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TAGnotes Wed 25 Oct 2000 Vol 2 Number 154 Issue 236

The Auction Guild Notes for Wed 25 Oct 2000
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PLEASE TAKE A MINUTE TO TAKE THE SURVEY ON
DETAIL PREFERENCES. Since ebaY has had extensive outages,
and TAGnotes is the only place members of the OAI/OTI can go for
the information, we report on all the details of these outages. Would
it be preferable to our subscribers to have us continue putting all
the specific detail in TAGnotes, or just include a summary of the
information with a link to the TAG website to a page that will have the
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on bottom of left hand tool bar, or at
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ebaY posted at 06:22:44 PT on 25 Oct that seller search was working
but when viewing results from a sellers page, the high bidder
information will only show asterisks (**) in the area where the high
bidder info would normally appear. ebaY predicted a fix at 12:00 PT.
At 12:56:30 PT users reported Network error Unable to read URL
from host cgi3.ebay.com: Connection reset by peer. This was a
temporary glitch, and when this was fixed, the asterisk problem was
also fixed. At 19:00:46 PT Seller search went down. Users were
also reporting intermittent problems with the feedback system,
relisting, listing, and a very occasional problem with search. At
19:13:51PT ebaY posted that seller search, view seller's other auctions,
and the Seller tab on My ebaY will be down until 21:00. Seller search
was back up at 21:18 PT.

TAG strongly recommends that anyone who feels their auctions were
negatively impacted by these outages apply for credit. Request listing,
special feature and Final Value Fees. Go 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 can't emphasize enough that sellers should not take NO for an
answer. If you get a refund denial, keep requesting and
re-requesting refunds until you get them. Some sellers are also
challenging ebaY charges to their credit card, based on services
not rendered. TAG recommends you use that as a last resort, if at all.

WEBTV users who have problems with using ebaY should contact
wec-@webtv.net for assistance with ebaY problems. They can
also call 1-800-gowebtv (469-3288). You might also find some help
here - http://help.webtv.net/latestnews/toobig.html or elsewhere
on the WebTV site - http://help.webtv.net

One workaround WebTV and sellers using Apple systems, can try is to
find the category number before listing and enter the category number
on the first sell your item page at the very bottom instead of selecting
a metacategory. The category numbers can be found at
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/listings/list/categories.html

ebaY back door workarounds for when you can't access plain
vanilla ebaY (ebaY USA). Try one of these URLs
http://www.ebay.aol.com
http://www.ebay.com.au/
http://www.ebay.co.uk/
http://www.ebay.compuserve.com
http://pages.ca.ebay.com/index.html
http://www.ebay.digitalcity.com
http://www.ebay.icq.com
http://www.ebay.netscape.com
http://www.ebay.go.com

Another suggestion is to put up an About Me page, and have your
current auction list on that page. Put a link in every auction to
your About Me page that says - to see my other auctions click here.
This will allow bidders to see your other auctions despite the fact
that ebaY has disconnected all the seller search functions.
http://members.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?AboutMeLogin

In addition, if you are having problems with the new ebay listing
pages, try this old listing page
http://cgi5.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ListItemFor
SaleShow&item=0&category=0&oldstyle=0&page=1&u=0

Billpoint has identified that an incorrect currency conversion rate
was applied to Canadian seller Billpoint deposits dated 24 Oct.
Deposits were converted from U.S. dollars to Canadian dollars at a
rate of 1.472. The rate should have been 1.5029. To correct this
problem, ebaY will send an additional credit to your bank account
for the difference in the rates. The credit to your account should
post no later than 27 Oct. This credit will not show as an explicit
entry on your My Billpoint pages.

ebaY also posted that users reported their Honesty counters were not
displaying. They did not report it as fixed as of this printing.
Currently, counters are available in Antiques & Art, Books, Movies,
Music, Coins, and Computers.

In mid-Nov, ebaY is adding a holiday trial of Buy It Now. This will be
free during the holiday promotion. If you choose to use the Buy It Now
feature when listing, you will be able to name a price at which you
would be willing to sell your item to any buyer who meets your specified
price. Your listing will run as a normal auction, but will have a Buy It
Now price. Buyers can buy the item instantly which ends the auction.
Buy It Now will only be available before the first bid is placed on the
item. As soon as a bid is placed, the Buy It Now price will no longer be
available and the item will sell through the normal process. ebaY will
hold discussions of Buy It Now with users on the discussion boards
throughout the holiday trial.

ebaY Magazine will stop publication with the December issue. In
an email to a contributing writer, the Krause representative said
that the publishing agreement between eBay and Krause Publications
will not be renewed. Links to ebaY magazine on ebaY are now
dead links, or have been removed. There is no longer any subscription
information on ebaY.

ebaY is changing the Computers Category scheduled for Nov 2000.
Proposed changes are renaming some subcategories (eg: DVD ROM
Drives to DVD Drives, Power Book to PowerBook, 15” or less to
16” or less), new sub-categories in Domain Names category, Drives
category under Laptop Accessories, combine Adapters and Chargers
under one sub-category in Laptop Accessories, and combine Routers
and Switches category into Routers, Switches category. Changes are
at http://pages.ebay.com/preview/chg-computers.html

ebaY University classes coming up in Las Vegas, Saturday and Sunday,
28,29 Oct and in Denver, Colorado, Saturday and Sunday, 4,5 Nov.

Approx 5.2 million current listing
MedVed 5.2 mil
http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
* * * * *
Yahoo Auctions has an extrapolated calculated listing number of
3.9 million auctions. Yahoo is allowing sellers to turn their feedback
ratings on other sites into credits to pay for special features on
Yahoo. They give $1.00 in credit for every positive feedback point.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/ratings_featured.html
TAG has been seeing many posts by sellers who are moving at least
a percentage of their auctions to Yahoo.
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

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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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THE AUCTION GUILD
and eTRADERS GUILD
www.auctionguild.com
Not just a venue
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