Ebay watchers disappeared

[LizzieMacQueen]

Hi. I know there's an Ebay topic but I'm looking for some speedy replies.

I've a few items on auction ending tonight, no bids but over the last few days the number of watchers has steadily increased. All good I thought.

Looked again this morning, now < 12 hours to go and many of them have gone, some items have now only got 1 watcher + no bids. Is this a known tactic?

Any advice?

It may depend what you are selling, but I've always found that ending auctions mid afternoon on a Sunday works best as most people have the time to remember to look at things.

Thanks @wowfudge

I had thought ending on a Friday evening would work well as people wind down for the weekend. 🍷

I'll take that advice on board for the next pile of stuff to list.

Good luck with your auctions - a lot of times people snipe items they haven't been watching at all. If you are selling things which are available in other listings don't forget someone may have bought what they want from another listing.

Why would it be a 'tactic'? How would it benefit anyone to do that deliberately? It happens. People buy stuff elsewhere - finding it cheaper after bookmarking yours as a possible maybe, or finding a different one that would do just as well, and then cleaning up their watchlists (something I never do I must admit) by deleting all the ones they didn't buy. I can't see that it would help anyone get anything cheaper.

I stop watching stuff when I’ve got it elsewhere, otherwise ebay sends notifications about it.
Perhaps try using a buy it now option?

I often shop on eBay by trawling through a couple of hundred listings. I might click watch on 6 of them to have a better look at later (Then check measurements, seller feedback). If I buy what I need, I then unwatch all the others to keep my "watching" list a sensible size.

Tbh I probably bid on 5-10% of the items I watch.

Ah, ok. Thanks all. Tactic probably not what I meant; but lots of watchers made me think 'yes, bid price not high' and now, when it's too late to switch to BIN, I may just get the one bid at that price.

Anyway, lesson learned, I will list differently next time.