I ran across a new service that anybody who sells anything on eBay should be interested in. Mpire.com has launched a new research tool to help create the best possible listing. Mpire offers several different listing services that you can subscribe to but this new research tool is free. You enter a keyword or phrase and it collects data on all of the completed listings in the past month for that keyword and provides a set of statistics such as best keywords, best time of day to end the listing, best length of listing, best ending price etc. It really is a cool tool if you’re doing any selling on eBay. The free account allows up to 100 initial searches and then 10 more free each month. There really is a science to selling on eBay and it pays to do a little research on the items you are selling before wasting money on a listing.
For example, I did a test search on GeForce Video Cards and it told me that 78% of all listings for those keywords successfully sell. That the best duration is a 3 day auction and that the best day to end a listing is Friday between 8pm and 9pm Pacific time. The rationale is that the most bidding occurs during the final hour or few minutes of an auction so you don’t want to end your auction while people are at work or commuting in their car. You want the greatest possible audience for your auction close, so 8PM PST (11PM EST) on a Friday night gives you the best window for internet surfers looking for a deal. This is information that I had already taken into account for my listing but it’s good to see the statistics.
You can click here to sign up for your own free Mpire Research account.
You can click on the graphic below for a quick screen shot of my search.
