Insider’s Secrets to Selling on eBay

azfamily.com

More than 300 round-trip flights are being auctioned off on ebay starting at 5 cents Phoenix - Too good to be true? Not if you time it right. For a starting bid of five cents, some lucky travelers started the ball rolling on a round trip ticket on JetBlue.

It’s hard to believe but with today's economy,the airline says it’s putting the price of spontaneous weekend trips this fall into the hands of its customers.

JetBlue is the first airline to use eBay to auction off more than 300 last-minute flights, as well as several getaway vacation packages. This particular promotion boasts more than 20 destinations, but none out of Arizona.

The tickets are for up to two people, roundtrip. The majority of trips we found on eBay are out of New York to places like North Carolina and Chicago. Bidding closes this Sunday.

AAA received an e-mail from JetBlue today boasting the promotion. Agent Brian Korgel says if this deal "takes off" other airlines might follow with a similar type of special. But the reality is that by the time bidding ends on Sunday, the ticket price will go back to being a full fare.

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:48 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay has announced that as of September 15th 2008 Bid Assistant will no longer be available.

The removal plan
Starting the week of September 15th, the links to Bid Assistant will be removed from item pages and from My eBay, and buyers will no longer be able to create new groups of items within the tool. If you've used the Bid Assistant tool recently, or do so before September 15th, here’s how you'll be affected:

If you have an active Bid Assistant group as of September 15: You will still see the link to Bid Assistant in My eBay, and will be able to view your groups of items within the tool. The Bid Assistant tool will also continue to bid on the items within each group as scheduled. However, you will not be able to add or remove items from a group, or alter your maximum bids. Because these groups will essentially "lock" on September 15, make sure that you don't want to change anything within your Bid Assistant groups prior to that day.

If you have a closed Bid Assistant group as of September 15: You'll still be able to view your closed groups via the link in My eBay.

The Bid Assistant tool will then be removed from the site entirely in mid-October.

More info from eBay

Posted by eBay Guru at 12:48 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 04, 2008

eBay is modifying its Multiple Listings Limit policy according to a company moderator on the discussion boards. As described in the original policy on July 30, eBay began displaying only one identical item from the same seller in search results. On Wednesday, an eBay employee from "the Finding team" said beginning this week, the display of identical, fixed price, non featured items will be limited to one, but featured items and auctions will all display regardless of whether they have identical titles or not. Auction format and featured listings cost more for sellers to list.

The eBay employee wrote, "We're encouraged by the results we've seen in Fixed Price but haven't seen the same improvements in buyer metrics for Auctions. As such, we plan to make some changes to the implementation based on these insights."

It's unclear why eBay chose to release the news in a forum post rather than in an Announcement Board post.

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:13 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

eBay is testing new designs of the listing ("View Item") page. One part of the test is a new "merchandising module" that will display additional items from the same seller or from other sellers. eBay said sellers who do not wish to have other sellers' items appear on their item page can opt-out via preferences in My eBay. Opting out would also mean that seller's items would no longer appear on other sellers' pages.

eBay said the redesigned Item page Description section will be "flex" width, not fixed. The top section will be fixed width, but the lower Description section will fluctuate in width (as it does today) to accommodate the various types of listing templates used by sellers.

Sellers may preview their items in the new Item page by signing in and clicking the new preview link at the top of their listing to view the item as it would appear in the new design.

The test began running this week. eBay said a very small percentage of members will be randomly selected to see one of several new page variants that it is testing.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200808131250382.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:22 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hi everyone… I’m Naoki Ogishi from eBay's Mobile team. We've designed a better way for iPhone or iPod Touch users to access eBay. It's a free streamlined download from Apple's App Store, designed and built from the ground up specifically for your iPhone or iPod Touch. We've just released the first version which lets you search eBay, manage your My eBay and bid on items.

Here's how to install it:

If you're at a computer with iTunes installed, you can get it directly from the download page in iTunes.
If you have your iPhone or iPod Touch in front of you, just click the App Store icon and search for "eBay"—you can't miss our bright yellow icon.
I think you'll be amazed to see how fun it is to explore eBay using the touch interface on iPhone or iPod Touch.

In order to install eBay for iPhone, you must have the iPhone version 2.0 software installed. For more information, visit our eBay on iPhone page.

Sincerely,

Naoki Ogishi
Senior Product Manager,
eBay Mobile

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200808061436142.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 02:27 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

eBay announced that, starting this week, it will display only one identical item from the same seller in Search results, and will limit the number of unique listings for different items per seller to ten per page. In a case where a seller has a number of items - for instance 20 - that could potentially show up in the same search results, 10 will be shown on the first page, and the other 10 will be shown on the second page.

The changes are part of eBay's new Multiple Listings Limit policy announced in May.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200807311600062.html

For Strategies to Sell More on eBay

Posted by eBay Guru at 12:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

June 20, 2008 | 03:58PM PST/PT

Hi everyone...this is Subha Shetty with eBay's buyer experience team. I'm here in Chicago with my colleagues, and we recently hosted a class on the new item page that we'll introduce to the site in a phased rollout in a few weeks. I'd like to share the most important details with everyone.

Buyers and sellers have always relied on the item page. Sellers need this page to effectively showcase their items, while buyers need it to help them find the information they need to make a purchasing decision. Over the years, the page has suffered from "improvement overload" as more and more options and information have been added. The result is that today's page is cluttered and less efficient than it should be from both a buyer and seller perspective.

My team has spent a lot of time studying how buyers use this page and identifying the most important data. We've also done extensive testing on the best way to present these elements on this page. The result is a more streamlined page that gives buyers a quick snapshot of the most important information. Other details, such as high bidder and seller location, are still just a click away.

Here's a rundown of the most important changes:

It's more visual. Buyers love pictures. The new design includes a larger picture shown at the top of the page so they can clearly see what they're bidding on.

It's simpler. To make the page easier to use, we've moved some of the less critical features and put them behind tabs. We've also removed a few features that were under-used. The end result is a much cleaner page that emphasizes the most important information and features that buyers need when they make purchasing decisions. In addition, buyers will be available to place bids without having to go through as many steps.

Buyers get more selection – sellers get more exposure. Online shoppers today expect an experience that highlights value and selection, and the new item page is designed with this in mind. Buyers will see links to similar items from the same seller in various places on the page. (These placements are still being tested.)

Community input has been invaluable
We've been testing our new page since February. (Read an earlier interview with me on The Chatter blog about this test). The input and information learned has been invaluable, and several improvements were made as a direct result of what we heard from our Community.

For example, in the original test back in February, we had messaging on the page to alert buyers when a seller had low DSRs compared to other sellers on the site. Members told us that this display was confusing and caused more issues and concern than it solved. We've gone back to the drawing board on this aspect, and it will not be part of our initial launch.

See for yourself - check out a preview of the new item page
After all that, I know that seeing the page is much better than reading a description. To check it out and learn more about the new design, visit this page - http://pages.ebay.com/newitempage/. I also hope you’ll visit our Frequently Asked Questions to learn even more about the new item page.

Our launch plan
We'll be phasing in our latest variations of this page with very small groups of members (less than 1%) in the next week or so. If you're part of this initial launch, you'll see a link at the top of page where you can send us your feedback – and please do! You'll also be able to opt out of the new page if you wish. As time goes on, we'll be expanding the number of members who see the new page by default.

We appreciate your input and support! We'll be back with more updates soon.

Sincerely,

Subha Shetty
Buyer Experience

Original Announcement

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

eBay is testing a new shopper rewards program. Once shoppers sign up for the program, they earn eBay Bucks on qualifying purchases from May 15 through August 14. Participants will then have 30 days to spend the "bucks" on eBay. Purchases in certain categories are excluded from the promotion, such as all categories in Motors except Parts & Accessories; Classifieds; Live Auctions; Giving Works; Real Estate; and Business & Industrial Capital Equipment.

The reward amount is calculated as a percentage of the total qualifying amount spent, and it appears eBay is testing different percentage amounts with invitees. Some invited to the eBay Bucks Rewards Program also receive a starting balance.

eBay has been spending its marketing budget on such shopping programs this year, including coupon programs (http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/2/1204153476.html).

http://rewards.ebay.com/terms.jsp

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

eBay UK said beginning May 1, 2008, business sellers will have to accept returns for fixed price items that are returned within 14 days of receipt. eBay requires businesses to register as a business seller to comply with the UK's "Unfair Commercial Practices Directive," which according to eBay, "makes it an offence to falsely represent yourself as a consumer" (http://pages.ebay.co.uk/businesscentre/identification).

eBay UK said it will require business sellers to accept returns for a minimum period of 14 calendar days. They must also display the physical address of the business. There appeared to be some confusion over specific requirements from a few sellers discussing the new policy on the eBay UK discussion boards.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200804111012112.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 02:23 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

March 13, 2008 | 03:17PM PST/PT

Hi everyone…This is Vamsee Nalamothu from our Buyer Experience team on eBay. My team and I are excited to let you know about the launch of a new version of eBay Checkout that has been in testing for several weeks. When buyers pay for an item they’ve purchased or won, eBay Checkout takes them through the steps necessary to pick their payment method, select or add their shipping address, and do the other steps necessary to confirm payment for the seller.
Our new, improved Checkout makes this process faster and easier, so buyers can quickly pay for items they have won – and sellers can receive faster payments. Some of the highlights include:

A selectable progress meter -- so buyers can gauge where they are in the process
Simplified editing of information -- including shipping address and shipping carriers
Improved coupon, gift certificate and gift card redemption
Automatic default to multi-seller checkout -- so buyers can go through Checkout once to pay for multiple items from multiple sellers
Improved merchandising of seller inventory post-payment – so sellers have an even better opportunity to sell more items during the Checkout process.
eBay Checkout also reduces the need for back-and-forth communication between buyers and sellers, because all shipping enhancements like Shipping discounts are captured during the process. This makes it easier for buyers to pay, and should result in fewer unpaid items and faster payments to our sellers.

eBay Checkout has been customized to meet the specific needs of many of our international markets, too. (The new Checkout will not be available in China, Germany or India.)

Launch plans
The new Checkout is being expanded to more of the marketplace over the next several weeks. You may begin to experience the new Checkout and payment flow, and once you see it, it will be your new default except in cases where sellers use a third-party listing provider.

We hope you enjoy the new Checkout. To leave us comments, please go to our Checkout discussion forum.

Sincerely,
Vamsee Nalamothu
Buyer Experience team

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803131516532.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:52 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

March 14, 2008 | 11:40AM PST/PT

John McDonald
Hi everyone, I'm John McDonald with the US Trust and Safety team. As Jim Ambach, VP of Seller Experience, outlined in his announcement in January, we're making some changes that are intended to make the buying experience on eBay better and safer. As part of this initiative, expanded safer payment requirements are scheduled to go into effect on March 17.
Since January 2007, all new sellers have been required to offer PayPal or a merchant credit card as a payment option to their buyers. On March 17, this policy will be expanded to sellers or items when they meet one or more of the following conditions:

the seller has higher than 5% buyer dissatisfaction rates
the seller has less than 100 feedback
the items are listed in categories with higher rates of buyer complaints, including: Gift Certificates, Video Games, Cell Phones, Computers and Consumer Electronics.
In addition, for a small number of transactions that have a higher risk of buyer dissatisfaction, we may delay the release of funds paid through PayPal. This hold will be placed on only a small percentage of transactions for up to 21 days. Then the funds will be released if there is no dispute. The funds may be released earlier if the buyer leaves positive feedback, or if PayPal can confirm delivery of the item. Sellers enrolled in the PayPal Money Market Fund will earn interest on any pending funds in their PayPal accounts.

Your payments will not be held if you meet the following requirements:

You have been an eBay member for 6 months or more, and
Your total Feedback score is 100 or greater, and
Your buyer dissatisfaction percentage is less than 5%.
Or

Your average DSR is 4.5 or greater and
Your have received 20 or more DSRs in the last 12 months.
I know that there have been questions among our Community about payment holds. Monroe Labouisse, my colleague at PayPal, explains holds in further detail on his post to the PayPal blog – I definitely encourage you to read it.

For more information about safer payment requirements in general, see the safer payments section of our FAQ.

Sincerely,

John McDonald
eBay Trust & Safety

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200803141139352.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay may have found a solution that will make both auction and fixed-price buyers and sellers happier: a split-screen results page that shows auction listings on one side and fixed-price listings on the other.

While eBay has been showing a prototype of a split-screen search results page to investors for at least a month, AuctionBytes saw the split-screen live on eBay.com on Thursday, likely as part of a test randomly shown to a small number of visitors to the site

Searches for the terms "McCoy Vase"; "Apple Macbook"; and "Anne Klein shoes" all resulted in the split-screen display of results. On the left side, the auction listings were displayed in order of time ending soonest, while the fixed-price listings on the right side were shown with Best Match as the default sort order.

In the results we saw, listings showed up in both columns if they were auction-format with BIN. A pair of size 12R Mickey Mouse - Bunny boots showed up in a search for Anne Klein boots in both columns. The listing was displayed in the left "auction" column with a current bid price of $19.99, and the same listing was displayed in the right "Buy It Now" column at the BIN price of $29.99. eBay charges sellers an extra fee for using the BIN format.

eBay introduced the fixed-price BIN option to its site in 2000. Eight years later, fixed-price sales comprise 42 percent of total gross sales on the site. As eBay evolves into a more mature marketplace, it often makes policy and feature changes that long-time auction users feel hurt the traditional eBay experience. Many have suggested eBay segregate fixed-price "commodity" listings and auction "collectibles" listings. In fact, eBay's attempt to provide a fixed-price marketplace for new in-season items, eBay Express, has not fared well.

While a split-screen results page is not likely to address all of the concerns sellers have over the changes that have been rolling out since last year (and continue to roll out in 2008), it may be viewed as a positive step - particularly if auctions retain the "time ending soonest" sort default. And right now, eBay could use some positive feedback.

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com February 29, 2008

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

February 25, 2008 - 11:10AM

eBay Inc's customers do not need to open a web browser to search the site or auction an item anymore.

After a quick download, the online auctioneer's users can click the company's logo on their desktop and launch an application that will allow them to do their business directly - no browser required.

eBay is one of several companies, including Nasdaq Stock Market Inc, Time Warner Inc's AOL, Nickelodeon and Salesforce.com Inc, that have created downloadable, desktop versions of their websites using software developed by Adobe Systems Inc.

Adobe is launching the application, called AIR, on Monday. Adobe says AIR will allow any company with a website to inhabit a permanent spot on people's desktops.

It also reduces the wait time for downloading images and data, because the desktop is constantly updated while the computer is online.

Adobe says AIR runs on any operating system. It is a more powerful version of widgets, the customisable little web pullouts often provided by third parties like Google Inc.

The AIR application removes any kind of go-between, giving companies a direct, constant and versatile link to the consumer, said Adrian Ludwig, a spokesman for Adobe.

"The browser was in the way and the widget, in some instances, was in the way," Ludwig said. "It's the willingness to let the brand of the person providing the application to take front and centre."

© 2008 AP

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:57 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Evolving Feedback

The final set of changes I'd like to share with you concern Feedback. There's a lot of passion – in the Community and in the company – around the Feedback system, so I think it's important to remember our ultimate goal: We are evolving in many new areas so that eBay remains a vital, thriving marketplace that buyers will prefer over all the other choices they have on the Internet today.

To give you some background, the original intent of eBay's public feedback system was to provide an honest, accurate record of member experiences. Over the years, we've adjusted the system to add non-public means of providing feedback to try to improve its accuracy. For example, we instituted Unpaid Item Reports in 2006, and that has helped us to hold buyers accountable.

But overall, the current feedback system isn't where it should be. Today, the biggest issue with the system is that buyers are more afraid than ever to leave honest, accurate feedback because of the threat of retaliation. In fact, when buyers have a bad experience on eBay, the final straw for many of them is getting a negative feedback, especially of a retaliatory nature.

Now, we realize that feedback has been a two-way street, but our data shows a disturbing trend, which is that sellers leave retaliatory feedback eight times more frequently than buyers do ... and this figure is up dramatically from only a few years ago.

So we have to put a stop to this and put trust back into the system.

But I think – and I'm sure you'll agree – that the most compelling reason we need to change feedback is so that buyers will regain their confidence on eBay and they will bid and buy more often.

We explored a number of solutions, and talked to eBay's founder Pierre Omidyar, who created the Feedback system. He agrees that bold changes are required to fix Feedback. And that's exactly what we're going to do ... here's the biggest change, starting in May:

Sellers may only leave positive feedback for buyers (at the seller's option).

I know this is a huge change, but we're also putting into place protections that sellers have wanted for years. In addition to holding buyers accountable via non-public seller reporting tools, such as Unpaid Item reports, we are planning a number of other Seller Protections against inaccurate feedback:

We will remove, not just de-score, negative and neutral feedback when a buyer doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item process

We will remove all negative and neutral feedback and comments when a buyer (or seller) is suspended. We will also do this retroactively – which means any negatives and neutrals you've received from members we've ever suspended will be removed.

For sellers with an established track record, we'll prevent negative and neutral feedback within 3 days of listing end to promote communication.

We're going to reduce the number of days a member can leave feedback from 90 to 60 days.

We'll increase block bidder list capacity from 1,000 to 5,000 user IDs.

We'll increase our monitoring, and take action based on seller reports of buyers behaving very badly.
Feedback percentage will be based on the last 12 months, although the total count remains lifetime. This means that any negative or neutral feedback left for you more than 12 months ago will no longer affect your percent positive.
For more details, please see our information page.

Repeat Feedback Credit

The last change to Feedback that I think you'll love is that beginning in February, we're going to give all members credit for multiple purchases with the same buyer or seller when the listings end in different weeks. Sellers will now get the credit they deserve when their great service and selection results in repeat buyers.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801290559182.html

I

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
January 29, 2008

eBay will make Best Match the default-sort in search and browse throughout eBay, beginning March 2008. This switch to Best Match as the default for search and browse has already occurred in five categories, which launched on January 17, 2008 (Computers & Networking, Consumer Electronics, Cell Phones & PDA's, Cameras & Photo, and Toys & Hobbies).

Best Match will include seller performance factors that increase the odds of a good buying experience. eBay will give an advantage to sellers with high levels of customer satisfaction (4.6 DSRs and above) based on buyer input.

eBay said that today, more than half of all sellers have this high level of customer satisfaction. On the other hand, sellers will get decreased exposure if they have more than 5% dissatisfied buyers or very low Shipping & Handling Charge Detailed Seller Ratings over the last 30 days.

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m01/i29/s08

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
January 24, 2008

eBay is running a promotion to encourage Store purchases. The "eBay Stores Shop to Win Sweepstakes" kicked off on January 22 and runs through the end of January. Shoppers who buy a fixed-price, auction or Store inventory item from an eBay Stores seller and register have a chance to win over $50,000 in prizes. Each day, 160 buyers will be randomly selected to win an eBay Gift Certificate of $10, $50, or $100. Plus, a grand prize winner will be randomly selected, and both the buyer and seller will win $5,000 cash.

Winners must have or must create a PayPal account that has the same email address associated with the eBay User ID that was used to enter the Sweepstakes, and eBay Gift Certificates are valid only when recipient pays with and the seller accepts PayPal. See website for full terms and conditions.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801221523102.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:35 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

January 07, 2008 | 02:44PM PST/PT

Hi everyone, I'm Evan Liang with eBay's Buyer Experience team. In the next few weeks, we're going to make a couple of improvements to the buying process. Both of these changes will be relatively minor, but should give buyers more of the information they want.

Bid History -- more proxy bid information. To help educate users who aren't as familiar with proxy bidding, we're adding the option to let members see all the past proxy bids that were placed on an item. In short, buyers will be able to see the full bid history, including when our system automatically raised a buyer's bid to beat a subsequent bid. To see this expanded bid history once it rolls to the site, simply click the link labeled "Show automatic bids" above the Bid Time column on the right side of the table. One thing to be sure of – just like today, the high bidder's current proxy bid is not revealed. (Learn about the proxy bidding system here.)

Calculated Shipping amount to be displayed in more places. Currently, when the seller uses the Shipping Calculator, the shipping amount can be calculated on the item page but shows up as "Check item description" on other pages during the buying process. Later this month we'll be able to carry over the calculated rate and display it on the Review Your Bid page so that buyers can make a more informed decision. We will also display on the calculated rate on several other pages where we show shipping costs, such as the Bid History page and within Bid Assistant.

Sincerely,

Evan Liang
Buyer Experience

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200801071444302.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:57 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

November 05, 2007 | 02:56PM PST/PT

Evan Liang
Hello...I'm Evan Liang with eBay's Buyer Experience team. With the busy holiday season rapidly approaching, I'm excited to announce that we're launching Guest Buying, a new feature that we believe will help increase the number of new buyers who purchase sellers' Fixed Price and Store Inventory listings.
Why Guest Buying?
We've done a lot of research about buying habits as the Internet has evolved, and have been told repeatedly that requiring new buyers to register before they have a chance to really interact with eBay is a barrier to them taking the plunge (this is the same reason we introduced My eBay for Guests awhile back).

Today many online buyers expect to be able to visit a site and simply purchase and pay for an item with minimum hassle. Introducing Guest Buying will help encourage more first purchases by new buyers.

Here's how it works:

Guest buyers will be able to use Buy It Now to purchase eligible Fixed Price and Store Inventory items.
Guest buyers need to complete their payment through PayPal before the item is theirs, similar to Immediate Payment.
Your current PayPal settings will apply – if you require buyers to pay with a confirmed address, your Guest Buyers will need to do so as well.
Which listings are eligible for Guest Buying?
Your listings will be eligible to be purchased by Guest Buyers if you meet the following criteria:

You must have a premier/business PayPal account in order to accept credit card payments.
Shipping costs must be specified on your listing.
You must qualify for the top tier of buyer protection of $2,000.
The item price must be less than $2,000.
You must use eBay's checkout system. Third-party checkout will not be supported at this time.
Can Guest Buyers leave feedback?
No – at least not until they register. eBay will encourage Guest Buyers to register once they make a purchase. Once they do, they'll be able to use all the same features and programs our current buyers do, such as Feedback, Buyer Protection, access to Customer Support, etc.

The Launch Plan
We're going to introduce Guest Buying slowly over the next few weeks. We're going to start by making it available in our Music, Books, DVDs & Movies, and Consumer Electronics categories in the next few days, and will add more categories shortly thereafter. Within a few weeks, Guest Buying should be available sitewide.

Sincerely,

Evan Liang
Buyer Experience

November 05, 2007 | 02:56PM PST/PT

Evan Liang
Hello...I'm Evan Liang with eBay's Buyer Experience team. With the busy holiday season rapidly approaching, I'm excited to announce that we're launching Guest Buying, a new feature that we believe will help increase the number of new buyers who purchase sellers' Fixed Price and Store Inventory listings.
Why Guest Buying?
We've done a lot of research about buying habits as the Internet has evolved, and have been told repeatedly that requiring new buyers to register before they have a chance to really interact with eBay is a barrier to them taking the plunge (this is the same reason we introduced My eBay for Guests awhile back).

Today many online buyers expect to be able to visit a site and simply purchase and pay for an item with minimum hassle. Introducing Guest Buying will help encourage more first purchases by new buyers.

Here's how it works:

Guest buyers will be able to use Buy It Now to purchase eligible Fixed Price and Store Inventory items.
Guest buyers need to complete their payment through PayPal before the item is theirs, similar to Immediate Payment.
Your current PayPal settings will apply – if you require buyers to pay with a confirmed address, your Guest Buyers will need to do so as well.
Which listings are eligible for Guest Buying?
Your listings will be eligible to be purchased by Guest Buyers if you meet the following criteria:

You must have a premier/business PayPal account in order to accept credit card payments.
Shipping costs must be specified on your listing.
You must qualify for the top tier of buyer protection of $2,000.
The item price must be less than $2,000.
You must use eBay's checkout system. Third-party checkout will not be supported at this time.
Can Guest Buyers leave feedback?
No – at least not until they register. eBay will encourage Guest Buyers to register once they make a purchase. Once they do, they'll be able to use all the same features and programs our current buyers do, such as Feedback, Buyer Protection, access to Customer Support, etc.

The Launch Plan
We're going to introduce Guest Buying slowly over the next few weeks. We're going to start by making it available in our Music, Books, DVDs & Movies, and Consumer Electronics categories in the next few days, and will add more categories shortly thereafter. Within a few weeks, Guest Buying should be available sitewide.

Sincerely,

Evan Liang
Buyer Experience

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200711051456292.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
October 11, 2007
eBay has reversed its decision to display auction titles on the "Feedback as a Buyer" page. Some buyers reported being uncomfortable with the "snapshot" view of recently purchased items that was introduced earlier this year as part of eBay Feedback 2.0.

eBay announced the reversal on Wednesday through a posting on the General Announcement Board. The initial decision to include listing titles on the feedback pages had brought immediate controversy, according to eBay. "Buyers viewed this as an invasion of privacy, even though this information is readily available through advanced search. Sellers complained because they feared buyers would not bid/buy, since no other e-commerce site includes buyer purchase history so prevalently." (See AuctionBytes' coverage of the initial reaction to the feature in this March 2007 article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m03/i07/s01).

eBay said a survey of buyers showed over a third of them were concerned or extremely concerned with the visibility of the information on the "Feedback as a Buyer" page.

It appears eBay is leaving listing titles on the "Feedback as a Seller" page.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200703070938342.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 08:01 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

August 27, 2007 | 04:49PM PST/PT

Hi everyone...This is Subha again with eBay's Buyer Experience team. Buyers, take note! We're planning a couple of changes to bidding that we think will make it even faster – and more fun – to win the item that you want.
About 2% of members, selected at random, will see one of the tests described below:

1-Click Bidding
Back in July, I described 1-Click Bidding on the Chatter Blog. During the last 15 minutes of an auction, you'll see a small window with some key information, such as time left in the auction, current high bid, and most importantly, your status. This information will update every 3 seconds during the last 2 minutes of the listing.

What's more - if you are already a bidder on the listing, you can place a new bid from this window with a single click! If you are involved in a competitive auction, you know that as the clock winds down every second counts. Now there are no extra steps, like review and confirm your bid, to slow you down.

New bidding box on item page
We're saving you one more click – this time on the item page. Instead of having you click the Place Bid button to get into the bidding process, we're including a new field at the top of the page where you can type your bid amount directly and submit (just like you can currently do at the bottom of the page).

These tests are expected to last about a month. We'll keep you posted on our results, so stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Subha Shetty
Buyer Experience

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200708271649032.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

August 27, 2007 | 10:58AM PST/PT

Hi everyone, I'm Amit Goel with eBay's Local team. I'm here to tell you about a small change we're making very soon that will make it easier for sellers to specify whether they offer Local Pickup or Local Delivery. These options are especially useful for sellers who have items that are overly large or difficult to ship - items that would potentially be most attractive to buyers in their local area.
In the current listing process, sellers can only select a single "Local Delivery/Pickup" option when specifying their shipping methods. This blanket choice doesn't let sellers clearly specify which Local shipping methods they offer, so we’re going to split up the two options.

Sellers will soon be able to select "Local Delivery" and/or "Local Pickup" while listing. This change will apply to all our selling tools, such as the Sell Your Item form and Turbo Lister, and will be available through the API. You can also check out my video on The Chatter for more information.

Appeal to more buyers in your area by offering Local Pickup and/or Delivery today!

Sincerely,

Amit Goel
eBay Local

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200708271057532.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Persistence and homework pay off for eBay shoppers
By Paul Lee Cannon
Article Launched: 08/12/2007 01:34:45 AM PDT

"Insider eBay tips from die-hard shoppersFashion by eBayTop search terms for eBay shoppersAs an avid eBay bidder, I've won a few auctions (seven for All Mankind jeans for only $30!) and lost a few (I didn't really need those Prada loafers).

I've had some success as a seller, too, having once sold a pair of 1970s-era men's platform shoes for $150 (the opening price was $19.97) and a Jean Paul Gaultier shirt for $120 (opening price: $74.99).

When bidding, I find that persistence pays off, especially when vying for the more rare and in-demand items. Recently it's been DKNY or Calvin Klein duvets and All-Clad cookware. As for clothes, I always check for INC stuff, particularly to see if it's cheaper than retail prices. I've also been on this long and unsuccessful hunt for the perfect, stylish gym duffel bag.

If possible, always bid on the final day, if not during the final minutes, of an auction to maximize your chance of winning. Bid often, check often for new listings of the item and try different keywords. Most importantly, watch the end time of the auction like a hawk!"

For the complete article please click HERE

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:51 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

August 10, 2007 12:00am
EBAY is launching a five-minute "speed shopping" auction format aimed at ultra-competitive buyers.

The internet auction site will trial Speed eBay in three UK cities this month.

The auction website will set up touch-screen "pods" in public venues where up to three shoppers can bid against each other for a maximum five minutes.

Shoppers using the touch screens will compete only against each other and not against other online bidders

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22219156-662,00.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:59 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

July 31, 2007 | 12:40PM PST/PT

Hi everyone…I'm Dan Kramer from eBay's Finding team. For the past several years, sellers have been able to use Item Specifics to describe specific attributes about their items like color, size, and condition. Item Specifics are a great way to complement your title and description.
We're working on ways to make Item Specifics more versatile. In the next few days, we'll be launching a limited test of what we call Custom Item Specifics.

About Custom Item Specifics
Custom Item Specifics are a bit like "tags" that you find on other user-generated content throughout the internet. Essentially, they allow you to create an attribute and keywords for that attribute. For example, let's say you're listing in the Washers and Dryers category. You could create your own Item Specifics that give your buyers important details such as "Brand: Maytag," "Capacity: 3.8 cu. ft.," and "Energy Rating: Energy Star Compliant." This gives you the power to quickly add and display the information that will be most important to your buyers.

Custom Item Specifics are created during the listing process. Depending on your item, we may recommend that you use certain Custom Item Specifics during the listing process, because we've seen them used successfully for similar items in the past. The system will "learn" over time, so the recommendations will get better as more items are listed and sold.

All of these details will then be displayed on the item page where the standard Item Specifics are shown today. Not only will these Custom Item Specifics help you better describe your items, but they'll also be factored in when buyers search by title and description. (Note to sellers: Just make sure you choose keywords that are relevant – all Custom Item Specifics will be subject to our policies around keyword spamming).

Our testing plan
Initially, Custom Item Specifics will be introduced in roughly 90 categories (which is less than 1% of categories on the site). These categories have been chosen because they do not offer Item Specifics currently except "Item Condition." Sellers listing in these categories will be able to create and display their own Item Specifics – including both the attribute and the value.

Custom Item Specifics will be available for sellers listing in the selected categories through the Sell Your Item form and through the API in the next few days. They'll be added to Turbo Lister a few weeks later.

If our test goes well, we'll expand it to more categories in the next few months. In the meantime, thanks for your support. I'll be back with more updates as we have them.

Sincerely,

Dan Kramer
Finding Team

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200707311240222.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 12:51 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

***Updates on eBay Express***

June 08, 2007 | 10:16AM PST/PT

Hi everyone...this is Lara Housser with eBay Express. Like many folks around here, my team and I are gearing up for eBay Live! Not only is this one of our favorite events of the year, it's also a special occasion for another reason -- eBay Express turns 1 year old!
Did you know that on eBay Express an item of clothing is sold every 67 seconds, a piece of jewelry every 2.3 minutes, and a DVD every 4 minutes? The word is building that eBay Express is THE place for buyers who want that great eBay deal and who at times prefer fixed-price items. Furthermore, 9 out of 10 buyers have told us they love the shopping experience that eBay Express offers.

This is all excellent news for a site that's barely one year old, and we want to thank the eBay Community for all your support in helping to make eBay Express's first year a success.

If you haven't visited eBay Express lately, I invite you to come check it out. We’ve added a host of new features recently to make it even easier to buy and sell. Here’s a quick rundown of what's new:

More convenient shopping features, such as the ability to search for wish lists, see your recently viewed items on the eBay Express home page, and send notes to sellers during the Check Out process.

More merchandising exposure for sellers, such as the new 'Added-to-Cart' page. Once a buyer adds your item to their cart, we showcase more of your merchandise to them, highlighting shipping discounts where offered, as well as related items. (See for yourself by adding an item to your shopping cart.)

More integration with eBay.com, including a new section in My eBay with your eBay Express shopping cart details and a handy link to eBay Express from the eBay.com navigation header.

Inclusion of Half.com listings for Half.com sellers who opt in. (Read our previous announcement to learn more.)
A note to our sellers – Remember that getting your listings included on eBay Express requires no additional work beyond what you're already doing to sell on eBay.com! (For more information about qualification, read our eBay Express Selling Checklist.)

Stay tuned for more improvements in the future. And if you're heading out to Boston for eBay Live! next week, make sure to stop by the eBay Express booth so we can meet you.

Sincerely,

Lara Housser
Director, eBay Express

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200706081016052.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 01:43 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

buyer's new best friend - Bid Assistant
Tired of losing auctions and having to search another item to bid on? Very soon we'll be launching a new bidding tool that manages your bids and makes winning items at the right price easier. Bid Assistant will place bids for you on a series of items from your Watch list - all in one simple step.

For instance, let's say you're shopping for a new Canon digital camera, and you have five that you like on your Watch list. Using Bid Assistant, you simply create a bid group from your Watch list and enter the maximum amount you want to pay. This amount could be the same for all five – or you could specify different amounts for each listing based on, say, the varying item condition. It's up to you.

Once set up, Bid Assistant will place your maximum bid on the item that's ending soonest. While the listing is active, our bidding system will automatically update your bid amount UP TO your maximum amount you gave to Bid Assistant, as necessary.

At the end of the listing, if you win, you get to celebrate your victory! The rest of your listings will not be bid on by Bid Assistant. But if you lose, Bid Assistant will automatically bid on the item ending next. This pattern continues until either you win one of the cameras (woo hoo!), or all five listings end.

Bid Assistant makes it easier for you to win items and saves you time. To learn more, check out our information page.

Take eBay with you - eBay To Go
Those of you who maintain your own website, blog or social networking profile will have a lot of fun with our new eBay To Go product. With just a few simple steps, you can create an eBay To Go widget to showcase eBay listings, or even just your favorite eBay search. In moments, you'll have a fun and functional eBay widget ready to be embedded into your own site. It's perfect for sharing the eBay listings that you’re passionate about with your own web audience.

To learn more and to get started, visit togo.ebay.com. It's free, fun and fast, so check it out!

May 17, 2007 | 04:48PM PST/PT http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200705171647452.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 03:26 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

May 03, 2007 | 03:20PM PST/PT

eBay Announcement

Hi...I'm Jeff King, and I lead the Finding team here at eBay. As part of eBay's strategy, the folks on my team have been working on improving how people find things on eBay. After all, you can't win that item if you can't find it. Redesigning something so crucial to eBay is a huge undertaking, but, fortunately, we’re coming from a strong base of knowledge in this area.
For years, eBay's proprietary search technology has supported a marketplace that gets hundreds of millions of searches a day. In addition, my team has gained valuable insight from other new finding experiences that we've introduced on eBay – like eBay Express, our redesigned search results test (which we ran last winter), Best Match, and Motors 2.0. Your input and feedback on these projects has been invaluable, helping us figure out what works well and what does not.

The development cycle for projects like this requires lots of research, good design and development and, most importantly, ample testing in real market conditions. In the next few weeks, we'll be running a test of our latest Finding technology. For about six weeks, a small percentage of buyers (around 1%) will see a different search experience than what is currently available on eBay. This is project is similar to the "New Way to Shop" which we first tested back in 2005, although it has evolved significantly since then.

We think that this new technology will make eBay's search one of the most intelligent on the web, putting the right items in front of the right buyers more than ever before. In this new Finding experience, we'll still return listings where the item titles and descriptions match your search terms. And now we'll also use other elements of a listing as well (such as item specifics and category). This gives buyers the best chance of finding what they want without having to "guess at" all the terms the seller could've used in their item title.

As a simple example, if a buyer in the test searches for "red size 12 shoes," instead of looking just for listings with the words "red," "size," "12," and "shoes," the search engine will find all of the items in the shoe category that are size 12 in the color red. In the end, the buyer should see more relevant items. Plus they'll see a new way to narrow their listings results according to important details such as size, color, type, etc.

Because Finding is so important, you can continue to expect extensive testing like this as we work to ensure our designs and technology work for the marketplace. We expect this particular test to run about six weeks to allow us time to collect data and member input.

On behalf of my entire team, we appreciate your feedback and support.

Sincerely,

Jeff King
Senior Director, Finding

Posted by eBay Guru at 01:07 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

April 25, 2007 | 10:57AM PST/PT

Hi… this is Brian Burke again. In early March we introduced changes to the eBay Feedback system in eight pilot markets worldwide (Australia, Belgium, France, India, Ireland, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom). During the past eight weeks we have evaluated the adoption rate, the impact on bidding and listing, and overall Community reaction in these markets.
Results have been positive. We're seeing a high adoption rate of the new features in Feedback, and there has been no negative impact to bidding and listing. I'm also pleased that, while some members in these communities were initially concerned about these changes, since the launch we've received an increasing number of positive comments, both from buyers and sellers.

Based on these results, today I'm pleased to announce that we will be launching these added features to the Feedback system on eBay.com and all other sites around the world during the week of April 30th 2007:

Detailed Seller Ratings – In addition to the current positive, negative or neutral comment, buyers will be able to rate their sellers on specific aspects of a transaction -- Item Description, Communication, Shipping time and Shipping & Handling Charges. Scores are based on a conventional 1 to 5 scale, with 1 being the lowest and 5 the being the highest rating. The average score for each rating will be displayed on the seller's Feedback Profile page.

Item Title and Price – To give buyers more information while they are evaluating the reputation of a seller, the transaction's item title and selling price will display beneath each Feedback comment on the Feedback Profile page for 90 days.

As a reminder, Detailed Seller Ratings and the other changes do not replace the current Feedback system, rather they augment it. This additional information will enable our best sellers to differentiate themselves from other sellers and enable buyers to make more informed decisions prior to purchasing.

Here are some additional resources to help you get more information:

Overview of the new Feedback profile page
Overview of the new "Leave Feedback" flow
Frequently Asked Questions about the new Feedback system
I appreciate all the input and support we've received from our members, who I know are passionate about Feedback. These changes help ensure that eBay's Feedback system continues to be a credible measure of trust in the ever growing and changing eBay marketplace.

Sincerely,
Brian Burke
Director, Global Feedback Policy

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200704251057402.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:54 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Combined Shipping Discounts lets sellers offer discounted shipping rates when a buyer purchases multiple items from them – a great way to encourage repeat sales. In the next week or so, you'll see the following improvements to this feature:

Extended Merchandising. Buyers looking at your items will now see new messaging that encourages them to make multiple purchases from you to take advantage of your combined shipping discounts. We're also making it easy for them to "window shop" during the buying process and view your items where your discounts apply.

Different Discounts for Different Items. Now sellers have the flexibility to set different discount shipping rules for different items. For example, you can set discount rules for your bowling ball sales that are different from your discount rules for your bowling glove sales. Since the shipping costs can vary greatly from item to item, this gives sellers much more flexibility.

Promotional Shipping. In contrast to offering shipping discounts per item, Promotional Shipping allows you to set a special shipping rate on all of your sales that meet some criteria. For example, you could choose to offer "Free Shipping When You Spend $25!" or "Buy 3 items and shipping is only $5!" This is a great new marketing tool for sellers to consider as part of their strategy.
To learn more about Combined Shipping Discounts, visit our information page.

Talk to the Shipping team – Attend an Online Workshop!
We will be hosting an online workshop on Friday, April 13th at 1:00 p.m. Pacific time. Stop by to learn more about how to use these shipping discounts, and how they can help your business

the officiial eBay announcement

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:16 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay Motors Redesigned to Help Buyers Find and Research Vehicles
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
February 16, 2007

"eBay has redesigned eBay Motors with new features that will let buyers research, find, and buy a vehicle, all in one place, the company announced on Monday. It will "pilot" some major enhancements, including easier access to car values and ratings and reviews and local search, beginning this month.

eBay said the new eBay Motors home page is designed to make it easier to find vehicles. Shoppers can browse for cars and trucks by type (such as sedan, convertible, etc.), or search for a particular make/model. eBay has also added new navigation across the eBay Motors site so visitors can quickly jump right to Cars & Trucks, Parts & Accessories, Motorcycles, Powersports, Boats, or Other Vehicles."

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200702121024392.html

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com

eBay has renamed its Ad Format feature "Classified Ads," and will make several enhancements to the classifieds listing format in late February. eBay had expanded Ad Format beyond Real Estate to other categories 1 year ago, where - in eBay's words - "more time and communication is common before a deal is closed."

There are no binding transactions involved with Classified Ad listings, and eBay encourages sellers to use the format to generate multiple leads. Classified Ad listings appear alongside auctions and fixed-price listings in eBay search results. Formerly the format was available exclusively in the Real Estate category, but was expanded last February to Websites and Businesses for Sale; Trade Show Booths; Prefabricated Buildings; Travel; Specialty Services; and Everything Else.

Despite this, many eBay sellers appear to be unaware of Ad Format, something that might change now that eBay is renaming the feature.

eBay also plans to add improved lead-management functionality to "My eBay" for Classified Ads, and it is adding Best Offer support. eBay said sellers would be able to list phone number and business hours in their listings, which buyers will see near the top of the item page, but made no specific mention of any special Skype functionality.

eBay announced the changes to developers so they could prepare to work with new listing requirements. eBay told developers the "AdType" listing type for Classified Ads would require the new "LeadGeneration" ListingType and "ClassifiedAd" ListingSubtype for all new and relisted items (http://ebaydeveloper.typepad.com/dev/2007/02/tech_support_al.html).

Microsoft and Google have each rolled out classifieds services of their own (Windows Live Expo and Google Base, respectively), and eBay must also compete with classifieds sites such as Craigslist (of which eBay is a 25 percent shareholder), and the one rolled out by a former eBay engineer called LiveDeal.com. eBay has also rolled out its own classifieds site, Kijiji.com, internationally as well as owning Rent.com and Marktplaats.

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/f-ad.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 02:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Today eBay introduced a new tool called Markdown Manager for eBay Stores subscribers. The free tool allows you to offer discounted pricing to buyers by putting your Fixed Price and Store Inventory items "on sale." Your Sale items will display special strike-through pricing on the item page, along with a "Sale" logo, so buyers can easily see the discount offered.

Key features of Markdown Manager include:

A quick, easy process to create a Sale item.
Easy management and scheduling capabilities.
Ability to apply discounts to specific listings, categories, or across all your Store Inventory or Fixed Priced listings.

More Infohttp://www.ebay.com/storefronts/markdownmanager.html

Tutorial http://pages.ebay.com/stores/markdown-manager/tutorial/index.html

FAQs http://pages.ebay.com/storefronts/faq.html#markdown_manager

eBay Announcementhttp://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200701.shtml#2007-01-31111858

Thursday, February 8th at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time Workshop http://forums.ebay.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1000432344&ssPageName=CMDV:WC0500

Posted by eBay Guru at 04:08 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hello...This is Rob Chesnut, eBay's Senior Vice President of Trust & Safety. I've been working with my partner at PayPal, Dan Levy, Senior Director of Consumer Protection, on a joint effort to increase the protection we offer buyers on eBay. Buyer Protection is important to the Community – buyers and sellers alike – because the confidence and trust that buyers have in transacting on eBay fuels the whole marketplace.
As you know, we've built our Online Dispute Resolution system to ensure that buyers and sellers get the opportunity to work things out before a dispute results in a claim. But when a buyer is making the critical decision whether or not to place a bid or buy an item, just knowing up front that there is protection answers the "what if" questions – this peace of mind gives buyers the confidence they need to choose eBay, especially when buying more expensive items.

To help increase buyer trust on eBay, next week we will be expanding coverage on eBay.com in the U.S. and eBay Canada on items paid for with PayPal in these ways:

PayPal will be offering $200 of protection with NO processing fee on ALL PayPal transactions for tangible goods in the U.S (excluding Live Auctions and vehicles). In Canada, all PayPal transactions for tangible goods will be covered up to $315 CA. PayPal is offered on over 95% of listings in the U.S., so buyers can choose to be protected on the vast majority of listings. There is no processing fee, no minimum purchase price, and no seller requirements.

PayPal Buyer Protection will be increased to cover up to $2,000 for tangible items listed by qualified sellers in the U.S. This is a huge increase in coverage for high-end items being bought and sold on eBay. It doubles the current $1,000 coverage offered for tangible items listed by qualified sellers. And over 75% of listings in the US qualify. Note: in Canada, tangible items listed by qualified sellers will be covered for up to $2,000 CA.
Qualified items will clearly indicate the amount of coverage available on the item page. This means that buyers will know – right at the time they are making their buying decisions – that they are covered if they pay with PayPal.

There is one more important change we'll be making at eBay. Beginning next week, eBay will discontinue the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program (SPPP) in the U.S. and Canada.

This program, which was established in 1999 before eBay acquired PayPal, has covered all eBay transactions, except for items paid for with cash or instant money transfer services, for up to $200 minus a $25 processing fee. In the early days of eBay, the program served an important function, providing some measure of purchase protection for paper transactions (cashier’s checks, money orders and personal checks) that constituted the bulk of eBay transactions. The time and costs associated with verifying a dwindling number of non-PayPal paper claims, however, has led to a poor user experience. Buyers also expressed frustration with the $25 processing fee.

But there's another issue with SPPP that becomes more important as eBay grows. From a risk management and fraud prevention perspective, SPPP is flawed, because it offers coverage on the riskiest payment methods. This is clearly not in the best interests of the marketplace long-term.

While eBay has established an Accepted Payments policy and we do allow other established payment methods on the site, one thing is true - PayPal is a safe way to pay on eBay. PayPal enables eBay members to shop without sharing their financial information with sellers, and PayPal's sophisticated fraud prevention mechanisms are eBay's best defense against internet fraud. We want to build on this solid foundation. These changes in our protection programs are important in our efforts to encourage safer transactions, improve customer satisfaction, and provide more coverage for more transactions than we can today.

These changes to the protection we offer buyers are important to the future health of our marketplace and the growth of our sellers' businesses. We'll be answering questions about these changes in an upcoming workshop, so please stay tuned for the date and time.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200701.shtml#2007-01-10090135

Posted by eBay Guru at 01:59 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay's Finding team have introduced a new option that allows you to sort by category.
Sorting by category gives buyers a sense of the wide breadth of items available on eBay. You can find this option in the "Sort by" drop-down menu at the top of your search results.

How the "Category" sort works
This sort groups the listings in your search results by the category they were listed in. A header for each category represented will be followed by several listings, along with a link to see all the listings in that category that meet the search criteria.

For example, if you use this sort after searching for "Harry Potter," the first group of listings may be from the DVDs & Movies category, the next group from Books, and the next from Toys, etc.

The categories that are displayed are those that are most relevant to your search terms based on the same logic as our Best Match sort option (click here to learn more about Best Match). Please note, though, that the individual listings shown under each category header are simply those ending soonest from the most relevant subcategories.

A thread on the Search discussion board with a list of Frequently Asked Questions and a screenshot that show you where to find the Category sort.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200701.shtml#2007-01-08154913

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

QSRweb.com | ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A lucky Domino’s Pizza customer, who also is an astute eBay user, bought a brand-new 2007 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible courtesy of Domino's Pizza for $9.99 on New Year’s Day.

According to a news release, the wheel deal was part of Domino’s kickoff for its Anything Goes Deal. For $9.99 customers can get any large pizza on any crust with any toppings.

To celebrate its new Anything Goes attitude, Domino's developed an innovative contest using eBay.com, where a variety of premium items are being made available daily for just $9.99.

As the ball dropped in New York City's Times Square, Domino's kicked off the contest by posting the first item, a 2007 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible, for sale for the fabulous price of $9.99 on eBay. In less than a minute, one lucky winner found the car on eBay and bought it.

"From pizzas to a new Saab convertible, no one delivers a great deal like the delivery experts at Domino's Pizza," said Ken Calwell, Domino's chief marketing officer. "We launched the Anything Goes Deal promotion to offer great value to our customers. Then we thought, why stop there? Ours is a pizza deal with no limits. Why not a promotion with no limits where truly anything goes? I don't think there is anyone else out there who has delivered a car for such a great deal, and we're just getting started."

Through Feb. 5, Domino's is selling approximately $250,000 worth of premium items on the auction site for just $9.99 each. Among the new items posted daily:

Apple iPod Nanos
Apple laptop computers
XM Satellite Radio with a 1-year subscription
Sony Flat Screen TV
A year's supply of Domino's Pizza and Coca-Cola

Consumers can get more information regarding how to participate at anythinggoesdeal.com. Once on the site, users participate in short games of skill which, if done correctly, provide clues needed to find prizes. Prizes go to the first qualified buyer to locate them.

Posted by ebay news guy at 09:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

It never ceases to amaze me the number of eBay sellers who have fairly insecure passwords. Even the larger companies I deal with are prone to creating simple, highly insecure passwords. Judging by the number of sellers I personally know who have had their accounts compromised, eBay is a prime target for password attacks.

Now, like you, I hate to create a complex password I can't remember. So here's a little background on what it takes to hack an eBay password and how you can create highly un-hackable password you can remember.

Rule #1 - Create a password longer than 4 characters
The more characters in a password, the harder it is to crack. You probably knew this already, but did you know that a password of 4 characters or less can be hacked instantly using any number of commercial programs?

Rule #2 - Use upper and lower case letters in your password plus digits
Lowercase letters are the easiest to break. Adding upper case letters increases the level of difficulty, but is still not the best solution. Adding a digit is also a good idea. See Rule #3 below.

Rule #3 - Incorporate the full set of ASCII characters in your password
What's an ASCII character? Anything on your keyboard is an ASCII character, but the characters above the numbers (!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,(,)) are particularly useful in creating a powerful password. Here's an example. If my password is "ebay" a password-breaking program would crack this instantly. If my password is "ebay3" it would take 2 minutes to get into my account. If I added an uppercase letter and made my password "eBay3" it would now take 12 minutes to gain access. But if I added an ASCII character, "eBy!3" it will now take 4 hours to get into my account.

Rule #4 - Choose an uncommon or non-existent word
Common English words are subject to Dictionary attacks. This is where a password cracking program runs through every word in the dictionary to find your password. Even if you put two common words together to create one that is not an actual word, for example "sidebook," a dictionary attack can still find it.

Now, here's a simple way to create a secure password you can remember that complies with all the rules above. Think of a sentence that describes something you can remember. For example, "I lived at 45 Maple Street in Ohio" or "My 3rd grade teacher was Mrs. Snyder at McKnight. Then, create your password by taking the first letter or number from each word in the sentence. So, our first example would become "Il@45MSiO" and the second would be "M3gtwMS@M".

Want to know how long it would take a program to crack those passwords? 44,530 years. Yes, it would take a program that long. If you remove the @ sign and replace it with the letter "a" it drops to 178 years, but still a very powerful password.

Now, make a resolution for the New Year to keep your eBay account secure and change that flimsy password to something powerful!

By Allison Hartsoe
AuctionBytes.com

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Kevin Newcomb, Clickz.com

Domino's Pizza is teaming up with eBay to create an online treasure hunt for clues leading to $9.99 "Buy It Now" offers for Apple iPods, flat screen TVs, and other prizes.

The "Anything Goes Deal" from Domino's runs from January 1 to February 5. An offline component lets customers buy any pizza for $9.99. The online treasure hunt is an extension to that offer.

"As we continued thinking about value, we thought, why stop at pizza for just $9.99? Why not a DVD player or a computer? Maybe even a car," Ken Calwell, Domino's chief marketing officer, said in a statement.

Beginning Jan. 1, Domino's will sell items such as Apple iPod nanos, Gibson guitars, and Sony flat screen televisions on eBay for $9.99. Contestants must first complete games of skill at the contest Web site. Once completed, they'll get a clue to help find the item on eBay. The first person to solve the clue each day and find the featured item will be allowed to buy it for $9.99.

The scavenger hunt theme was used in AOL's recent Gold Rush contest, where contestants had to search across AOL's network and offline partners to find clues to help them complete a challenge and become eligible to compete on the CBS TV reality show.

This isn't the first time Domino's has teamed up with eBay for an online promotion. In 2003, the company ran two online promotions with the auction giant, with back-to-school and college football themes.

Posted by ebay news guy at 02:21 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Antone Gonsalves,

A majority of Americans expect to receive an unwanted holiday gift this year, but even more of them are OK with rewrapping that unwanted tie and giving it to someone else, online marketplace eBay says.
More than 57% of respondents in eBay's third annual Holiday Re-Gifting Survey said they usually receive holiday presents they could do without. But rather than return the turkey to the store, 69% said it's socially acceptable to secretly unload it on someone else. That compares with 49% last year.

Indeed, more than a third of Americans who took the survey said they were likely to regift this year, versus 21% last year, eBay said. People say they're willing to pass along gifts because they believe the chances of getting caught are slim. But while 85% of survey respondents said they've never been caught, about a third said they knowingly received a second-hand gift.

The survey also found that those people who admitted dumping gifts often gave them to friends and co-workers. Grandma, grandpa, mom, and dad were least likely to get such gifts.

The most popular regifted items were knick-knacks, bottles of wine or spirits, DVDs, CDs, books, bath products, and fruitcakes.

Survey.com conducted the poll on behalf of eBay in November. The survey, released Thursday, was completed by 500 people over the age of 18.

http://www.techweb.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196701495

Posted by eBay Guru at 03:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Back in 1995 when eBay, www.ebay.com or www.ebay.ca, the Canadian site, was originally launched on the Internet, it was a place to trade collectables and hard-to-find items. Today eBay is a massive global marketplace where you can buy and sell just about anything you can think of.

There are three ways to buy goods on eBay. Probably the most popular is the auction-style method that involves bidding on an item within a specific period of time. When the time is up, the highest bidder gets the goods. This can be very exciting and a lot of fun, even addictive.

Very often you can end up with a great bargain. Sometimes though, you may pay far too much with the seller realizing a great sale. It goes both ways. Some sellers offer products at a specific price and you can choose to avoid the auction route by simply making the purchase. These items are flagged with a "Buy it Now" option. If you want something specific you can post a "Want It Now" message. A seller with an item that meets your criteria can then contact you to negotiate the sale.

Buying basics

To just take a look around and "browse" for goods, you don't have to register. However to bid or buy, you must register on eBay. Registration is free and it's simple. Look for the "Register" link at the top of any page and complete the registration form.

You'll be asked for some personal information such as your name, address, telephone number, etc., and you must choose a user ID and password that you sign in with and use when you bid and buy. Once you complete and submit the form, you receive a confirmation e-mail with instructions to finalize your registration. Then, you can start bidding and buying.

Finding what you are looking For

Browse categories -- To see what eBay has to offer you can browse the categories listed on the home page. Start by clicking the "Buy" button in the header. The Buy page comes up with a list of categories. It's as easy as clicking on the category you are interested in, for example, Musical Instruments. Musical Instruments is sub-divided into even more categories such as Guitars. Click on Guitars and you are presented with a list of all the guitars offered for sale. On the day I checked there were 82,214 guitars listed!

Search by keyword -- If you're looking for something specific the simplest way to find it is to us the "Search" option by typing keywords that best describe what you are looking for.

Make sure you know what you are buying

Once you find an item that interests you, click on its name to view a description. Read the item description completely, checking for item details (size, colour, etc), accepted payment methods, postage costs and return policy. If you have a question you can contact the seller directly. Be sure to check the seller's eBay reputation by clicking on the Feedback rating (the number in brackets) beside the seller's User ID and read what other buyers say about the seller's reliability, product quality and level of service. When ready, you can place your bid by clicking on the "Place Bid" button.

You'll have to keep checking back to continue bidding as the selling price rises. When the specified time is up, if you are the highest bidder you are the winner and it's time to pay.

Paying for your Item

Goods are only sent to you once the seller has received payment. This ensures that you pay quickly. After you have won the item, you must either contact the seller or check the seller's listing or e-mail invoice to find out what their preferred payment method is.

Sellers on eBay offer a variety of ways to pay. PayPal is the most popular method of electronically paying for purchases. It is an account-based system that lets anyone with an e-mail address securely send and receive online payments using their credit card or bank account. PayPal is free for buyers. For more information and to register, visit www.paypal.com.

You can also deposit payment directly into the seller's bank account either online or at most banks. For more expensive items you can use an escrow service, where your money is held by a trusted third party giving you time to inspect the item. For a small fee, an escrow service holds the buyer's payment and forwards it to the seller after the buyer receives and approves the item.

Once the item arrives, check it thoroughly to make sure it fits the description and has arrived in good condition. If you are pleased with your purchase, leave the Seller Feedback and encourage them to do the same for you.

Happy shopping.

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:14 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay Eliminates Pre-Approved Bidders Feature
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
December 07, 2006
The optional Pre-Approved Bidder feature is used by some sellers to eliminate nuisance bidding and to control who may bid on their items. Users not on a seller's pre-approved list are asked to contact the seller by email before they can place a bid on the item. But apparently scammers may have been using the feature to collect email addresses of potential bidders.

A seller who contacted eBay about the change posted the response she received from customer support that cites Trust & Safety concerns. "Pre-Approved Bidder is being discontinued because it enables sellers to collect, and potentially misuse, the email addresses of prospective bidders. Inappropriate use of bidder information is, of course, a violation of the eBay Privacy Policy. Occasionally, sellers who have been approved by eBay may receive limited access to this feature."

But another seller questioned why eBay wouldn't keep the feature, but prevent sellers from seeing the potential bidder's email address.

eBay's attempts to thwart scammers through policy changes are often met with mixed reviews as well as skepticism - and frustration - from users.

A reader who contacted AuctionBytes about the impending change to the Pre-Approved Bidder feature said, "There goes one of the most powerful tool sellers have to keep Nigerian Scammers away from their higher priced BINS. No mention of it in eBay's announcements. Just this notice on the Pre-Approve page. Guess who won't be listing any more higher priced BINS now? Anybody who's been scammed by Nigerian Scammers using BIN - a group that includes myself."

eBay Motors recently instituted a new bidding policy called Safeguarding Member IDs, also in an effort to thwart scammers. That policy reduces the transparency of bidding activity for shoppers on eBay Motors for items that reach $200 in an effort to fight scammers who employ spoof phishing techniques. eBay also rolled out Safeguarding Member IDs on the UK site (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m11/i03/s01).

The elimination of Pre-Approved Bidder lists helps protect bidders, but prevents sellers from trying to protect themselves from scam bidders. Similarly, while the Safeguarding Member IDs is designed to cut down on phishing emails targeted at bidders, it also hinders bidders' efforts to detect shill bidding from sellers.

eBay sellers are also frustrated over a new initiative by eBay to counter the sale of counterfeits on the site (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m11/i29/s01). eBay began conducting manual reviews of sellers listing items prone to counterfeiting - leaving some sellers unable to list during critical holiday-shopping days.

An eBay spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the company will be eliminating the Pre-Approved Bidder feature for sellers. Catherine England said the change would take place after the holiday shopping season, but could reveal no details about the change at this time. eBay is currently alerting sellers of the impending change through messaging on the site, such as the notice on this page (http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/biddermanagement.html), but has not posted it to the main announcement board.

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
November 29, 2006

eBay has rolled out a major new initiative to fight the problem of counterfeit goods and will begin scrutinizing all sellers who list items that are particularly susceptible to counterfeiting. eBay already prohibits the sale of counterfeits on its site and has a VeRO program for rights-holders to report violations. But companies such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior Couture have filed lawsuits against eBay claiming it is not doing enough to fight the problem (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m09/i22/s03).

The new initiative was announced to some sellers by phone on Tuesday, and eBay said sellers need to adapt to four "safeguards" that make up the new program. The initiative only applies to items particularly susceptible to counterfeiting. eBay will not provide sellers with a list of those items, however, stating those items often change, and that providing such a list publicly would help counterfeiters.

The four safeguards of the program are as follows:

1) Sellers who list items that appear on eBay's list of items particularly susceptible to counterfeiting (which we'll herein call eBay's anti-counterfeiting list) must become PayPal verified. However, those sellers are not required to offer PayPal as a payment option in their listings.

2) eBay will conduct manual "seller reviews" for sellers who list items on its anti-counterfeiting list. eBay will not authenticate items, but will use various information to determine if sellers will be permitted to sell such items. eBay would not get specific about exactly what criteria they would consider during the review process, but said it would consider "a variety of factors."

3) eBay will ban 1-day and 3-day auctions of all items on its anti-counterfeiting list to give eBay members and rights-holders enough time to review items.

4) eBay will restrict cross-border trade on items on its anti-counterfeiting list. Sellers in the U.S., Germany and UK may ship such items worldwide except to Hong Kong and China. Sellers in English-speaking countries can trade such items freely with each other. But sellers in China and Hong Kong may not list these items on their local sites or on any other eBay site.

ChannelAdvisor President and CEO Scot Wingo, who broke the news on his eBay Strategies blog on Tuesday, said he loves the new initiative but is concerned with any changes made during the busy fourth quarter, even positive ones. "My take is they've dipped toe in water with other efforts, seen positive results, and now are going deeper."

eBay Senior Director of Seller Development Todd Lutwak said the move was "not a holiday initiative." When asked if it was in reaction to litigation, eBay spokesperson Catherine England said the move was designed to ensure a good buying and selling experience on eBay that would bring long term value to the marketplace.

Lutwak explained that after a seller lists more than a certain number of items on the list, the system would set off an automatic trigger requiring a manual review of the seller. "If you've sold these items in the past, your account may have already been reviewed," but if sellers alter what they are selling, they may be subject to another review. He said eBay is looking to make the review process a quick one. When asked what turnaround time he was striving for, he would only say a "very reasonable" one.

eBay does not inform sellers whether or not their accounts have been reviewed. A combination of staff on the Seller Development and Trust and Safety teams on eBay will be conducting the reviews. Lutwak and England would not say how many staff are devoted to conducting the reviews, but England said Trust and Safety has more than 2,000 employees globally in a variety of roles.

Lutwak encouraged sellers to be proactive. Just as they would notify a credit card company ahead of time if there would be significant changes in account activity, he recommended eBay sellers be proactive and communicate selling changes to eBay so they don't hit triggers, including triggers designed to spot account takeovers. These are "best practices" that eBay encourages sellers to follow, he said.

Sellers of items that are particularly susceptible to counterfeiting will want to become PayPal verified, and also change the ship to location on listings to uncheck China and Hong Kong, Lutwak said.

England said this week's anti-counterfeiting initiative is one of a couple of initiatives coming in the next couple of months to provide a safe and trusted marketplace for buyers and sellers.

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:06 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By RockyMountainNews.com

You won't find Marsha Collier fighting for a mall parking space on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The author of Santa Shops on eBay and eBay for Dummies practices what she preaches and does all of her holiday shopping at the world's biggest auction site.
Collier, who lives in Los Angeles, recently chatted with Rocky Mountain News reporter Joyzelle Davis about the best strategies for holiday shopping on eBay, even for first-timers. Collier, who started shopping on eBay 10 years ago when it was Auction Web, also teaches eBay University courses offered through the company.

Why do you focus on eBay and not other online retailers?

I love all online shopping. But to be honest, when it comes to finding the unique, the different, the wonderful, I have found more unique gifts - the kind of gifts where you say, "how cool," through eBay.

Such as?

If you had planned ahead, there are sellers who will put pictures of children on a purse. That's the perfect gift for grandparents. You'd have to shop hard around your neighborhood to find that.

Try running the person's last name through the search engine. You might find some antique advertising. I once found for friends some antique beer glasses with their last name from a small brewery that's since gone out of business. They didn't even know it existed and wouldn't have without eBay.

What about shoppers who are worried about fraud?

You can't walk into a new store in your neighborhood and see comments from the last hundred or thousand people who were there. On eBay, only one feedback is allowed per shopper so they're legitimate numbers.

What about shipping?

It's the seller's duty to ship the item, but make sure that the seller charges extra for insurance. Getting an item that isn't what it was described is one thing, but if you saw a picture in the listing that was in one piece and it arrives in six that's another. FedEx and UPS include up to $100 in insurance, but they tend to be more expensive than the Postal Service.

What if you don't know what to get someone? Don't you miss browsing for a good idea with eBay?

Wandering around and browsing is what gets me in trouble. Make a list ahead of time on who you want to give presents to and what amount you want to spend. Any kind of shopping takes a bit of pre-planning so you don't shoot your budget in the foot.

I have a friend who loves her little dog, so I bought a pink fake fur stole and hat that cost $9. And for the man that smokes cigars, it's apparently the ultimate to light a cigar from a cedar stick. I bought 25 sticks from a seller in Estonia, and the whole thing cost $5 including shipping. In other words, don't limit your imagination.

What's something about shopping on eBay most people don't know?

Sharper image has an outlet on eBay. Oreck - the maker of vacuum cleaners - has an outlet, as does Hewlett Packard. They may be unsold merchandise or returns that have been checked over by their tech people.

You know that high-end FrancisFrancis Espresso machine? You can get the really fancy X5 machine from their eBay outlet store for half-price.

Posted by ebay news guy at 09:01 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay Pop
eBay Pop is a fun new destination to learn what's hot on eBay, with a dash of pop culture. Check out which items have been big "Movers and Shakers," cast your vote in "Head to Head," or play "How Much Is It Worth?", (perfect for fans of The Price Is Right). There's plenty more, plus we'll be adding new content and features as time goes on, so check back often.

Check out eBay Pop at www.ebay.com/ebaypop.

eBay Deal Finder
eBay Deal Finder is an easy to use new way to discover great deals on eBay. It searches the eBay marketplace and finds items that are within the total price range that you specify (including shipping) and:

are ending soon (in less than 4 hours)
have yet to receive a bid
do not have a Reserve price
have a flat shipping rate (including free shipping).
In addition to the search criteria noted above, eBay Deal Finder also presents search results in an exciting new way, including a dynamic countdown clock to let you know how much time is remaining for each item.

Check out eBay Deal Finder at dealfinder.ebay.com.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200611141207382.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:25 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Eric Auchard, Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO - Online auctioneer eBay Inc. Friday unveiled a new service that not only lists the top-selling consumer products, but also helps shoppers determine their going prices.

The company, working with data analysis start-up Mpire Inc., said it had created eBay Pop, a shopping index service that helps consumers sniff out the collective purchasing trends of U.S. online buyers.

EBay Pop displays sales trends on top items sold on eBay, ranging from music players, video game consoles, and hot toys like TMX Tickle Me Elmo to less-obvious products like election memorabilia or the Fisher Price Kid Tough Digital Camera for preschool kids.

"Think of it as a mini-consumer price index for consumer shopping," said Mpire Chief Executive Matt Hulett.

EBay Pop (http://pages.ebay.com/ebaypop) identifies what it calls "movers" -- items that have seen a recent price increase or decrease -- and "shakers" -- those whose sales volume has risen or fallen significantly.

By tracking the two charts in tandem, consumers can watch popular consumer items that are suddenly falling in price.

"It's like a stock market for product prices," said Gartner Inc. analyst Allen Weiner.

Index categories on the site include fashion, tech gadgets, sports, media, toys and "vintage cool" collectibles.

The service has become possible only as major Internet sites like eBay have begun in recent years to allow other companies to create additional services that run on top of their core market functions.

Founded less than two years ago, Seattle-based Mpire runs a shopping search engine on top of data supplied by major e-commerce sites. It has received financial backing from venture capital firm Ignition Partners and former eBay executive Richard Rock.

Like other shopping sites, Mpire makes money when consumers locate an item they want via its service and click to buy it.

EBay became famous nearly a decade ago as the place for holiday-season shoppers to find popular Beanie Baby stuffed animals, but it can no longer count on being the sole destination for shoppers to locate hard-to-find gifts.

It has been slower than other big Internet players like Google, Yahoo and Amazon at adopting the latest generation of "Web 2.0" interactive customer features that encourage audience participation, Weiner said.

EBay is the first company to introduce the Mpire service. Early next year, Mpire will introduce a broader version that works across major shopping sites, including Amazon.com, Yahoo Shopping, Craigslist and more than 2,000 large merchants.

Posted by ebay news guy at 11:08 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

October 31, 2006 | 02:27PM PST/PT

Hi everyone, I'm Evan Liang. Since March, my team has been testing a few improvements to the bidding/buying process to make them easier for buyers to use (read our initial announcement). We've seen very positive results from our tests, so we're now going to make these changes permanent.
In the next few days, you should start seeing the following when you place a bid or use Buy It Now:

The seller's Gallery photo. If the seller used Gallery, the picture will be displayed when the buyer places and confirms their bid.

Average Selling Price for Items with Pre-Filled Item Information. We'll display the average selling price for that item when the buyer’s bid is significantly below the average. This will only be included on items where the seller’s listing was created using Pre-Filled Item Information. (Items listed with the same Pre-Filled Item Information are close or identical products and can be compared to determine a reasonably accurate average price.)

More education about bidding for new buyers. We're putting more education on the "Place Bid" page for new buyers, including a graphic demonstrating how the bidding system works.

Warnings to prevent accidental Buy It Nows. Buyers sometimes purchase multiple items accidentally by hitting Buy It Now more than once. This warning will prompt them after they've bought the first item to make sure they really want to buy another.

Sincerely,
Evan Liang
Buyer Product Team

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200610311427202.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 01:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay Shipping Enhancements Include Free-Shipping Filter

By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
October 23, 2006

eBay announced it would roll out MultiOrder Shipping on PayPal next week. With MultiOrder Shipping, sellers will be able to print up to 50 domestic USPS shipping labels at one time, directly from their PayPal accounts. This will give sellers the ability to combine multiple eBay sales from one customer into one shipment.

eBay also said it will allow buyers to filter search results by items that are offered with free shipping. Sellers who want their items to appear when buyers use the free shipping filter will have to enter shipping costs as "0" when listing items and may not require insurance (listings with optional insurance will still be shown).

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200610201332022.html

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:47 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Jim Moore, Republican-American Of Waterbury, Boston.com

NEW HARTFORD, Conn. --By tradition, the 25th wedding anniversary calls for silver, but Stephen McGuff opted to go with steel and chrome instead.

Cheryl McGuff, herself an avid car enthusiast, arrived at the Octoberfest car show Sunday with no idea she would find her first automotive love waiting for her to drive away: a jet-black 1979 Chevrolet Monza Spyder, complete with a set of gleaming chrome Crager SS wheels just like the ones she purchased for her beloved machine those many years ago.

The Monza caught her eye when she arrived at the show. "I recognized the license plate," Cheryl McGuff said. "That's when I knew it was mine."

Her first Monza, which the family was forced to sell in 1990 during a move out of state, was not Chevy's most popular model. It quickly faded into obscurity after the company stopped making it around 1980. But it holds a special place in Cheryl McGuff's heart.

"It was the first car that I bought with my own money," she explained. "I cried a lot when we got rid of it."

She was all smiles Sunday.

Stephen McGuff's quest for the Monza was going nowhere this spring, despite help from friends in law enforcement who could track down vehicle identification numbers in nationwide databases.

So he turned to another flavor of computer technology: the Internet auction site eBay. Late one night in June, he found a Monza for sale and snapped it up, arranging to have it shipped from Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to the Time Was Garage, co-sponsor of Sunday's car show. There it was painstakingly restored, down to the smallest detail.

"We recreated the car that she sold," said Chris Kerr, one of the crew that worked on the project.

"They busted their tails, but you can see they didn't skimp," Stephen McGuff said proudly as he stood beside the vehicle. "They're perfectionists when it comes to these things."

McGuff, who has restored several classic cars, stopped by the shop at least once a week to help with the work, and returned to eBay and Internet message boards seeking parts.

"The neat part of this project was researching for parts," McGuff said. The search took him all over the United States and Canada. "I connected with dozens of great people who own these cars," he said.

One Canadian Monza enthusiast provided a re-created dashboard decal, free of charge. The after-market Crager wheels, also out of production, turned up in a warehouse, and were another eBay purchase.

With a tight schedule to keep, and secrecy to maintain, Stephen McGuff enlisted the help of son Brendan, 17, to delete telltale e-mails from the family computer.

"This part of the family's terrible at keeping secrets," McGuff said with a laugh, pointing to a collection of relatives gathered at the car show, some of whom had made the trip from out of state. "That's why they didn't find out until last weekend."

But McGuff's cover was almost blown the week before, when a magazine for auto enthusiasts ran a story about his effort in an issue handed out for free to each visitor at a car show in Simsbury.

"You were lucky I didn't go," Cheryl McGuff said with a smile.

"It was one of the few car shows she didn't go to this year," McGuff said. "A lot of luck came along in the last several months."

Posted by ebay news guy at 09:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Consumers on the hunt for bargains

Will Head, vnunet.com 02 Oct 2006

Online auction firm eBay topped the list of shopping sites searched for by UK users in September, new figures show.

Statistics released by web monitoring firm Hitwise reveal that eBay was the top search term in the Shopping and Classifieds section in the past four weeks, amounting to 2.28 per cent of all search terms delivering users to websites.

Catalogue retailer Argos was second with 1.04 per cent of search terms, just slightly beating Amazon which accounted for 1.03 per cent.

Tesco and eBay UK took fourth and fifth places, with 0.58 per cent and 0.49 per cent respectively. Currys, Comet, PC World and John Lewis were the next most popular.

The announcement last month that Google is to offer free downloads of out-of-print books from Google Book Search saw it jump 446 positions to number 362 in the list of most visited shopping sites.

Hitwise suggested that, rather than disadvantage publishers, Google Book Search may well be facilitating the sale of books.

Amazon UK was the second downstream website from Google Book Search for the week ending 16 September with 7.85 per cent of downstream visits from Google Book Search UK going to websites in the Hitwise Shopping and Classifieds - Books category.

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

by Tony Smith, Market-day.net

Everything in E-bay seemed perfect: nice shopping portal, almost complete buyer's list, and a convenient place to do shopping online. In fact, it's too good to be true.
If this is the case, then it's time for the buyer's warning signal to go red alert because if things on E-bay seemed to good to be true, it probably is and may not even be worth the buyer's time and money.

There are lots of frauds and scams’ going on in the Internet today and E-bay is not excused. So, it's important for buyers to detect early signs of fraudulent activities before it gets them. Here's how to do it:

1. Buyers should look for the seller's feedback section. If a seller has many feedbacks and almost 50% of it is negative, chances are transaction with this seller will turn out a hoax, even if the seller has provided positive replies.

2. Online shoppers should be aware of emails contending it's from E-bay and certifying some seller as a good one. It's already anomalous in the first place because E-bay does not send emails. Plus, E-bay would definitely not certify a seller even if he or she has a remarkable selling history.

3. Buyer should be aware of sellers that insist on wire transfers like Western Union as mode of payment. In fact, E-bay does not recommend their buyers to use wire transfer services. If the seller insists on it, then, no doubt it's a scam.

4. Buyer should also be aware of "too-good-to-be-true" prices. Chances are items that are priced way below their real prices are signs of imminent fraudulent activities.

5. Online shoppers should take note of phishing emails. These are emails that require subscribers to fill out forms provided in the email with warning statements saying the subscriber's account will be closed if the person concerned will not provide the required pertinent information. Once given, anomalous activities are on their way like identity theft.

6. Buyers should also be aware of sellers that let them pay the bid amount to wire transfers directly from the buyer's checking account. Worst, the seller contends that the given bank account is Escrow's.

7. Online shoppers should be weary of institutions claiming they are escrow but ask payments be made to a person instead of a corporation. This is a clear case of scam.

So, to shun away from probable scam attacks, it's a must for every E-bay buyer to keep these tips in mind. It's better to be safe than dumb.

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:52 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

September 12, 2006 | 05:36PM PST/PT from eBay announcements

Hi everyone, I'm Louis Olson from eBay's Category Marketing team. Beginning today, we'll be testing a new merchandising promotion for a limited time called Today's BIG Deals. Our objective is to generate buyer excitement by offering a daily deal for limited quantities of specific products at really good prices. We want to test this concept as a way to give buyers a new, fun and compelling reason to check eBay everyday.
During this test, we'll promote a few products each day on a special landing page. Each product will be listed by an eBay seller in the multiple-item Fixed Price format. Each product will be available for just 24 hours -- or until the quantity available runs out. The products being promoted will change each evening.

For this test, we've solicited deals from select eBay sellers who have met specific criteria: They are experienced sellers who are registered in the U.S; have the ability to supply large quantities of a single product; have a public Feedback profile with a score of 100 or more and is 98% positive or better; and have a PayPal Premier or Business account. (This is similar to what is required to sell on eBay Express.) To enable us to implement this test efficiently, we worked with ChannelAdvisor, an eBay Certified Provider, who helped us secure a portion of the product offerings from sellers.

The results from this pilot will help us determine if this type of promotion is right for the marketplace. If it proves successful, we'll open up participation to a larger group of sellers.

We'll keep you informed about any future developments based on this test. In the meantime, look for Today’s BIG Deals – great items at great prices for a limited time. We appreciate your support.

Sincerely,

Louis Olson
eBay Category Marketing

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:45 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay Woots 'Big Deals' Promotion
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
September 13, 2006

eBay is testing a new promotion called "Big Deals" in which sellers offer "limited quantities of specific products at really good prices" that are available for one day only, or until supplies run out. The Big Deals landing page will be available with new deals each day for the next two weeks. The site appears to be based on the same concept as Woot.com, a site that sells only one product for one day (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m12/i13/s03).

eBay worked with ChannelAdvisor, an eBay Certified Provider, who helped secure a portion of the product offerings from sellers. For the test, eBay solicited deals from select sellers who met specific criteria: They are experienced sellers who are registered in the U.S; have the ability to supply large quantities of a single product; have a public Feedback profile with a score of 100 or more and is 98% positive or better; and have a PayPal Premier or Business account.

eBay said the results from the pilot will help them determine whether to open participation to a larger group of sellers.

http://deals.ebay.com

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200609121736322.html

Here's what ChannelAdvisor's Scot Wingo has to say about it on his blog:
http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/ebay_strategies/2006/09/ebays_big_deal.html

Here's an AuctionBytes blog post about fallout from news of the announcement:
"eBay Big Deals Promo Generates Seller Concerns"
http://digbig.com/4mwkp

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:50 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

From CNNMoney.com

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Lincoln Town Car went up for sale on eBay Tuesday.

The car also includes leather seats and Buffett's personalized "THRIFTY" license plate as well as an etched brass plaque bearing his signature.

Buffett said he will personally pick up the winning bidder at the Omaha, Neb. airport when he or she arrives to retrieve the car.

The proceeds will go to Girls Inc., a youth-service organization for girls ages six to 18.

The Warren Buffett car auction ends Friday, Sept. 22.

Buffett announced plans in June to donate 85 percent of his fortune, then estimated at $44 billion, in the largest single act of U.S. charitable giving ever.

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:53 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by: mgwaycorp on Sep 08, 2006 - 01:04 AM


MG Way Corp has added another tool to the family of its online RSS services now including general RSS, Amazon, ClickBank and eBay Generators and RSS to JavaScript, PHP and HTML Converter.

eBay RSS feeds generator covers all main eBay’s categories. You specify one or all of them and get every possible rss feed with eBay goods. You can also sort the items within a feed according to the price, location, currency, bid time ending and more.

This is not only a wonderful source of generating RSS feeds from favorite location. You know, all webmasters now use RSS feeds to fill their website with different kind of content on a given topic which dynamically changes and attracts targeted audience. Besides, eBay generator like Amazon and ClickBank Generators lets you insert your affiliate ID, registered with Mediaplex or Commission Junction into feeds and get commissions from promoting eBay items from your site.

MG Way Corp has developed a powerful ground or, if you want, an open shop for RSS feeds processing. This location is extremely popular not only among regular users but with internet marketers and webmasters. This RSS Feeds service combines both leisure and business. And, which is most remarkable, it is absolutely free.

For more information please visit RssFeedsGenerator.com, AmazonFeedsGenerator.com, CklickBankFeedsGenerator.com, eBayFeedsGenerator.com or RssFeedConvereter.com. All in one place, all for your needs and convenience.

Posted by Carson Clark at 08:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Andale, Inc. (www.andale.com), one of the largest providers of listing tools and research services for eBay sellers, today announced the launch of Honesty.com (www.honesty.com), a free service the helps provides an easy way for eBay shoppers to find bargain prices among items currently on eBay.

Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) September 6, 2006 -- Andale, Inc. (www.andale.com), one of the largest providers of listing tools and research services for eBay sellers, today announced the launch of Honesty.com (www.honesty.com), a free service that helps provide an easy way for eBay shoppers to find bargain prices among items currently on eBay.

Honesty.com mines historical sales on eBay and uses proprietary algorithms to determine true bargain prices for items on eBay. Buyers can use the bargain price as a proxy for how much they should bid and still have a high chance of winning the bid.
The culmination of more than two years of development, Honesty.com is a culmination of more than two years of development. Honesty.com displays live listings using technology developed by Andale to identify the best bargains. More than just an aggregation of listings, Honesty.com provides an easy-to-use drill-down structure that is a fast and accurate way for a buyer to find the bargain of their choice.

Honesty.com displays both the average selling price and a calculated bargain price, based on historical pricing; a buyer can immediately see the value of the specific bargains they discover. The site displays items in a list format with accompanying images: bargains are marked with a special icon, and the user can choose to see only bargain items or all items currently available on eBay.

"For a buyer, knowing the right price to bid on an item is as important as finding the item. Bidding too low will result in lost bids and bidding too high will result in overpayment," said Prashant Nedungadi, Andale’s Chief Technology Officer. "Honesty.com mines historical sales on eBay and uses proprietary algorithms to determine true bargain prices for items on eBay. Buyers can use the bargain price as a proxy for how much they should bid and still have a high chance of winning the bid."

Beyond getting the best bargain, the Honesty.com website offer an RSS feed allowing a buyer to keep up with trends or wait for the best bargain. A buyer simply performs his search and selects the RSS button: the results are populated into his RSS reader, Website or blog. Honesty.com RSS supports Google, My Yahoo, My MSN, My Feedster and Bloglines.

About Andale
Founded in 1999, Andale is the largest provider of listing tools, research, and analytics services to give online sellers of all sizes the "freedom to sell" and make informed business decisions. Andale's auction management tools help sellers grow their online auction businesses across multiple channels and through distribution of Andale Stores through major search engines. Andale's customers are online sellers of all types - from casual sellers to high volume merchants. Andale is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and opened offices in Bangalore, India, in 2002. For more information visit www.andale.com and www.honesty.com

Press Contact:
Dan Russo, Sr. Vice President
Andale, Inc.

Andale is a registered trademark of Andale, Inc. eBay is a registered trademark of eBay, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners, without intent to infringe.

# # #

Trackback URI: http://www.prweb.com/dingpr.php/U3VtbS1GYWx1LVN1bW0tTG92ZS1JbnNlLVplcm8=

auction shopping bargain

Bookmark - Del.icio.us | Digg | Furl It | Spurl | RawSugar | Simpy | Shadows | Blink It | My Web

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CONTACT INFORMATION

Dan Russo
ANDALE, INC.
Visit Our Site

877-426-3253




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Posted by Carson Clark at 07:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

by axxxr, esato.com - 21 August 2006

From today users of O2 Active will be able to access eBay from the O2 Active portal, bringing together the UK's most popular mobile entertainment portal with 6.4 million active users* and the world's largest online marketplace. This builds on the successful launch of eBay's first mobile offering earlier this year on i-mode, where it has been one of the most popular sites for its 250,000 users.

The popular site will be accessed directly from the O2 Active portal allowing all O2 customers with a WAP capable phone and an eBay account immediate access to it. O2 Active users will have the freedom to track their important sales and bids no matter where they are - from clothes to concert tickets.

Users will be able to view all of their familiar 'My eBay' features from virtually any handset, including 'items I am watching', 'items I am bidding on', 'items I am selling' and 'items I have won'. As with eBay on i-mode, users will also be able to bid in real time for goods online from a selection of more than 13,000 categories just as from a PC and fixed internet connection. Buying something on eBay through O2 Active it will be just as secure as it is through a PC.

Simon Dean, General Manager of Content, O2 says: "eBay is the latest in a growing list of well known brands who really appreciate the potential of converging their internet services with mobile. Our experience with eBay on i-mode has shown us there is a really strong demand for it from our customers who really want to engage with these types of services. O2 Active is the most successful WAP portal in the UK and we want to increase the eBay experience to as many of our customers as possible."

Ian Jordan, Product Manager, eBay Mobile and Innovation said; "We're very pleased to be working with O2 in raising the profile of eBay Mobile further, and look forwards to continuing our work together in order to further improve our user's experience of the mobile internet.

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:33 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

by Lisa Oda, eBay Marketing

The eBay Pop Hits! Sweepstakes starts on August 16 and will test your knowledge of music hits from the 60's through today. You can enter every day between August 16- 22 for chances to win a Grand Prize $5,000 USD eBay shopping spree or First Prize $25 USD eBay Gift Certificate. There'll be one Grand Prize winner and 100 First Prize winners every day!
To automatically enter the daily prize drawing, simply win an auction-style listing or use Buy It Now, and you’ll get one entry into that day’s prize drawing.

For up to five more entries into a daily prize drawing, you music buffs can take the Pop Hits trivia challenge. Each day we'll post five music trivia clues that'll help you guess which pop songs of the '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, and today made eBay's list of hits. Simply choose song names from the drop-down menus provided on our trivia page. For each exact song name you choose, you'll get one entry into the daily prize drawing. Come back every day for new clues and chances to win!

The eBay Pop Hits! Sweepstakes starts August 16th, so get ready to shop, buy, and win!

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com - August 16, 2006

eBay announced it will test a new search results page later this month. The new design shows more information for each listing than current pages and has a new look-and-feel to help buyers make decisions about clicking on listings. The space allotted to each listing will be bigger, and eBay will call out key information, including displaying price information in a larger size and a new color. eBay will also including an "Add to Watch list" link on each item, formerly only available on the view item page.

Most listing rows on the new page will also have a link called "See quick details." When a buyer clicks this link, or hovers over it with their mouse, they'll see a new section pop up that contains key information such as the shipping & handling charges and accepted payment methods.

eBay said later this month, a small percentage of buyers will start seeing the new search results pages. An even smaller number of buyers will also see the new design on eBay Motors.

The new design is shown on the information page (http://pages.ebay.com/buyandsell/find-it/index.html), and eBay will host an online workshop on August 24 at noon PT to review the new designs.

Within hours of the announcement, members had posted feedback a thread on the Search discussion board (http://forums.ebay.com/db1/thread.jspa?threadID=1000338138).

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200608151337422.html

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com, August 11, 2006

eBay sent an email to sellers in the United Kingdom inviting them to learn more about eBay Express, due to launch "later in 2006." eBay spokesperson Catherine England said, "We haven't announced a specific date for the UK launch of eBay Express, but we have set up a site where folks who are interested in learning more can get some additional information," pointing to http://www.ebayexpress.co.uk.

eBay launched its Express site in the United States in preview mode in April and officially launched it in June. The new marketplace is an attempt to provide buyers with a more "traditional" retail buying experience, drawing from fixed-price items on the core eBay.com platform and on eBay Stores. Buyers can make purchases from multiple sellers and pay with one transaction.

eBay attempts to stock eBay Express with new in-season items that can be purchased right away. In the UK, eBay Express will pull from the following categories: Audio, TV & Electronics; Clothes & Shoes; Home & Garden; Baby & Nursery; Jewellery & Watches; Mobile Phones; Cameras & Photo; Computing; Music & DVDs; Sports & Leisure; Health & Beauty; Toys & Games; and Video Games.

There is no additional charge for sellers for having items appear in eBay Express.

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

By Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes.com - August 09, 2006

eBay Motors announced it has sold its two millionth passenger vehicle in the U.S. The car was a blue 2005 Jeep Liberty purchased by first-time eBay Motors buyer Kelly Joyce of Charleston, S.C., from Century Motors of Pompano Beach, Florida. According to eBay's press release, Century Motors sells about two cars a day on eBay Motors, and the dealership, which sells exclusively on eBay Motors, is building a new $1.1 million warehouse to store its vehicles.

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:24 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

by ShortNews.com

The former Volkwagen Beetle previously owned by Germany's national soccer coach Jürgen Klinsmann is a major attraction on eBay. It has already surpassed the total selling price of a VW once belonging to Pope Benedict XVI.
The price of Klinsmann's Beetle, which he drove for two years in 1994 and 1995, has shot up to more than €300,000 and Klinsmann himself said: I really couldn't recommend bidding for that car. It was already completely rusty when I got rid of it.". Klinsmann has become somewhat of a national hero in Germany following his side's World Cup performance, which beat all expectations and saw the country place third overall in the competition. You can find Jurgen Klinsmann's Beetle on eBay Germany here.

Posted by ebay news guy at 08:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

July 4, 2006
Quentin Reade

eBay.co.uk is to launch a new website it claims will make it quicker and easier for shoppers to buy new goods at a set price.

Called eBay Express, the site will run alongside ebay.co.uk when it launches in October, and lets approved merchants set up shops selling new products at fixed prices.

eBay said web users will find Express quicker to use than searching on its main site and then needing to enter an auction.

It also said Express will offer several advantages to customers, such as the right to return goods for a refund and the ability to buy multiply goods in one transaction, either using PayPal, credit card, or debit card.

Express launched in the US in April.

www.ebayexpress.co.uk

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:09 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Feedback is eBay's user to user rating system.. The more positive unique feedback that you receive the higher your rating which starts at (0) With the increase of feedback after 10 you will get your first star. Feedback is an excellent way to start evaluating your potential trading partner.

Color/Type
Points

Yellow star
10–49

Blue star
50–99

Turquoise star
100–499

Purple star
500–999

Red star
1,000–4,999

Green star
5,000–9,999

Yellow shooting star
10,000–24,999

Turquoise shooting star
25,000–49,999

Purple shooting star
50,000–99,999

Red shooting star
100,000 or more

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:05 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Tycoon Warren Buffett is auctioning his annual Power Lunch on eBay for non-profit organization, Glide, for which the highest bidder can bring up to 7 guests to the event. The highest bid at time of post is $500,100 - the top bid Warren Buffett has ever recieved to date for his auctioned power lunch. Watch the Warren Buffett Power Lunch to Benefit the Glide Foundation auction on eBay before it ends on June 29 at 7:00 pm PST.

Posted by ebay news guy at 01:29 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Thank goodness for science. How else would we know the best way to nab those barely-used weed whackers, dumbbells or duck-shape salt shakers on eBay? In a study that gives the lie to the notion that eggheads don't like to eyeball online auctions like normal folks, a study by South Korean physicists confirms via some elaborate mathematical modeling that "sniping" — waiting for the very last second to submit your bid on that Elvis-shape throw rug — is indeed "a rational and effective strategy to win in an eBay auction."
Founded in 1995, eBay is the king of online auction sites. Sellers put up items for sale and buyers bid up the price. Thanks to the Internet's lack of state sales tax and the public's thirst for other people's garage sale items, the company has grown into a firm that amassed $4.55 billion in revenue last year. The service sets a deadline on bids for items, which has given rise to the practice of "sniping," bidding at the last minute to deny other bidders time to outbid you.

Savvy buyers have taken to the practice in swarms. Some companies even exist to snipe for you. Sellers, however, have grumbled that the practice keeps winning bid prices lower than they would be in a more open-ended auction, in which prices may be driven up by competition between buyers. If nobody bids until the last second, it's inevitably just a (relatively) low-bidding person who puts in the highest-price bid and walks away with the item.

To test whether sniping is a smart way to do things or just truncates normal bidding, the South Korean team at Seoul National University produced a "master equation" for how bidding proceeds (it's nk(t+1) — nk(t) = w(k-1)(t)*n(k-1)(t) — wk(t)*nk(t) + sigma(k,1)*u(t), if you really want to know), and then tested it against a massive number of auction records, some 264,073 items sold in one day on eBay and another 287,018 items sold in one year by eBay's Korean partner.

Plugging all those data into the model and testing the outcome in terms of how the auctions turned out, the team found that the probability of submitting a winning bid on an item indeed drops with each bid. "Our analysis explicitly shows that the winning strategy is to bid at the last moment as the first attempt rather than incremental bidding from the start." The study appears in the current Physical Review E journal.

The finding is no surprise to Harvard economist Alvin Roth, who has studied sniping from an economics viewpoint since 2002 with colleague Axel Ockenfels of Germany's University of Cologne. They came to similar conclusions. "I think you might do the most good if you advise bidders to form an opinion of how much they are willing to pay for an item, so that they don't get caught up in a bidding war and pay more than they will be happy with," says Roth, by e-mail. "But, that being said, if they know what proxy bid they want to submit, it won't hurt them to submit it very near the end (but neither will it help them much, or often ...) So, sniping is a good strategy, for those with the time to do it," he adds.

A statement on the eBay site says: Sniping is part of the eBay experience, and all bids placed before a listing ends are valid — even if they're placed one second before the listing ends.

http://www.usatoday.com/

On eBay, it pays to snipe
Updated 6/25/2006 6:20 PM ET

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:17 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

14.06.2006 12:01:00 (http://finanzen.net/)



eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY) today introduced eBay Alerts, anextension of eBay Wireless which enables users to win more listings oneBay even while on the go. eBay Alerts, unveiled at the fifth annualeBay Live! Community Conference, notify users with eBay listingupdates through phone calls, text messages and instant messages, andallow users to bid on auction-style listings from their wirelessdevices.
"As consumers' lifestyles become more mobile, eBay Alerts help bydriving more demand to our sellers and making it easier for our buyersto stay involved in the auction process before an item listingcloses," said Eric Shoup, group product manager of eBay Wireless.

eBay buyers can elect to receive a phone call alerting them thatthree minutes remain before a listing ends. The service gives buyersan easy and convenient way to check an item's status or place bids byphone. This feature will be available in July and will be rolled outas a pilot program. The phone call alerts are powered by UnWiredBuyer, provider of an event-triggered, voice-based e-commerce platformand a member of the eBay Developers Program.

In addition, eBay buyers can choose to receive bidding updatealerts and bid on items via text messages on mobile phones. Known asSMS alerts, users can receive "outbid" and "item ending soon" textmessages for any item they choose and can re-bid via SMS. There is anominal fee associated with SMS alerts of $0.25 for up to 10 messagesper item that will appear on the user's cell phone bill. SMS alertswill become available during the week of June 11th. VeriSign deliverseBay's SMS alerts in the U.S. using VeriSign's Intelligent MessagingNetwork.

Similarly, buyers can now receive "outbid" and "item ending soon"alerts using AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, or MSN Messengerfor any of the items they are bidding on. This service will also beavailable via Skype in 2007. As a part of this free notificationservice, eBay will send a link leading back to the item on eBay, wherebuyers can increase their bid if they wish. This service becomesavailable at the end of June.

At this time, eBay Alerts are available in the U.S. only. Linksfor all three methods have been added to item pages across the eBaysite, so buyers can simply choose any or all types of alerts for aparticular item. Plus, users can set their overall preferences in "MyeBay" to receive a text message or instant message.

For more information, go to: http://wireless.ebay.com/

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:32 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

To ensure the site can accommodate a growing number of listings, eBay has started increasing the number of digits included in our item numbers. Current item numbers will not be impacted, but all new listings will now have item numbers in the 12-digit range. Ebay will increase these digits over time to up to 19 to support future growth.

Posted by eBay Mentor at 07:55 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Skype is selling ringtones via agreements with several leading music publishers, but Skype is not selling the actual songs themselves.

Just heard from a Skype p.r. representative who clarified: "Skype is not selling full songs nor plans to be an online music store."

Well OK then, because I have a far better idea that would involve Skype-owner eBay, eBay-owned PayPal and Skype.

Here's how it would work:

eBay members could make their used digital content available for sale. We're talking music, books, videos, anything that could be broken down into "1's" and "0's."

While this service would work well for user-generated content, eBay members would be required pay a digital rights fee for retransmission of this content. Book publishers, music labels and publishers, would be recruited by eBay to join this alliance.

Fee administration, collection and redistribution to digital rights content partners could be handled by PayPal.

The digital information in these files could be securely transmitted to eBay, where they or a third party could digitize the content if it hasn't already been. It would need to be digitized for one-time only copying.

If the eBay member selling the goods is a Skype user, they could obtain an authentication key from PayPal that would allow them to show or play a sample from the digital content they are selling over their Skype connection. Prospective bidders who are also Skype users could then hear the music track, read a book page, even glimpse a sampling of the video for sale within their Skype softphone interface- much like Skype Video enables now.

Buyers and sellers could also use Skype's built-in IM functionality to chat about the digital content they are considering bidding for.

If the seller and prospective purchaser decide to go thru with the deal, that could then be handled via PayPal, thru the Skype interface.

Posted by eBay Guru at 11:31 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Hey Gang.

I have a few useful links for people interesting in Auction Sniping on eBay

Check them out

Auction Sniper eBay Sniper and eBay Bidding snipe, bid sniping for eBay
eSnipe - Bid on eBay Automatically - eSnipe 3.0

If you know of any others, please leave a comment below. I will add it to my list.

Thanks a bunch!!!

Posted by eBay Mentor at 11:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

eBay unofficially rolled out its new eBay Express marketplace in preview mode on Friday afternoon. eBay is banking on the new site to attract buyers who don't currently shop on its auction marketplace by offering new items in a more traditional ecommerce shopping experience.

eBay Express Registration
You can use your existing eBay User ID to register for eBay Express. When I tried to register as a new user, it told me I already had an eBay account, and asked me to login with my eBay User ID. For people who may not have logged onto eBay in years, there are "Forget User ID?" and "Forget password?" links.

Major Differences between eBay Express and eBay.com
eBay touts eBay Express as a safer, easier-to-shop marketplace. eBay Express is a subset of eBay.com - every item you find on eBay Express is also listed and available for purchase on eBay.com. There are major differences in the shopping experience, however.

No auctions. Only items that can be purchased right away are included on eBay Express. eBay.com fixed-price and Store listings must include a photo, the item condition, and shipping costs in order to show up on eBay Express.

Fewer categories. eBay Express only pulls from categories that have an "item condition" field. For example, you won't find items from eBay.com's Pottery & Glass category on eBay Express. However, you can find a McCoy vase on eBay Express from the seller who listed it in the Home Decor category.
Safety.

eBay Express will only include items from U.S. sellers who have a minimum of 100 feedback ratings, 98 percent positive, and sellers must have a Premier or Business PayPal account. Seller requirements are spelled out on the site.

http://pages.ebay.com/express/service/about/selling.html

Purchase protection. eBay promises better buyer protection on eBay Express than on eBay.com. Buyers must have a PayPal account in order to file a complaint. On the description page, eBay explains, "If your dispute is granted, PayPal will reimburse you for losses up to the full amount of your eBay Express purchase." Buyers have 45 days to make a claim, and can file one dispute per transaction. It's difficult to know whether shoppers will be satisfied with the eBay Express protection plan.

http://pages.ebay.com/express/service/account/purchase_protection.html

http://pages.ebay.com/express/service/account/purchase_protection_details.html

Shopping cart. You can place items from different sellers in your shopping cart and purchase with one transaction. Like other ecommerce sites, eBay Express uses cookies so it remembers the items you have placed in your shopping cart, even if you leave and return the next day. Note that another customer can purchase an item on eBay.com, and if you had placed that item in your shopping cart but had not yet purchased it, it will disappear from your shopping cart. I imagine items would also disappear from the cart if the listing expires on eBay.com. (eBay Store owners might be tempted to use the "Good Til Cancelled" feature for store listings to prevent that from occurring.)

User interface. While titles are of critical importance on eBay.com to help shoppers locate items, they are less important on eBay Express, which uses product attributes ("Item Specifics") to power its shopping navigation system. Shoppers on eBay Express are more likely to spend time clicking on links to drill down into categories and browse by product attribute than typing keywords into the search engine.

Feedback information. The Feedback information on eBay Express is currently limited to the most recent 25 ratings, but it contains the actual item next to the feedback rating. (eBay would do well to add this information to eBay.com feedback pages to give buyers more information about what the seller has sold in the past. ) At the bottom of the 25 feedback ratings on eBay Express, there is a link to ""View all feedback on eBay," so buyers can do more research on the seller if they choose.

eBay Express feels like a fixed-price ecommerce site when you are shopping, though you won't currently find the breadth of inventory in every category that you might hope for on such a marketplace. No doubt eBay is hoping sellers will fill in these gaps as they grow more comfortable with the new site.

eBay Express inventory will likely fill out if sellers feel comfortable with taking the risk of sending items to unconfirmed addresses, and as sellers learn how to make their eBay.com listings appear on eBay Express. In fact, sellers will likely be looking for gaps to fill on eBay Express if they feel there is enough buyer demand on the site.

There is a bit of "cognitive dissonance" on eBay Express. While navigation feels like a fixed-price ecommerce marketplace, such as Amazon.com, the actual item descriptions remind you that you are on an eBay site. There is no consistent formatting or Terms of Sale. And since eBay Express pulls from eBay.com listings, you will see messages that might be somewhat confusing, including notes that the seller accepts money orders and other payments that are not accepted on eBay Express. (Shoppers on eBay Express must use either a credit card or PayPal.)

In addition, many of the item descriptions contain links that lead shoppers off of eBay Express and onto eBay.com and eBay Stores, such as "View my auction listings" and "Visit my eBay Store."

eBay Express versus Amazon.com

As mentioned above, the item description page lacks the consistency on eBay Express that you would find on a site like Amazon.com. As for pricing, I did a random search for identical items on eBay Express and on Amazon.com. There was no clear winner in terms of pricing.

eBay is hoping to make its pie bigger: rather than move eBay.com shoppers to eBay Express, it is hoping it will attract new buyers who want to purchase new items right away in a fraud-free environment. But on eBay Express, shoppers are still buying from individual sellers, not eBay itself. With Amazon's reputation for excellent customer service and ironclad consumer protection, it's uncertain whether shoppers will want to take a risk on eBay Express unless prices are significantly cheaper and the customer service experience is an improvement over that on eBay.com. One advantage eBay Express has for shoppers with money in their PayPal accounts is that it accepts PayPal payments, while Amazon.com does not.

What's most fascinating about the eBay Express marketplace is that eBay has little control over the inventory offered aside from setting ground rules, such as which categories it includes. It will be up to sellers to "stock the shelves."

eBay employees answered questions about eBay Express Preview on Saturday on the Seller Central discussion board (http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000267737). eBay is set to officially launch eBay Express this week, and eBay and its sellers have until the next holiday shopping season to test the site and work out the kinks.

http://express.ebay.com

Posted by eBay Guru at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Hermès Bag for $200?
Rules for protecting yourself on eBay

by Corina Zappia
April 20th, 2006 1:09 PM

When it comes to bidding on eBay, we've always held ourselves to a strict $20 limit. Granted, this means we're largely restricted to throwaway costume jewelry, discarded Smurf memorabilia, the first five episodes of 21 Jumpstreet on VHS (complete with bad '80s Fruit Roll Up commercials). But overall, we've been fine with this—or maybe we've just been too scared to shell out a half-month's paycheck for the Chloe Paddington bag that never arrives, the Dixie cup that Morrissey might've touched lips to (but probably not). Hearing from others about how little recourse there is against eBay scammers has always been a deterrent for us, and a call into eBay headquarters in San Diego confirms this: According to eBay spokesperson Catherine England, the company's main courses of action involve restricting or shutting down accounts, and what she refers to as "rehabilitation and reeducation." Assuming the perpetrator is not "malicious" but just "new to eBay," explains England, "there's a variety of tutorials, training and education materials we'll ask people to complete."
These measures are all well and good, of course, providing the perp hasn't dashed off to a remote tropical island with your precious Prada-bag bucks. eBay does have a free buyer protection program that reimburses victims of fraud. But assuming one even qualifies, the reimbursement covers only a fraction of what was lost and maxes out at $175 per claim. PayPal's free buyer protection is somewhat better, offering up to $1000 with items purchased through them. But then again, PayPal Buyer Protection is only offered with items from certain pre-approved sellers (for a full list of what qualifies one as an approved seller, go to this).

The bottom line with eBay has always been buyer beware—but how to protect oneself? eBay's site features an expansive section devoted to this concern—and if unlike us, you aren't normally too lazy to scan through it all, the safety tips can be extremely beneficial. (In our humble opinion, they should be required reading before one's even allowed on the site.) While some advice is quite familiar—contact the seller beforehand to discuss the merchandise, review feedback—other tips are worth a closer examination, such as the table that discusses at length the pros and cons of every form of payment. PayPal and credit cards rank highest for their traceability and the potential of retrieving funds; Western Union and Moneygrams rank lowest. "It's one of those things that once you use that money, it's gone," says England. "With other forms of payment, there's ways to track that money and you're more likely to recover it."

For advice from a practiced eBay buyer, we turned to a friend of ours (well, a friend of a friend)—Smoking Gun reporter Joseph Jesselli, who, as an avid collector of baseball and New York memorabilia, has engaged in many successful, high-end transactions over the past 8 years. He says:

1) Never respond to personal emails. After losing bids on expensive musical instruments, Jesselli frequently receives emails from people pretending to be the seller. "I get dozens of [fake] offers to buy the instrument, saying 'The bidder reneged on the deal, and we'd like to offer it to you at your price.' It is so rampant that eBay can't control it. And it happens every single time."

2) Look for "brick and mortar" sellers. "The authenticity—whether it's a real Louis Vuitton bag or an autograph of Babe Ruth—that's where you simply have to buy from a person who knows what they're doing, and you have to pay for their knowledge." Sellers of big-ticket items like designer bags or rare collectors' items will almost always have a more established presence, whether that involves being a known dealer in the field or having an actual shop.

3) Once again: Use PayPal. "It's incredibly safe," stresses Jesselli, a sentiment that is also naturally shared by England (eBay owns PayPal): "The nice thing about PayPal is that once you've established your account, your financial information is never actually shared with the merchant. Not only are you sending your payment through a secure system, but your information is protected."

4) Make sure the seller's feedback is legit. "Sometimes you look at the feedback and it looks canned," explains Jesselli, "and you certainly want to differentiate between buyer and seller." What Jesselli means is, click on the feedback from buyers. It doesn't matter if the person selling is an excellent buyer, you want to know what other customers have to say about the person's performance as a seller. Always go for sellers with a feedback of 99 percent or more.

5) Correspond with the seller. Both eBay and Jesselli heavily encourage this. By talking with the seller, Jesselli believes, one can usually gain an indication as to his or her credibility. "You can generally tell by the tone of an email whether the person's real or even in this country." Although Jesselli does believe there are bargains to be had on eBay, he's also seen too many scams—"I've seen items for sale, where the picture I've seen is the same elsewhere—and I know it's a scam artist who's selling it." Occasionally he will even do a Google picture search to check on an item.

"I've also asked people if I can call them and talk to them on many occasions." For an old Marx tin wind-up toy, Jesselli put in a call to the vendor, who was actually selling it on behalf of his mother. The seller didn't initially trust Jesselli either. "He thought I was trying to scam him," explains Jesselli. Though it ended up being a "delightful" transaction, for a while there, "it was like spy vs. spy."

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:43 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Need a faster easier way to search for eBay product ?

Want to reduce clicks to get to your most frequently used eBay pages.

Stop Identity Theft from Spoof emails ?

eBay Toolbar is for you !

Make the most of your valuable time.

Easily find items using advanced search options.

Check status of items you are watching or bidding on, and receive alerts.

Protect your account information using Account Guard.

Use buttons for one-click access to the eBay home page, My eBay, Stores, your Favorite Searches, and Community.

Customize your eBay experience

Posted by eBay Guru at 02:37 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Get a Bargain on eBay ( both for resale and for your own needs )

There are some great eBay strategies you can use to your advantage to get a better bargain on eBay.

Shop in eBay Stores for many items which don't usually appear in the standard searches and are often priced to sell.

Buy seasonal items in the off-season such as a new swim suit in the winter when most buyers aren't looking for that item.

Shop for deals on major holidays and obscure hours such as middle of the night as not many people shopping so you will be able to get cheaper. You don't have to be up to do this ( see sniping below )

As tempting as it is, do not bid right away as you could get into a bidding war with other potential buyers. Instead wait till as close to the end of the auction as possible to place your max bid. Better yet use a Sniping program or service which will automatically place your maximum proxy bid during the last seconds of the auction. You can also use the eBay Toolbar and Your Watched Items to alert you as the auction is nearing it's end.

Buy in Quantity and Save - depending on what you buy you can stock up for the future or keep what you need and re-sell the rest on eBay. Try using the word Lot in your search or Browse Wholesale Sections.

There are sites on the internet that will automatically search on eBay for mis-spelled keywords - if buyers can't find the item of course they won't be bidding so advantage you !

Use the eBay sorting feature and advanced searches to sort by things like lowest priced, buy it now, set price ranges etc.

Browse the categories instead of just keywords as the seller may be using words in their title which are uncommon search terms.

Use Advanced Search Tips when you get too many results so you can narrow down your search.
It is important to know your pricing - what is the retail value / how much have past auctions sold for / what is a good price ?

Do your research ( on and off eBay ) or you could get burned. What is the msrp? What is the avg sold price?

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Get a Bargain on eBay ( both for resale and for your own needs )

There are some great eBay strategies you can use to your advantage to get a better bargain on eBay.

Shop in eBay Stores for many items which don't usually appear in the standard searches and are often priced to sell.

Buy seasonal items in the off-season such as a new swim suit in the winter when most buyers aren't looking for that item.

Shop for deals on major holidays and obscure hours such as middle of the night as not many people shopping so you will be able to get cheaper. You don't have to be up to do this ( see sniping below )

As tempting as it is, do not bid right away as you could get into a bidding war with other potential buyers. Instead wait till as close to the end of the auction as possible to place your max bid. Better yet use a Sniping program or service which will automatically place your maximum proxy bid during the last seconds of the auction. You can also use the eBay Toolbar and Your Watched Items to alert you as the auction is nearing it's end.

Buy in Quantity and Save - depending on what you buy you can stock up for the future or keep what you need and re-sell the rest on eBay. Try using the word Lot in your search or Browse Wholesale Sections.

There are sites on the internet that will automatically search on eBay for mis-spelled keywords - if buyers can't find the item of course they won't be bidding so advantage you !

Use the eBay sorting feature and advanced searches to sort by things like lowest priced, buy it now, set price ranges etc.

Browse the categories instead of just keywords as the seller may be using words in their title which are uncommon search terms.

Use Advanced Search Tips when you get too many results so you can narrow down your search.
It is important to know your pricing - what is the retail value / how much have past auctions sold for / what is a good price ?

Do your research ( on and off eBay ) or you could get burned.

Posted by eBay Guru at 09:44 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

"World Cup tickets were still available for purchase on the internet auction site eBay yesterday, despite laws that came into force at midnight on Sunday making such sales a criminal offence.

An extension to existing UK statutes has outlawed the unauthorised resale of any World Cup tickets. Under previous legislation it was an offence to resell tickets for matches involving England, however they now extend to all 64 games at this summer's World Cup in Germany." - The Guardian 'Fifa steps up war on eBay's World Cup trade'

I have been trying to get tickets myself for months and months and was hoping eBay would be one means to get them. With such a high demand for the tickets it is hard to monitor and eliminate the sales of these tickets, especially if buyers are willing to pay premium prices. While these tickets are not allowed to be sold on eBay.co.uk perhaps they could be sold on a different eBay site?? Where theres a will theres a way.

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:39 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

American Idol is a cultural phenomenon. eBay is a cultural phenomenon. Bring them together and what do you get? The perfect way to raise money for charity.

Taylor Hicks, Birmingham’s American Idol, has jumped on board with Kid One Transport to help raise funds for this Birmingham, Alabama based non-profit! Taylor has been kind enough to round up 15 American Idol contestants and have them personally autograph an official American Idol T-Shirt to be auctioned off to the public in support of this organization!

Check the T-Shirt Out HERE

For More Information on the Charity Kid One Transport Click Here

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:42 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

World Cup tickets on eBay for £2,000
TICKETS for the World Cup in Germany have already gone on sale on eBay, raising fears over security.

Three tickets for the final match in Berlin next July have been sold on the internet auction site for £2,201 - at a mark-up of £1,000

Comments -

I am a HUGE football fan (soccer for those Americans out there). I was keen on getting some tickets for the world cup but missed the initial draws. Tickets for the best seats in a stadium range from $110 USD (regular group games) to $710 USD (final game). I went shopping for tickets online and found people were selling the game tickets for 400% higher than they could possibly have purchased them for. I am all for making extra money and fully support the entrepreneur in people ... but the demand for these tickets is just so high that for big fans who haven’t won the lottery it seems I may have to wait another 4 years before I get to see a world cup game.

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

A leaked internal memo from Best Buy reveals that some managers appeared to take it upon themselves to do what amounts to a ‘hard sell’ and pressure customers into buying the more expensive bundles. According to The Inquirer, the memo is telling managers to accept bundles back for refund and allow customers to choose what they want to buy.

But it’s not just in the US that this bundling ‘deal’ is making an appearance. The scarcity of Xbox 360 stock has prompted store managers of UK shops to bundle up the console to make a lot of money.

HEXUS.gaming popped into GAME in Milton Keynes on Saturday and upon asking about the availability of an Xbox 360 Premium console we were offered one as part of a bundle. This so-called ‘deal’ was for the Premium console, one wireless controller and 15 games… all for the princely sum of £969 GBP! But there was a catch… GAME didn’t actually have 15 different Xbox 360 games in-stock but we still had to buy all 15 to get the console.

Comments -

Buyer Beware - This doesn’t just apply to the bundling scams like the ones above. Some sellers will offer an XBOX 360 and in small print at the end of the auction state the auction is just for the box the 360 came in. Or another popular method of defrauding sellers it to say your offering an XBOX 360 but are actually only offering a link where the system can be purchased from. There are ways around this that will save you time, money, and all the headaches and often heartaches that follow from being taken by such devious sellers.

1). READ THE WHOLE AUCTION! If you think the deal is too good to be true than it might just be! Read the whole listing! If you have any questions ask the seller! Verify you know what it is your getting!

2). Look at the feedback ... and I don’t just mean the total number and the percent. Click on the feedback and see what kind of history the seller has. One very common thing a devious seller will do will be to buy 10 items that cost 1 penny simply for the feedback and then start selling laptops or game systems. You look at their feedback and think they must be trustworthy since they have had 10 successful listings but if you dig deeper you see this isnt the case at all.

3). Report shady auctions to eBay. eBay does their best to stop these sellers from taking advantage of people. But they can only do so much ... as an eBay community we can help protect each other from such sellers! I have reported hundreds of auctions to eBay that seemed fraudulent and almost all of them have been removed from the site (usually with the seller getting suspended). How many people have I helped by doing this? 1? 100? Who knows ... the point is if we all reported auctions that seem questionable eBay would be a MUCH safer place!

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 09:30 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

(I-Newswire) - While eBay claims less than .01 percent of eBay transactions are fraudulent, being victimized is still painful - no matter how rare it is. A bit of due diligence by bidders will help buyers avoid problems.

These eight tip offs of potential fraud will help eBay shoppers avoid scams during the Holiday buying season.

1. Only buy items with photos. The photograph is a good way to insure the seller actually has the item.

2. Check the sellers feedback. If the seller has few feedbacks or recent feedback as a buyer but not as a seller this may be a clue.

3. Look for similar items online. You might find new items cheaper in an established store.

4. Make sure the address you send payment to is the same as the seller’s registered eBay address. If it’s not the same address, it may be a tip off.

5. Educate yourself. Learn about the items you are interested in. When you factor in shipping costs and uncertainty about the condition many items are cheaper to buy locally. You might also make new friends who share your interests.

6. Ask the seller questions. This gives you information about the character of the seller. If you are unsure about the condition, ask for additional photos.

7. Check the available payment options. If the seller only takes money orders or wire transfers that could be a clue. If you can pay with a credit card, do so. This gives you additional protection. Almost any credit card transaction can be reversed by calling the issuing bank.

8. Remember the seller is selling. Descriptive words like rare, uncommon, great deal, and others are sales techniques used to get higher bids. Ignore them.

Source - The eBay Buyer’s Guide.

The eBay Buyer’s Guide is a free report available from:

http://www.news.iwantcollectibles.com

An eBay Sellers Guide is also available @ www.auctiontips.com

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:41 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

dBusinessNews :: Daily Business News Delivered to Your Desktop:

"eBay 2005 Hot New Toys List
'eBay is often cited as a barometer of the most popular toys during the holiday season, and eBay Toy Finder now makes it easy for anyone to pick from thousands of choices,' said Jim Migdal, senior category manager for eBay Toys & Hobbies. 'This list recognizes those toys we anticipate to be top sellers this holiday season, based on recent sales trends on eBay, numbers of searches and listings, and general buzz in the industry.'

The list includes:

Star Wars Millenium Falcon LEGO Set

Thomas the Tank Engine Aquarium Set

American Girl Dolls

Roboraptor

Harry Potter Scene It? Game

Bob Mackie Holiday Barbie

The Fly Pentop Computer

Leapfrog L-Max Learning Game System

Master Replicas Star Wars FX Lightsabers

Star Wars Clone Trooper Action Figure"

http://sanjose.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=50223&type_news=latest

Star Wars is the hot buy for this christmas taking three of the top ten hot new toys. While some of these may not be suitable for little kids they are GREAT fun to parents who really just want these toys for themselves but need a kid as an excuse to buy them. Who else is going to take all that time to put a Millenium Falcon Lego set together :).

For more information on how to sell on eBay go to www.auctiontips.com

Posted by eBay Trainer Education Specialist at 08:46 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Follow this checklist and you'll be prepared to make a smart, safe purchase on eBay.

Learn all you can about the item. Read the item description carefully. Do you understand all the details about shipping, insurance, payment options and so on? Avoid making assumptions about details that aren't included. If the seller has any Buyer requirements that you don't meet, you can contact the seller for permission prior to placing a bid or using the "Buy It Now" feature.

Check the seller's feedback. From the item page, click on the number in parentheses after the seller's User ID. From here you'll see what other buyers have had to say about doing business with the seller.

Ask the seller questions. If you have any questions or are unsure about any aspect of the item, contact the seller by clicking on their User ID or the "ask seller a question" link on the item-listing page. Common questions include "Do you accept returns?" and "How do you ship the item?" If you have bid on an item and are having a problem communicating with a seller through email, you can request their contact information (including a phone number).

Make sure the item is legal and allowed. If you have any doubts as to whether the item you're interested in is allowed, check eBay's policies on prohibited, questionable and infringing items.

Research the item's value. Look at similar completed eBay listings, visit online stores that sell similar items, ask friends, and determine what the item is worth in any other way you can think of.

Decide the maximum you're willing to pay for the item. Use the information you've gathered so far (taking into consideration how much you want the item, how difficult it will be for you to find another one, how soon you need it, and so on) and come up with the highest price you're willing to pay.

Understand what entering a maximum bid means. eBay's bidding system means you can enter your maximum bid once and the system will automatically increase your bid only as much as is needed for you to stay the highest bidder.

Consider Buy It Now. Does the listing you're interested in have a Buy It Now option? If so, consider whether you are willing to pay the Buy It Now price in order to guarantee that you get the item and that you get it right away.

Consider Best Offer. If the seller offers the Best Offer feature, then you can think of a price that you think would be the best price for both you and the seller and offer that amount. Like Buy It Now, Best Offer is a way to get the item you want right away.

Make every bid a serious one. For example, don't bid on multiple similar items from different sellers if you only want one because you may be the winning bidder in more than one auction.

Ensure your contact information and email address is up-to-date. Check all of your personal information to make sure it is correct. Also, check that any "spam" blocking software you have installed does not limit a seller from communicating with you.

Plan for alternate computer access. If you have computer or connection problems, or need to be away from your computer, you can access your eBay account using any computer with internet access. For example, you can monitor your bids using "My eBay" page using the computer at your friend’s house or your local library.

Enjoy bidding and buying on eBay!

Posted by Scott Paton at 06:24 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)