I just wrote that I would not write about eBay anymore and here I am, compelled to do so...

Fortunately, this is really not a story that will be seen as bashing eBay because it is just not something that the giant of over regulation and useless rules has any control over.

It seems con artists, inspired by eBay's (Good?) name have adopted a new tactic to scam people of hard earned money.

and here is the kicker....

Scammers are advertising on Craigslist and claiming to be connected with eBay!

Amazing as it sounds, it is true, the story goes something like this...

You (i.e. the aforementioned earner of difficult to gain money) see an auto for sale on Craigslist, posted in an advertisement in your local area.  The car is the model you want, the price is unbelievable and you contact the seller to be first on the deal. - Normal life of a Craigslist buyer (I can attest to this as I am an active Craigslist buyer and seller).

The "seller" then replies to your email (you should set up a dummy email address for any dealings through Craigslist - by the way), and provides you with a very detailed story about how the car is not currently in your city, it is actually across the country (or in another Country) but it will be shipped to your city very soon.  The seller is leaving the country, but , and here is the really stupid part of the scam...

Sample Reply email

Subject: Re: ford f-150 supercrew - $10200 (phoenix)
From: "Hickman Bobby, Tech Sgt." bbobby.hickman@gmail.com

Hello,

Thank you for your interest in my car.This is a  2005 FORD F150 SUPERCREW
4x4, 8 Cylinder 5.4 Liter, Gasoline engine,Automatic Transmission,Non-Smoker,clean title!! The car has only 24,000 miles on it,VIN# is : 1FTPW14515FB48400 .

Here you can find more pictures of the car:
http://s597.photobucket.com/albums/t58/fordfordsalfo150/sample of photobucketlink
(if the above link does not work copy and paste it into a new web browser
window).

The car has been well taken care of, always kept in the garage.Flawless exterior/interior condition,no scratches and no dents.It has never been involved in an accident.The engine starts and drives like new and the paint looks great.It comes with US clear title which will be signed and notorized in the buyer's name. Have all keys and manuals.

I'm an US Air Force Tech. Sgt. currently stationed in Germany.The car is here with me. It was bought in the US and shipped to Europe, but it was never permanently registered here, the car is still registered in the US. The car is for sale locally as well, but there are slim chances of this to happen. In order to be able to register this car here in Germany the buyer would have to pay very high import/custom taxes that will double the price. So I decided to sell the car back in the US.

The price is $10,200.00 including shipping from Germany to the US and delivery to your home address.

So if you decide to buy this car or need further information please get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you
Tech.Sgt.Bobby Hickman

Somewhere along the line in the email exchange the seller will tell you that eBay Trust and Safety or eBay Buyer Protection will be holding your money for 30 days after you receive the car, to make sure that you are happy with the transaction and to protect you from a scam.

Hi,
The payment will be made through eBay. I'm under Contract with eBay which states that we can close the deal using their service.Very Important, Only after you will receive the car, eBay will release the money to me.

The money will be sent per ebay instruction and you will give the payment details only to eBay. They will verify the payment and when the money are confirmed they will notify me to proceed with the shipping process. After you receive and see that the car is the one you want, you just notify eBay to give me the money.

In order to start the deal I need YOUR FULL NAME and SHIPPING ADDRESS so I can register the transaction with eBay. They will let you know what you have to do for the payment.

Thanks!

Ok kids - why would anyone consider this as a valid story?  I certainly cannot say, but I have gotten several calls in the last week from potential buyers, asking me if they should send money to eBay?

NO - eBay is not an escrow service for Craigslist!

Lets all get our thinking caps on and reconsider the old addage....

If it seems too good to be true... Yes, it probably is not true!

Variations are certainly a part of the con such as:

• The seller is a US service person immediately shipping to Afghanistan or Iraq and they need to leave money for their family, the car will be shipped via the US Air Force to you for free.
• The seller needs money for emergency surgery, this is why the car is listed for less than half the price of any comparable car.

Of course you can be assured that if you do send your money to "eBay" (This will look like an eBay address, but will not be an eBay account or address) you will never ever see that money again, and you will never see the car you thought you bought.

People may be quick to say that eBay should do something about this, and maybe they could try, but really this is just a real buyer beware situation. At some point people must realize that scammers and thieves have been around much longer than Internet commerce.  Craigslist and eBay are relative newcomers to the game and they can not be held responsible if some artful thief with a very incredible story convinces you that he/she is backed by either party, because they are certainly not.

This scam could also encompass more than automobiles, so keep your radar active!  In all cases when dealing with Craigslist buying you must see the merchandise and/or be reasonably assured that you are dealing with a reputable company or party.

It had to happen sooner or later... Google brings the power of Search to eCommerce!

Why oh Why eBay, did you not think of That!

Hmmmm - maybe eBay can sign up for Google Commerce Search and scrap this whole "finding" experiment... Maybe with Google Search installed on eBay.com, the term Best Match might actually mean that the best product matching the search terms entered will be presented.

Oh - what a novel idea - Actually allowing the person doing the search to determine what it is they are searching for...

But I Digress - eBay and Google burned bridges long ago and ever since that time, Google has grown stronger while eBay - well we all know where eBay's numbers are - in the hands of PayPal!

So... what is Google Commerce Search anyway? (Get most of the scoop at this link Google Support)

Evidently Google has a few tricks up their collective sleeves...

Google is making it easier than ever to improve search in your own online store

From Google:

How it Works

Once you've signed up for Google Commerce Search, your site administrator will follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Submit your product data to the Google Merchant Center and Google Product Search. Visit www.google.com/merchants to upload your items via data feeds, direct uploads, or use our API.

Step 2: Customize the look and feel of your on-site search engine. Log into the administrative console to manage product promotions, upload synonym dictionaries, and control parametric search options.

Step 3: Analyze your site's traffic and search effectiveness. View custom reports on top queries, special feature usage and more.

Benefits

Search is a critical part of the shopping experience; in fact, 71% of online shoppers use keyword searches to find products (eTailing Group). Google Commerce Search addresses this need by offering an easy-to-deploy solution with Google speed and relevancy.

Increase your website conversions -- and sales

The average conversion rates of retail sites is barely 3% (Forrester). Yet, with effective tactics, retailers can achieve a much higher conversion rate. For instance, the top 10 visitor-to-buyer conversion rates ranged from 16% to 45% (Nielsen Online). Effective search can bridge this gap considerably: customers who use the search box on e-commerce sites convert at nearly three times the rate of general browsers (MarketingSherpa).

Increase customer lifetime value

Forrester projects that 47% of online retailer revenue comes from repeat shoppers. By enhancing shopper experience, Google Commerce Search can improve customer loyalty, and ultimately increase customer lifetime value.

Deploy within days

Google Commerce Search is an entirely hosted, software-as-a-service offering. You simply upload your product information to Google Merchant Center, and Google Commerce Search intelligently leverages the product feed and provides your website with search capabilities.

Easy to scale

With Google Commerce Search, you are leveraging the powerful Google platform: the speed, relevance, reliability, and certainly scalability. As your customer base grows, you can scale your search solution effortlessly - without adding any servers or other infrastructure.

Add features -- without upgrading

By deploying a Software-as-a-Service solution, you'll be able to enjoy the ever-growing number of Google features and updates automatically, without any sort of deployment or upgrade on your end.

Measure and streamline

Retailers who excel at understanding and responding to usage metrics are able to improve conversion rates by as much as 24%, while less responsive companies' conversions tend to stay flat (Jupiter Research). Google Commerce Search provides you advanced reporting tools to measure and streamline - so you can maximize the effectiveness of your website.

What it Wont Do:

Using Google Commerce Search will not improve your rankings within Google Product Search or in Google.com searches. Google Commerce Search will allow you to promote and order your product listings when users search for items on your website.

Yeah, why not... hmmmm Ok - here goes, this will be short and sweet...

My friend, Jay Berkowitz of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing consulting firm, has started a new NING community called the Internet Marketing Club.

If you don't know Jay Berkowitz you may think, "Oh - Great a new guy hawking his wares on Ning" - Think Again!

Ten Golden Rules Host - Jay Berkowitz

Jay is all about sharing and education when it comes to Internet Marketing and his podcast "The Ten Golden Rules" is one of the most widely respected Internet marketing audio podcasts in the world. I have written about Jay's delivery and insights before here

Excerpt:

"I appreciate his genuine awe struck and outgoing way of bringing his listeners sound bytes from some of the most powerful and cutting edge Internet marketers and pioneers in our World today. Jay rubs shoulders with and interviews the likes of Seth Godin and Jason Calacanis on a weekly basis. If you don't know who those people are, it's OK because Jay will share the highlights of the careers of these .com and Internet moguls with you when he reports on the Ten Golden Rules podcast. I say Awe Struck, not because I think Jay does not belong in the same room with these mega-tycoons of our industry but because he has a way of approaching these interviews with the kind of exuberance and giddiness of someone who may not belong, but is happy to be there, would bring. Jay belongs - one only needs to read his resume on the Ten Golden Rules website to know he has been playing in this sandbox for some time now. He simply has a style which brings the listener into the room as if we were flies on the wall and Jay is the only person who knows we are there".

More about the Internet Marketing Club:

Starting in October, we will run weekly webinars on topics such as Social Media including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, Search Engine Marketing - Search Engine optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC), Affiliate and Performance Marketing, Conversion Strategies and Analysis and Analytics.

Next on Today's Agenda is the Free 12 Week Internet Marketing Course - Provided by: Jeremy Shoemaker

If you are not aware of who Jeremy Shoemaker of "Shoemoney" is... Well, then I would wager that you may not have not been around the web 2.0 or blogosphere for very long. Jeremy Shoemaker helped put the spit shine on blogs as a a way to make money and he walks the walk and cashed the checks to prove it. I have been reading his Shoemoney blog for at least 3 years and it is full of good stuff.

Quote:

Google Adsense Check for $132,994.97

ShoeMoney.com, shares my ups and downs in the world of online marketing to a loyal daily readership of over 30,000 people. ShoeMoney.com has been named the Best Affiliate Marketing Blog and ranks in Technorati’s top 50 blogs for the past three years.

Of course Jeremy is selling an extensive Internet Marketing tools kit subscription at the end of this free 12 week course.  Even though Jeremy would like to continue to make money from his knowlege he is not just putting together some e-book and expecting to get rich. The tools he provides at ShoeMoney Tools have a great deal of value.

I have signed up and completed all 12 weeks of the Free Course and I must say that there is a great deal of valuable information in this Free version. I see no reason to avoid learning from a guy who has made a great deal of money online. All information is good information if you utilize it - right?

Hello, I'm Jeremy "ShoeMoney" Schoemaker and for 13 years I've been building successful online businesses. For the past five years I've been working hard writing a book to help others get started online. I recently decided that there is just too much great information in my book to exclude people from reading it. I have now backed out of my major book deal and turned it into a completely FREE 12 week guide to Internet marketing. No strings attached. Enter your email and start receiving the weekly guides directly in your inbox!

Week 1 - The Beginner's Guide To Internet Marketing

Week 2 - Affiliate Marketing 101: Everything You Need To Know To Start Promoting Products

Week 3 - Market Research: How To Crush Your Competitors And Discover Hot Niches

Week 4 - Introduction to Pay Per Click

Week 5 - Advanced Pay Per Click

Week 6 - SEO Tips, Tricks, and Tactics

Week 7 - Content Creation: How To Create Articles That Attract Users And Increase Sales

Week 8 - Marketing: How To Use Social Media To Spread Your Brand

Week 9 - Make That Cash: 10 Ways To Monetize Your Site And Increase Profitability

Week 10 - Testing & Tracking: How To Optimize Your Site & Make Sense Of The Figures

Week 11 - Building Your Team: How To Network With Others And Find Long Term Partners

Week 12 - Launch Day: How To Kick Start Your Business And Manage Your Projects

Industry Moves: Xing CEO Logs Out, Replacement Coming From eBay
paidContent.org via Yahoo! Finance Mon, 24 Nov 2008 5:20 AM PST
LinkedIn rival Xing's founder and CEO Lars Hinrichs has stepped down from the post to concentrate on "new entrepreneurial challenges", and is being replaced by Dr. Stefan Gross-Selbeck, eBay's general manager for Germany.

Xing is not really the story here, now is it?

Yahoo must have crafted that statement with the utmost care. eBay was not mentioned until the last sentence.

eBay Sinking?

When eBay's General Manager for Germany take a position at the head of a company that is smaller than eBay's smallest holdings and plays second fiddle to several other companies, well it seems that we have a pattern developing.

Who will be next to find new digs on the shore?

It seems that the great ship that is/was eBay may be showing some signs of seepage.  Do we really think these departures mean all is well?  Or should someone call the Coast Guard and send up a flare?

10,000 Users

Bonanzle is an online market where buyers and sellers get together to exchange merchandise in  stress free friendly atmosphere.

Today, as I write this article, Bonanzle reached a milestone.

Bonanzle is barely 6 months young, oh what an interesting six months. 

New Categories

Google Base

Cleaning up

Bulk Editing

Prior to the "Investor Relations" teleconference, eBay will lay-off 10% of its workforce while the stock price hovers near a 5 year low.

I am scheduled to tune in to the investor relations call, and hope to gleen some sort of further insight from the information presented, but be assured eBay will promote this as a good move.  It remains to be seen if Wall Street agrees (what with Wall Street having its own problems of late). 

I will follow up after the early Monday call....

Oh, and sorry if you are one of the eBay employees packing up your desk today, really... I know it hurts.

 

eBay Inc. Buys Leading Payments and Classifieds Businesses, Streamlines Existing Organization To Improve Growth

SAN JOSE, Calif., October 6, 2008 – eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY) today announced two acquisitions that significantly extend the company's leadership position in online payments and classifieds. In payments, the company is acquiring the U.S.-based online payments business Bill Me Later® for approximately $820 million in cash and approximately $125 million in outstanding options. In classifieds, the company has acquired Denmark's leading online classifieds site dba.dk and vehicles site bilbasen.dk for approximately $390 million in cash. 

The company also announced plans to reduce its global workforce by approximately 10 percent, affecting about 1,000 employees in addition to several hundred temporary workers and the reduction of open positions. The global reduction is intended to simplify and streamline eBay's organization, improve the company's cost structure and strengthen the overall competitiveness of the company's existing businesses. The reduction is expected to result in pretax restructuring charges of approximately $70 million to $80 million, with the charges predominantly recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008. 

"We are making aggressive moves to strengthen our leadership positions in e-commerce and payments to competitively position our company for long-term growth," said John Donahoe, eBay Inc.'s president and chief executive officer. "Bill Me Later is a perfect complement to our portfolio, a company that belongs with PayPal. Together, PayPal and Bill Me Later will make online payments safer, easier and more convenient than ever."

"Our classifieds acquisition gives us another market leadership position in Europe for this rapidly growing part of our portfolio," Donahoe said. "We are the global leader in classifieds with top positions in Canada, Australia, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom, and sites in more than 1,000 cities across 20 countries. The acquisition of dba.dk and bilbasen.dk gives us technology and expertise we can leverage across our classifieds portfolio to create better customer experiences." 

Commenting on the company's workforce reduction, Donahoe said: "While never an easy decision to make, these reductions will help improve our operations and strengthen our ability to continue investing in growth."

The company also stated it expects to hit the low end of its Q3 2008 revenue guidance and exceed GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share guidance as issued in conjunction with its second quarter earnings release on July 16. eBay is scheduled to announce third quarter results on October 15. 

More information about Bill Me Later and dba.dk and bilbasen.dk can be found in separate press releases issued by the company today.

eBay Inc. will host an investor conference call today at 5:30 a.m. PDT to discuss this announcement. A live webcast of the conference call can be accessed through the eBay Investor Relations Web site at http://investor.ebay.com. An archive of the webcast will be accessible through the same link. 

About eBay Inc.
Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Shopping.com, and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.

Forward Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of our businesses that are based on its current expectations, forecasts and assumptions. Those statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from those discussed. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the receipt and timing of regulatory approval for the acquisition of Bill Me Later; the possibility that the acquisition of Bill Me Later may not close; the reaction of consumers and customers to the transactions; downturns in the financial markets and the credit industry; the future growth of Bill Me Later and Den Bla Avis and BilBasen, the reaction of competitors to the transactions, the possibility that integration following the transactions may be more difficult than expected; the timing, impact and execution of the Company's workforce reduction plan and the extent of the employees impacted; the increasing need to grow revenues from existing users in established markets; an increasingly competitive environment for eBay's businesses; the complexity of managing a growing company with a broad range of businesses; the company's need to manage regulatory, tax, IP and litigation risks (including risks specific to PayPal and the financial industry); the need to upgrade technology and customer service infrastructure at reasonable cost while adding new features and maintaining site stability; foreign-exchange-rate fluctuations; changes in political, business, and economic conditions; the company's ability to profitably expand its business model to new types of merchandise and sellers; and the impact and integration of recent and future acquisitions.

INVESTOR CONTACT:
Vandana Hariharan
eBay Inc.
408-376-5877

 

PESA

When the longest standing eBay trade organization comes out with a statement like this, few additional words or commentary are needed.

Other than to say...

Listen Up eBay, in political parlance - You have lost the core audience, your evangelists are few and far between... When PESA publicly sends out a message like this... Someone should take note.
  
From: noblespirit
To: ! Professional eBay Sellers Alliance

Subject: PESA/ECMTA Position Paper, September 30, 2008

September 30, 2008

PeSA Official Statement on eBays Marketplace:

Deteriorating eBay Market Conditions Erode Seller Confidence

Members of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance have been concerned with the vibrancy of the eBay marketplace for the past few years. In the first nine months of 2008, we have observed a substantial deterioration in the value of the marketplace for merchants. Broader e-commerce growth is in the high teens while eBays GMV has increased at low single digit rates; a clear sign that eBay is losing wallet share among online shoppers.

We were encouraged with the culture of change that swept through eBay during the past 12 months; however, we believe the flawed execution of change has accelerated the deterioration of the marketplace. Today eBay merchants have an increased level of business uncertainty due to eBays poor execution of changes in many areas including seller performance measurement, fees, site search, buyer activity, and seller communication. The result is that merchants are changing their behavior in ways that we believe is not beneficial to the eBay marketplace.

Merchants are pursuing alternate channels for their businesses which are more economical, including launching their own website, participating in other third party channels such as Amazon and Overstock, and even opening brick and mortar stores. Based recent feedback from PeSA members, merchants are focusing on other channels at higher rates than we have ever measured in the past. Prime products that used to find their way to eBay, are now being diverted to these new "premier" channels that are reportedly delivering higher margins with greater certainty and decreased overhead.

Merchants that used to prioritize the eBay channel now regard the marketplace as a venue of last resort used mainly for liquidation of product that doesn’t sell elsewhere. eBay has acknowledged that it may have an undersupply of merchandise on the site, however, they fail to recognize that the supply issue on eBay is a direct result of their relationship with their customers, the sellers. The lack of credible communication from eBay to its sellers about its strategy has resulted in a marketplace of skeptic sellers, which is bad for business. We would like to highlight eBays recent move to allow "big box" retailers free access to eBay, at a competitive advantage to its existing seller base, as an example of a decision that exacerbates the situation by threatening the diverse supply of merchandise that shoppers expect on eBay.

As PeSA has stated in its prior position statements, the real issue affecting eBay is buyer activity. We believe that issue still exists. According to eBays latest published results, eBay's annual active user churn rate was close to 40%. eBay has discontinued reporting the data that allowed us to actively monitor the issue, but based upon the flat active user growth, we believe eBay is still seeing poor user activity.

Unfortunately, most of the changes at eBay have been focused on sellers, not buyers. We are proponents for measuring the performance of sellers and rewarding those sellers that provide positive customer experiences. The concept is used in other marketplaces; however, the eBay execution of that concept resulted in a Detailed Seller Rating (DSR) system that is substantially flawed both in its measurement and transparency. We understand that a new system will not be perfect and should be adjusted as experience builds. The real problem is that eBay seems to be building on top of a flawed DSR system that has not been adjusted to reflect true buyer experience.

At PeSA, our position on eBay fees has been that as long as sellers are receiving value, eBay is certainly entitled to share in that value. During the past few years, that economic balance has shifted dramatically to the disadvantage of merchants. In our opinion, eBay still does not recognize that their excessive extraction of value in the form of fees and other monetization techniques has resulted in dramatic underinvestment on improving the marketplace. Declining buyer activity also has a direct result on average selling prices and conversion rates on the platform. Thus the lower margins in conjunction with rising eBay fees, results in eBay taking more value while leaving less for merchants.

In addition, the diversion of traffic off the eBay platform in the form of advertising (run by Yahoo in the US ) helps eBay monetize the marketplace, but leaves less buyer traffic for merchants that list on eBay. And, the greater compliance burden of operating on eBay combined with the risk that a merchant business will be shut down with little visibility creates an unworkable environment.

We embrace the effort that eBay has made to adjust fees to better align with the success of merchants. But, again, the implementation of the changes comes across as an effort to increase the take rate on merchants without really investing in the marketplace. While eBay lowered the upfront cost to list on the marketplace, they dramatically increased the fees on the back-end. We were disappointed with this approach and would have preferred that eBay show some commitment to increase value to the marketplace before raising final value fees on its customers.

We argue that the declining economics on the marketplace justified lowering front end fees without an associated increase on the backend. After all, less buyer activity means that the marketplace is not as valuable a channel for a merchant and the cost to list on the marketplace should be less. Unfortunately, eBay does not see it that way and the result is that eBay is placing the burden of all the changes on the marketplace on the backs of its customers, which are its merchants. We continue to experience one step forward on concept and two steps back with execution. We cannot find any other case where a company, with the desire to restructure and improve its business, places the burden squarely on its customer base.

PeSA is focused on promoting professional and successful selling on the eBay marketplace and are actively working with all professional sellers to help them navigate the changes on the marketplace. We believe eBay still needs to better understand its customers and we hope that sharing our views helps highlight the most pressing issues. it is our intention to continue working with sellers and with eBay to effect positive change in the marketplace and will be publishing additional papers with more specific commentary in the near future.

Thank you,
PESA Board of Directors

We were informed about this Nascar eBay connection by Keith Bloemendaal of Favorite Teamwear, a Nascar focused website offering team merchandise and blog commentary on the sport.

Dale Earnhardt Jr Auctions Ride In #88 At Lowes Motor Speedway

Bidding opens today at 7:00 p.m. EDT on eBay and will continue through Friday, Oct. 3. Following the final bid, Wrangler® will donate 100 percent of auction proceeds to the Victory Junction Gang Camp, a NASCAR-themed medically sound camp that enriches the lives of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses.

“Whether it’s signing a pair of jeans, giving away the door from one of my cars or driving a generous fan around the track, I’m more than happy to do my part in contributing to Victory Junction,” said Earnhardt. “Wrangler has continued to go above and beyond in helping this great charity and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

Fans can get more information or place bids by visiting www.wrangler.comor www.ebay.com/wranglerjeans.

Time will tell, but here it is and it's here to stay.... (At least we think it is)

September 15, 2008 | 03:20PM PST/PT

Dinesh Lathi

Hi everyone. I'm here with a reminder that the new pricing structure for Fixed Price listings, as announced by Lorrie on August 20th, goes into effect at midnight Pacific time tonight. That means that sellers will be able to start taking advantage of the new 30-day duration for Fixed Price listings for the new low Insertion Fee of 35 cents, and just 15 cents in Books, Movies & DVDs, Music, and Video Games.Also starting at midnight, and good through the end of the year, our special holiday promotion goes into effect for Books, Movies & DVDs, Music, and Video Games: Fixed Price Insertion Fees are just 5 cents when you use Pre-filled Item Information (see details here).

If you haven't already, make sure you've reviewed all of the information pages we've provided to learn more about the other changes she introduced: "recent sales" as a factor in Best Match search results for Fixed Price listings (which may take a few days to roll out across the entire site), new maximum shipping and handling charges in Books, Movies & DVDs, Music, and Video Games, our paperless payments policy, our seller standards, and more.

In addition, check out the Seller Checklist, which will help you stay on top of when various policies and features will take effect, and provide updates on the availability of tools for bulk-editing your listings. A few key upcoming dates:

• Starting October 1st and through the end of the year, sellers will get a free Subtitle listing upgrade, and eligible PowerSellers will get double their Final Value Fee discounts for items sold with free shipping.
• By October 5th, make sure your first domestic shipping option in your Books, Movies & DVDs, Music and Video Games listings is within the new maximum charges.
• On October 20th, our paperless payments policy will begin, and checks and money orders will no longer be allowed as payment methods.
• Also by late October, you'll need to specify your handling time and return policy in your listings.

As we did on August 20th, we'll be answering your questions about these changes on our special discussion forum on September 16th from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT.

Sincerely,

Dinesh Lathi
VP, Seller Experience

Jet Blue has gained a lot of notoriety with the recent announcement the Airline would be auctioning off flights on eBay. Unfortunately the big box retailer of airfare and travel packages apparently has not read the eBay rulebook or terms of service and has begun breaking the very same rules standard sellers on eBay must abide by within the first week of Jet Blue/eBay operations.

Jet Blue offers Mystery Auctions on eBay - breaking an eBay policy announced May 19, 2008 by: John McDonald of eBay Trust and Safety.

John McDonald - eBay

Mystery Auctions prohibited
Due to the high rate of claims and bad buying experiences related to these listings, starting early June, the Chance Policy will now also include Mystery Auctions as a prohibited item.

Mystery Auction by Jet Blue ended at $3,350.00 with 40 Bids

The Jet Blue listing above offered a "Mystery Auction" with the following ad text:

PACK YOUR PASSPORT AND SUNSCREEN AND JET AWAY TO A “MYSTERY” TROPICAL DESTINATION

Plus, get a complimentary $100 food and beverage credit**

Get ready for an exciting travel adventure! This JetBlue Getaways vacation package includes roundtrip flights for two (2) and five day/four nights accommodations at a 4 star Marriott resort in one of JetBlue’s tropical destinations such as St. Maarten, Bermuda, Cancun, Aruba, or Puerto Plata.

Your final destination will be revealed at the end of the auction so bid now! VALID PASSPORT AND DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED

FLIGHT DETAILS

Roundtrip flight on JetBlue Airways for two (2) people:

JFK -New York, NY (or valid connecting city via JFK) to Mystery Destination

Please note - VALID PASSPORT AND DOCUMENTATION REQUIRED

The Chance Policy on eBay Defines Mystery Auctions This way:

Mystery Items:

Mystery items are listings where the seller doesn't specifically identify the contents, number, quality or condition of the items for sale. Mystery item listings are not permitted.

We suppose Jet Blue could say that a flight to an unknown destination which requires a Passport is not a mystery... but how many regular eBay sellers would be allowed to dance this fine line of semantics? As an eBay seller myself, I am painfully aware of how the rules can be very specific in some cases and not so much in others. In this case, I think Jet Blue got a "pass' from eBay...

The fact is Jet Blue offered an item for sale on eBay and they did not define what exactly the bidders would receive in exchange for the $3,350.00 final bid.  Jet Blue auctioned off a chance to receive an undefined item. This is the definition of a Mystery Auction and Jet Blue called it a Mystery Auction boldly in the description. Resulting in a clear violation of the eBay terms of service and the listing should not have been allowed.

eBay has allowed numerous instances "Mystery Auctions" as presented by Jet Blue however, as of the date and time this publication several of these Mystery listing have closed with winning bidders who obstensably have no idea what it is they have won or where they may go... No "Mystery Auctions" are currently live on eBay however.

The point here is not that Jet Blue is defrauding anyone. I have every confidence the winners of these packages will receive their money's worth from the airline... The point is eBay has turned its head away from a violation of listing policies for one of the new big box vendors they recently have courted with rumoured discounted fee structures and other incentives, something they swore would never happen.  eBay made a promise to the long standing sellers and users of the eBay platform which stated that something like this would or could never occur...

Well it has, on multiple occasions.

For the record, I have stated in public that I am not against Jet Blue offering flights or travel packages on eBay... I am against them getting away with breaking eBay terms of service that the rest of the community of sellers must abide by...

What do you think?