Most Watched US Auctions. Really??

On the sidebar to the left is a category under ebay Shopping Menu entitled, "Most Watched US Auctions." Several of the auctions are for stamps that are currently available at the post office. They are listed at face value and seem to be posted by the USPS itself. Why would these be on the "most watched" list? Can't pull the trigger on that $9.80 purchase of 20 49 cent stamps, so you've put it on your watch list to think about it? I must be missing something.

Oops, this is going to get/got moved from the Classics topic.

I suspect these buyers (non-collectors) are looking for cheap postage and hoping it will re-list at a lower price.

Maybe the USPS deals are 'most watched' by ebay management? The USPS has been pushing hard to out-source the retail sale of everyday postage, enlisting convenience stores by the thousands, etc.

Q/ Will ebay prove to be a cheaper way to move stamps than window clerks? (a no-brainer, one supposes)

Q/ Will an ebay 'store' prove to be cheaper way to 'operate in the eCommerce space' than by operating store.usps.com?

Q/ Will an enterprising SCFer file an FOIA (Freedom Of Information Act) request to USPS to see the contract w/ ebay? Make a nice article for Linn's, et al, if you're trying to get away from your day job.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

the power of google

Watch out ebay will be raising their fees again.

I seriously doubt they are really most watched. No more than after I buy something odd (like an EFO where I know there hasn't been another one listed recently) and they show a buch of items that "what other people who bought this item also bought these items". Pure baloney.

'Most watched' and 'highest number of bids' code is pretty straight-forward; it isn't smoke and mirrors.

Note that many sellers are well aware that a lot of web sites (like this forum) use 'most watched' and 'highest number of bidders' code to publish ebay pages. They intentionally use this to increase sales; they start at no reserve and have friends pump up the number or watchers and bids falsely. Frankly, it works. The times that I have managed to list something that gets a quite a few watchers; once it starts being published via the coded web pages the momentum really picks up.

But I would doubt that either USPS or ebay would ever intentionally risk falsifying metrics for something like this.
don

Eyeonwall got it right ----"Pure baloney"

I use my watch list for general bookmarks. There are items that I buy repeatedly that I keep in my watch list, among them, stamps from the USPS. It's easier than scrolling through my order history to find it again or starting a new search. I also watch things that I have no intention of buying, such as an item that might be similar to something I have, etc.