posted on September 25, 2001 04:55:52 AM new
I know I'm very guilty myself of forgetting to actually bid on items I "watch". Before eBay had this feature I used to just bid on an item to keep track of it. Any thoughts people?
posted on September 25, 2001 05:23:51 AM new
One of a long list of silly things eBay has done. The idea should be to get people to bid on an auction, not watch it.
posted on September 25, 2001 05:33:37 AM new
I have to agree. It always makes me wonder when I get an email from someone who claims they were watching but forgot to bid and would I let them know when I relist. And it particularly irks me when I take the trouble to relist the item immediately (which isn't my normal procedure), reply with a link to the relisted auction, then it sits there for another whole week and the person fails to bid again.
posted on September 25, 2001 05:43:33 AM new
The real value to "Watch Item" would be if eBay would prompt you when you added the item to your list, asking what amount you'd like to bid & when you'd like eBay to place that bid (i.e. use it as a sniping service).
Can you imagine how quickly vrane & esnipe would be out of business???
The advantage of having eBay do your sniping would be that even if their "connection" was shot (i.e. no one could get in, including esnipe & vrane), or they were having a problem with sign-in, or "My eBay", etc, etc, etc, it's still likely the bid would be placed.
With the greediness that eBay exhibits on a daily basis, I'm astounded that they haven't made this tweak to the "watch item" feature & allow a snipe to be placed for some minimal amount of $$... Someone higher up in eBay must REALLY hate sniping.
posted on September 25, 2001 05:46:45 AM new
BTW, not to start a "sniping" vs "not-sniping" debate, but I do think it lends support to the argument that snipers get better prices on items...
It's well known that eBay will stop at nothing to increase revenue & profit. The only logical conclusion is that they KNOW that sniping results in lower prices (and hence lower commission for them), and that's the reason they're not aggressively pushing it.
posted on September 25, 2001 05:55:54 AM new
Even if eBay didn't have the watch feature there are those people that will watch instead of bid. I don't really care if they "watch" as long as they bid in the end. Just bid at some point!
Personally, I don't like the feature and have never used it as a bidder/buyer.
[ edited by loosecannon on Sep 25, 2001 05:58 AM ]
posted on September 25, 2001 05:56:25 AM new
Somewhat related to the topic: I have had a rash of heavy-hitting-no-bidding on several good items. Then I end up with 2 or three bids in the last hour, one of them a good snipe. I think what I have lost to a4a are the newbies and inexperienced who used to bid when they looked, but are not looking. An item like 1276255915 used to get several bids, but ends with just 3, and 2 of them are a tie. Oh well. Life on ebay. lol
posted on September 25, 2001 07:13:16 AM new
I use the watch feature to find out how high the bids go on the competition. If I have a book I want to put up for bid and I see someone has a similar one up already I will hold off listing till I see what their closing bid was.
posted on September 25, 2001 09:46:14 AM new
Yahoo has this real nice feature where they show you how many people have added your auction to their watchlist. It could be competitors, but I've noticed my "watched items" always have better sell-through than non-watched items. It can show interest in a product for those of us who may want to relist identical items.
posted on September 25, 2001 11:11:50 AM new
I LOVE IT! As a buyer I can keep track of similar items then go back and decide which one to bid on. In fact, I hate it when I reach my 20 max limit.
posted on September 25, 2001 12:32:31 PM new
I am almost suprised that ebay doesn't offer "automatic bidding" (i.e., sniping) for a fee.
I, too, believe that sniping results in general in a lower final bid price, and hence ebay would be reluctant to offer this in the interest in profit maximization, but at some fee they can make more money, since I don't think sniping results in a hugely lower final price (overall supply & demand, and other factors, are probably more important for most items).
The other factor is that it would tend to change the character of ebay to make it easier for everyone to place a last-second bid - it would look more "dead" to an outside observer (such as, for example, a potential new seller trying to decide whether to use ebay or not...).
And to answer the original question, I think watching hurts overall also, which surprises me that ebay put it in. Of course, given the sometimes less-than-logical (from our view) actions they take, i'm not sure what that means, if anything.
posted on September 25, 2001 12:40:18 PM new
I LOVE IT! As a buyer I can keep track of similar items then go back and decide which one to bid on. In fact, I hate it when I reach my 20 max limit.
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Amen. All the watchlist does is organize bookmarked items of interest for both sellers and buyers. I, like an earlier poster in this thread, also use the WL to monitor seller competition and prices that certain items go for.
posted on September 27, 2001 07:50:21 AM new
I use the watch item feature to an watch item if I am unsure of the value, I can check the price at a walk in store, then decide what it is worth to me. Early in my Ebaying, I bid 3x (regular price, 10x on sale prices) what an item sold for in a fabric store because I believed the item was out of stock and I really wanted it. It was in stock at my local store, and I learned an expensive lesson to the benefit of a seller.
I watch a bunch of like items if I have just developed an interest in it to find out the going price is for what quality. Unless I have an idea of relative selling prices, I am not likely to bid.
I watched a bunch of items I would have at a recent garage sale so I could decide if I wanted to go into auction selling myself or leave it to my garage sale buyers.
I watch an item if I am waiting for a response from the seller about a question I had.
I like "watch this auction", and I will change my preferences so I am reminded to come back, though I seldom forget since I don't wait until the last minute to return and bid. Being able to place an ebay snipe bid would not get me to change my habits since I bid when I decide what it is worth to me and only watch it if I am not sure about bidding.
