eBay

pinetreecottage · ‎05-08-2017

I finally have someone bidding on a listing. There are currently 4 watching. They show on my summary page, but not on the actual listing. I see on other listings the number of watchers, so I'm wondering why not on this listing. Another glitch?

thestuffofchris · ‎05-08-2017

I checked the listing and I can't see the number of watchers either.

It seems to be very hit or miss. Some listings will show watchers, others won't. From my perspective there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason, but I also haven't researched it much so perhaps someone else knows.

silverpinups · ‎05-08-2017

Your running a auction format, watchers never show in the listing. Only the Seller can see the number of watchers when the auction is live.

Watchers are visible if you have a buy-it-now price or a combination of auction format with buy-it-now.

pinetreecottage · ‎05-08-2017

There's no way to get multiple bidders, if it doesn't show interest from others. Well, at least I have one bidder, Yeeeppee

pinetreecottage · ‎05-08-2017

There's no point in watching a "buy it now" When it's bought, it's gone. However with auctions, it's open to bidders till the end. So that seems backwards to me.

ricarmic · ‎05-08-2017

Personally, I think the thing that gets bidders going is moreso the number of bids. If a bidder sees something with 14 bids they would assume it is popular.

If the bidder could see the watchers but still only saw 1 bid I don't think that would encourage them as much.

That's the theory as to why it made sense to start auctions at 99c. However that worked well only in the good old days when there were lots of bidders....today it just means you're going to sell it likely for 99c.

silverpinups · ‎05-08-2017

There's no point in watching a "buy it now" When it's bought, it's gone.

How do you think a buy-it-now sells, people who are interested in the item watch it and one of them eventually buys it.

Listings with buy-it-now may sell immediately, in a few weeks/months or several years.

Of course, there are different type of watchers, other sellers, dreamers with no money and the eventual buyer.

pinetreecottage · ‎05-08-2017

When I list with auctions, I always start with what I want for the item, anything above that is "gravy". I know selling here, is not like it used to be. This is the first action I've had in months, so will see how it ends. Cheers.

hlmacdon · ‎05-08-2017

@pinetreecottage wrote:
There's no point in watching a "buy it now" When it's bought, it's gone. However with auctions, it's open to bidders till the end. So that seems backwards to me.

Many buyers watch items that they purchase at a later time. If you removed the ability to watch a listing it would be detrimental to many sellers. In addition to this it is highly effective with multi quantity listings as you get a good conversion rate when an item is nearly out of stock.

pinetreecottage · ‎05-08-2017

When I started selling, ebay was nothing more than a glorified garagesale, where sellers like me sold collectibles and kitch. It was a fun hobby to source my findings, both for personal use and to sell. My listings were 5 - 7 days. When members here talk of months and even years to sell an item, I can't relate.

Now I realize many make a living selling here. As I don't have 1,000s of items in stock like some of you out there, we're not really on the same page. Up until December last year, I considered myself a seller, but maybe not so much any more. I will continue to dabble until someone tells me not to.

Thanks for the heads up here. I learned a few things today.

femmefan1946 · ‎05-08-2017

Some ofus are just lazy.

Stick it on Good Til Cancelled and keep it on the shelf until ~~a sucker~~ someone buys it.

Oh my-- gotta run . Class in 45 minutes!

hlmacdon · ‎05-09-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Some ofus are just lazy.
Stick it on Good Til Cancelled and keep it on the shelf until ~~a sucker~~ someone buys it.

Oh my-- gotta run . Class in 45 minutes!

You have just described retail in a nutshell.