Ebay "watchers." What does this mean in terms of bidding?

Question

I recently posted a dress for sale on Ebay. I received 18 different bid with the highest bid being set at $61.00. It says that there's 2 days and 17 hours left until bidding ends. It also says there's 22 "watchers" watching the item. Does this mean the bidding prices will increase? What will happen? What final bidding price should I suspect (estimate please)? By the way I wore it once and its a Sherri Hill Prom Dress that is $500 brand new.

Answer 1

When I'm bidding (or planning to bid) I "watch" an item. I get emails telling me when a bid is made, and I can also find the item quickly when I log back in because it appears in my "watch" list".



Sometimes, I just let the auction finish if I decide not to bid. But I could place a bid at anytime I wanted to.



My own preferred method of bidding is to wait until the last few seconds, then put in an autobid with the maximum amount I am prepared to pay.



The number of watchers suggests a lot of people are interested and are biding their time. There's no way of knowing the final bid because people might decide not to bother if those who are bidding now send the price beyond what the watchers are prepared to pay. On the other hand, their could be a mad frenzy in the last few minutes.

Answer 2

No. I do not see the difference between me sitting at my keyboard and placing a bid 10 seconds before the bidding closes and sniping. Sniping is nothing more than a program that calls up the bidding page, fills in your userID and password and the amount to place a bid. What is the difference between you in person or the program? Either way, your userID is filled in, your password is used and an amount is specified. It just happens at the last minute. How can that be anticompetitive? If you want an item, place a bid. If I see a bid made higher than I am willing to pay, I'm NOT going to snipe it from you, how can I? I am not willing to pay that much! How does that make it such that an item fails to reach it's fair market value? Sniping is transparent and fair to all. You could sit by your keyboard and bid. Some people prefer to let automation do the walking. So, explain these things to me, how does sniping make the playing field unfair? How does sniping make it so the item does not reach fair market value? How are buys and sellers being harmed? If Ebay somehow comes up with a way to stop sniping, how is Ebay to know WHO is doing the typing so it can block a snipe but NOT block a person? The people who are vocal in their complaints are the cheapskates who want a bargain and whine about it when they don't get it. The whiners are not willing to place the fair market value as a bid. If they did, everyone else, snipers included, would be outbid and they would get the item. No, they want the lowest price they can get and they are not willing to pay the price and blame their stinginess on sniping. The whiners are the ones who place a $10 bid on a $40 item which opened at $1 and then whine when someone snipes with a bid amount of $20 and then the item is closed at $11. Oh, how I SO hate whiners... There is nothing unfair about placing a bid at the last minute, whether done by automation or in person.

Answer 3

On Ebay, "watchers" are people who have clicked "Watch this auction" so that they will be notified of any changes in the auction.



When I do this, it's either because I plan on bidding, or I'm simply curious about how much the item will sell for.



Watchers have nothing to do with bids. The only bids you can count on are those you have already received. $61 is great, by the way. Good luck!