eBay announced forthcoming enhancements to its Want It Now feature. Want It Now lets buyers post requests for hard-to-find items and allows sellers to respond to those requests with eBay listings (http://pages.ebay.com/wantitnow).

Sellers will be able to create Favorite Searches within Want It Now to let them quickly see whether anyone is looking for items they may have. Plus, they will be able to choose to receive an email whenever a buyer creates a Want It Now post that matches their search criteria. Soon eBay will also include a note in sellers' End of Item emails when their listing sells because of a bid from Want It Now.

For buyers, eBay will display items for sale that may match what they are looking for after they have finished creating a Want It Now post. eBay will also give buyers the ability to include pictures and allow sellers to ask questions about the desired item.

eBay's Want It Now feature got a lot of media attention earlier this year when Intel posted a Want It Now listing for a pristine April 19, 1965, copy of Electronics magazine, for which it would pay $10,000. An engineer in England came through and received the $10,000 from Intel (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4472549.stm).

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200509191549422.html