February 7th, 2010 by Skip McGrath

Superbowl Sunday – 11:45 AM Pacific Time

The conventional wisdom is that you want to schedule listings to end at times and on days where the greatest number of people are on eBay.  Since the Superbowl is the biggest TV event of the year, you would think that having an auction end during the Superbowl would be a dumb move.  That’s what I always thought!

Since Sunday evenings are typically great times to end listings I usually do so –but not on holiday weekend or when something like the Superbowl is happening.  However, last year I just spaced on it and launched my normal number of listings to end on Sunday.  I was amazed when I checked my computer after the game and noticed that out of 17 listings than ended during the game, 12 of them were successful –and one of them was the subject of a bidding war and realized almost double what that product (a Starbucks Headquarters mug) usually sells for.

So this year I wondered what would happen if I did it on purpose.  I have about 8 items ending today. So check back and I will update this post after the game. (BTW – I also have several items on Amazon. I will see how those do too.)

Superbowl Sunday – 9:45 PM Pacific Time

Well it didn’t work as well this year. Only 1 auction item sold on eBay during the game. However, I did sell 1 item from a fixed price listing for $289, 1 item on my website for $227 and a small sale on Amazon for $39.95.  Plus there were some book buyers on the Skipmcgrath.com website. Two people bought eBooks during the game and within fifteen minutes of the game ending, another 3 eBooks were purchased.

One problem with the eBay listings is that I had only expensive items (over $200) listed that would end during the game. Maybe I will try this again next year, but put up some lower priced items.

Anyway it was an interesting experiment. Oh – and what a great game.  I was rooting for New Orleans but didn’t really think they had a chance. By the end of the 1st quarter I thought the game would be in the bag for Indy by halftime. Glad I was wrong. N.O. really pulled on out. Just goes to show you that patientce and persistence pay off.

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