Ebay advice

[Robbos]

I've got a bunch of bike stuff I'm sitting on (sound familiar?) that I want to get rid of, and I'm getting organized to do some selling on ebay (don't worry, I don't think it would be of interest to forumites). Has anyone with a fair amount of ebay selling experience noticed a correlation of sales to seasons? What I mean to ask is, in the slowest time of the year retail-wise in the post-Christmas financial hangover, is it worth holding off for a month or two to sell?

[shovelhd]

It depends on what you are selling and who your target market is. If you have collectibles, your main market is dealers and small collectors, and those are year-round. If you have commodity stuff, your market is end users and flippers. The end user has a bit of a downturn between November and January. The flipper just wants to buy your stuff cheap to tun it around at a profit, and will buy year-round. For bike-specific stuff, you will get a bump in demand in February-March from end users, but that may not have any significant effect on pricing. With commodity items, used prices are driven by a discount from new prices, and new prices on eBay are driven by importers, store owners, and other businesses. eBay long ago got away from the end-user driven focus that it started with. It's now all about businesses, small and large.

[martinrjensen]

there is some site that logs sales from eBay for at least the whole year. it's a pay site but it would give you the information you are looking for. August to Christmas, people shop for presents and saales get better and better up to the last minute. I'm sure dsbike sales are better in the spring. Other than that, I have been thinking about payying for that site just to see the results.

[zmudshark]

I have found that late Feb, early March works well for bike stuff. Christmas bills are paid, income tax refund is coming, and cabin fever is in full swing. YMMV

[bargainguy]

Summer is generally the slowest time for ebay as everyone is out doing something else. After Labor Day, things start to pick up again, then another lull after the first of the year.