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If you are a collector with a wish-list, you may want to check out eWanted.com (http://www.eWanted.com). This service allows you to post your wanted list for free. Any and all sellers who see your wish-list can make you an offer to sell you an item. You can then review the offers and choose the best price.
eWanted claims it gets over a million unique visitors per month. For buyers, this "reverse auction" model is a nice way to try to get a good price, since sellers are competing with each other for your business. I wouldn't rely solely on this service; you should continue to troll online auction sites to ensure you don't miss an item you are desperate to own.
If you are a seller, eWanted seems a bit inefficient. I typed in the search box "John Grisham Firm" to find people looking to purchase the book, "The Firm" by John Grisham. It came back with zero results. But when I clicked on Books & Magazines, Books:Mystery & Thrillers, I found someone looking for that very title. This can get pretty time-consuming if you have a wide variety of items you are interested in selling.
I also found it irritating that buyers rarely put an amount in the "offer limit" field. Everyone should have an idea of the maximum price they would be willing to pay for an item. It doesn't mean you have to buy the item for that amount! In fact, buyers do not have to accept any offer made to them. eWanted.com only "asks you to be considerate when placing wants and sincere about your interest in purchasing."
The service is free to buyers. It is also anonymous until you accept an offer, at which time contact information is exchanged automatically. So, according to eWanted, there's no need to worry about being spammed by sellers.
While free to buyers, it costs money to sell on eWanted. eWanted charges 5% of the final price for items under $100. There's a flat $500 transaction fee for real estate sales regardless of the final price, and special rates for airline tickets. For detailed information on seller fees, go to http://www.ewanted.com/billing/fees.cfm.
Sellers should note that "no fees will be due if a buyer does not accept your offer. Once an offer is accepted, however, fees will be due regardless of whether the remainder of the transaction between you and the buyer is completed."
It will be interesting to see whether eWanted model can work (sort of the opposite of Half.com where sellers list items for sale, but for a static price.
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