Creating more business!!

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Just spit-balling here!! How about the "option"  for sellers  to email watchers to find out what would be required to complete a potential sale? Hey, just a thought. Please don't shoot the messenger!!! It's all about the art of the negotiation!!! 

-CM

[pjcdn2005]

It's been brought up before by someone on the US boards. It seemed that the majority who replied didn't like that idea..and I agree with them. I think that if sellers could see who was watching, less people would use the watch feature.  I really doubt that the majority of watchers are every planning on buying. I know that a lot of sellers watch an item just to keep an eye on the price and to see if it sells.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

Only suggested as an option. You email the watcher. They say interested or not.

No harm, no foul!!! They decide to purchase. Seller gets a sale. eBay makes more money. 

Entirely up to sellers discretion to use or not. Similar to making a counter offer. A buyer can always say Yay or Nay!!

-CM

[pjcdn2005]

I would call it unwanted solicitation and annoying. 

When someone phones me at home and starts trying to sell something to me, it's annoying. I didn't ask them to phone me and if I was interested in their product I would phone them.  Watch you are suggesting is similar.  Just because I am watching your item doesn't mean that I want to hear from you. I guess we see it differently.

eBay hides more and more users information as time goes on. It's unlikely they are going to allow the sellers to see who is watching.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

I get unwanted email in my in box all the time. I get over it. I would look at it as being pro-active and trying to gain a happy customer.

-CM

[recped]

eBay already sends me daily messages reminding me that I simply looked at a listing, then they send me messages about Items I'm watching that are ending, then they send me messages about listings I looked at that have been put on sale and finally they send me messages about things which they think are related to items I previously looked at which usually are not as related as eBay's AI thinks they are.

I don't need no stinkin' unsolicited messages from sellers to add to the pile. At least with the eBay ones I know what they are just from the subject line and I can delete without reading if I choose.

[bpl521_sell]

If I see watchers on a  item that hasn't been selling I drop the price every so slightly, the watchers receive a email about the price change and if they are really interested they may jump at it. Can't say it has been that successful though. <g>

[ricarmic]

The only thing I've observed about watchers in my (stamps) world is that the more popular the item the more watchers it will have.

If I see a few watchers on an item, it is much more likely to sell sooner/higher than one without watchers.

Presumably the watchers are both buyers and competitors, however it lots of competitors are watching there is a reason for that too!

Because watchers are of both kinds, I cannot imagine they would ever allow us to know who they are, because then I would know which competitors are watching me.  For me personally I really don't care, but I can see in some categories it might be more important to some.

[sylviebee]

For the types of items I sell that would be very intrusive.  In my field we all have a pretty good idea of who's who and most of us would like to keep that information private.

[momcqueen]

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@lotzofuniquegoodieswrote:

Only suggested as an option. You email the watcher. They say interested or not.

No harm, no foul!!! They decide to purchase. Seller gets a sale. eBay makes more money. 

Entirely up to sellers discretion to use or not. Similar to making a counter offer. A buyer can always say Yay or Nay!!

-CM

---

If the 'watcher' is interested, they will let you know. If you want to open the door to chatting about price, add Best Offer to your listings and that chatter will come. 

[femmefan1946]

It's an interesting idea, but I think recped pointed out that if there is a price change or if an previously watched item is relisted, the watchers do get notified.

For my own items, most are Fixed Price, so there is really no reason to watch.

At least until next payday.

If you want to buy, buy.

If you can't afford it, put it in your Collections or whatever that is called-- Wish Book? -- and don't get my hopes up.

Views I find interesting, if not useful, again because with Fixed Price if you want it you can buy it.

Otherwise, it's window shopping.