Scheduled Listing - Times Zones

Hi Steve - Check out WorldTimeZone.com for more clarity:http://www.worldtimezone.com/
or you can google "time zones" for other sites. USZ9 / GST means "United States Zone 9/ Greenwich Standard Time". Auctiva and ebay are both in this time zone, which is normally 8 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)(same as GST) which is Standard time at the "zero" time zone located in Greenwich, England(not to be confused with the U.K.'s Daylight Savings Time). Right now the U.S. is in Daylight Savings Time where we arbitrarily set our clocks ahead one hour - so Auctiva/ebay's time which is normally PST(Pacific Standard Time, GMT minus 8 hours) changes to PDT (Pacific Daylight Time, GMT minus 7 hours). If you look at the time zone map shown on the above web site, Perth is GMT plus 8 hours. This means you are currently 15 hours ahead of PDT. Not sure about Perth but since parts of Australia also apparently observe DST during your summer months, this adds even more confusion and inconsistancy - because of this seasonal inconsistancy it is more reliable just to consult the active time zone map rather than doing the math. Also, at the bottom of every ebay page is a link to the current ebay time.

Thanks for your time - that's a great help. Hopefully I have it all worked out!

I am in Melbourne GMT+10 and that is set up in my preferences.

eBay time is 17 hours behind me, that is fine, so if I schedule with Auctiva I should do it 17 hours by time before I want it to be listed?

The confusing part is that the save times of my saved listings is my local machine times but it says it is "USZ9 / GST" which it's not.

Also there is not such thing as US Zone 9 according to the site you quote that is "USSR Zone 9" and how can anything in the US be anything to do with Greenwich England? GMT is GMT and is in the UK nothing to do with the US. If you use PST say PST and if it's offset by our preferences say that. Also it is a lot more standard to use GMT+10 etc rather than these cryptic "USZ9"

Hi JProgrammer - I'm afraid I was seriously wrong in interpreting "USZ9 GST" as "US Zone 9, Greenwich Standard Time". This was an incorrect assumption on my part, as it made sense to me at the time. I apologize for putting out bad info. You are correct, this designation is very cryptic. I did a search on GST and found out that it stands for "Guam Standard Time", which I quite frankly never heard of, but then I am not a time zone "expert". I don't know why GST is being used as a reference, especially when nobody seems to be familiar with it.

You are also correct in stating that PST or PDT should 'normally' be used as a US time zone designation, however I don't believe I was incorrect to use GMT-8 in a discussion of how that zone relates to GMT and time zones in other parts of the world, just as you were not incorrect in referring to Melbourne as being GMT+10. These are the standard, universally understood designations for discussing and understanding our time zone system. In fact, GMT+10 makes immediate sense to me, whereas AEST I am less familiar with. I appreciate your bringing my error to light - sorry for confusing the issue. Now I know what GST stands for (now to find out how and why it is being used).

If the US could pull the 0 degree meridian line and GMT stateside they would why else would someone come up with Guam Standard Time.

Perhaps someone could tell this ignorant Brit where Guam is ?

As far as scheduling listings via Auctiva, here in the UK I have the time zone set to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) with BST (British Summer Time referred to as DST, daylight saving time elsewhere) selected accordingly to the time of year.

So the scheduling time shown is 'my time', if in doubt try with one listing to be sure !

Going back to the preferred time zone setting it does say that Guam is part of UTC+10 it's just very strange to see these symbols when UTC+10 or GMT+10 is the ISO standard way to represent time standards. Thanks I can now understand and the listings should display when I think they should

I'm also confuse about the time zone, such as PDP,GMT......

Hi rockman - It can get confusing. There are some good sites that will give a visual picture and some good info on this. I would suggest referring to them as an aid to basic understanding:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ninth_wave:
Check out WorldTimeZone.com for more clarity: http://www.worldtimezone.com/
or you can google "time zones" for other sites.QUOTE]

Just remember that there are 24 time zones (since there are 24 hours in the day) and that all these time zones are designated in reference to the time in Greenwich, England (Greenwich Mean Time, or GMT).The rest of the system, for example Daylight Savings Time, are simply variations on this basic system. Don't forget to read about the very important International Date Line, which is the arbitrarily set location dividing one day from the next. Interesting stuff.

Hi Rockman, no need to worry, just set your Auctiva time zone and take into account for daylight saving if appliacble and away you go.

If you need help you had better let someone know where you are on the planet.