posted on September 18, 2000 07:33:24 AM
Is there anyway to determine whether your auction is on a potential bidders "watch list"? I get bids at the last few seconds on items I have listed.... nothing up until that last minute bid. When I don't get bids, I'm tempted to revise, move to another site or just cancel. Knowing the item is being watched may affect my decision.
posted on September 18, 2000 07:51:01 AM
How hard would it be for ebay to add a
"this item is being watched by (however many) users" into each auction. Every time the item goes on someone's watch list, the number on the auction page increases.
Not too difficult, I'm guessing. I'd rather see the watch feature eliminated but i doubt we'll ever see that, *sigh*
posted on September 18, 2000 07:53:05 AM
As far as I know (and I'm 99.9% sure about this), there's no way to tell if your item is being "watched."
Do you use counters on your auctions? If you don't, you might want to add them. That's a good way to see if there's any interest in your auction. If there are no bids but lots of looks (and if it's a desirable item), it's probably safe to assume that it's being watched.
posted on September 18, 2000 08:16:36 AM
Actually, that may be the best idea yet (having an "item watch score" on the auction page). It gives everybody what they want. The watch list fans get to keep their feature, but enthusiasm for the auction is pumped up because everybody can see that X number of people are watching it...almost certainly guaranteeing some good sniping action at the end. Hmmmm...
posted on September 18, 2000 08:35:35 AM
I can see how many people put my Yahoo auctions on a watchlist. I certainly think that would be handy information. Watchers are often a much more serious group than those activating a hit counter.
posted on September 18, 2000 08:41:32 AMWHO CARES if your item is being watched! The smart Ebay seller knows that an auction is as likely to get bids in the last few minutes as it is for the preceeding 6 or however many days the auction's been running.
Anyone who actually ends their auction early because of NO bids is a fool. Not only do you cost yourself more with relisting, but you pull the rug out from under last minute bidders.
Also, if there are many similar items, yours won't stand out that much UNTIL it gets to the front of the main index (when time is winding down).
Whenever I see no bids on any of mine, I don't panic in the least, because I know that a bid or bids is quite possible at the close---and I'm usually correct.
posted on September 18, 2000 03:11:23 PM
Well paulstar, it must be very difficult to be so perfect in an imperfect world! Are you lonely too? I think the idea of a watch counter is a great idea and I wish ebay would do it. Ebay could also add counters in the myebay listing of items we are selling.
posted on September 18, 2000 07:22:02 PM
A lot of ebay buyers use other services to watch auctions such as AuctionGator.com. As soon as they start showing how many people are watching, the power buyers will use another site such as auctiongator.com.
