I don't sell on ebay very often. when I do, it's usually a larger item. I've noticed that on many listings, mine included just now, that the number of watchers for my listing is not shown to buyers/viewers. The settings for the listing, such as BIN, reserve, duration, or any other variable for the listing have no effect on whether or not the number of watchers is displayed to viewers. If your watcher count is not shown on your listing, you can easily test these settings yourself.
It’s not a cache issue. It’s not a browser issue. But I was sure it had to be either that or a bug, so I tested all that too: different browsers, re-boot, private windows, clear cache, repeat.
I've called customer service to make them aware of this problem. Silly me. It just had to be a bug. I've been told by CS that it is in fact “likely” a technical issue. They’ll look into it, you know, create a ticket and get back to you in 2 hours.
I’m just seeing it now, but this has persisted for some time apparently. Plenty of time to fix a bug, or to correct a glitch.
The problem is discussed at length online. Most of the discussions are complaints from confused and dismayed sellers. This is not surprising.
There is no way this can be a technical glitch or bug for such a basic auction listing characteristic: one that is at the heart of auction selling, especially on ebay, who knows this, and who employs an army of developers and programmers. They must hear about this every day.
Knowing the level of interest in an auction listing is fundamental to auction selling. It is basic to the very idea of an auction. Anyone who has attended a live auction knows this. It’s a dance. Assessing the level of pre-bid interest establishes favorable urgency (or the lack of it) once the bidding starts. That’s intel the buyer and the auctioneer and the seller need. They're not called "watchers" for no reason. Ebay did not invent this label.
Level of interest establishes the basis for both buyer cost and seller's price in an auction environment. For (what? 30 year now?) this has been ebay's reason for being. It’s how they started. But those with “watchers on” now have a distinct advantage over those with “watchers off”. If your listing shows “watchers off” on a page with similar items and a mix of “watchers on”, then in the viewers mind there is clearly something wrong with your listing. It must be overpriced or have some other dire characteristic to be avoided. It’s that simple.
The ebay auction marketplace is no longer a level playing field.
If your listing cannot establish pre-bid interest in the item to be sold, you may as well list it on craigslist, or in a local publication. All you have is a price/OBO ad for your item, not an auction for it, at least not an auction that has all the key elements of an auction.
In an auction environment, if no one is watching or interested in an item, no one wants it. If no one wants it, then I don’t want it either. I might view it if it seems priced right, but there must be something wrong about it I didn’t see. So, on I go to the listing that’s been “vetted” with active watchers as having good selling characteristics, and likely no negative ones to worry about or miss. Sure, there are exceptions here. Some auction buyers are collectively very clever about dis-creating interest, only to swoop and snipe.
There are exceptions, and some buyers shy away from items with high watch counts. If this is your buying approach, yours is the exception here too, not the rule. You’d be just as comfortable on craigslist. The rest of us want auctions.
The conclusion (to me at least) seems pretty clear. Ebay is testing “watchers on” vs “watchers off”, likely on a large and ongoing sample set(s) of listings. The goal of this testing is to collect at least these two metrics I’d bet on: 1) how much more (or less) does ebay get to keep when watchers are shown vs not shown; and 2) if more (and only if), how much faster can the “more” be received: that is, are the sales churned faster.
The logic is simple for ebay: if no watchers, then no or fewer bids. If no or few bids, item likely didn’t sell. If item didn’t sell, then seller lowers starting price/bid/reserve until it does or sets a lower, faster-churning BIN price. Someone gains in this scenario, but not the seller.
There is no clear advantage for sellers in this testing exercise. The advantage for buyers is dubious as well because good values, but no watchers, will just be ignored come bid time.
Auctions allow the seller’s asking price and buyer’s cost to meet right where they should with no confusion and with little or no interference by the auctioneer. Auctions are free-markets where cost and price mesh beautifully. That was the beauty of ebay for 30 years.
I see this as egregious. And I’m shocked the selling community is not raising holy [your adjective here] about it.
