In a previous AuctionBytes-Update article (Issue #4, Dec.99), I wrote about the most effective day and time to end your auction. I cited a December AuctionBytes.com poll in which Sunday was chosen the best day to end an auction, with 41% of the votes. Saturday came in a distant second with 18%. In a more recent poll taken on our Web site, 7-day auctions were far and away the most popular length of auction.

At the time, I thought that made a lot of sense. I mean, if you had a dud auction, I didn't think 7, 10 or even 100 days would make much difference to its success. Even an auction site spokesperson stated that there were "diminishing returns" extending a 7-day auction to 10 days.

So why would I suddenly start campaigning for a 10-day auction?

Well, follow my logic for a moment. 10-day auctions are the longest duration offered by both eBay and Yahoo! If the weekend attracts the most users to online auction sites, and you started a 7-day auction on Sunday evening at 9pm EST, it would end the following Sunday at the same time, so you are getting one weekend of heavy traffic to your auction. Therefore, your hope is that there will be sufficient traffic throughout the week, so that by the time your auction is ending, there is a frenzy of activity around it.

But any good fisherman will tell you that you have better luck when the fish are running. (Not that I'm equating buyers to fish,...but make sure you have good bait!)

My point is: If one weekend is good...aren't two BETTER?

Suppose I start my auction on Thursday evening and run it for 10 days. My auction will be ending on Sunday evening when the highest number of fish, I mean, potential bidders, are clicking through. Not only do I get the benefit of having my auction end on a great night, I get the previous weekend's high volume of traffic as a "warm up" period to draw interested parties in.

I've noticed since started 10-day auctions that I generally get a bid or two on the first weekend, possibly attract a few more bidders during the week. By the time my auction is ending, I'm sitting in front of my monitor refreshing the screen repeatedly, watching the high bid climb.

My theory is that a 10-day auction not only gives you the benefit of getting more eyeballs to your item, but also, the people who have bid early on your item are "invested" in your auction. I certainly would feel a little more territorial if I had spent the last 10 days watching an item, and someone came along and trying to outbid me.

OK, I have no quantifiable proof that I'm right. But my own auctions have been much more successful at 10 days, going through 2 weekends, than they were at 7 days. Sure, it takes a little more patience on my part - I like getting quick results. But I'm starting to enjoy waiting a little longer and watching the bites, I mean bids. Heck, someday I might even take up fishing!