What happened to the number of watchers showing on listings?

[nannabooks]

When are they going to fix this bug?  It appeared in January.  No excuses.  I want buyers to get that look.   Because I know it helps sales.  Stop working against me, Ebay!   This is hard enough.

[hyperrush]

Cassini problem? Sales are down prior this.

[timemachine777]

---

@nannabookswrote:

When the *&#@#*& are they going to fix this bug?  It appeared in January.  No excuses.  I want buyers to get that look.   Because I know it helps sales.  Stop working against me, Ebay!   This is hard enough.

---

I wouldn't hold your breath. eBay is one big glitch, because they never fix most of them, and when they do, they just reappear later down the road.

[emerald40]

As a buyer I m seeing how many people are watching a listing.

Would have to go into my seller ID to see if I can see it that way as well.

[timemachine777]

---

@emerald40wrote:

As a buyer I m seeing how many people are watching a listing.

Would have to go into my seller ID to see if I can see it that way as well.

---

I can't see watchers on the regular search pages, but I can see watchers on my own items, if I'm logged into my, "My eBay" page. Also, 2 of my accounts have the views dashed out. ( -- ). 

[timemachine777]

---

@nannabookswrote:

When the *&#@#*& are they going to fix this bug?  It appeared in January.  No excuses.  I want buyers to get that look.   Because I know it helps sales.  Stop working against me, Ebay!   This is hard enough.

---

If I go to your inventory page I can see the number of watchers you have for each of your listings.  Yet on my public inventory page I can't see any watcher counts.

[arisdisc]

I noticed that last week and frankly, I like the fact that they are gone.

Been selling in here since '98 and 'visible' watchers only started happening in the past few years. Originally, they were never visible.

I realize it can go both ways, but in my opinion, I think they should only be visible to the seller. 
Although I rarely 'buy' things here in Ebay, if I look at an item and it has no watchers, I immediately think "maybe it's 'not' such a good deal". Also, if a buyer doesn't have a lot of cash to spend and looks at an auction item and sees 8 watchers, he/she might think it's not worth it to try and outbid because funds are limited.

Then again, it's laughable to see '6 watchers' on a $4 item. What are they waiting for? For it to be free?

I hope they stay hidden to all but sellers. I see no advantage for buyers to see them.

[dtexley3]

Per the blues in multiple other threads, this is not a bug, the number of watchers has been removed from the item pages.  However, it does sometimes appear when there are 5+ or 10+ watchers with no real consistency.