Last time eBid tried this it did harm sales, many of us saw Gazza's post giving the reason for removal of this feature, although it was on a thread later deleted, so cannot be quoted now, more is the pity.
Are of those who want it so much get it reinstated prepared for the fallout, if it again decreases sales, & subsequently listing take a big drop, or will they just blame it on the site?
Will those whose sales it damaged last time bother to keep listing if this "experiment" is repeated & fails again, every year or so, or each time the new round of demands for this feature starts?
Maybe we should be thinking outside the box instead.
At the moment as part of the frontpage we have popular auctions,
IF that feature of the site was sorted out properly,
ie ONLY showed items that had at least 1 bid on them,(get rid of the multiple item BuyNows)
& those pages DID show the number of bids,
could that be a starting point?
Then when Gazza & Mark, who after all have the figures, feel the time is right, they can reinstate the bid column site wide.