Watching

[gatewaycary]

Why are potential buyers able to keep watching our products on there e bay account for so long.This is not right.I have had people for a year straight watching some product that I am selling.I would think 2-4 months on there is plenty of time for these people to make a decision on product.Other sellers please help me get this problem fixed Thankyou  GatewayCary

[a_c_green]

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@gatewaycary wrote:

Why is this permitted

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Well... I would say that it's "permitted" because it does no harm and is helpful for prospective buyers, who may not need to buy right away, but want the ability to quickly find your item again in the future. Deleting their link back to your product doesn't help anyone, especially you.

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@gatewaycary wrote:

we cannot tell if there are any new people interested in our products if the same ones are on there all the time.

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You don't know if it's actually the same ones, but older watchers do not crowd out or otherwise prevent new ones from watching, so (in my experience) your watch count on any given item will only go up over time. You can, however, conclude that a long-term item with no watchers is not likely to sell anytime soon, so it might be worth trying to improve it in some way.

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@gatewaycary wrote:

If you have a lot of items for sale it is pretty hard to remember how long they have been on there.

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You can view the listings in gallery form ordered by Newest Listings First, and each will show its first date of posting.

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@gatewaycary wrote:

Unless you are using my sales items to benefit your self for another reason. Which makes this not right.

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I'm not sure what you're hinting at there, but watching what your competition is doing is a basic requirement for maximizing your own selling success on eBay.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Watchers is one of those things I never really cared much about, it's similar to views, visits........  The only thing I pay attention to is sales. If an item does not move after awhile I may do some additional research as to why it may not be selling but I pay little attention to what has happened in the past. 

[luckythewinner]

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@gatewaycary wrote:

Why are potential buyers able to keep watching our products on there e bay account for so long.This is not right.I have had people for a year straight watching some product that I am selling.I would think 2-4 months on there is plenty of time for these people to make a decision on product.Other sellers please help me get this problem fixed Thankyou  GatewayCary

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There is no problem to fix.

The watch list is a tool for buyers, not a tool for sellers.

[gatewaycary]

Not a year later.Even 6 months

[soh.maryl]

Such a ridiculous idea isn't worthy of further comment.  

[gatewaycary]

Thanks Superstar you are so helpful

[soh.maryl]

If there are any new people interested in your item, won't they just watch it, like those others that you find objectionable?

[maxine*j]

People can leave any item on any watch list for as long as they care to.  It does you absolutely no harm, none whatsoever, so for the life of me I cannot see why you consider it a problem to be fixed.

If you had a brick-and-mortar store would you go out to the sidewalk and chase off any people who look into your store's windows every time they pass by?  Would you find people looking into your shop more than once or for more than a few moments such a "problem" that you'd install blinds over your shop windows?

You are offering goods for sale on eBay to the public.  The public can look at your goods all they care to, any time they care to, for as long as they care to.

Your concern in totally misplaced.

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[moldy5]

am guessing this is a problem for you because of getting your hopes up about a possible sale. Then to have the listing end with no buyers.  Let the hoping go or you'll be frustrated week after week after month after year. Ignore the watch numbers. Make new listings, improve your descriptions, take more pics. Distract yourself from noticing the watch numbers & your mental health should improve!

[fern*wood]

You can customize your active listings to hide the number of watchers.  Maybe it would help your feelings about the matter to just not see them at all.

[stephenmorgan]

If you want to reset you watcher's list to "0" then end your listings and then relist them.  They will all start with "0" watchers.  Of course there is nothing stopping a watcher of the ended listing from finding the new listing and then watching it.

Are you allowed 250 listings per month?  You are only listing 85 items so ending them all and then relist them should not cost you anything.

[dbfolks166mt]

     EBay probably has bigger fish to fry at the moment like fixing the EIS issues that are popping up, fixing the 1099 issues and figuring out next years 1099 situation, fixing the search engine, addressing the chargeback problems, balancing buyer and seller support.............. This would probably fall low on their priority list if it even makes in on the list. 

     You can always customize your view and remove that column, or any others you don't wish to see. 

[aeparts1]

You should be more concerned that you have items that have been listed for over a year that haven't sold than you should be about those items having watchers.

[refdef]

About a third of my listings have watchers.  Those could be potential buyers or simply people interested in seeing if an item sells and for how much.  Either way, I take it as a sign that I'm listing stuff that *somebody* thinks is interesting.  If your margins are such that you can profitably do so, send offers to the watchers or reduce the list price of items to get them sold.

[gatewaycary]

If I have things that have not sold it is your fault for giving product away so the rest of cannot make a profit