Want It Now?

[Rick Bradford]

I assume you all set up "favorite searches" at eBay but does anybody use their "Want It Now" feature? It sort of surprises me that it seems to be used so little as it seems like a nice little tool for matching buyers with items they're interested in.

[50Cent #II (1st print)]

Never tried it, does it work?  I'll give it a shot.

[Reverend]

I've used it several times over the course of the past year. I've found it an utter waste of time. People can only reply to you, anonymously, and only with a link to an eBay auction for that (or any) item. I was almost the victim of a phishing scam because of it.

[Rick Bradford]

I've used it several times over the course of the past year. I've found it an utter waste of time. People can only reply to you, anonymously, and only with a link to an eBay auction for that (or any) item.

Even so, a certain amount of people on eBay are sort of afraid to buy anywhere else. So it's kind of cool that if I'm looking for a specific item I can post it in Want It Now and anybody who's got that item but hadn't been motivated to sell it can then list it and voila..

Also -- I think this may be relatively new because I always thought all you could do was respond with an auction but -- at the top of each Want It Now item page there's a link that says "Ask a question about this post" which is the same as the "Ask seller a question" in regular listings. Reply to that, include your e-mail and you get direct contact with the other person as long as they're willing.

To my thinking it's a greatly underused feature -- and one that's only really worth the trouble using if many, many other people are also using it. But eBay doesn't seem to promote it at all...

[Comix Junky]

... But eBay doesn't seem to promote it at all...

It could lead to off-site direct sales. And ebay could miss-out on their commission.

[Rick Bradford]

... But eBay doesn't seem to promote it at all...

It could lead to off-site direct sales. And ebay could miss-out on their commission.

Yeah, definitely. But if they were that concerned why build the feature and then include an "ask a question" link?

But, yeah, that's probably the reason. eBay doesn't always seem to operate logically.