Watching Items on Ebay...

duranie70

duranie70

Handbag Addict
O.G.
Aug 25, 2006
3,234
18
#1
OK, I buy and sell on Ebay ... a lot!
My question is for the watchers...
wy do you watch items you have no interest in buying?

I have a handbag up... 13 watchers... auction ended, no buyers..I relisted it immediately and 3 watchers signed on within the hour. I have a BUY IT NOW, I did not list it any cheaper because I refuse to take a loss...

So my question- if you did not buy it the 1st time and it gets relisted, why watch it again.. what are you waiting for?
 
#3
I think that the majority of watchers would like to buy the majority of items they're watching, but have other priorities (IRL and on eBay) and are waiting until they can afford them and/or to see if the price drops and/or to see if something better/more suitable comes along! :biggrin:

After all, eBay allows you to watch 100 items and if that 100 were all designer items, averaging $700 each, that would be a total of $70,000 and even if they only averaged $50 each, that would still be $5,000 in total; so it's not really that surprising if most watchers don't buy every item they're watching, is it?

Having said that, I do watch items I have no intention of buying, for various reasons, too; here are a few that spring to mind:


1. The item is something I help authenticate and I intend to use the pics for comparison purposes.

2. I own the item and am interested to see whether it sells and if so, how much it goes for.

3. I think the item is fake and I intend to report it/have already reported it and am waiting to see if eBay pull it.

4. I suspect/know that the seller is dishonest and/or using stolen pics etc. and I am worried that someone will get scammed.


BTW, there have been quite a few threads on this subject - you can find them if you do a search using the word 'watchers'. :smile:
 
#4
i watch without buying or bidding to see what the market price is for an item. i have a really hard time finding auctions after the bidding has ended so i just watch to see what they sell for.
 
#6
If something I was watching gets relisted before I remove it from my watch list it comes up as a relisted item. Personally the watch list is like a shopping cart for me, I scroll through all the auctions and add things I might be interested in to it and then review at the end. Then I leave them in to see if they manage to stay at bargain prices at the end, if I can get something I want for a steal then I will bid but most of the time I find the prices over-inflated and pass. I'm not one of those people who will take the risk of buying a $300 purse from Ebay to save $10 off retail. Some even go for over retail which I think is ridiculous. But occasionally you can get lucky and get the $300 for $50!
 
#7
I've had lots of items with watchers and no bidders! Maybe they're waiting to see if the price will drop or they are selling similar items??
 
#8
I have a confession to make... I compulsively watch some items just to drool. I know it gets a seller's hopes up to know that someone is "watching" but just so all you sellers out there don't hate me, I do jump off the deep end once in a while and buy on impulse. :flowers:
 
#9
Babyjlo said:
If something I was watching gets relisted before I remove it from my watch list it comes up as a relisted item. Personally the watch list is like a shopping cart for me, I scroll through all the auctions and add things I might be interested in to it and then review at the end. Then I leave them in to see if they manage to stay at bargain prices at the end, if I can get something I want for a steal then I will bid but most of the time I find the prices over-inflated and pass. I'm not one of those people who will take the risk of buying a $300 purse from Ebay to save $10 off retail. Some even go for over retail which I think is ridiculous. But occasionally you can get lucky and get the $300 for $50!
Click to expand...


The thing is, logic dictates that if a seller is selling unused, current season R-T-W designer bags at below retail, they are almost certainly fake (or, at the very least, some of them are fake).

Otherwise, how would she make her money? :shrugs:

An unused, current season bag should cost at least retail + 20% on eBay (to cover the 10% eBay and Paypal fees and give a 10% profit). :yes:
 
#10
I think a lot of the times people are hoping that you lower the price! They are interested, but they want your item for next to nothing. Sometimes people have the SAME item and they watch yours to see how it does before they decide to try and sell thiers!
 
#11
I have confession I watch a lot of items as well. But I do purchase a few. Sometimes I want the item for a lower price, sometimes I watch similiar auctions to get the best price, sometimes I watch and wish I could buy all the itmes but I can only buy what's in my budget.
 
#13
Babyjlo said:
If something I was watching gets relisted before I remove it from my watch list it comes up as a relisted item. Personally the watch list is like a shopping cart for me, I scroll through all the auctions and add things I might be interested in to it and then review at the end. Then I leave them in to see if they manage to stay at bargain prices at the end, if I can get something I want for a steal then I will bid but most of the time I find the prices over-inflated and pass. I'm not one of those people who will take the risk of buying a $300 purse from Ebay to save $10 off retail. Some even go for over retail which I think is ridiculous. But occasionally you can get lucky and get the $300 for $50!
Click to expand...

I do almost exactly the same thing. I buy probably on average 10 items/week. I almost never bid real time, pretty much always use a sniping service. So I have everything sitting in my watch list to see where the price goes, if I definitely want it, if there are other similar items listed, etc. I end up buying a good percentage of the items on my list, but definitely not all of them. For me, it's sort of a holding tank while I decide if that's where I really want to spend my money.
 
#14
chloehandbags said:
The thing is, logic dictates that if a seller is selling unused, current season R-T-W designer bags at below retail, they are almost certainly fake (or, at the very least, some of them are fake).

Otherwise, how would she make her money? :shrugs:

An unused, current season bag should cost at least retail + 20% on eBay (to cover the 10% eBay and Paypal fees and give a 10% profit). :yes:
Click to expand...

I don't buy any designers that are faked so I don't have that problem. And I generally don't even buy current season, so most of the stuff I buy is what someone has picked up from an outlet I can't get to. I rarely even pay retail for things I want, so there's no way I'm about to start paying retail and a markup. And anything over a certain amount will be bought directly from a retail store not Ebay.
As I said I'm looking for those hidden gems that others miss, occasionally I get lucky.
 
#15
I watch items for just about all the reasons all of you have written about! Right now I have 30 items on my watch list and this week I bought two items. Oh, some of them are sold. I also watch to see if feedback is exchanged sometimes. Love my watch list, I remember when I had to save every auction page to my bookmarks.

As a seller I will usually only have 1-5 watchers for an item and so far most stuff gets a bid at the end and sells. My starting bid is always okay as a selling price so I am fine if I don't get many bids. Ebay seems very slow this year, hope the stuff I am listing tomorrow sells.........................
 
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