How Do You Use The "Watch" Function

I spend late nights after work adding coins to my watch list ,, then through the week I use the list rather than search as a review process ,, I may look at a listing in my watch list 10 times during the following days ,, some coins retain my interest some do not ,, I then weed the list down to 8 to 10 coins that I have an interest in ,, by the weekend usually only 2 or 3 will remain ,, these are the coins that I make a concerted effort to win.



Metalman

I do both. If it's something I really want, I snipe, but usually I do it for research before I buy. I want to make sure I don't overpay. I have missed out on some things this way, but I can live with that. I've won some things that I never thought I would, but I put a bid in before I go to bed, and I make sure it is what I'm willing to spend, and not more. Sometimes you win, sometimes, well, you keep looking.

I use it to see how prices end up and sometimes to snipe, but I mostly use a program that I found on c-net to snipe.

I also place a lot of 99 cent minimum bids on coins that I hope no one else sees.

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I also do both although like Ageka, I use the Watch feature mostly for research on a particular date and mintmark or series. It's very useful in this manner, more exacting than using ebay's Advanced Search on ended auctions since I can watch the bidding patterns as they progress. When I'm very active as a buyer, I'll use up all 30 of my Watch quota. I also wish ebay would permit more.

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What?! You can only have 30 in the watch listings? I guess the most I have ever had in the watch list was like 20, or so.

I use watch to see what certain things go for on ebay. Yes, so I don't over pay and maximize my knowledge on getting the best deal possible. I also watch key key dates just to see how much they go for.

Hey snowman, what's your success rate on the 99c thing? I've done similar things, and managed to get a few, but not many.

My watch limit is 100, and I keep it pretty close to the limit all the time, just like I always fill up almost all the disk space on my computer. I hardly ever bid on a coin when I first see it, I put it on the watch list. Then I go back to review the coin, zoom up the pictures (easy to do in opera), and make some judgement on what I should bid. Also I check my collection to see if I already have a nice example, and to assess what it will add to the collection. Will it really enhance my collection or will it just be more of the same stuff? Is the condition as good or better than coins I have? Will it even detract? Sometimes less is more, as you know. Then I place a strong bid and wait for the end of the auction. I never snipe coins; just not my style and it doesn't spread any goodwill among the small group of bidders which bid on the same stuff I do. I always see pretty much the same group. Plus I like to give the good dealers some exposure and some validation with my early bids.

If there are no bids on an item (and the starting bid is right), I'll place a minimum bid on it just to get it on my watch page. Every once in a while I get lucky and "accidently" get a steal. I suppose I use the watch function about half and half as far as sniping or market watching goes.

I use the watch feature to gain the final price so I can enter it my spreadsheet to get statistical data MIN,AVRG,MAX. Once I get at least 10 final prices for an item I'm ready to start bidding. If I lose the bid that price also goes in the spreadsheet. Example I currently have 29 prices entered for a 1996 PCGS MS69 silver eagle lowest was 116.49, average price 132.97 the highest was 180.38.