Why do I have loads of watchers but no bloody bidders??

[kidcreoleandthecoconuts]

Grrr....I have loads listed on ebay but 2 particular listings are puzzling me. Both have 10+ watchers but neither has a single bid. Are people waiting to the last minute to bid or are the watchers a bunch of nosy feckers who want to know how much my listings might go for??

What is it that you're selling?

The listings are Humphrey's Corner outfits.

Lots of people watch if they have a similar item to list, I do this all the time, or somethimes just plain nosey!

Some people do wait until the last minute, I have never bid on e-bay before the last 20 seconds of an aution, so there is still hope.

Never bid before the last 20 seconds??? Honestly! I couldn't do that as I live in the back of beyond and my internet connection is not that fast . Oh well, like you say, there's still hope then!

I have sold a lot of stuff on ebay and normally no-one bids until the day of the sale closing- no-one likes to be the first as there is the chance you will be out-bid.

You often get lots of bids in the last 30 minutes or so- but on the otherhand often people bookmark an item and never look at it again- Iknow I have doen that.

I often also put a BIN price on when I list in auction format. If you pitch the level of this right, interested buyers have to decide whether to snap it up at the BIN price or to start bidding, to stop someone else doing a BIN as the BIN price disappears once a bid has been placed. Then, if your item has a bid I feel more people look at it as they think it must be more desirable than similar items without bids! At least this is my theory

Of course, it doesn't always work, and with BIN prices you don't know when sales are going to finish. This can be a pain.

I never, ever bid before the last 30 seconds (and yes, I have lost out because my internet connection has failed me at the last minute) because bidding prematurely forces the price up early - it means that if you decide early on that your max bid is, say, 9 quid, then it gives other bidders (like me) the opportunity to trump it easily.

If bidders are lulled into a false sense of security, say, 5 minutes before auction ends - they might bid 5 pounds - or even just 99p (the usual min price) and they arent ready for me who nips in there at 30 seconds with a top bid of 9 - by the time they get their fingers out to put in a higher bid, its too late.

Thats my approach and it usually works - unless of course the other person has already put in a max bid that I can't top with my max. In many cases, they havent, and I win.