Cheaters on Ebay - Paid Watcher

[vapeeasyaus]

Is Ebay doing anything about that or they just don't care? I have more and more competitors paying for watchers and I keep reporting them but it looks like you can get away with this. 

I don't understand why Ebay doesn't have some kind of automated checking for that.

I have a competitor, 3 new listings (less than 24h old), 50, 55 and 56 watchers where my listings for the same product (1 month old) got 5 to 8 watchers. 

Is it something everybody is doing? On Fiverr it looks like the paid watchers thing is going very well... 

[bigbrickshop]

All new listings get a temporary boost in Best Match placement.

As far as I know, the number of watchers makes no difference in ranking. There are many factors that apparently determine Best Match results: the number of recent sales over impressions, free post, keywords, item specifics, feedback.

[digital*ghost]

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@vapeeasyaus wrote:

A lot of watcher in little time will give you a bonus in the search results. 

One of my competitor's got 50 watcher on 1 item (listing is new, 24h old), he made 0 sales /// I made 4 sale for the same product and I'm behind him (I'm Top rated, he's not) 

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It's true - watchers increase the "popularity" factor of a listing and contributes to rankings in the short term, as well as make other things more likely (trending collections, 'popular on eBay right now', 'people who shopped for this item also looked at...', and I suppose they're banking on the image converting to sales before the whole impressions to sales conversion thing affects their ranking (if that's even a thing anymore). 

Its' similar to paying for likes on Facebook, with a bit of a difference, the image of popularity - in a marketplace - is all very well and good, but a genuine buyer looking at something and who happens to pay attention to stuff like 100+ watchers and no sales, is likely to ask themselves 'why isn't anyone else buying? what's wrong with it/the seller?' 

[pennyforum14]

Lots of watchers don't necessarily mean more sales and in this case it looks like it isn't working for them anyway,. You are still making more sales than them even though they may be ahead of you in the search results, so I don't understand why you are so worked up about it. Let them spend their money for nothing.

[vapeeasyaus]

Yes I guess you are right, looks dodgy to have a listing with that many watchers or little to no sales in a buyers point of view.

However, this should be tracked down by Ebay, how come they have no automated solutions for that?

Most of the watchers aren't even Australian (I suppose, just like buying facebook likes, all from Pakistan and India) so it should be easy for Ebay to implement some kind of watchers control...

[black*poppy]

How do you know any details about the watchers?

[vapeeasyaus]

Lots of watchers don't necessarily mean more sales and in this case it looks like it isn't working for them anyway,. You are still making more sales than them even though they may be ahead of you in the search results, so I don't understand why you are so worked up about it. Let them spend their money for nothing.

[digital*ghost]

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@vapeeasyaus wrote:


However, this should be tracked down by Ebay, how come they have no automated solutions for that?

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The sales vs impressions metric in Best Match should ultimately count against this practice. The fact is, a sudden influx of "watchers" is only going to do so much, but the Best Match algorithm (coupled with Cassini), also takes into account how often the listing is returned in a buyer's search results and the percentage it's clicked on, then they also take into account the volume of views vs how many times it was purchased. 

That means if it shows up in search results and few people look at it, and / or that lots of people do but no one buys, the rankings will suffer. So the boost they gain from watchers is temporary and ultimately is supposed to work against them if there's no genuine buyer interest.

Also remember that Best Match factors individual buyer behaviour into what they show in search results, so theoretically, different members will get different results for the same search terms, and also that not everyone searches via Best Match, so the rankings will be completely irrelevant to those looking for the lowest price, what's closest to them, what's ending soonest... etc.

[thecatspjs]

The watch services are very expensive. I doubt that your competitors are using these types of services based on the type and value of products you sell.

As others have said, if they are GTC listings the watchers roll over.

If the listings are for other durations 3 5 7 10 or 30 days, I still think they are more likely have friends, family or maybe their own IDs watching their own items.

No-one can visibly make a call as to who is who when it comes to watchers of their listings - they may include other sellers, buyers, lurkers, friends, family or self. 

[2011.narelle]

The search rank means little.I'm TRS (well for now) & there are similar items ranked higher than mine with sellers with say 5fb,sellers with terrible fb,sellers with no TRS.

I only auction so the amount of watchers can indicate how popular an item is but watchers don't always bid.

Whatever,i do think you are placing too much importance on the amount of watchers your competitors has but hey i could be wrong.

[thecatspjs]

I love my watchers

maybe I should pay some so I feel more of a loving eBay feeling  ...