Hi Simon et al,
As sellers who sell both on auction and in our eBay store 52 weeks a
year, as well as through our website, we long ago stopped taking notice
of "watchers" on an item. It's actually meaningless as do zero bids
until the end of auction or end of a store item listing.
People watch for so many reasons that any number of watchers doesn't
mean any of them is interetsed in bidding.
It is just another eBay gimmick.
As for sniping. I only ever snipe when bidding and at the end of the
day, the high bid is the high bid, whether it was sniped or not so as a
seller I certainly have no objections to people sniping when they bid on
our auctions.
Phil
simonoram wrote:
I no longer use the Ebay watching tool anymore, ever since I learnt
the fact
that the Ebay seller of that particular auction can see the amount of
watchers. The main reason is, that it is unfair and gives the seller a
false
sense of interest in the item. Secondly I like to manage myself, I don't
need Ebay to remind me about auctions and any auctions that I am going
to go
for seriously go into a snipe program.
If I am watching a auction for interest rather than bidding purposes, I
bookmark into my own folder on my PC, that is sufficient enough, I can
always check on the item that way and I don't have to log into Ebay.
The watching program on Ebay is no more than a gimmick and a very
nasty one
at that (for the seller).
Simon
----- Original Message -----
From: "JR" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 7:06 PM
Subject: [MOPO] Watching and Waiting
Every once in a while a frustrated seller will ask a plaintive
question on
this list, something like "I have a great poster on eBay and 26
people are
watching it, but no one is bidding! What are they waiting for?"
I think it's kind of cruel that eBay allows sellers to see the number of
people who are watching an item -- because it can mean so many things,
most of
them not related to the watcher actually bidding on the item. Since eBay
changed the way they title their auctions (so that when you save them
as a
"favorites" bookmark, the end date and time no longer are visible in the
bookmark drop-down list) most people have started using their "My eBay"
watchlist for the purpose of bookmarking an auction just as a way of
quickly
checking on it or reminding themselves that they might want to take
another
look at it. When I put an item on my watchlist, 90% of the time I am
simply
interested in seeing what the poster finally sells for. I may already
have
a
copy of my own and want to check what the demand for it is right now,
or I
may
be thinking of buying one eventually and am just keep my eye on the
market
for
that particular item.
Or, I may have thought about bidding on it when I first saw it and
put it
on
my watchlist, but then I found something else I was more interesting in
bidding on. That happens a lot.
But even if I do end up bidding on it, why should I bother to do
anything
other than bid at the last second these days? We all know that the early
bids
don't mean anything anymore -- for any desirable item, the real decisive
bidding takes place in the last few seconds when the sniper bids
battle it
out
in cyberspace, the final conflict hidden from human eyes.
Say what you will about sniping programs (and I think they have taken
all
the
fun out of auctions and lowered the overall value that most items can
achieve
at auction), but they do provide buyers with an important and very
powerful
tool -- they allow you to modify or cancel your bid right up until the
second
it is placed. This can be a lifesaver if you suddenly find yourself
short
of
cash, or decide that you got a little crazy when you placed your
original
maximum amount and that you really don't want to pay that much for the
poster
after all. So, on a pending sniper bid you can lower your maximum amount
or
even just decide you don't want to bid after all and cancel it and
it's no
harm, no foul for you (for the seller it's a different story). You
cannot
do
any of that if you place a bid through eBay's normal bidding system.
You're
stuck. There's no going back. That's why I say the overall value most
items
will achieve at auction has been lowered by the use of sniping programs.
They
may be good for the buyers, but their long-term effect is not so hot for
the
sellers.
Of course, if the sellers all banded together and demanded eBay prevent
sniping, it is technically feasible to do so. eBay could simply require
bidders to enter bids manually, like they had to before sniper programs
were
invented -- and they could insure this by requiring the bidder enter a
number
coded in an on-screen graphic that robots can't read (such as you
have to
do
now when logging on to many secure sites). But for some reason the
sellers
have not petitioned eBay to prevent sniping, even though they are the
ultimate
losers in the sniping game.
Given all this, sellers might as well just accept the fact that the
number
of
watchers you have on an item doesn't mean a thing as far as selling the
item
goes.
-- JR
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
___________________________________________________________________
How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List
Send a message addressed to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
