No "watchers" until last day of auction listing. EBAY CANADA - anyone else experiencing this?

[of-the-world]

Since late 2018.. when I list items, no matter if they are newly listed, or recycled, 

I'm finding watchers are not showing up until the last minute.  I do end up getting bids (sometimes)  it's a strange phenomena.   It's opposite to what was happening to my listings in 2018, would get the most watchers for items in the history of being on ebay, but no one hits.

It still annoys me that even for low cost items, people won't bid until the last minute of the auction.. but I see other sellers, mostly in the USA.. they will sell the same item and have 30 bids.  That never happens to my listings, unless it's something extremely rare.

[femmefan1946]

Auctions on eBay are dying off. Less than 15% of listings are now Auctions and most of those have Buy It Now enabled.

Adding BIN to an auction is free if you don't have a Store.

This might encourage sales, since the BIN ends with the first bid. Adds some urgency.

That urgency is why Auctions are little used. Today's online buyer has an Immediate Gratification mindset.

That's also why you get your Watchers and bids at the last moment. The customers are either Searching with About to End  or using Best Match which uses About to End as a criterion.

listings in 2018, would get the most watchers for items in the history of being on ebay, but no one hits.

Watchers watch. Buyers buy.

You could also try using the Advanced Sell Your Item form which gives you more options.

You should also consider using Fixed Price, perhaps with Immediate Payment Required.  Most transactions are Fixed Price.

Also consider using Flat Rate/Free Shipping. It may not work for you since your items would be shipped by parcel rates, but look into it. Buyers detest paying shipping and really hate paying more for shipping than for the product.

Speaking of shipping, are you sure you want to ship to Burundi? For $25? Or Nigeria for $14?

You can Block countries - or even continents- from the Advanced Sell Your Item form

Ummmm- have you ever looked at your listings on a mobile phone? That Barbie has no information about the doll (and please not "minty" either she is "mint" or she isn't, or she tastes like wintergreen when you lick her.)

There is a miniscule rant about Canada Post in white on black that I couldn't read on my desktop computer.

Aaaaagh- I just read it. You can't raise the shipping after the sale unless the customer asks directly. And she won't. The customer who asks for slow cheap Surface shipping will file a Not Received Dispute after 60 days and get her payment and the doll.

Every thing in that teeny tiny block of text is either against the rules of the site or standard practice. All of it should be removed.

Talk about the doll. That's what the buyer is interested in.

[recped]

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@of-the-world wrote:

Since late 2018.. when I list items, no matter if they are newly listed, or recycled, 

I'm finding watchers are not showing up until the last minute.  I do end up getting bids (sometimes)  it's a strange phenomena.   It's opposite to what was happening to my listings in 2018, would get the most watchers for items in the history of being on ebay, but no one hits.

It still annoys me that even for low cost items, people won't bid until the last minute of the auction.. but I see other sellers, mostly in the USA.. they will sell the same item and have 30 bids.  That never happens to my listings, unless it's something extremely rare.

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If you want lots of bids you need to start the listings at a very low price.

As far as people not bidding until the end, why not? there is absolutely no advantage for buyers to bid before the end and there is a disadvantage as they are then committed to that item unless they get outbid, retract or win and don't pay. If they wait they can continue to look for something else to spend their money on, something completely different, something similar or something exactly the same but cheaper.

I don't run many Auctions anymore but when I did it was rare to get any action before the last day or last couple of hours. By "action" I mean a single bid because except for the "glory days" (pre-2002) I've always "priced for perfection", rare to get multiple bidders when the starting price is the current market value.

Most of your stuff would probably sell a lot better at Fixed Price.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

The 3 times I've had an item reach 5 watchers in 2019. Yes, 3 times. The item sold a few days later. Would be nice if all watchers would display but that does not seem to be in our future.

-Lotz

[ichopshop]

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As far as people not bidding until the end, why not? there is absolutely no advantage for buyers to bid before the end and there is a disadvantage as they are then committed to that item unless they get outbid, retract or win and don't pay. If they wait they can continue to look for something else to spend their money on, something completely different, something similar or something exactly the same but cheaper.

I've recently stated buying from online estate auctions and they use what's called a "soft close".  If someone bids during the last 3 mins (or whatever they set it to) the auction is extended by that amount of time so sniping has no benefit.  I wonder if eBay has considered going that route?

Ian

[femmefan1946]

Nope nope nope nope.

Even public auctions (and our family has run them for some 30 years) cut off bidding at some point.

EBay has considered it and rejected it.

Sellers are the ones most adamant about this.

With a soft close, you don't get last minute buyers, since there is no last minute, you encourage nibble bidding by bidders more interested in the thrill of the auction than in actually paying. And what of overseas bidders ? Let them get their beauty sleep.

The problem with auctions is that bidders lose interest when they don't win immediately.

Soft closes do not help with that.

[recped]

The subject of "soft close" auctions on eBay comes up a few times a year on the boards (has since at least 2001).

Every time it's proposed it is almost universally panned by sellers AND most buyers.

For a variety of reasons it would probably be the final nail in the coffin for Auctions on eBay. Plenty of buyers don't understand eBay's proxy system, they would be completely confused by a soft close style plus eBay operate 24/7 in all times zones, nobody is going to bother if they have to sit there for hours nibbling away.

[marnotom!]

Re: Sniping and soft closes - If on bidding, whether it's early or late in the auction, users bid the maximum that they're prepared to pay, they have little to complain about should they be outbid.

Re: Watchers late in the game - Given that eBay can send emails to watchers if and when an item is relisted, these watchers may be "bookmarking" the listing in anticipation of the item being relisted with a lower starting bid.

[lady.stark]

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@ichopshop wrote:

If someone bids during the last 3 mins (or whatever they set it to) the auction is extended by that amount of time so sniping has no benefit.  I wonder if eBay has considered going that route?

Ian

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As a buyer who almost won all her watched items by bidding in the last seconds, I say a big, enormous NO to that! 🙂 When I bid in advance, even to my maximum, I almost always loose.

[tryubik-useonlyasdirected]

@ichopshop 

I suspect these platforms are their direct auction competitor.  (And I agree that soft close has no place on eBay; its eBays strength in the matter.) They are also having a substantial impact on physical public estate auctions (where you can find sleepers and check condition).

Does anyone know if there are shill bidding protections on these websites?

[of-the-world]

Femmefan1946 -  my niche is Vinyl LP records.  Your points are 'taken' with  a grain of salt but they don't answer my first question.  It was a pattern for a few weeks but things have gone back to normal.

I sold the 'Barbie' you were focused on intently - so not sure what kind of advice you were trying to give. It looked fine on my 'smartphone' and 'laptop' .  Description was there .

The "Barbie" is not  a typcial item I sell.   

High end vinyl records that sell wordlwide take a different approach and things like Toys

are not my bread and butter, but the info was in the title lady.

"The little blurb" was a carry over from before the ebay changes, just forgot about, will altar it if I get time.  It's really not important, it was to suggest there are lower cost shipping rates available. You read it wrong - wasn't to 'raise the shipping after' it's to have a lower cost (surface) available. been offering all  tiers of shipping for almost 20 years.  Did you not bother to look at my feedback rating LOL ..

You suggest totally buisness killing things like "Free shipping" .. I'm in Canada..  that doesn't fly ..and never will. Again.. who's profile are you looking at?   My customers never complain about paying the shipping.. tracking even.. because I sell Niche items  -  I ship worldwide,  yes I don't mind shipping to Nigeria. That's not a hurdle - I don't pigeon hole customers.  Have never had a claim or return.  Can you say the same?      I would say your reply was not helpful and very placating like I was a Noob , since you didn't look at my real batting stats and didn't address my actual question. 

[marnotom!]

"When I bid in advance, even to my maximum, I almost always lose."

You lost because someone was prepared to pay more than you, not because you bid in advance.

[ricarmic]

In my own experience:

If I bid my maximum a few days before the auction closes:

-I rarely win

-if I win it is often for close to my maximum

If I wait to bid until 30 seconds before the item closes:

-I often win, for significantly below my maximum

This is why we see so many folks sniping.

As a seller, I love it when buyers bid in advance, it generates more interest and more bids, in my opinion....

[pocomocomputing]

Bidding your max and in advance is foolish and not a good auction bidding strategy.

Best to bid as late as possible and even better use a snipping program especially if there are bids already with unknown max bids. EBay auto bidding will drive up the bids and snipping will bid late enough to have auction end.

I tried both and snipping is the best way to win a lot at low bids

[lady.stark]

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@marnotom! wrote:
"When I bid in advance, even to my maximum, I almost always lose."

You lost because someone was prepared to pay more than you, not because you bid in advance.

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Nope. If I bid in the last seconds, I would have won. It happens 90% of the time. But sometimes, I can't be in front of my computer for every auction (and don't want to pay for a snipping service), so I bid in advance. But it's very rare that I win on those occasions.

[marnotom!]

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@lady.stark wrote:

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@marnotom! wrote:

"When I bid in advance, even to my maximum, I almost always lose."

You lost because someone was prepared to pay more than you, not because you bid in advance.

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Nope. If I bid in the last seconds, I would have won. It happens 90% of the time. But sometimes, I can't be in front of my computer for every auction (and don't want to pay for a snipping service), so I bid in advance. But it's very rare that I win on those occasions.

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I'm not following your reasoning behind this.  If you had bid your true maximum in the last seconds, the same person would have won the auction because their maximum bid was higher than yours, assuming that their bid would be put in at the same time in either scenario.

It's not the last bid that wins an auction.  It's the highest one.

[marnotom!]

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@pocomocomputing wrote:

Bidding your max and in advance is foolish and not a good auction bidding strategy.

Best to bid as late as possible and even better use a snipping program especially if there are bids already with unknown max bids. EBay auto bidding will drive up the bids and snipping will bid late enough to have auction end.

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No question that bidding early tends to exploit the herd mentality on eBay, but I don't see anything wrong with placing an early high bid for an item on a listing you won't be able to babysit close to auction's end provided you don't need it desperately and you anticipate a little to a moderate amount of competition. 

My wife has beaten out snipers and the "madding crowd" by placing very "strategic" high bids midway through auctions.

[femmefan1946]

And of course there are online services who will take your maximum bid and submit it in the last nano-seconds of the auction.

The best of Bid Early and Relax combined with Swoop in at the End.

DH used esnipe for this when he was bidding heavily in Australian auctions, where babysitting his bid would mean being awake at 3 am.

I believe there is a fee.

[ricarmic]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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@pocomocomputing wrote:

Bidding your max and in advance is foolish and not a good auction bidding strategy.

Best to bid as late as possible and even better use a snipping program especially if there are bids already with unknown max bids. EBay auto bidding will drive up the bids and snipping will bid late enough to have auction end.

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No question that bidding early tends to exploit the herd mentality on eBay, but I don't see anything wrong with placing an early high bid for an item on a listing you won't be able to babysit close to auction's end provided you don't need it desperately and you anticipate a little to a moderate amount of competition. 

My wife has beaten out snipers and the "madding crowd" by placing very "strategic" high bids midway through auctions.

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I think the overlooked aspect is visibility.

When bidding or more importantly when I am selling via auction I have noticed:

Items with bids early on get more views and generally more bids, but not always.

Items with 3 or 4 different bidders early on get astronomical visibility and generally lots of bids.

This tells me that cassini or whatever the algorithm is called these days figures in action on the lots and makes the "popular" stuff  (watchers, views, bids) much more visible to bidders.

So theoretically if a couple people are watching an item and wait until the final minute, the item stays more "hidden" (which is really just less visible, ie the normal level of visibility) from other potential bidders because its visibility wasn't increased.

I suspect this is why in my categories early bids rarely win, sniped bids often win.

It also means in my categories, if I can set the start auction price so attractively that it attracts early bidders, I will generally sell it for more than if I have the initial price higher which discourages early on bids.

However it looks like your wife has found a system that works in her categories.... so as with everything in eBay there is no one 100% complete/correct answer....

[lady.stark]

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@marnotom! wrote:

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If you had bid your true maximum in the last seconds, the same person would have won the auction because their maximum bid was higher than yours, assuming that their bid would be put in at the same time in either scenario.

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ricarmic explained it really well in message 13.

Also.... many users do not place their maximum bid in the last seconds. Many are nibbling, which means they just increase their bid only if they get outbid. By snipping in the last seconds, they can't do that. And that is why I often win by snipping - at a much lower price most of the time.