Question
Summary of recent general announcements:
12/03/04 09:45:23 AM PST Introducing: Want It Now
12/02/04 12:25:09 PM PST Introducing: eBay Philippines and eBay Malaysia
12/02/04 09:17:44 AM PST Updated: Item Not Received Process
12/01/04 05:30:42 PM PST Coming Soon: New Gift Preview for Item Pages
12/01/04 04:39:10 PM PST Scheduled Maintenance for December 3rd
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***Introducing: Want It Now***
Date: 12/03/04 Time: 09:45:23 AM PST
We are very excited to announce Want It Now, a new way for members to buy and sell unique, hard-to-find items.
Have you been looking everywhere for that one collectible to complete your collection? Or maybe you need a missing hubcap for your car that you just can’t find?
With Want It Now, buyers can now tell sellers exactly what they are looking for when they are unable to find it on the site. Sellers can then browse through these requests to discover buyers for their items, as well as get new ideas for what items are in demand.
Buyers: Creating a Want It Now post
When buyers search for an item and receive a low number of results, they will be offered the option of creating a Want It Now post on the Want It Now specialty site. You can also go directly to the Want It Now specialty site from the homepage to create a post. To post to Want It Now, you must have at least 5 feedback or a credit card on file.
Want It Now posts are anonymous, and no identifying information will be displayed.
Sellers: Responding to a Want It Now post
Any member can browse Want It Now posts. If a Want It Now post matches a listing on the site that you know about, you can use the Respond function to alert the buyer. The buyer will receive an anonymous email instructing them how to view the item on the site.
Listing an Item that matches a Want It Now post
Sellers who discover a Want It Now post for an item that they have in stock but haven’t listed will be able to access the Sell Your Item form directly from the Want It Now post. Once the listing is complete, simply click on Respond to send the listing anonymously to the potential buyer. (Items listed via this method will be available to everyone, exactly like a regular listing on the site.)
Want It Now is a great new way to help buyers find what they want and to help sellers find the right buyers. For more information about Want It Now, please check out our tutorial and Frequently Asked Questions. To go directly to Want It Now, please click here.
If you’d like to learn more about Want It Now, please join us for an online Community workshop on Monday, December 13 at 12:00 PT.
We hope to see you there!
Regards,
eBay
A new rollout...
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.sh...04-12-03093222
Answer
Hmmmm.
I can see this could be very useful - match up wants with haves and all of that. I've always wanted a vintage Knickerbocker - Rosie O'Neill Kewpie doll of a particular model, so this might be a great way to find one.
HOWEVER.
Since it's going to be free to post Want It Now ads, do you think there will be a lot of facetious ads? And since they'll be anonymous to other users, might not this not lend itself to mis-use?
Say you find a 1930 purple widget at a yard sale and you want to see who else has one, or get an idea of a good way to describe it... you're under no obligation to reveal yourself to the sellers who contact you.
I'm getting to be too dang negative.
Answer
I regularly receive e-mails from eBayers, using the Ask Seller a Question function, saying that they are looking for such-and-such, and asking if I have such an item. Often the person seems to be using a "buckshot" approach and appears to be contacting several sellers. In my selling categories, the questions are a long shot. However, I wouldn't be surprised if a fair number of th queries in other selling categories lead to off-eBay sales...
I suspect this latest eBay roll-out is an attempt to reduce those kinds of e-mails.
Answer
I think it has the potential to be one of the better rollouts that eBay has hatched these last few years, at least for a while.
I'm convinced that the vast majority of "buyers" don't even know that they can search eBay Store listings too. Of course, it takes a few extra clicks, an example of one of eBay's less well thought out rollouts, but I digress.
So Hannah Housewife wants a blue widget and I have one in my b&m shop. For the princely listing fee of 3¢, I'm going to quick list it in my eBay store, at full shop price, for 30 days, tell Hannah that it's there, and hope she hits the button quick, without stopping to think that someone else may list the same thing tomorrow for a $ less.
Maybe it will work, at least while the whole thing is still new and users haven't had the time to figure out that, like everything else on eBay, it's a strategy game and you better have a gameplan.
The biggest downside that I foresee at this point is that, if it takes off, it's quickly going to become so huge that it will simply take too long to browse, just like eBay has become (I've been on eBay long enough to remember when you could actually browse the Antiques category of eBay in a single evening...) and I don't think it will be worth "searching" the list of what people are "searching for" should it come to that and the tool be made available.
Answer
The biggest downside that I foresee at this point is that, if it takes off, it's quickly going to become so huge that it will simply take too long to browse, just like eBay has become (I've been on eBay long enough to remember when you could actually browse the Antiques category of eBay in a single evening...) and I don't think it will be worth "searching" the list of what people are "searching for" should it come to that and the tool be made available.
The sheer volume is going to be something. Out of curiousity earlier in the day I started looking at the "wants". I was looking at all categories and as I went to each "next" page they were being added so fast that at least 1/3 of the page was a carry-over from the previous page. I think it would be nice but as a seller I just don't think I will have time to wade through them to see if I have anything to match, even if I narrow it down to specific categories. We already have so much to keep up with and have to constantly modify listings (especially store listings) to keep up with the latest eBay changes to have to do a check on this list also will just be a huge time killer. Maybe there will be a search function that we will be able to use later to see if we can "hit" or "miss" on something. There is so much to change/keep up with I just can't work it all in anymore. And I am a very small lister. I don't see how the large volume listers ever manage to stay on top of things.
Answer
When viewing a page on the bottom there is a delete button. If you use it, how does it work?
Also, is ebay going to allow the promotion of bootlegs? I'm a bit miffed that no mods are there....
Ck this one out...
http://wantitnow.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...did=5940361131
Answer
They don't seem to be adhering to any sort of requirement for keeping WANT IT NOW listings in the proper categories. For instance, check out all the unrelated stuff listed under
Collectibles>Postcards-Paper>Postcards>US-State-Town-Views
That is several levels down and people are posting requests for 1960s deodorant, high school yearbooks, real estate and "cheap lodging on the iron range of northern MN".
I see this function becoming completely worthless very quickly - if it isn't already there.
Answer
I took a look and found a listing that I think that I have for this person, in fact I have two items that might be a match to what they are looking for. I quickly uploaded them into my store, sent the messages. And they are still sitting in my store, although perhaps, it's just too soon, as I did this last night.
Answer
Maybe there will be a search function that we will be able to use later to see if we can "hit" or "miss" on something.
There is a search function right now. If you select a category to browse, you'll get to a second page that has a search box at the top. I tried it, searching for "wants" for a particular author, and it seems to work pretty well.
Answer
When I saw the title of the thread I thought it was going to be about the buyers who pay at 5:51 and at 5:50 say "I want it now" (ggggggg). Maryanne