December 2008

31/12/2008

Amazon.com have announced they will no longer accept payments via BillMeLater, the credit service bought by eBay earlier this year. A notice on Seller Central says: Effective December 31st, 2008, BillMeLater (BML) will no longer be accepted as a payment method on Amazon.com. All sales and orders processed with BillMeLater prior to this date will [...]

31/12/2008

List stock as soon as it arrives I don’t mean the stuff that’s already buried at the back of the warehouse, that’s for a rainy day project and lets face it I no longer know what’s there anyway. I’ll just try not to add to the several racks of forgotten treasures and list everything that [...]

30/12/2008

Since eBay began running ads in search results, we’ve heard of a few eyebrow-raising things advertised there. There were the weed seeds. There are not-infrequently pirate music CDs, DVDs, knock-off designer clothing and handbags. This week, a poster on the UK PowerSeller Board spotted some Wii games advertised for just £4 each being sold by [...]

29/12/2008

2008 has been a year of huge change on eBay. The one thing we can say for certain about 2009 is that there’ll be more of the same: the only constant is change*. Randy‘s posted his predictions; so has Ina (the comments on both threads are particularly instructive). Here’re mine, and I should emphasise – [...]

26/12/2008

Private sellers can list auctions for just 5p this weekend on eBay UK. On Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th December, auctions’ insertion fees are reduced to 5p. All other fees are charged as normal. Buy It Now items are not included, though sellers can add a buy it now price to their auctions for the [...]

26/12/2008

It’s almost the New Year and from the 27th January all DVD sellers will have to offer free postage and packing, but will it really increase sales? The guys at Terapeak have run some reports looking at eBay UK DVD listings and the effect a free postage offer has on sell through rates and final [...]

24/12/2008

There’s gotta be someone out there that you meant to send a card to, that special person who’s card plopped onto your doormat this morning and you realise there’s no way you can get a card to them for tomorrow. (Well you might be better organised, but it’s happened to me on more than one [...]

23/12/2008

Royal Mail have announced their tariff changes to take place in April next year, with the cost of a 1st class stamp rising from 36p to 39p. The cost of a 2nd class letter rises from 27p to 30p. What’s probably of more interest to eBay sellers is the cost of a typical packet, which [...]

23/12/2008

Skype has settled a court case for $2.3m with Mangosoft Inc for alleged patent infringement of their dynamic directory service. The case was filed two years ago and closed last Thursday, Mangosoft will license its software to Skype for $2.3 million and drop all claims. Mangosoft were one of the early Internet companies but today [...]

23/12/2008

From 23rd to 26th December inclusive, eBay India are running a listing upgrades promotion. Sellers listing on eBay.in who have not used listing upgrades in the previous two months, may do so for half the normal rate. Most listing upgrades – from Home Page Featured to Scheduled – are included, and the promotion is valid [...]