'Watchers' and 'Visits' for eBay items

[ernest_price]

This isn't an allegation of any sort - just some interesting and terribly non-scientific stuff that others may be able to explain or interpret.

Regarding 'watchers' of items:
I have items that were sold a long time ago STILL with watchers. In one case 6 watchers. Don't no make no sense. Also with current items, I have many items that have been relisted around 3 times now with a 10 day re-list cycle, and every time around the 8th day watchers appear. They don't sell, but I have watchers who never seem to go away from the ended item. So I re-list and re-list expecting someone to buy NEXT time. I also had a watcher once within 30 seconds of listing. Now THAT is fast!

Regarding 'visits' of items:
I was explaining to someone the other day about how to get your site 'up' in the google rankings [i.e. how to get it from page 666 to page 1]. Just in the middle of the meeting suddenly I thought of eBay and the enormous number of 'visits' recorded that are not people wanting to buy but search bot visits to the page. I wonder what the search bot overhead is? Does it double the number, triple it etc. Been a while since I was knowledgeable about this stuff but it got me thinking.

I know, those issues are not life changing, but do impact our propensity to re-list ["it'll sell this time, I just KNOW it as I had lots of watchers and visits last listing"] - are we all being too quick to put on the happy goggles?

[regulus*]

Regarding 'watchers' of sold items:

I am guilty of this sometimes

The reasons are as follows.

I have just not got around to deleting the item.
I leave it there to remind myself to do a search on that type of item at some stage.
I really liked the item.
I have found that if you leave them on your watch list long enough, first the picture disappears, then finally the item disappears 8)


Most online shops have wishlists. Watched items are like a wishlist. When I am ready to buy that item, I am more likely to buy from my wishlist than go searching anew.

[imperfect]

I love to watch  :green:

[Primaryaim]

Ernest, I often put items on watch for various reasons. I may want to see if the bidding goes up past my final bid price meaning I don't need to put the last minute snipe on. I may have a similar item and I want to see how much it will fetch so I know what price to start mine on. I may watch it because I want to keep the description to model (not copy) mine on as they may have included information I never thought of. I may mean to bid but forget as the reminder comes through the day when I am not at my computer.

I don't go and delete my watched list when something finishes, I only delete the bottom items when my list gets so full I can't add any more.

I don't know much about visits.

[Al**Bear]

With all the glitches on ebay
Who's to say the number of watches or
how long they stay there are real
or not just the usual bad ebay programming 

[Primaryaim]

True Al, who would know what is real on eBay

OK Just noticed your avatar is moving, That looks brilliant. Wow