Watchers.....grrrr

aeuerby

We had an item end Sunday that usually goes for around £55 and a bidding war at the end.
There were 32 watchers.
It finished at £26 and no bidding war.:eek:

I was not amused.

As a result we have decided to stick to BIN's for a while

I should add that we are the only one's that sell our item brand new. The only way you can get hold of one if not from us is second hand!

soolin

I think I've just fallen for the 'I have watchers so it will sell' syndrome. Listed stuff last Thursday and within a day I got the usual 'can I buy this today for opening price rather than wait and bid?' I already had watchers so I said no as I was fully expecting this item to go well.

However, it ends in a couple of hours, I still have 7 watchers and I don't have a single solitary bid, and I feel a bit daft. Incidentally, my stuff rarely ends up in a bidding war so I usually get bids in throughout the 7 days I list, I don't usually get a last minute flurry..so there is a good chance this will go unsold.

Darn...

demonicangel

I watch stuff mainly so i can see how much it is going for and if it isnt out of my limit, then i will bid.

I also sometimes forget to bid!

mah_jong

I dont watch these days at all...... if I am interested in what price things go for a I do a completed listings, if I am buying, I quite often snipe it there and then and dont even watch the item.

The number of my own watchers have been going up and down like yo yo's!!!

Contains_Mild_Peril

poppycracker wrote:

Don't you just hate it when you see you have 6 or 7 watchers on a particular lot and only two bids by the end of the auction? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Not as much as when I have 6 or 7 watchers and nobody bids, which happens occasionally... or when I get 2 early bids, the higher only about 20p above the start price, then no more bids near the end of the auction.
I will confess I myself often watch things without bidding, though. Sometimes I'm selling something similar and there were none or hardly any in Completed Listings, so I watch an active auction to see how much it goes for; sometimes I watch several similar items with the intention of possibly buying only one; sometimes if I like an item but think the start price is too high I will watch it to see if it's unsold then relisted with a lower start price; sometimes I'm just plain nosey!

wileycat

All mine went for starting price last night, slightly disappointing:( flurry of watchers watching most of them as well.

gravitytolls

I often watch stuff. Sometimes so I can bid on something else, if an item I'm currently bidding on goes above my top price (and as my top price is usually the start price, it happens oftenLOL).

Also, I like to see what things go for before I commit to bidding.

And sometimes, I do have soemthing similar, and want an idea of what I expect it to fetch.

TBH, I think I rarely bid on things that I watch, unless it happens to be a big purchase like a car.

Alfie_E

The watch list is the eBay equivalent of bookmarks or favourites in a web browser. Along with the reasons given by Contains Mild Peril there is simply “Mmm… that’s interesting, I might come back to that later.” An important one to consider is “I like your item, but I have a problem with your listing.” An obvious example of this is when I want to pay by PayPal, and you don’t offer it. I might buy from you as a last resort, but I’m going to keep looking to see if I can find one where I do like the listing.

Mark7799

Surely this is part of the 'fun' of ebay? I have a list of things I'm looking to buy - usually books - and I regularly watch items to see what they are going for. As has been said above, I will have a maximum price I'm prepared to pay and once the bidding goes above that I stop looking.

aeuerby

Slightly off topic but on the subject of Soo's "can I buy your item now for the opening bid"...

We had another auction that ended sunday and it went upto £56 fairly early on.
We had an ask seller a question.
" Hi, I see you sell this item regularly and I am very interested in buying one but for slighly less than the auction is currently at. I have noticed you have sold this in the past for £40 and I am happy to offer you £45 inc p & P"

I was speechless and that doesn't happen very often!
The lowest this item ever went for was £47. I couldn't believe the cheek.

Oh yes of course we will end the item early so this person can give us less than the current highest bidder.:D:D:D