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TAGnotes Tue 10 Oct 2000 Vol 2 Number 146 Issue 228

The Auction Guild Notes for Tuesday 10 Oct 2000
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BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT ebaY critical functions of search,
My ebaY and access to listing pages to bid were down on 10 Oct
from 18:00:40 to 20:27:53. My ebaY was not restored until 21:35:38.

If you feel your auctions were negatively impacted by the outages
or My ebaY problems, request a refund by going to the form at
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?
SendSupportEmailShow&subject=Credit%20--%20How%20can
%20I%20receive%20credit%20for%20insertion%20fees%3F%20
Send -
* The item number(s) of the ended auction(s)
* The specific fee(s) charged for them
* Your seller's email address or User ID
* The phrase, GIVE CREDIT in the Subject line
This can also be accessed from
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/select-support.html
PLEASE - IF YOU ARE DENIED REFUNDS LET US KNOW

TAG posted the above information on the ebaY Discuss
New Feature Board, and though it did not violate any ebaY board
rules, was removed by ebaY. Tomorrow ebaY reports third
quarter results, are they trying to hide this information from their
stockholders?

ebaY on 10 Oct at 17:50:37 PT reported that they were having
problems with the cookies for photo hosting. Every time you list an
item, you will be prompted to select your photo hosting preference.
Your preference puts a cookie on your computer so your selection
information is saved . Currently, the cookie is not working. There
have been several post on the ebaY boards by users who have tried the
picture hosting service and have had trouble with it. There appear
to be many glitches in this service not reported by ebaY.

At 18:00:40 cgi1 started to throw reset errors. At 18:05:16 cgi 5 had
reset by peer messages. At 18:05:54 PT My ebaY crashed. ebaY
reported at 18:20:37 that My ebaY was intermittently down. At
19:05:26 the site crashed completely, there was no access to search,
listing, bidding, my ebaY, the boards and in some cases the
announcement board. At 19:20:03 ebaY reported that they were having
intermittent availability problems with the Item pages. At 19:26 ebaY
acknowledged the site was down. At 19:36:19 PT ebay posted that the
ebaY system was unavailable for about 5 minutes, beginning at about
19:30 PT. They claimed the system was available, but My ebaY was still
having intermittent availability. At 20:18 ebaY crashed again and was
back up at 20:27:53. At 20:22:39 ebaY posted that the system was
unavailable. ebaY posted at 20:32:23 PT that the system was unavailable
for about 14 minutes and became available again at about 20:30 PT. My
eBay was still unavailable. At 21:35:38 they posted that they
experienced system issues that resulted in two brief outages -- one for
about 5 minutes beginning at 19:25 PT and another for about 15 minutes
beginning at 20:15 PT. My eBay was also intermittently unavailable
beginning at about 18:20 PT. As of 21:35:38 all functions were back.

Since our editor was actually on ebaY during this entire time period,
the times reported by TAG, backed up by posts on two separate OAI
boards, are accurate. ebaY is not correct. There is a disparity
between the reality experienced by ebaY users and that experienced by
ebaY the company. TAG hopes ebaY bases its refunds on the users
reality. For all intents and purposes, ebaY should have extended
auctions ending between 18:00:40 to 20:27:53, and spared their users the
heavy financial loses some were sure to experience due to a site that
was basically non functional for 2.5 hours.

ebaY will be down for scheduled maintenance on Friday 13 Oct from
01:00 PT and 05:00 PT. Once again ebaY is extending the maintenance
session by two hours in order to make more changes to their system.
They will extend auctions scheduled to end during the maintenance
extension and the hour following the extension, between 03:00 PT
and 06:00 PT, Fri 13 Oct. To end your auction early go to
http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?EndingMyAuction

ebaY search cycles have been running behind for weeks. It takes 2
to 4 hours for Title search to index and 24 to 36 hours for description
search to index. Revisions to listings made after the listing has
posted are ignored, so TAG recommends if you need to revise a key word
in your title or description, cancel your auction, request a refund and
relist the auction. Maintenance will delay search updates by 12 to 15
hours on Friday and Saturday following scheduled maintenance.

Great Collections is selling the Treasures from the Hoi An Hoard.
on ebaY. This consists of approximately 150,000 pieces of Late
15th/Early 16th century Vietnamese ceramics. Buyers on eBay will
be able to bid on the entire collection. Internet bidders can access the
items offered in Butterfields live sales on 11 through 13 Oct
and on 4 Dec through ebaY Live Auctions and they can access
over 60,000 items on ebaY Great Collections starting14 Oct.
www.ebayliveauctions.com www.ebaygreatcollections.com

ebaY Contact Information can now be found on the TAG website
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html;$sessionid$
RDYY0JYAAAV0JWGIHUWHBMWYZA4S1PX0?pid=17
Approx 5.16 million current listing
MedVed shows 5.07 million
http://www.quotetracker.com/cgi-bin/cal.cgi?EIND
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
* * * * *
Yahoo Auctions is claiming 2.5 mil auctions in the USA and 4 mil
if the international sites are included
Basic site information http://www.auctionguild.com
Go to OAI Site Basic Details from left side toolbar.
Yahoo site map
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/sitemap.html
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
* * * * *
Amazon Basic site information http://www.auctionguild.com
Go to OAI Site Basic Details from left side toolbar.
Amazon listing numbers for 26 Sep, 12 of 19 categories actual
counts, 7 of 19 extrapolated counts. Total listings 1,094,439
http://www.amazon.com
* * * * *
PayPal posted the following on their site
Postage and Handling Fee for Check Withdrawals
Entry Date: October 9, 2000
Effective Date: October 16, 2000
In order to encourage our customers to withdraw funds by electronic
transfer rather than by check, as of Monday, October 16, there will
be a $1.50 postage and handling fee on check withdrawals. There is
no fee for electronic transfer, which usually requires only 3-4 days
to complete (compared to 1-2 weeks for check withdrawals).

This post directly violates PayPals promise to allow a two week
period between notification and implementation of new fees. It also
violates the Forever Free guarantee on personal accounts.
http://www.PayPal.Com
* * * * *
X.Com will start charging fees of $12.00 per month on 1 Nov
to accounts that have a balance of less than $100.
In TAGs view, given the upcoming very high fees scheduled to go
in effect in Nov there are much better bargains out there in
cyberspace for FDIC insured bank accounts.
https://signup.x.com/new_account.asp
* * * * *
TAG recommends that no matter what third party payment system
you use, if it is not FDIC insured do not leave any more money in
the account than you can afford to lose. We highly recommend that
you associate these third party cyber payment systems, with an FDIC
bank account, totally independent from your analog bank accounts.
Practice safe money management, and prevent loses by having good
firewalls between your online and real world banking systems.
* * * * *
SmoothSale.Com in addition to waiving their monthly sellers fees
for charter merchants, is now offering free Final Value Fees for the
next three months. Sell your items on SmoothSale or use the
SmoothSale button on your ebaY auctions or your website to
enhance your ebaY sales.

We received this email from ebaY in response to our question to
them - Can we use the SmoothSale's 88X33 pixel button on ebaY?
QUOTE - As long as the SmoothSale.com advertisement is in
compliance with eBay's advertisement policy, it should be fine
for listing in your auctions. For more information on this and other
listing policies, please see the following link:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-list.html -ENDQUOTE

We found this email a bit obtuse, but since we sent them an actual
SmoothSale button, we hope they checked it out. We will continue
to seek further information from ebaY on this, but do not see why this
tool would violate ebaYs rule, as long as the merchandise you sell
on SmoothSale is not the same as what you have on ebaY and priced
lower than what you have on ebaY.
http://www.smoothsale.com
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*******VOTE******* VOTE******* VOTE********
The Million Auction March wants to move you to VOTE.
List your items on V enues O ther T han E bay
For more information go to http://www.millionauctionmarch.com
New Auction Houses, Sales Venues and Service Providers are
joining daily. All are offering incentives and specials to the OAI.
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If you would like an Auction House or Service Provider added to
this list, please email us at tag@theauctionguild.com
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www.auctionguild.com
Not just a venue
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