Do a certain number of watchers usually bring a buyer?

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lizmil

lizmil

O.G.
Dec 30, 2007
5,527
333
#1
I know everyone can watch & no one bids, but do you have any feeling that after a point bidders arise from watchers? I thought I read a thread on this topic before but can't find it, I searched.
THX
 
#2
watchers are not always buyers I think that many times they are sellers watching for what prices go for.. I have had many times where I have 20+ watchers and not even one bid. I have yet to figure out what watching is all about lol
 
#3
Definitely not.
I have had a huge amount of watchers and no buyers in the past and its really annoying. Id prefer not to be able to see the watchers because when I price an item, if I get HEAPS of watchers I get my hopes up. But if I dont get watchers or not many chances are I will lower the price to try and bring in a buyer - so it can affect weather I sell something or not. I also hate watchers on buy it now auctions when I have a best offer. I mean the price is set, not going to change with bids. If theyre interested I feel they should buy or make an offer but anyway thats just me. I dont watch anything on ebay especially when I dont even want to buy it because I know how it gets the hopes of sellers up to see so many interested people then no one bids.

I recently sold a rare-ish item at a good price through auction and got one bid. I had 32 watchers so I thought the bidding would go up at the end.. but no, it didnt.
I did have 5 people send me ridiculously low offers via email though - which is even more annoying. I could not email someone and offer them half their asking price and ask them to throw postage in free too - sorry getting off topic here it was just really annoying (and I blocked those people) /rant
 
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#4
Nope, unfortunately. I can't count the number of times I had my hopes up for that reason only to be disappointed, and likewise the unexpected final bidding that occurred. It's a mystery, I tell ya.:p
 
#10
See I wont drop the price if I think there are heaps of people interested. Where as I might if there was no interest so for my auctions watching them for that reason has the opposite effect.
 
#11
nycshopa said:
sometimes, a lot of nosy people like to watch the items to see if they sell
Click to expand...

I believe you are talking about me :D
I kept watching a jacket of a seller from the UK. He refused my BO with a free speech about how he cannot sell such a great jacket at my price (the jacket is not a high street brand at all) and he tripled the original price. No surprise, the jacket kept being relisted over and over.. it should have been 4 months, and still unsold. And I kept watching the jacket every time it got relisted.
So having watchers like me is totally meaningless.
 
#12
people "watch" for a variety of reasons.. personally, just prefer placing my bid so as

it is not a tease.. the sellers thinks there is "interest" by the number of

watchers and then nothing happens...
 
#13
I've never sold an item on ebay before, so I'm shocked to see that you can tell how many people are watching. Does it give you the usernames of the "watchers" as well? Or is it all annonymous?
 
#14
It is anonymous.

I've listed an item at a certain price and had, say 15 watchers, no bids. Lowered the price, had 20 watchers, still no bids. There is always that faint hope that lingers with the additional watchers but it doesn't seem to count for much.
 
#15
Well I'll be honest. I watch items all of the time. Sometimes I just haven't decided if I want to bid on them yet and I'm watching to see if anyone else does bid on it. Sometimes I just want to "bookmark" the item so I can look it up later if I decide later on that I ABSOLUTELY need it. But I'll be more careful about what I watch from now on. I certainly never meant to get the buyer's hopes up.
 
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