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The more things change, the more they stay the same. This axiom is especially true in the world of online auctions. As hard as eBay has worked to limit auctions (down to less than 25% of eBay's marketplace business) in favor of fixed price, Buy Now listings, the company has not eliminated the appeal of online bidding.

But for sellers, auctions require a different strategy than listing brand new, commodity items at a fixed price. Pictures become more important to convey the condition or uniqueness of an item. Decisions must be made about the starting bid and whether to set a reserve price. And sellers must use cunning to determine the best way to attract eyeballs to their listings, and with auctions, that includes ending the listing at a time that bidders are awake, on their computers (or mobile devices) and ready to hit the bid button at the last moment.

Lo and behold, according to the most recent survey on the topic by EcommerceBytes, Sunday still reigns as the best day to end an auction.

We last asked this question to our readers in 2005, here's what they said then about the most popular days to end eBay auctions:

Sunday - 56.8%
Monday - 11.5%
Thursday - 7.3%
Saturday - 6.2%
Tuesday - 4.4%
Wednesday - 3.8%
Friday - 2.6%
Doesn't Matter - 7.4%

The results didn't change much over the years when we polled readers from 1999-2005, as this Newsflash article revealed.

Now compare those results with these from this year's poll:

We also asked readers when the best time of day to end an auction was, and here's what they said:

We asked readers additional questions about auctions. Do Holidays matter when planning when to end an auction? Which of the following holidays is it best to avoid ending an auction?

We show which categories eBay deems the most important for auctions. Look for tomorrow's EcommerceBytes Newsflash newsletter for the rest of the poll results.

Comment on the AuctionBytes Blog.

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About the author:

David Steiner is President of Steiner Associates LLC, publisher of EcommerceBytes.com and the EveryPlaceISell.com merchant directory. David, a former television producer, handles business development and advertising for EcommerceBytes. You can reach him at dsteiner@ecommercebytes.com

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