Why do people 'watch' items?

[Dustyblue]

As a seller, there seems to be no correlation between the number of watchers on an item, and whether or not it sells. Does my head in sometimes.

Was thinking people watch items because:

• they're sellers who have the same thing/something similar, and want to see what it goes for
• they're buyers who want to see if the price drops

I've tried watching items myself, but when you 'watch' something you don't actually find out what it eventually sold for, or even if it sold. At best you might get 'seller relisted this item' but often it'll just say "Ended" and you don't know why.

So what is the point of watching items?

I've got a bunch of things on watch at the moment, purely because it was dependant on me winning another auction as to whether I'll buy them or not.

Unfortunately, the seller still hasn't acknowledged my win, so I still can't buy. It's only been one day, but this close to Chistmas (and the fact that item was not terribly cheap) I'm a bit annoyed. Plus from their last feedback, the buyer didn't get the item. Typical, the one time I forget to check feedback.

Post ma lovely boots seller! (I have a bunch of trims on watch to do a bohemian style wrap-around thingy).

I also watch stuff from favourite sellers and to compare prices.

I also sometimes bid say, 99p, on items I would want days ahead just so that it comes up on my alerts and I can see what it is happening.

Almost always someone else bids more so I don't end up with loads it random items but occasionally I have won something for 99p (last one was a BNWT Toast jacket -I felt bad actually as it was lovely and should have gone for a lot more, just bad listing and funny end time).

I remember the time my watch list had about 60 near- identical, nearly all white, VW T4 vans on it...

I got my cheap van in the end, but by God I worked for it

Why do people get excited over watchers & think it means anything?

I watch stuff I am thinking of buying but haven't decided, yet. Perhaps I'm waiting to see what the final price might be; most things eventually sell for high over my acceptable max so I may watch an awful lot before one comes up that is still in my price bracket at end of auction.

I watch things that I want to buy.
Sometimes I don't have time to keep checking in, so the watched items are contained in a list which I can look at and my mobile alerts me to which items are ending soon. Consequently, I sometimes bid (depending on the price) of these items.
I thought this was the idea???

Or am I just naive?

Why do people get excited over watchers & think it means anything?

Because very often it does mean something.

Views are good; I like knowing how many views I've had. At least they mean that the item is getting seen so has a chance.

I like watchers on my listings as it at least shows my photos have drawn some interest and attracted attention,I also mark items I am interested in as I do tend to forget where I have seen them or forget about them altogether ? the amount of times I have missed a 99p bargain is not worth thinking about.