A proposal for the "Watchers" number.
Summary: pillarboxred discusses the limitations of the "Watchers" feature on eBay, suggesting it isn't always useful due to potential stalkers and non-buyers tracking their listings. They propose that eBay could distinguish between genuine interest and general market research by other sellers. podlingsmum agrees, noting many watchers are likely other sellers monitoring similar items. pillarboxred responds that this behavior is unhelpful and suggests eBay could filter it out.
The Watchers figure is not as useful as it could be. At present it tells us something important if there are no watchers: something needs worked on. But if there is only one, we can't tell if that one is not just a nosy parker who is stalking us. I know I'm being stalked on eBay by some locals who know me: they never buy anything but keep tabs on my business. Then there are the friends who sometimes buy or I buy from them, or are just friends. If we knew a little about the Watchers, it would help to decide what to do. If there are is a good number of Watchers for a BIN (buy it now) item, that can be a good point to choose "send to auction" as there is a good chance there will be competition.
EBay's software must be able to distinguish Watchers who watch a user over time but never bid nor buy and do that with many other sellers. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that "market research" but I don't need to know about it.
podlingsmum
·2 weeks agoI think watchers, in many cases, are other sellers selling the same or similar items and want to see if the item sells.
pillarboxred
OP2 weeks agoYes, and that is not helpful to me. I bet eBay can filter that behaviour and not share it with me.
roger_roger_over_and_nowt
·2 weeks ago"I bet eBay can filter that behaviour and not share it with me." ?.
How could Ebay possibly do that and why would they ?.
If i were ever to list anything again on this site (never gonna happen) my only interest would be sales (including payment) or sensible offers with immediate payment.
Obviously without "not as described" claims or chargebacks).