Ebay Auction Watchers Vs. Anti-Watchers

[mannequin1]

These days it seems like the vast majority of ebay watchers are anti-watchers. An anti-watcher is someone who watches an item with no intention of bidding and is hoping it doesn't sell probably so you lower the price.

Here are 2 examples: 1) A seller has an item up for auction with a 99.95 minimum bid I ask him if he'd take less. He says he has 16 watchers and if no-one bids he'd consider it. Not 1 of the 16 watchers bid. 2) I had a Mantle item for auction with a $115.00 MB. Someone offers me $170 if I sell it to him now, but I tell him I've got 8 watchers and I just listed the item today so I don't take his offer. He ends up being the only bidder of the 8 watchers and I only end up with the MB of $115 when I could have accepted his offer of $170.

It used to be that at least 50% of "watchers" on an item end up bidding. Now most watchers are anti-watchers.

[drmiraculous]

Guilty! Sometimes I will anti-watch items I already have and am curious to see what it goes for, or if an item I would like to have will be relisted for less.

More often I end up going from watching to anti-watching as stuff goes way past what I would be willing to bid but I stay til the end to gawk at the final price.

[doug.goodman]

Oh well. I guess you should have sold it to him.

When I see an item that I want, I bid on it and put it on my watch list. When the item is about to end, if the price is still within my range, I bid again, this time a bit over my range, with a couple seconds remaining, so that if I lose it I'm not bummed that I didn't bid enough.

Half the items on my watch list at this moment are items I do not plan to bid on, certainly not at the prices listed, but if they send me an offer (which it seems most sellers do these days) I will possibly accept, and at least counter.

I have offered a current seller an amount for two his items that he has split in two different group auctions, that is higher than what the two auctions are going to sell for. I will win those two auctions, for many more items than I am interested in, for less money than I offered him for a small percentage of his total items, and I will them keep his other items that I have no interest in to use in the future in my own sales or trades.

And I will feel no remorse about doing so.

Doug

[Ray Van]

I wouldn't call it being an anti-watcher. Maybe a better delineation is active watcher vs passive watcher.

Me, I often hit the maximum of 400 items watched, but I'm likely only interested in bidding on 10-20% of these items:

1) Actively watching with intent to bid, likely using a snipe service. 10%
2) Actively watching a Buy It Now item that is currently listed too high but hoping the seller will send me an offer to buy for less. 5%
3) Actively watching an auction that is currently listed too high and if it doesn't sell for that price maybe the seller will relist at a lower price. 5%
4) Passively watching because I own a similar item and I'm curious what the current market value is. 40%
5) Passively watching because it's an interesting item and I want to see what it sells for. 40%

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by Ray Van

I wouldn't call it being an anti-watcher. Maybe a better delineation is active watcher vs passive watcher.

Me, I often hit the maximum of 400 items watched, but I'm likely only interested in bidding on 10-20% of these items:

1) Actively watching with intent to bid, likely using a snipe service. 10%
2) Actively watching a Buy It Now item that is currently listed too high but hoping the seller will send me an offer to buy for less. 5%
3) Actively watching an auction that is currently listed too high and if it doesn't sell for that price maybe the seller will relist at a lower price. 5%
4) Passively watching because I own a similar item and I'm curious what the current market value is. 40%
5) Passively watching because it's an interesting item and I want to see what it sells for. 40%

For me it's :
1) Actively watching with intent to bid, I bid if nobody else has bid, then I snipe (myself, no service). 65%
2) Actively watching a Buy It Now item that is currently listed too high but hoping the seller will send me an offer to buy for less. 15%
3) Actively watching an auction that is currently listed too high and if it doesn't sell for that price maybe the seller will relist at a lower price. 15%
4) Passively watching because I own a similar item and I'm curious what the current market value is. zero %
5) Passively watching because it's an interesting item and I want to see what it sells for. 5%

[Casey2296]

My entire watch list is BIN, I've had offers which I countered at a fair price, literally $75 on a 2500 card. It's a tenouis game, as a seller once you lose "fish on" he's probably not coming back.

[JollyElm]

Some things I watch are just crazily priced, so the only reason I 'watch' them is to see if some lunatic out there will actually pay that price. Since these are usually cards that I myself own, I just want to see if there could be a decent payday in my future.

[JustinD]

Originally Posted by doug.goodman

For me it's :
1) Actively watching with intent to bid, I bid if nobody else has bid, then I snipe (myself, no service). 65%
2) Actively watching a Buy It Now item that is currently listed too high but hoping the seller will send me an offer to buy for less. 15%
3) Actively watching an auction that is currently listed too high and if it doesn't sell for that price maybe the seller will relist at a lower price. 15%
4) Passively watching because I own a similar item and I'm curious what the current market value is. zero %
5) Passively watching because it's an interesting item and I want to see what it sells for. 5%

I feel like Doug is reading my brain on Ebay usage to an almost perfect copy, lol. This is down to percentage everything I do as well.

[Fballguy]

More than half the stuff in my watch list is just there so I can see what it sells for.

[babraham]

Originally Posted by Fballguy

More than half the stuff in my watch list is just there so I can see what it sells for.

Same.
Some of them are cards that I also own...just seeing what they might sell for. Others are cards that I want, but watching them to see if the price gets lowered at all. Still others are just cool cards that I want to see if they sell at all.

[ALBB]

I do a lot of watching , I think its the smart way to go, then near the end of auction decide to bid or not

[Leon]

I don't use the ebay watch function. I bookmark the listing and watch it periodically that way.
.

[raulus]

Originally Posted by Leon

I don't use the ebay watch function. I bookmark the listing and watch it periodically that way.
.

Just out of curiosity, how many listings do you follow in this fashion? For some of us, we might be following scores of listings at a time. Attempting to use your method would lead to a lot of missed auction endings.

I could see it working fine if you had just a handful at any one time, and if you were really religious about checking them every few days.

[jayshum]

Originally Posted by Leon

I don't use the ebay watch function. I bookmark the listing and watch it periodically that way.
.

Leon, just curious why you prefer bookmarks over using the watch function. Your way definitely involves more work for you.

[Neal]

I watch and delete the list. Repeat

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