Maximize Your Online Auction Success
By: Claude Bourgoin
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The way to successful auction is to maximize the amount of bidders available at closing time. Most of the bidding on any auction will occur within the last 5 minutes! So when marketing your items on any online auction, take these several factors into consideration.
When listing your item keep in mind who is your target buyer and when most of them are online. A successful auction occurs when two or more buyers fight over your item, and this price war may not occur at 3:00 in the morning. So listing your item is best to keep in mind who is your target buyer, where are they located, and when are most of them online looking for what you're offering them.
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Sales of completed items are great for clues. Each type of item you plan to list should reveal definite pattern from past sales. For example hardware and tools may get more male bidders who are looking on Saturday morning of afternoon, and Yugioh cards may get more attention from kid's right after school. Etc.
Keep track of major events so you don't have your items close on major events like thanksgiving afternoon, when most of the country is sitting down to a great meal, or in the evening on the day of a Presidential election may not be a great time for an auction to end. Again be wise so major events may be great ending times like Christmas morning because many people don't have family with whom to share their day or they are not of a Christian faith. Those people would see this as a great time to sneak in a few bids. Other people may go shopping on Christmas afternoon to try to buy what they didn't receive for a gift!
Don't conflict with major events that may affect your target market online presence. For example, during a NASCAR televised race is not a good time to end if you're selling NASCAR paraphernalia since, your potential buyers most likely won't be online so your auction may not be successful at this time. Now say you listed your auction item to end one hour before or one hour after the televised race, what would have been an unsuccessful auction could turnout to be a winning one.
Consider seasonality of certain products as they have a tremendous effect on the outcome of your auction. Selling bicycle equipment and accessories in the winter or ski equipment in the summer will not bring you any of the success you would have had, had you taken into consideration the seasonality of these items. Note that it is best to post seasonal items just before there respective season begins since that is when you will find the greatest amount of buyers.
Take into consideration your buyer and put yourself in potential buyer's shoes, is what it all boils down to. If you do this effectively, then you will always enjoy the auction selling experience, not to mention you may make more money from your auctions.
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