“Ask And You Shall Receive” Policy Works!

You’re one-of-a-kind baby clothes sat for the last month on
eBay with no buyer. Why? Perhaps your item is so
specialized that buyers have a hard time finding you. After
all, how many buyers are looking for a handmade rubber ducky
sweatshirt for an infant? You’d be surprised, if you knew
the right venues to bring those buyers to you. Maybe
sitting around eBay with your item listing isn’t the right
approach. Perhaps what you should be doing is going out
there and finding your buyer!

Until now, the only option on eBay was to hope someone would
make general searches for items and stores like yours.
However, many Buyers get lost in the great web that makes up
eBay. Fortunately, for these Buyers, they have a new route
to explore – “Want It Now”, or also affectionately known as
WIN.

The easiest way to enter “Want It Now” on eBay is by going
directly to “Want It Now” online
(http://pages.ebay.com/wantitnow/). Once you enter the home
page of WIN, you can either enter as a Buyer making a post
or as a Seller browsing postings. The steps from there
follow the basic eBay protocol.

The beauty of “Want It Now” is Buyers can list their
requests, referred to as posting, for free at this eBay
special service. The Buyer’s posting fits into one of over
30 categories. Inside these postings, many Buyers include
an exact description of this wanted item, along with
purchasing restrictions. Rather than wasting their time
searching through pages and pages of general Seller listing
for the exact item that they really want, these Buyers are
hoping a Seller notices their “classified want ad” and
points them in the right direction.

Sellers have long believed that in the eBay listing practice
of “If you build it, buyers will come”. However, in the
highly competitive market of eBay, sitting still in one spot
can lead to sitting still in one spot for a really, really
long time. A wise Seller is willing to go out and find his
customer and make a deal that increases the odds for a quick
turn-around. “Want It Now” is chalk-full of Buyers who
truly are looking for what you’re selling. Simply put, WIN
is an eager market of willing customers. The cost for a
Buyer to browse around these classified ads is free and the
benefits are outstanding if you can convince a Seller of
your match.

“Want It Now” hasn’t been around a long time, under a year;
still, this format’s concept is an old familiar one. Many
people’s perception of this service is it’s a lot like an
auction, whereby bidders ask what’s available before the
actual sale to get a feel for what’s out there. Other
people compare this set-up to a newspaper’s classified want
ads, whereby someone is searching for a service or product
and wants the sellers to come compete for their business.
Even though “Want It Now” is packed with numerous
categories, the best performing categories from the
Seller/Buyer perspective is for highly specialized products
& services (such as tickets and collectibles), highly
sought-after items (such as electronics and clothing), and
extreme deals (such as used book & CDs and bulk shopping).

Below is a sample of some WIN categories:

Antiques; Art; Books; Business & Industrial; Camera & Photo;
Cell Phones; Clothing, Shoes & Accessories; Coins;
Collectibles; Computers & Networking; Consumer Electronics;
Crafts; Dolls & Bears; DVDs & Movies; Entertainment
Memorabilia; Gift Certificates; Health & Beauty; Home &
Garden; Jewelry & Watches; Music; Music Instruments; Pottery
& Glass; Real Estate; Sporting Goods; Sports Memorabilia,
Cards & Fan Shop; Stamps; Tickets; Toys & Hobbies; Travel;
Video Games; Everything Else; and eBay Motors.

The primary reason that Buyers use WIN is to find a match.
For a Seller who works on commission, “Want It Now” is a
ripe venue for drawing very interested customers into your
eBay store. Much like a special mailing announces a
busyness’s presence, informing a Buyer of your services and
items on eBay is employing WIN as a valuable marketing tool.
Upon checking out a Buyer’s posting, the Seller has the
ability to “respond” to the posting. Responding entails
entering your product or service’s item number from eBay.
The Buyer then receives an email regarding this item number
and has the prerogative of following up or not on this lead.

Do you want to know if a market does exist for your service
or product? WIN is one way to conduct an easy and
inexpensive informal market research. A Seller curious
about what’s hot or in demand can quickly scan these posting
for confirmation. What could be better for a new business
or reviving an existing business than staying ahead of on up
and coming trends!

Although from the Seller’s perspective, “Want It Now”
requires a more assertive approach to finding Buyers than
waiting around in your tiny corner of eBay, Sellers can use
WIN to their advantage and improve their profits. Buyers
like the ease of using WIN and not fiddling around with
potentially getting an item that doesn’t meet their needs.
After all, what could be better than a source that announces
your intentions clear and loud to a captive audience!

Jackie McCutcheon is the author of a new eBook titled “What to Sell on eBay to Make a Pretty Penny,” a step-by-step guide to increasing your eBay profits. Learn more: http://www.jackiemccutcheon.com

For those who thought the Barry Bonds fiasco was an enormous black eye for Major League Baseball, it may soon be overshadowed by the upcoming crisis regarding former journeyman pitcher Jason Grimsley, who was busted by the federal government.

Grimsley, who pitched for seven different teams in 17 years, always seemed to be looking for an edge. When steroid testing began, Grimsley switched to the undetectable human growth hormone, or HGH. HGH, which may only be confirmed by future blood tests, isn’t detectable through the “pee” test. As ESPN’s Jayson Stark put it on Wednesday, Grimsley “was caught, red-handed, with HGH.” This situation is by no means a major deal because of the stature of Grimsleya well-traveled pitcher who was never really all that goodbut because of what it could entail for the rest of Major League Baseball.

When investigators begin to connect the dots, Major League Baseball could be in for a crisis that will make the 1994 strike look like an early-season slump. The worst part about this for baseball is that Grimsley admitted that he changed his cheater’s potion because of the rules that were instituted. Steroids are testable, but HGH is not. Logically, if a major league player still wants to cheat and not get caught, what would that player do?

This crisis will change the dynamic of Major League Baseball for a long time to come, if not forever. If baseball doesn’t get a grip on HGH, then the impact could be devastating. If the players and owners thought the fans were perturbed when the players went on strike in 1994 over moneyapparently, they were unhappy about only making $9 million per year instead of $10 millionthen the backlash regarding a lack of policy on HGH will unleash a powerful firestorm.

Before the government steps in and shows how inept the baseball owners and the commissioner’s office really is, Major League Baseball has to put its foot down and take a stand. Bud Selig must confront Donald Fehr and the player’s union and make them agree to a blood-testing policy. This isn’t just a move to save face. This could well be a move that will be needed to keep baseball from striking out for good.

SOURCE
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=2474247&type=story

Kevin Roberts
UConn Graduate Class of 2006 – B.A. in Journalism/Political Science
Torrington, CT 06790