"AstraVanMan" wrote in message
...
The traditional advice is to start the auction on Thursday at about
20:15,
run for 10 days and finish on Sunday evening at about 20:15, as Sunday
evening is usually the peak browsing time for ebay. You don't want it to
end
too early or otherwise people might miss it, and end it too late and
people
will have gone to bed etc. so they won't try and fight off "snipers" -
this
can in itself drive the price up in the last few minutes.

Indeed. A while back (you may or may not remember) I put a pair of
Porsche
924 Turbos on ebay for a friend - neither had MOT or any history, one was
a
runner (and had a half-fitted wide arch bodykit, and a full 5" stainless
exhaust) and the other was a bare shell with a supposed low mileage engine
(it did look *very* clean, all new gaskets etc, but no proof that it was a
genuine low miler). One guy asked for some specific details
(chassis/engine
numbers), which I was originally slightly suspicious of, but it was
basically to determine the exact spec of the cars, and I only got the
information together in the last hour or so of the auction, but doing so
pushed the price up by about £200 in the last 5 minutes!!!! They went for
£650, and they only cost my mate £150 (+£40 to get the shell taken home).

And £1 no reserve is the way to go.

If you start the auction at the price you want, then you have either
over-estimated it (and it just won't sell), or people will be unwilling
to
pay much more than what they think you think its worth.

If you set a reserve, bidding won't be as frantic as people will know
that
there isn't a real bargain to be had. If you set the reserve too high
people
won't bid to it, set it too low, and again people are weary about
bidding
much higher than what they think *you* think its worth.

I entirely see your point, but what's your view of me setting a low
reserve
(say £300, which I know it will *easily* go above), and a buy it now price
of, say, £1000, just so if do people want to use the buy it now option
they'
ll have a few days to do so (though maybe not) before the option
disappears
??? I'm just thinking that I'd quite like to give people the option, and
I
put the buy it now option along with a no reserve auction it'd disappear
as
soon as a bid was placed (i.e. £1). I suppose a £1 N/R auction would,
like
you say, be by far the most attractive way as far as potential buyers
would
be concerned.

You have to remember that the only time when people are likely to consider
doing a buy it now are if:

1) For some reason they want it straight away (this can work with computer
components like hard disks)
2) They think that the buy-it-now price is lower than what the final auction
price will be.

Option 1) is unlikely with cars, most people can wait a few days for a car.
Option 2) means that it won't be in your interest to do so.

The problem with reserve prices is that before the reserve is met, bidding
is damped because people don't really think there is an amazing bargain.
Remebmer with the Merc, when it started people really could bid £1 and be
the high bidder!

After the reserve is met, bidding is dampened because buyers aren't sure
about bidding high amounts on something that the seller doesn't really think
is worth that much (which is how most people read reserve prices).

I mean, you don't really want to hint (with reserves or start prices) at how
much you think its worth, because if you over-value it, people will simply
ignore the auction, if you under-value it then people will be concerned as
to why you don't think its worth very much. A £300 reserve could be dodgy in
this respect.

I am sure that e-bay motors is by far a sufficiently large market that
£1
no reserve is safe

Oh and another thing - reject all "buy it now" people. They are after a
bargain.

By "buy it now" I take it you mean people sending offers by email (or
asking
"how much to buy now?") as opposed to people using the proper "Buy it Now"
method?

Yes exactly. Hardly anyone uses the "Buy it Now" button, except for small
value items (£10). People will e-mail you with offers which are frankly
insulting.

I was selling a computers on e-bay, one of them I started at £65. Now I know
most computers sell for around £140-£150.

Anyway someone asked me for a "buy-it-now", so I told them they could have
it for £150. They then told me know they were thinking more like £75, so I
decided there was no point continueing. I let the auction complete and it
fnished at £145

Just beware of the "buy-it-now" brigade

Cheers for the advice Oliver and bigegg - looks like 8:15pm Thursday it
is.

Peter