ebay: holiday selling prospects?

[acole]

I'm planning to unload some things I've acquired that didn't work out for me b/c of fit, style, color, whatever...from suits to trenchcoats to shoes. Unfortunately I didn't have the time to put together a set of listings for the pre-xmas rush. I thought maybe one of our regular sellers could weigh in on the best time to list (relax, I don't have enough stock to seriously compete with you

) Have you noticed your apparel sales taking a dive between Christmas Eve and New Year's because people tune out for the holidays, or is there no point in waiting until mid-January?

 

[johnnynorman3]

I have two thoughts. First, people seem to generally not be buying as much right now, perhaps because they have spent significant sums on Christmas gifts. But, second, you might have a larger audience during the holidays.

I think that for items that will have an audience regardless of timing -- think Kiton ties, Alden shoes, etc. -- perhaps waiting till mid-January is best. I'm planning on putting some stuff up after the New Year and will probably stagger my goods as an experiment.

 

[AlanC]

For whatever it's worth, the current offerings on ebay are down in some areas I generally watch. I assume that's because people realize it's too late to get something shipped for Christmas and that most buying will be traditional e-commerce or brick and mortar for at least the rest of this week.

Personally, I won't be listing anything until after New Year's, but I'm also doing some holiday traveling in there. My listings are strictly low volume, however.

 

[FIHTies]

Have you noticed your apparel sales taking a dive between Christmas Eve and New Year's because people tune out for the holidays, or is there no point in waiting until mid-January?

Had a nice spate of buying last week and the week prior. Dead since Friday. In fact I have new stock that I am not even letting people  know (except for the fanatics, you know who you are

)now and will wait till After Jan 1st.

 

[AlanC]

In fact I have new stock that I am not even letting people  know (except for the fanatics, you know who you are

)now and will wait till After Jan 1st.

Tease.

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

And I have an entirely new line of limited edition Filo de Scozia and Merino men's knit outerwear ...better than Smedley ... butcha can't see it until January 15. Na-na-na-na-naaah.

(OK, FIH Ties, now you say Jan 30, I'll chime in Feb 10, etc.)

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

Thx, MaxnHarry.

Agree Ebay's dead, but Next Day Air web orders are killing us still. 45 to ship tomorrow; who knows about Thursday. After that, gotta get the lights on that tree I put up 2 weeks ago - or I'll be sleeping on the couch again.

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

P.S.: If you're a small seller, get your listings up by 12/26. Don't forget all that Christmas money which gets spent FAST. In 2004, January was my second busiest month, mostly in the first 2 weeks.

 

[A Harris]

In my experience, the 25th-30th is pretty dead, though not completely so. January is always excellent.

 

[aybojs]

Apparently eBay is reducing insertion fees to a flat 10 cents today (Monday). Is that worth taking advantage of seeing how the auctions at least end after Jan 1, or will the traffic be so reduced as to negate the effects of saving the listing fees (most of my stuff will probably in the $50-100 range).

 

[Heron]

Of course the flip side is that I've scored some very nice buys with only 1 or 0 bidders against me - gotta love those opening bid wins.