What’s the story with “watchers” on ebay? I’ve noticed with several items I’ve had for sale lately that there are typically a whole bunch (8-12) of users who are “watching” my item but who never bid. Initially I assumed they were people who would have bid if they could have got the item very cheap but who didn’t bother when the price went high. But recently I tried to sell a few items, two of which attracted no bids and one of which attracted only one bid at the minimum. Yet this “cloud” of watchers just, well, watched.
What is the point? If they had any interest in buying they would have bid. If they have no interest in buying, then why are they watching?
The only thing I can think of is that they are potential sellers of similar items/s who are “watching” to see how my auction does. But why would they need to do that when they can just look at past auctions? Plus I’m doubtful that there is a consistent crowd of wannabe sellers watching other sellers in such a way.
When I put an item on a watch list, it’s because I haven’t quite decided whether to buy it yet.
I might want to see if I can find it cheaper somewhere else online, or brick & mortar store. Or I know it will be cheaper in the future - and want it as a reminder to buy it then. Or I just want to sleep on it.
Sometimes stuff stays on my watch list for weeks and weeks.
I just use it as a wish list. I see an item I’m vaguely interested in but don’t have the immediate inclination to put in a bid, so I add it to my watch list to check out later (or not, if I forget about it, which happens often). They seem to have actual wish lists now, but they’re a new feature and I’m used to the watch list.
I use the watch list as a sort of bookmark for an item I’m interested in and might want to come back to after I comparison shop or do some research. Some sellers have recurring products and I’m waiting to purchase or bid at a later date. Adding the listing to my watch list will bring me back to the same seller without having to do a search.
I will watch something I’m interesting in for a range of reasons.
One, eBay will pester me when it gets close to the finish time, which on something I’m dithering over helps.
It allows me to see if it sold or what it went for - watched items stay in your watched list after they the auction ends. So I can gauge the going price, or simply wait and see if I can snarf something cheaper if I have seen it attract no bids for some time. Sometime I will watch something really strange just for the jollies of seeing if it sells at all.
The downside of watching is that the seller and other bidders can see the number - so they do provide a limited metric of interest. A seller who attracts no bids but has half a dozen watchers on an item may not be so inclined to list it for a lower starting price next time. Similarly a lot of watchers may signal to others out there that their sealed bid will need to be a bit higher, and thus by proxy watchers can drive the final price up a little.
Never ever bid on a item. Place a sniper and set it with your best price. Bidding early just ensures you will pay more than needed or will miss out altogether. eBay is no an open cry auction, and treating it like it is is simply foolish. It is a sealed bid auction, where some idiots let their interest be known early. To use it correctly use a sniper to enter your sealed bid.
And yes, there are recurring offers, and I have a couple of watches on those, they are things I need in the future, and so the watch acts as a bookmark.
To keep track of items I want to bid on, so I can snipe at the end of the auction.
To help me decide between several different items.
To try to figure out what is going on - I often see items priced at absurd levels. I’ll watch them to see if anyone ever bids on them (as an example, I was looking for flashing dog tags (for night walks), and I saw some priced at $103 dollars - when them same item was selling for a few bucks at another seller).
I found an item that looks interesting, I think I might want to bid on it, but first I want to look around some more and see if there’s something similar that I like even better, but I might end up coming back to this same one and I don’t wanna have to search for it all over again.
To be fair, eBay certainly encourages people to place bids early, and sniping at the end of an auction requires either third party software or a quick hand.
For me, I watch an item to get a sense of its market price. So I might watch a dozen identical items and compare prices once they’re over, then use that information to bid on new auctions.
It’s always a bad strategy to bid early, which signals other buyers that the item is worth buying and encourages other bids that drive up the price. However several times I’ve forgotten about it and the auction has expired without me placing a bid. That won’t happen when you’re watching it, however that itself can encourage others to bid and drive up the price if they see a lot of watchers.
When bored I’ve been known to bid on an item I’m not really all that interested in but know it’s worth the starting price, like a piece of silver jewelry that under valued for it’s weight. This generally starts off a bidding frenzy that I watch with perverse enjoyment.
Sometimes its because I didn’t find the right thing in closed auctions and sometimes its because you picked a different category than I would have thought. Being “into” coins I usually listed Titanic medals with Coins/Exonumia/Medals but when I picked a couple to watch I found a category just for White Star stuff that gets lots more hits. Helps me decide on a second category.
It’s a potential. I’m still looking; haven’t decided yet. I rarely “unwatch” once I’ve selected the candidate.
I’m planning on bidding later. I find that if I bid early, I always get outbid. If I put the same kind of bid in just before the close, I often win. This is unfortunate (from my viewpoint) but it’s human nature. (There are other, better reasons for bidding at the last moment, though.)
I’m researching prices. I watch a number of similar auctions, and go back later to see the range of prices. After that, I’ll often pick a “buy it now” that’s in the going range, or I’ll watch a few auctions with plans to bid.
I’m not a particularly serious ebay user. I also admit that I’ve spent more time saving a few bucks than my time was worth, but I don’t do it often enough to worry about.
In the original days of eBay you had to bookmark items of interest, in your borwser. When they introduced the My eBay page they added the Watch Items tab so you could “watch” an item and it would be saved in your watch list. It’s a very handy feature.
Sometimes you watch because you just want to see how it ends. Other times you watch so you’ll remember to snipe it next week.
This is the only answer for me. Bidding early just serves to drive the price up. I just want to remember to come back and bid at the last minute. I never, ever bid early.
If I’m comparison shopping in preparation for buying, I’ll watch-mark several candidates and compare them. That way I can monitor any bidding activity and such, as well as cross-check new candidates as they become listed.
If I’m buying, I’ll usually snipe a watched item. If I succeed, and I remember, I’ll clear the other watched items. If I don’t succeed, the watch list functions as a candidate queue to snipe when they become ripe.
The latter would still be true even if I weren’t sniping: if I don’t win the auction, I have a vetted list of other auctions to try for.
Yep. Nothing more annoying than bidding on, and winning, an item which is later up for sale for lower cost and/or lower shipping. Besides, I might be watching, say, a pair of earrings I quite like but want to keep my options open in case another, nicer pair become available. In which case, I’ll probably end up buying both of them. :smack:
If you’re using the mobile app, watching is how you bookmark something.
The opposite strategy works similarly well. When a price stays low, it attracts more snipers and bargain hunters. By bidding early, you start the price moving upwards, which drives away the snipers and bidders with unrealistic expectations.
