The eBay Bogus View Count is Annoying!

[mod-designs4u]

Over the last few months I've noticed that after I list an item it immediately shows at least one potential buyer "viewed" my listing(s) but this data is bogus. Within seconds after listing some of my items the listings show a "view" but that is mathematically impossible (my items are obscure and only targeted to select buyers). Sure, if the seller takes a look at the listing right after listing the item it will be included in the view count but I haven't done that. Anyone else find a discrepancy with the accuracy of view counts? 

[parkersparrow]

Are you seeing this one view when you click on the listing? Then that one view would be you.

[fashunu4eeuh]

I scheduled a listing to start in 2 days. In that 48 hour period, the view count said 34! The listing wasn't live so there is no way for a buyer to view it. I know there are bots checking listings. But 34? When the listing went live it started the viewers at 35. So i do question the accuracy of “viewership.”

[greg5000]

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@parkersparrow wrote:

Are you seeing this one view when you click on the listing? Then that one view would be you.

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But others are reporting numbers that don't seem believable.

[greg5000]

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@fashunu4eeuh wrote:

I scheduled a listing to start in 2 days. In that 48 hour period, the view count said 34! The listing wasn't live so there is no way for a buyer to view it. I know there are bots checking listings. But 34? When the listing went live it started the viewers at 35. So i do question the accuracy of “viewership.”

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Sellers are reporting this a lot and I agree that it's probably not potential buyers watching.

[jewelbiz]

[parkersparrow]

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@greg5000 wrote:

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@parkersparrow wrote:

Are you seeing this one view when you click on the listing? Then that one view would be you.

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But others are reporting numbers that don't seem believable.

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Yes, I agree that ebay does do that at times but the op is saying it's only the one view as soon as they list. 

[greg5000]

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@parkersparrow wrote:

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@greg5000 wrote:

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@parkersparrow wrote:

Are you seeing this one view when you click on the listing? Then that one view would be you.

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But others are reporting numbers that don't seem believable.

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Yes, I agree that ebay does do that at times but the op is saying it's only the one view as soon as they list. 

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I know, that's why I replied with to parkersparrow 

My comment was  a general statement, as this is being discussed a lot.

[argy_eyes]

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@mod-designs4u wrote:

Over the last few months I've noticed that after I list an item it immediately shows at least one potential buyer "viewed" my listing(s) but this data is bogus. Within seconds after listing some of my items the listings show a "view" but that is mathematically impossible (my items are obscure and only targeted to select buyers). 

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I have the bad habit of doing a listing, viewing it, finding a problem with it before it starts, and then fixing it.  All the associated viewing activity (by me, the seller) gets recorded as buyer views in the first minute the listing goes active. A few weeks ago I put up 4 related items and put links to each of them in each of the item descriptions. I went back and checked each link in each listing before they went active (my habit). My wife did the same. Each of these "checking views" apparently added a buyer view to the destination listings. When the listings went active I had 15-20 views on each listing! 

EBay could fix this by simply not counting views until the listing goes active. I've suggested this in various ways to eBay with no luck.

This is not an inconsequential matter. For auctions, I believe eBay tracks bids per view and/or watchers per view and uses that information to help define  a listing's search order.  If I'm right about this, sellers should try to minimize these bogus views and eBay should ensure that the data they use is correctly extracted.

Mike