Good idea. Ibanez made a model of guitar that went out of production some years ago. It wasn't the most expensive collector guitar, but I wish I knew where I could find a copy of it. I've looked all over the net too.

Using eBay's "My Favorite Searches" feature that provides email notification of complex or very specific searches along with some patience you will discover hard to find items. I found an item after having a stored search for 2 years.

It does surprise me that eBay hasn't offered for sellers the opportunity to mine what is on people's Favorite Searches (maybe Privacy). It would just take a single check box giving permission for others to search My Favorites to solve that.

I recently put the Reverse Ebay concept into the Ebay electronic suggestion box. Didn't hear back yet, so I also posted it on WhyNot under "Reverse Ebay". Just now discovered that someone else had beat me to it on WhyNot. Interestingly, the CM Waldron/lokani24 suggestion has 9 votes for and 0 against, while mine has 4 "for" and 1 "against".

Since I'm a first time Ebay user and this suggestion seemed pretty obvious to me, I would guess that Ebay has heard it many times and found some compelling reason not to implement it.

After I suggested it to Ebay, they told me that they are giving some thought to my suggestion. In the interim, they said that if I wanted a particular item that no one had for sale on Ebay at the moment, I could do Search for that item, then save the search, and then mark the box to receive an email from Ebay if sometime in the future someone offered my desired item for sale. Not a perfect solution, but it helps.

Presumably, if enough people ask for the feature, they would add it (although they should have thought of it on their own). Attached is the link to Ebay's sugggestion box if you want to put in your vote http:// pages.ebay.com/help/welcome/suggest.html.

Similar suggestion also posted elsewhere on WhyNot -- http://www.whynot.net/view_idea.php?id=1403

I had came up witht eh idea and noticed it was posted here. Im sure ebay has thought of the idea, but when i came up with a list of the Pros and COns, the cons were too great for it to be. Plus, Ebay wouldnt consider establishing this since their format is already doing so well.

Sell.com?

You could put a recurring search on Google or Froogle. Or a collector of xyz might look for specialized sites that deal in xyx. And if there are no suitable sites, a collector might put up collector's site for xyz. Web sites are cheap and easy.

What would be even better is to have a visual depiction, a montage, that would show the number of buyers and sellers and the prices that they were selling their products or willing to buy their products at. You could break it down by auction expiration date if you want. This could make it a little more competitive in that people would have to adjust their prices constantly to attract more buyers or sellers, similar to the NYSE. The only problem would be that you could only compare exact objects, unless people were willing to compare generics as in VCR rather then the Sony VCR from 1999.

eBay's Half.com has pre-order functionality for easily described items (books, CDs, etc.) The stumbling block for broader application is likely that items for which this is truly useful - such as a rare guitar - are harder to describe exactly so that you can extend a binding pre-offer: "If you have item X in good condition, I will pay you Y dollars for it."

Try >>http://groups.msn.com/IWantThis<<, leave a message and description of the item on the message board. If it gets a lot of traffic I'll leave it open, it it doesn't do well, or if MSN objects, I'll delete it after a week.

It existed.

Its remnants are www.iwant.com

didn't seem to work.

half.com did very well (was bought by ebay)

Hey, guess wot? Looks like eBay has been playing along with us at home... I just noticed a link for "Want It Now" (wordplay on their "Buy It Now" price option :^) that I'd never seen before, appearing after a list of search results. Just in time for Xmas, how convenient...

Congratulations! Ebay has officially incorporated the Ebay Want to Buy feature and as a seller I am already taking advantage of this. Thanks a bunch for a great idea!

Have you tried khachoo.com. They're new in the UK. A little like eBay's 'Want To Buy' but it's in auction format.

Hello, just wanted to add a note to your conversation. eBay launched their Want It Now feature right after we launched our website stocROOM.com. On our website, we described a feature that we were creating called "stocREQUEST" (Want Ads). Unfortunately, a month later eBay launched a feature similar to ours. I say similar because they used our idea of utilizing an "item number" to respond to Want Ads and emailing photos of the sellers products to the buyers. We have a pending patent on that idea. Plus, through our attorney Hunton & Williams, we had entered into a contract with "PriceOut.com" to join teams on the developement of a "1-click" method of responding to Want Ads. Like Amazon's "1-click" check out method. Except here, we don't store credit card info. like Amazon. Instead, we work off the seller's stored items for sale. The stocREQUEST feature is more advanced than eBay's Want It Now feature. It actually Automates the process of matching Want Ads to the seller's items and presents them to the seller for "quality control" before sending them the buyer. Also, eBay sellers never have to upload products. Because of our access to eBay's API platform, we are able to pull all the sellers products to our site automatically and within seconds to be matched up with the Want Ads. So, a seller only has to register and then click the "SUBMIT" button and the program will automatically look in stocROOM.com and eBay for the sellers products to match. This idea can be repeated with Yahoo, Amazon, etc. As for the buyers, our feature transmits the Want Ads to multiple websites outside our own website as "Daily Sales Leads". The plug-in program that these websites download from our site allows them to receive daily feeds of Want Ads that are then "auto-matched" to their products on their site. A "1-click" method allows them to respond to the Want Ads. Although eBay infringed on our "item number" idea. We are still an eBay marketplace. Our hope is to get access to the Want It Now posts via eBay's API platform. We will then feed all the Want Ads to Ma and Pa websites globally as "Daily Sales Leads" using our plug-in application. eBay will be able to reach out to the world with it's Want Ads rather than restricting it to their site only. Anyone responding to the Want Ads would have to register as an eBay member and pay the listing fee.

I, myself, have wanted this feature a number of times...

http://www.oltiby.com/

Yabe. (As of 6 Sep 06, domain name is open.)

I think online auctions in reverse will rule the world soon. eBay will probably became just a shadow.

thanks for the link to Oltiby.com. It looks like a good reverse auction plateform. Did anyone ever try it? It looks great that we, as online auction buyer, save money and sellers compete for our business. Even if the buyer has to pay some fees, it's always cheaper than the regular retail price. Their policy is fair.

WhyAbe.com has Free Reverse Auctions and Procurement Tools

Have you guys useds this before: overdogg.com

It's been done. It's "Want it Now"

Check this outLookn4.com

Check This Out lookn4.comList things you want to buy. FREE.

There are already so many like that...

haha... theres a culture in singapore classified websites... if you wanna buy, you start ure auction title with "WTB"(want-to-buy) as in "WTB acoustic guitar" and you put da price of your budget or what you are willing to pay... and if u want to sell, u start with "WTS"(want-to-sell) as in "WTS acoustic guitar"...

Hello, guys and girls. I am a seller in China.Why not connect with me? Maybe i can find something your want and nice price?Connect with me: dinglingjia@yahoo.com.cnTell me what you want !

People mostly know better than to do business with people that solicit forums such as this.

Hello my name is James Marshal. I currently reside in Melbourne, FL. I currently hold the patent for the (reverse ebay) that you are looking for. My company is PayOne. This idea allows you to put up a profile and list what you are looking for and have companies or individuals bid or your purchase. You get paid as well for every click you receive. I don't know why Ebay chose not to proceed with this idea. However, since they did not, I chose to move orward with my idea back in 2003.

If anyone would like more inormation...Please contact me at james@shfnow.com my phone is 321-728-2599

Thank you

I swear I remember that ebay did something just like this several years ago. It was a pilot program and I think it only lasted a few months. I really wish they would bring it back. Fabulous idea.

There's quite a few companies that tried this. None of them worked. There are quite a few major challenges that make this a near impossible business. 1) Chicken or egg: how do you bring value to the customer (or the merchant) when you don't have the other group present in the system? 2) Is this system so much more efficient than existing comparison shopping websites (shopping.com) that you'll be able to push enough business to merchants and offer enough incentives to customers? 3) Would you offer so much incremental business that a merchant would invest effort/money into using this system?

The list of challenges go on...

Fantastic. Let's say you're a seller. When somebody posts a WTB ad for whatever it is you have, 100 other people around the world will be contacting them too. Everyone else undercuts your price, and you never get the item off your hands (or you lose a lot of profit).