im going to start offering domain accounts and i have read many forums here... seems to me that people are perfectly fine paying 8.95, although i dont understand that since you can buy them just about anywhere for around that price.

what are most people looking for when signing up for a domain name reseller account?

If you are a host/web designer, and you start to offer domain accounts as well, that will be an extra valuable feature you providing to your clients.
If you sign up for an reseller account directly from a registrar you might need to deposit something before you can use your account but if you sign up with some domain reseller they might not charge you that.so find out that before going for a reseller account.