Good morning from California. For those who have had a chance to read our Sellers page, we have been planning a Wants feature for some time (mentioned together with Gold Level), but have left this for a later stage due to more pressing work.

As for eBay's feature, it will be definitely of interest to many people. Whether it will produce the desired results the way it is set up is another question. I see two main groups of people who will place wants: 1. Bargain hunters or resalers 2. People who actually need certain items for their work or interest, such as collections. The first group is unlikely to get their wants filled satisfactorily since the price is usually higher when one is asking for an offer. The second group will be more lucky if they can avoid price gaugers (how desperate are you to buy?). One final issue: in order to protect itself, eBay has now removed buyer handles altogether in the "Want It Now" feature, bringing anonymity to a higher level. How this may be abused is not yet clear, but I have a feeling all we have to do is wait.

There are other ways of bringing a similar feature to customers, and I am most interested in discussions on this topic so that we can come up with the best possible Wants capability.