Selling off-eBay: An experiment

February 28, 2008

I’ve often said eBay has all the buyers, but this week I thought I’d put a couple of alternative venues to the test. I wanted it to be a realistic experiment so I chose two popular sites – eBid and Gumtree. Both met one particular criteria which… Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under Featured | 32 Comments 

Time to book for ChannelAdvisor Catalyst

February 28, 2008

There’s been quite a lot of interest in ChannelAdvisor and Amazon lately, and for those that are serious about finding out more tomorrow (Friday 29th) is the last day for booking for ChannelAdvisor Catalyst at the discounted price of £129.00…. Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 7 Comments 

eBay and MercExchange reach patent agreement

February 28, 2008

The seven year legal battle between eBay and MercExchange has finally been settled. eBay have bought the three patents that MercExchange had accused them of violating, as well as some additional related technology. MercExchange had argued that… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 3 Comments 

Repeat feedback is live on .com

February 28, 2008

Brian Burke, eBay’s Director of Feedback Policy has just announced that eBay have “just begun” providing feedback credit for repeat transactions. Buyers and sellers can earn one feedback point per week for transactions with the same trading partner…. Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 4 Comments 

‘Compulsory PayPal’ changes delayed

February 28, 2008

eBay UK that changes making PayPal compulsory for some sellers have been delayed for a month. Safe payments and buyer protection was due to be introduced at the end of February; it required sellers with fewer than 100 feedback, those with a low… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | Comments Off 

Government laptop “sold on eBay”

February 28, 2008

Sky News are reporting that counter-terrorism police are investigating the apparent sale of a Home Office laptop and encrypted data disk on eBay. The laptop was apparently taken to a Manchester computer repair shop on Tuesday. Shop owner Lee… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 2 Comments 

eBay gum

February 27, 2008

It must be a slow news day at the Telegraph. Blogger Richard Tyler is filling some column inches with stuff about eBay. Apparently, “the Derby, Nottingham, Leicester triangle” has the highest concentration of eBay businesses, while London figures… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured | 16 Comments 

eBay criticised over software piracy

February 27, 2008

A software industry anti-piracy body has said that “at least 90% of all software available on eBay is illegal.” The report by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) says that “some of the largest and most damaging counterfeiting and… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 1 Comment 

Category and item specifics changes on .com

February 27, 2008

Sellers who list on eBay.com need to be aware of some changes to categories and item specifics coming in March. The full details are on the Announcements Board (categories, item specifics), but in brief:Art is being divided into two sections: Direct… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 4 Comments 

How Amazon produced a tenfold increase in business

February 27, 2008

I can’t help but be impressed with the recent stories I hear about Amazon sales. Almost every seller that uses Amazon as part of their sales channel has stories of hitting the “Buy Box” and being instantly flooded with orders until they run out of… Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 10 Comments 

La Poste tariff changes from 1st March

February 26, 2008

Just a heads-up for anyone else who’s shipping from France: La Poste’s tarif courrier is changing from 1st March. Most prices will increase by just a handful of centimes, so n’inquiétez vous. A 20g lettre prioritaire increases from 54c to… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 12 Comments 

eBay postage options incorrect in FireFox

February 26, 2008

There appears to be a problem with eBay listings when displayed in the FireFox browser. The postage isn’t displaying a cost, but instead displays the line “Postage costs: To Taiwan — Not specified”Postage costs displayed in FireFox From the same… Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 4 Comments 

Sellers with DSRs 4.3 or less to be disadvantaged in UK search results

February 26, 2008

eBay UK have just announced changes to the way search results are ordered, to disadvantage sellers with lower DSR (“feedback star”) scores. The listings of sellers with a DSR of 4.3 or below on any of the four rating categories will appear lower… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 22 Comments 

Gumtree for recruitment

February 26, 2008

What do you do when you need extra staff for your online business? Will Wynne of Arena Flowers told TameBay the secret of his recruiting success, when he needs staff he always turns to Gumtree. Perfect for Mother’s Day Arena Flowers are… Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 4 Comments 

Overstock to expand to the UK & Europe

February 26, 2008

In what’s probably good news for many eBay traders, Overstock CEO, Patrick Byrne, has made public his intentions to cross the Atlantic and gain a foothold in Europe. Overstock aim to be up and running in the UK by summer 2008, and are currently… Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 3 Comments 

A third of the UK has a PayPal account

February 25, 2008

PayPal’s rise and rise has passed another milestone, as they reach 20 million UK users: more than a third of the adult population now has a PayPal account. Leading internet market research company, Nielsen Online, has named PayPal the UK’s favourite… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 10 Comments 

Win a date with Colin Firth on eBay

February 25, 2008

Fans of Colin Firth, break out your PayPal accounts! Oxfam America are auctioning a range of Colin-related items, including signed DVDs, and even better, the chance to meet Colin at the premieres of Mamma Mia in London, Berlin and Stockholm. It’s… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 2 Comments 

eBay name new CEOs for Skype, Shopping.com

February 25, 2008

eBay have today named new CEOs for Skype and Shopping.com. Josh Silverman, the current CEO of Shopping.com, moves to Skype to take over from Michael van Swaaij, who was appointed interim CEO in October 2007. Josh joined eBay in 2003 and has held a… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | Comments Off 

eBay UK simplifying Checkout

February 25, 2008

that they are changing Checkout, “to simplify and improve the buying process”. Integration with PayPal is to be improved, and “the issues our users were finding difficult, such as, postage method selection and postage & packaging discounts” are to… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 6 Comments 

eBay seller strike enters second week

February 25, 2008

photo credit: PhilgarlicSellers striking in protest at eBay’s recent fee and (mainly) feedback changes have announced the strike is to be extended for another week until 9th March. proposing extending the strike shows that support is far from… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Featured | 3 Comments 

eBay Oz makes it easier to recover pulled listings

February 25, 2008

photo credit: ximenatapiaeBay Australia have announced a change in the way they deal with listings pulled due to policy violations. Previously, these have disappeared from the site altogether, meaning that sellers had to recreate them from scratch… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 2 Comments 

SIF glitch adds Gallery to all listings

February 24, 2008

If you have Good Til Cancelled listings renewing today, you may like to check if Gallery has been added to them without your say so. A thread on the PowerSeller Forum has several sellers reporting this problem, which will effectively double the… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 2 Comments 

Meg Whitman to inspire future CEOs

February 24, 2008

Meg Whitman is to join the likes of Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Warren Buffet and even George Washington as a laureate of Junior Achievement Worldwide. Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization providing school and college programs… Read more

Written by Chris Dawson · Filed Under News | 2 Comments 

eBay elsewhere : links for 24th February

February 24, 2008

The Times takes a look at online auctions and alternatives to eBay. Forbes considers what JD will need to do to restore eBay to its past glories. (IMHO: stop looking back to 1998 and start looking forward to 2018 would be the place to… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 12 Comments 

Buyers unable to leave more than 3 DSR stars?

February 24, 2008

Auctionbytes has an extremely worrying story this morning picked up from eBay.com boards, where buyers are reporting they are unable to leave more than 3 stars in feedback. Quoting from just one post, it seems things are pretty thoroughly broken:… Read more

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under News | 10 Comments 

Next Page »