I have been sending private messages to sellers seeking information on products to buy but many of my requests go unanswered. I always see replies 0, participants 2. I have noticed this since the change to the new system. It has been really hard to buy from the marketplace. Only about half of the people respond and those that do are usually resellers. The marketplace seems to be going downhill.
What kind of stuff are you looking to buy? If it's a digital good, it should be fairly simple because you can just pay for it and you get it instantly. https://marketplace.digitalpoint.com/ If it's something else, or the seller just doesn't list it in the digital goods marketplace, there isn't a whole lot we can do to force them to contact you (obviously it's there own loss for the sale).
If you are buying from people with the "Selling" tag on their thread, it shouldn't be resellers since they have to verify ownership of the domain.
I almost always use the "advanced search" to find offers. The new system does not allow to filter by WTS/WTB. I like the idea of verifying domains. However, having an auction to sell links seems silly because people forget about it once the auction ends. Maybe that is the problem? I'm still kinda confused by all the changes. I have had many people offers the same link for different prices though. Maybe those are the old threads?
I think you are incorrect. The new system will allow to filter thread by WTS and WTB. At the end of each section, they have "thread Display options". You can hit that and change the prefix to either "Selling" or "Buying" and click on "Set options" button to filter WTS and WTB kind off threads!
If you click on the button at the beginning of the thread.. it will sort them. You can click the SELLING button, or the BUYING button... it will bring up threads that are only SELLING.... or BUYING.