"I have sent out quite a few of them and I noticed that say a listing has 5 watchers, sometimes when I send the offer out, it says the offer will be sent to say 2 buyers. It's rarely the actual number of watchers that eBay says are watching my item. Why is this happening?"
Watchers and eligible watchers are two different things. If a watcher is on your Blocked Bidder List, he won't get one. If he has signed up to refuse such notices, he won't get one. And I believe there are other factors as well, for example, ebay may limit the total number of offers a particular buyer gets from all sellers within a time frame. It is nothing to worry about.
"Does eBay not change the watch count if a buyers takes my item off their list?"
Yes, but that has nothing to do with this really. If the buyer takes your item off their list, the buyer won't be shown as a watcher, period. That's not the issue. The issue is, the buyer can sign up to be placed on what amounts to eBay's version of a "do not call " list....the buyer doesn't want people sending him offers, period. He is still watching your item, he could still buy it or make an offer to you, but he does not want people sending him an offer.
Hope that helps.
"If that is the case, it makes the watch count rather deceptive and makes me think I'm not doing as well as I thought with visibility!"
As I explain above, that is not the case.
Short answer: If you want to send an offer, send it to whoever ebay is sending it to and don't worry about why it's 2 people rather than 5. Just hope for a sale.
