Did "Watch This Item" kill impulse bidders?

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Originally posted by showtime8:
When "Watch This Item" started, I thought it was kind of neat from a buyer's viewpoint. However, as a seller, I've come to think of it as a sales killer. I get watchers on my items, but no bids. Before WTI, I got a lot more sales. Does anyone else have an opinion on WTI?

I feel the same way... it's great for the buyer, but people watch up to the last minute eliminating a decent price for both of us. No profit for the seller. So why waste our time giving away products. I'm very excited about Auctiva Commerce.

I agree. When Ebay added the ability to Watch an item, the early on bidding almost stopped.

I still get people who will be watching something and then forget to bid and then email later to see if I'm going to relist it because they missed it.

Before Watch they would have probably just placed their bid.

My BIN sales are 95% of my biz these days. The auction business has just about died. I remind my customers about the Ebay toolbar alert in packing thanks/newsletter. I love it!I think it has helped with my 30 day listings.My in store sales went way up with the 30 day listings.Sub title is wonderful for store exposure.I used to use something called auction sniper .. I think that is what it was called and the toolbar has the same last second of auction bidding alerts.People just don't seem as excited about the auction game, as they used to be.

Alot of the "Watchers" on your listings are other sellers.
They are spying your listings to see how they sell so they know how to price the same item/items they are selling or waiting to sell

if you keep up on ebays boards you will see how sellers openly admit watching listings to decide how to price/list their items so they can compete

the watch button killed auction style listings and cant believe e bay has nt realized this or guess they just dont care about small sellers listing collectibles as that the biggest majority of auction style users theses days. You should have to place a be to add something on watch list, or auction extended when there a bid in last few mins, thats a true auction anyway.
I think they were looking to get into store business anyway and to heck with auctions. they get bigger listing fees since people now price accordingly. Before the watch I use to get tons of bids on items, sometime 20 to 50 bids per item. But that no more your lucky to receieve 10 as its last min bidders and there only a short left to place bids.

Agreed. Last auction I had end there were 16 watchers. I was sitting there minutes before thinking "man, this is going to be good", then nothing. it went up all of $2 from where it had been for days. I have another auction ending Friday, with 34 watchers. It's vintage stereo stuff and it does already have bids. I am hoping it will pan out and many users will bid last moment not fizzle out like the previous auction. I too, will admit as a seller to watching auctions. Not just for sale price but if there is particular info I would not have found elsewhere online I will refer to it when creating my listing. I don't copy word for word though, don't get me wrong.

quote:

owever, as a seller, I've come to think of it as a sales killer. I get watchers on my items, but no bids. Before WTI, I got a lot more sales. Does anyone else have an opinion on WTI?

Could it be that you just get more disappointed when your item doesn't sell with lots of watchers, versus when there are no watchers?