Watchers on Trademe

[The_Dover]

for five bucks I'm on call 24/7 big boy.

[Ixion]

The reason for watchers not bidding is often quite simple. I do not like to bid on auctions until near the closing time . I don't mean the last few minutes, but i don't want to start bidding days ahead . Partly because often there may be several possibilities. i don't want to commit myself to one of them before I need to. So I put the itme on a watchlist (so i can find it again easily). But often bidding will then take it past the point that I am willing to go to. So I don't bid.

[Fatjim]

Thanks guys. Kind of get the picture. I'll stop watching it and wait for questions.

Dover, you big pussy, when did a "fuck off" ever upset you before?

[garfield69]

I've had my bike on there less than 2 days and I've already got 25 watchers, I'm not that worried about it though as I do it myself if i see something of interest even if I'm not in the market for it.

[The_Dover]

i've got my man period and i'm getting the train to work.

ok.

[imdying]

nah, plenty of time wasters out there. I sold a tzr a few years ago, had twenty somthing watchers and it did not sell first time.

How did they waste your time?

When I sold my XLV750 I had 27 watchers,but only a single bid bang on the reserve...I was kinda pissed off.

What pissed you off about that? Perhaps you pissed them off by pricing it too high? (more like every one wanted to rape you on the price... typical NZ 'Warehouse' mentality)

Sometimes I add things to the watchlist to see what they sell for.

I may have one myself which I intend selling, so would like to see the going rate. Or I may just be interested in what it sells for.

Exactly...

Watcher's are generally worthless (if they were that interested would they not put a direct auction link in their Favorites)

Pretty broad generalisation... I always 'watch' items I'm intending to buy. It's makes a lot of sense to use the functionality built into the website instead of using my browsers favourites... that way my watchlist can follow me around when I move PCs, unlike my browsers favourites.

The reason for watchers not bidding is often quite simple. I do not like to bid on auctions until near the closing time . I don't mean the last few minutes, i don't want to commit myself to one of them before I need to. So I put the itme on a watchlist (so i can find it again easily). But often bidding will then take it past the point that I am willing to go to. So I don't bid.

Yep, yep, yep, yep, and yep.

Thanks guys. Kind of get the picture. I'll stop watching it and wait for questions.

Questions are a strong sign of interest, once they ask them, that's your cue to hook them

[TonyB]

Well my FZR had SIXTY EIGHT watchers. 68. SIXTY BLOODY EIGHT!! Six different people bid on it. 2,100 plus veiws. I got phone calls from people who were prepared to spend over $4000. Did it sell? Not on Trademe it didn't.

[Bonez]

Putting an action on your watch list is great. Bargains to be had galore, if the fixed price offer is good enough of course.

[JeremyW]

I must admit I am a watchlist whore. I put anything I see as interesting on my watchlist just to see what it sells for or if there is a bargin to be had.

Have picked up some good bargins on the fixed price offers tho...

[gav]

Well my FZR had SIXTY EIGHT watchers. 68. SIXTY BLOODY EIGHT!! Six different people bid on it. 2,100 plus veiws. I got phone calls from people who were prepared to spend over $4000. Did it sell? Not on Trademe it didn't.

Looks like it got plenty of interest though, Tony. Wouldnt be put off by that, weird how auctions happen sometimes, chuck it on again and see how it goes. I watched an auction for a fibreglass tail section, that had finished at a reserve of $40 a couple of times, and the final time, some guiys got in a bidding war and went for nearly $90! When I sold my CBR600F on Trade Me, couple of bites first couple of times, but third time sold no worries witha Buy Now!

[TLDV8]

... typical NZ 'Warehouse' mentality)

Pretty broad generalisation... I always 'watch' items I'm intending to buy.

I believe that is the difference "intending to buy" ..... A good number of watchers are just looking for a bargain and only there to make low ball offers after the auction... I don't think i have ever had a question asker bid and that seems common with a lot of auctions.
In saying that i have only ever not sold two items and they were non motorcycle related.
I try and keep the items drama free.... Big clear pictures linked to photobucket or similar,low start with no reserve and clear descriptions....One thing that never fails to amaze me is the number of people selling who are to lazy to take a clear picture,or even wheel a motorcyle etc out into the day light.

[Bonez]

I believe that is the difference "intending to buy" ..... A good number of watchers are just looking for a bargain and only there to make low ball offers after the auction...

And the problem with that is? Some folk running actions have items well above market value. For example a spare engine for Gerty was up for auction 4 times. Started at $400. I asked a variety of questions re damage to fins etc. The trader lied, but in the end the final fixed price was worth what I paid including transportation. I'll get half it back in scrap. Appropriate feed back given- :|

[TonyB]

Looks like it got plenty of interest though, Tony. Wouldnt be put off by that, weird how auctions happen sometimes, chuck it on again and see how it goes.

No need gav- 'tis sold. Sold it for $4k to a nice bloke from Hamilton. Hope he likes it! I suspect he will
Just as an aside, I went all out with the auction. I put up dyno graphs, I put links to higher res pics and I put links to Motorcycle On Line articles- particularly the one where they voted the FZR the best open class sports bike... for the 9th year in a row. Me thinks that helped. So there you go, put up anything that makes your bike look good, especially if its so old no ones sure what it actually is LOL

[far queue]

Well my FZR had SIXTY EIGHT watchers. 68. SIXTY BLOODY EIGHT!! Six different people bid on it. 2,100 plus veiws. I got phone calls from people who were prepared to spend over $4000. Did it sell? Not on Trademe it didn't.

I had a mate who put his bike up on trademe and was silly enough to tell me, so a few of us kept clicking on the page refresh button on his auction anytime we had a few spare minutes at work, like when stuck on phone calls and so on - we got his page view count up to 10,000 in a couple of days. He couldn't believe the number of hits he was getting

And, yeah, I add stuff to my watch list all the time, with no intention of buying. Usually I'm just being nosey to see what it sells for, maybe because I've got one myself, maybe just 'cos I can.

[klingon]

When I was thinking about buying my first bike (long before I actually had enough money to buy one) I would watch trademe and put a lot of bikes on my watchlist. Then I could see which bikes were selling for what kind of money. When I did eventually buy my bike (off trademe) I had a really clear idea of a reasonable market price and what I could expect to spend.

Also, watching the other auctions gave me some good ideas of what kinds of questions I should ask to make sure I was an informed buyer.

So I'm not ashamed of being a prolific watcher. In fact I recommend it. And people are very welcome to watch my auctions as much as they like, for whatever reason they like.