[sexobon]

The number of people shown to be Watching an item is a double-edged sword for me. It's totally subjective, perhaps imaginary; but, ...

When one or two people are Watching, they seem like competition for the item who simply haven't yet made up their minds to buy. If the item is hard to find and at a fair starting price, that may prompt me to bid/buy it now rather than wait and hope that it will become bargained priced by being put on sale; or, relisted at a lower price.

OTOH, if there are three or more people just Watching, the first thing that occurs to me is the item is overpriced (perhaps simply because more of the same just came on the market). My second thought is that I overlooked something in the description (e.g. important omission in the narrative, pictured flaw) that's causing others to hesitate. Thirdly, I consider that I may have missed something about the seller. That could be something like a high seller rating; but, low proportion of feedback to sales which may make the seller rating misleading (perhaps a large number of returns). Fourth, the apparent interest is artificial meaning the seller wants a quick sale and I can wait for the price to come down.

Naturally, all this depends on the kind of item that's being sold and YMMV.