay as a source of income.

I shall switch all my accounts back on probably late on the 23rd December when it is obvious nothing will arrive before Christmas. I am away early in January so will be switching back off around the 3rd just to cover my holiday . When I put holiday delay times up during the ‘on’ period will depend on what dates, if any, are announced for more strikes. 

zackary71

Thanks for the replies. I've decided to go with a 10 day listing option starting early Sat evening. That way it takes in 2 weekends and avoids Christmas and Boxing Day ending time.

GadgetGuru

I'm tempted to remove all listings for now, mainly because of all the mess with delivery companies at the moment. No doubt there will be buyers who still expect to receive an item before Xmas when they have purchased it only a few days before - I'd rather not have the hassle. I'm only a private seller anyways, and eBay is not my business or main source of income, just something on the side.

Olinda99

Got my first INR today - item posted 2nd small packet on 28 Nov not arrived. Tracking shows 'we will update tracking when we attempt delivery'

Whatever the decision re listing I would put in the listings that it could take considerable time to arrive.

soolin

Olinda99 said:

Got my first INR today - item posted 2nd small packet on 28 Nov not arrived. Tracking shows 'we will update tracking when we attempt delivery'

Whatever the decision re listing I would put in the listings that it could take considerable time to arrive.

The problem is buyers don’t read or heed the warnings and the time frame for an INR has not been extended. 

GadgetGuru

Buyers will expect their item regardless - the main issue is where eBay haven't taken account for the issues with most couriers at the moment and the INR claim can easily be opened. 
This will lead to a fair number of sellers being forced to refund before any chance of a claim with the courier, and then the package most likely being delivered anyways, leaving buyers with a free item, and the sellers out of pocket. 
From what I've seen so far, eBay have done nothing to address this?

soolin

IftiBashir said:

Buyers will expect their item regardless - the main issue is where eBay haven't taken account for the issues with most couriers at the moment and the INR claim can easily be opened. 
This will lead to a fair number of sellers being forced to refund before any chance of a claim with the courier, and then the package most likely being delivered anyways, leaving buyers with a free item, and the sellers out of pocket. 
From what I've seen so far, eBay have done nothing to address this?

I posted on a different thread about this. On some other forums small businesses on eBay and also to a lesser extent Amazon in the ‘wrong area’ are facing making a loss this Christmas as INRs are needing refunding and many of the business post options carry no insurance. It isn’t helped by other areas running fairly smoothly so buyers are seeing most items arrive in a fairly normal time frame whilst others are taking weeks. 

One of the hobby stockists we use has had to lay off part time seasonal workers are their items are disappearing into  a hole somewhere, we waited 3 weeks for a DPD parcel from them whilst getting stuff in 24 hours from other parts of the country. 

Jerry_Cornelius

I'll probably list as per usual on FVF weekend - usually late Sunday for 10 days, I do auctions 99% of the time (I mainly use ebay to sell stuff I no longer need or want, as I do like to buy a lot of stuff!) and I like them to finish Wed, which gives buyers time to pay as normally, because of work, I can only post Friday PM or Sat AM.

The strikes are paying havoc but not in all cases, most of my second class items from the previous FVF offer weekend got there in 3-4 days, but I have an item (CD) I won from France that was supposedly posted on the 21st Nov which I still have not received. I also posted a Tracked & Signed package to the US on the 6th Dec, and its been stuck at Langley HWDC since the 7th - was hoping it would get out of the UK before the next wave of strikes, as I would assume it would be normal service once outside the UK (?)

The last FVF I did (4th Dec) I listed stuff for 7 days instead of 10, so they could finish the following Sunday and that I could post on the following Tuesday (13th) as i was off that day, but there were 2 days of strikes straight after that day, so will be interesting to see how much delay they have ... I emailed all the buyers they had been despatched but to expect delays because of the strikes.