i want to put some motorcycle protective clothing on ebay. it's
reasonably high value and will hopefully end up at or above £100. but
what i want to know is, when should i set the auction to finish? 

from personal experience of buying, i know there tends to be a flurry of
activity as two or more bidders try to bid in increments in real time
a few minutes before the end. so it would be reasonable to assume that
it should end during working hours so people can do that at work. or
should it end when people are at home? or do the two average out? i
can't see much of a pattern in terms of what's on there at the moment.
ideally i'm looking for personal experience from an ebay seller in the
uk. 

also, should i display the shipping costs in the ad? some people do,
and some don't. shipping for these heavy items may be up to £15 or £20
once i've paid for the packaging.

Hello els24uk-ga

The flurry of bidding at the end is somewhat negated by the fact that
eBay now have proxy bidding:
eBay help page
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/basics/e_item1.html
This allows buyers to place the maximum bid they want to pay for the
product (invisible to others) and the system automatically advances
their bid to their maximum amount that they want to pay if they are
out bid. This proxy bidding means they do not have to constantly
monitor the auction to see if they were outbid, the eBay system
automatically puts in bids on their behalf up to their maximum
specified price- it prevents them from being outbid at the last
moment.

However last minute bidding still occurs as it is felt early bidding
may stimulate too much competitive bidding pushing up the price
‘unnecessarily’.

I tried to find the most active time of day for bidding but there
seems little hard statistical facts. Though I would have thought if it
was a consumer product the activity would be more frenzied (if frenzy
is the correct word to use) in the evening as most employers now ban
or restrict private use of internet and personal email in office hours
as it’s counter productive. The home environment seems to offer more
freedom to monitoring activity, than doing it behind the bosses back.
Evenings 8pm-10.30pm 'seem' to be the peak periods. However I did find
some information regarding the optimum time to end an auction which is
detailed below.
“Welcome to Auction Insights' Sellers Tip Page”
http://auctioninsights.com/sellers.html
excerpt  “Although a topic of some debate, Sundays between 5 and 6pm
PST is generally considered the best time to close an auction (Long
holiday weekends excepted). 10 days -- spanning two weekends -- is
generally considered the best auction length.
Some Caveats: 
- Friday and Saturday nights are not the best time to end youth
oriented auctions.
- Items that appeal to retirement age people or Stay-At-Home-Moms may
do best to end mid-morning.
- Bottom Line: Try to anticipate who your buyer is, and try to
schedule your auction so it will close when they would likely be
online.”
auctioninsights.com “21 Success Strategies of eBay Powersellers” by
David Espino
http://auctioninsights.com/21secrets.html


several books cropped up for improving selling strategy
LuckyDude.net
http://www.luckydude.net/page25.html
EcommerceDealers.com
http://www.ecommercedealers.com/auction/ebay/ebay.htm
iWannabuystuff.com
http://www.iwannabuystuff.com/wholesalebook.html
The above seem a ‘bit flash’ and after your cash but
Zoovy.com offers the best resource I feel.
http://www.zoovy.com/biz/help/tutorials/
and in particular their section on 
eBay Selling Techniques
http://www.zoovy.com/biz/help/tutorials/guide_to_ebay/
excerpt “With eBay the time you launch the Auction determines the time
the Auction will close. accordingly if you launch two auctions
together, they will close at the same time. Most of ebays traffic is
online between 3:00pm to 9:00pm PST (6:00pm - 12:00pm EST) - this is
considered "Prime Time" for auctions when the most bids come in.
Sunday and Saturday seem to be preferred days, with an emphasis on
Sunday. Most experienced sellers agree that Sunday at 6:00pm is the
hottest time, but YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). You should keep an eye
on the categories your selling in to see when the hot bidding time are
for the items you sell, this is called your "optimal window" - for
most sellers this will start almost instantly around 6:00pm PST and go
till around 8:00pm. There are very advanced sellers who literally know
their optimal windows down to the minute for each item they sell -
it's a little spooky!”
“As new buyers arrive they often bid on the closest ending item for an
item which meets their needs and has a comfortable price zone
(comfortable price zone takes into account feedback rating, shipping
costs, etc.)”
“Assumption: bidders don't like to do homework, they like to have all
the items available to them at the same time, they will look at
everything and choose which one they will buy.
Conclusion: Pretty pictures, good descriptions, easy shipping terms
and immaculate feedback are important to ensure a hassle free
transaction and win a buyers confidence.”

Other links which may also be of some use
artbusiness.com A "POWER BUYER" SHOWS HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY SELLING
ON EBAY by Tony Hyman
http://www.artbusiness.com/eBayhyman.html
eBay payments “Safe E-Commerce Tips
http://www.billpoint.com/help/commerce-tips.html

"ebay selling strategies"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&q=%22ebay+selling+strategies%22
"ebay selling techniques"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&q=%22ebay+selling+techniques%22
"ebay selling tips"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&q=%22ebay+selling+tips%22

I will let you draw you own conclusions on the time to close the
auction in relationship to the product you are selling and the above
information. As to shipping charges I feel you should put them in, so
the buyer is clear on the total amount they are going to pay. You can
find out postage costs from the Consignia web site
Services Guide “helping you price a delivery”
http://www.consignia-online.com/portal/default/all/home;?paf_gear_id=100003&paf_gm=content&paf_dm=full&servicesGuideConsigniaPage=servicesGuideHome&bhlx=RMpoPF&bhx=rm&_requestid=604
I use it to price the postage on my items, it might help if you have
some scales, but usually my guesses are OK ;-) or I allow a bit extra.
The only exception is on international shipping which can only be
calculated depending on the location of the buyer.
If you need any clarification, just ask,
kind regards
lot-ga

---

Request for Answer Clarification by els24uk-ga on 05 Sep 2002 16:03 PDT

this answer is not helpful. i wanted information about ebay uk, not in
the states. this is because of the different levels of home internet
penetration in the uk, so i don't feel that giving information about
the us times would be useful to me.

the third paragraph of your answer is the information i wanted to get
more of, but you only say seem, which means it's your presumption.

can you find me information specific to the uk - or european - market
where internet penetration levels are different.

---

Clarification of Answer by lot-ga on 05 Sep 2002 18:08 PDT

Hello els24uk-ga

Sorry for the Americanisms, 
I included the US material as I felt it could be re-purposed for the
UK in the light of UK sources being relatively rare in comparison.

Clearly this is unacceptable to you. Apologies.

- After some more research, I have only managed to find a UK source of
including packaging information with your auction lot.
The following excerpt details some shipping arrangements:
"10. Shipping: If you do not put the postage/shipping rates in you
will get "Question for Seller" e-mails as Buyers like to know up front
what they are going to have to pay for that. Buy a set of kitchen
scales (£7.50 Argos) and use the link below to calculate the postage
remembering of course to put the packaging/box etc on the scales and
go to the next rate above the indicated one to quote. If you are using
jiffy bags don't forget to add that on to and be prepared to justify
the cost you put on the listing. Do Not rip off Buyers with excessive
postage.
11. If you are willing to combine shipping on multiple bids by the
same Buyer DO NOT assume that you can reduce the cost of significantly
to the Buyer by combining two or more bids. E.g. Two separate videos
won - separate bids, so you have to use a larger envelope, more
padding/protection or use a box. Extra weight, envelope costs more. By
all means put in a statement regarding combine shipping but say, "IT
MAY" reduce the cost. "
"Advice for Sellers" UK Auction Help by bearalltosee
http://www.ukauctionhelp.co.uk/advice4sellers.html
- Also more UK selling tips here
 "Selling Tips" Auction Help
http://www.ukauctionhelp.co.uk/selltips.html
As well as other tips at the main URL of
http://www.ukauctionhelp.co.uk
but unfortunately no references to optimising a UK auction finish,
despite fairly extensive searching. The extrapolation of the U.S. data
being currently the only source of information in this area.

Search Strategy:
selling "ebay uk" strategy auction finish
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selling "ebay uk" tips auction finish
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selling "ebay uk" techniques auction end strategy
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selling "ebay uk" tips auction end
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"ebay.co.uk" tips auction end
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"ebay.co.uk" choose auction end
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"ebay uk" choose auction end
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"ebay uk" choosing auction end
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"ebay uk" choosing auction finish
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"ebay uk" chose auction finish
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"ebay uk" close auction
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"ebay uk" closing auction
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"ebay uk selling" "strategy" 
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"ebay selling" uk "strategy" 
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"ebay selling" "techniques" uk
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"ebay uk selling" "techniques"
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"ebay selling strategies" uk
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"ebay uk selling strategies"
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"ebay selling techniques" uk
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"ebay uk selling techniques"
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"ebay selling tips" uk
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"ebay uk selling tips"
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"ebay uk" "selling tips"
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iBrowse.co.uk > Home/Consumer_Information/Auctions
http://www.ibrowse.co.uk/directory_root.php?browse=/Home/Consumer_Information/Auctions/
I'm sorry there was no UK specific material found on the auction
finish.
If there is any other point to your original question which I can
clarify,
let me know.
kind regards
lot-ga

thank you for putting in the time and effort to research this answer.
unfortunately, however, it is not all that useful to me. (the question
about shipping was a minor part and unlikely to affect the final sale
price, which is the information i was looking for.) i specified the uk
because uk and european internet use is different to that in the
states. companies probably have different monitoring policies, and
more people pay higher rates for their internet access from home. i'm
not going to request a refund, because you clearly put time into the
research, and you answered the second part about shipping. but you
started to answer the question within half an hour of it being posted,
when i'd said i was looking for personal experience from an ebay
seller in the uk. with due respect to you, perhaps it would have been
better if, in this instance, you'd left it for a day or two to see if
someone else picked it up who was better placed to answer it fully.