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Now that eBay buyers can see how many people are watching your item...

Started by PeasOfCrap,

24 posts in this topic

miraclemet

miraclemet

Posted
Posted
is this a blessing or a curse?

 

for whom?

 

For the Seller I think it helps. It shows interest even when there hasnt been bidding.

 

Now what does "interest" mean?

I "follow" books under four conditions:

 

1. Books Im thinking about buying but haven't decided that I want to bid on (either cause the initial bid is high, or just cause)

2. Book I have a "sniping" plan for but want to keep track of it.

3. Books Im just interested in seeing what they go for.

4. Books I also own and want to see what it sells for so I can get an update on the market interest in my book.

 

Only 2 of those scenarios do I care if there are other people looking at an auction. The more valuable/iconic a book, the more looky-loos it will get, and the fewer watchers that may turn into bidders.

 

If I see a very cheap book (underperforming market) with lots of watchers and not many bidders, Im going to assume there will be a lot of last minute bidding and sniping. It might encourage me to get in and bid sooner to knock out some other sniping bidders.

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Balham's Finest

Balham's Finest

Posted
Posted

I'd say it's a good thing for sellers overall. Currently, if an item has 0 bids, sellers might assume that nobody is interested, and that there's some sort of red flag that they are missing. That could mean that they hold off on bidding or, if they are sniping, that they use a lower snipe.

 

With the change, seeing a lot of watchers will let buyers know that they are facing competition, and might have to pay a bit more to secure an item that they want. It might also mean that you get more browsers paying attention when they're not specifically looking for your items (this depends on whether it's possible to sort results by number of watchers - I'm assuming it will be).

 

The beauty of the competition aspect is that you don't need there to be lots of watchers to create competitive tension - just one. So I don't think that a seller will necessarily suffer form having only a small number of watchers (which I assume is what you were thinking of as a potential "curse").

 

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nwpassage

nwpassage

Posted
Posted
and I still dont see it... (where you can see how many watchers are watching your listing of watchmen)

 

is that in the new version of ebay they just keep randomly testing (sometimes you seeit... sometimes you dont... )?

 

I've been seeing it consistently, and I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it,

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sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

Posted
Posted
That feature has actually been available for years through the API . (shrug)

 

I also seen feel like I have seen that for years.

 

What is an API?

 

Sounds like nerd talk. :baiting:

 

application programming interface...it's what you call in a program to do something...in this case there's something you can call in a program to get the tracking information.

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

Posted
Posted

Seller could always see how many were watching their items. It is a major advantage though for seller if other buyers can see the competition. It lets people think twice about lowball sniping and encourages them to act a little quicker on buy it now listings

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Dick Pontoon

Dick Pontoon

Posted
Posted
Were does it tell the buyers how many people are watching? Can someone take a screenshot? I have almost 700 feedback on Ebay and usually have at least 10 pages full of watched items and have never seen this feature.

 

It's still just in the testing phase. Sometimes it will show up as part of a redesigned page layout, other times you get the regular layout.

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