Watchers on eBay

Prothet_of_Doom

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

I prefer to call them ambulance chasers.

watchers have nothing to do with the amount of bids you're likely to get. Some will watch because:
they're interested in buying it and are going to bid
They're interested in buying it but the bidding is more than they wanted to pay so they're seeing what it ends at
They just want to see how much it ends at
They're selling one similar and want to see how much they're going for.
They're thinking of selling one and want to see how much they can get for them

I often click watch, because I'm intrigued to see if anyone would actually bid on an item. or because I'm looking for a very specific item, and want to book mark all the one's I find, but I end up bidding on only one.

Mind you I sometimes, just bid the start price, on something that is worth 10 or 15 times more, but don't care if I get outbid.

*Scarlett

If there are a lot of similar items for sale then the watchers could have saved the item to compare with others.

Hopefully there a a couple of buyers who want it and you'll get it sold at a good price.

scheming_gypsy

Prothet_of_Doom wrote: »

Mind you I sometimes, just bid the start price, on something that is worth 10 or 15 times more, but don't care if I get outbid.

i do that if there's a BIN but no reserve set on the auction. they usually have a 99p starting price so I'll bid 99p to get rid of the BIN and then watch to see if it doesn't get too expensive near the end.

porto_bello

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

you're probably selling things more desirable than I am. I had an auction that ended last night, only had two watchers but no bids. Both myself and a mate have the same problem with watchers, numerous watchers but might get one or two bids... Even on BIN I can have numerous watchers and it'll end unsold.

Don't be disheartened. I have been listing an item for months and every time, it received 2-3 watchers, but never a bid. Then suddenly, last night a last minute bid for the starting price of £50.

The buyer paid immediately and then I noticed a message from another eBay ID, saying in a very long way that basically, they want the item and the eBay website didn't take their bid. My guess is that they were probably watching it for months and were hoping for the price to drop - then they took their eyes of the ball and someone else grabbed it!

Anyway, I've found most things sell, eventually and 2 watchers shows there is some interest in your item, so it should eventually sell... probably when you least expect it to!

scheming_gypsy

it won't sell as it's off to the tip. The two watchers were there to see if it would sell, not because they wanted it. I watch enough stuff that I'm not interested in just to see if it sells or how much they got for it.

claire07

I listed about 20 items the last 2 free listing days starting at the lowest price I'd accept and each time most items had a fair few watchers but the last two finishing Sundays none of them ended up with a bid.

I suppose I could start them at 0.99 but I'm beginning to lose confidence they would go for any more and so I may end up giving them to the charity shop.

I'm beginning to think all the watchers were just there for other reasons.

forgotmyname

Just stick no watchers and someone on here will pick it up and post the link. Then you will get hundreds of people watching the auctions.

Who knows someone may even bid

Westphalia

I have noticed that ebay now show the number of watchers an item has, however from a buyers perspective I have been considering the pros and cons and wondering if it may be better off not to watch an item you are interested in, as this actually has the effect of alerting other bidders.

It may of course make people more inclined to bid higher, but the other day I had bid on a DVD that was showing no other watchers, I was the opening and only bidder and the price was very low, but I got sniped. It may have simply been by someone searching at the last minute, or possibly by someone who had been watching for a while.

I'm more inclined now not to watch an item, but simply do a new search every time I log in, which doesn't really take a great deal of effort.