I've had just a ton [is that tonne?] of watchers on items of recent times - within minutes of listing I get them on certain items - but the item isn't selling quickly still - why?
Well - there's the usual reasons - item too expensive, condition, shipping cost, pickup only etc etc etc.
Then I 'got it' !
When you have a saved search you now get an AUTO-WATCH done by eBay for you. So while someone in eBay buy/sell land has set a search with your item as criteria, no human actually pressed any button saying "I might buy that item later today so I'll click on watch this item".
Result, if you see 10 watchers when an item ends you'll probably re-list. If you see 1 watcher at item end you may decide not to re-list. If this auto-watch even added 10% to the re-list stats that's a whole lot of $$$$$$$$$ to eBay when the seller never really had a better chance at selling.
Then again, maybe it does drive improved sale rates?
Views? Am I missing something here?