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TAGnotes Mon 19 Mar 2001 Vol 3 Number 37 Issue 298 |
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The
Auction Guild Notes for Mon 19 Mar 2001
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ebaY users reported problems with slow page loads on 17 and
18 March. On 18 Mar at 16:08:02 PT ebaY reported that the
Honesty Counters on Item Pages were once again unavailable from
13:30 PT to 19:45 PT. ebaY reported the restoration at 21:46:41 PT.
This has become a chronic problem, and causes page loads to hang up.
Users again posted very slow page downloads all day on 19 Mar.
There were also intermittent cgi3 problems on the ebaY chat boards.
There is another glitch in the Buy It Now (BIN) feature. The way the
revised BIN feature now works a BIN item with a reserve does not
lose the BIN icon until the reserve is met via bidding. Unfortunately
the BIN icon on the search pages disappears as soon as the item has a
bid placed on it, even though BIN remains in effect.
Pink Quote of the Day via email from Phoebe@ebaY ebaY Community
Watch Team When asked about an ended auction (details Xed out to
protect users identity) said, "I have reviewed your auction XXX
Xxxxxx Xxxxx NEW Item #570XXXXXX and find that it does have one
listing violation in it. You have a statement of "To get
pre-notification of my Ebay $.99 Xxxxx Xxxxx auctions, be sure to join
my mailing list." This needs to be removed from your listings. We not
longer allow email gathering off of our site. Your auctions were brought
to our attention via another member's report. It was not meant to
question your excellent standing in our community in any way, but only
to let you know that listing items in this manner is not allowed."
TAG did extensive research on the ebaY site today, and there is
nothing in ebaYs rules that prohibit a link to a mailing or customer
list. Most sellers use an opt in list while ebaY uses the less
respected and less ethical opt out policy. Many of the third party
management services have a mailing/customer list integrated in their
service, including many services ebaY has licensed for their API and has
agreements with. If this policy turns out to be more than an "error" on
the part of some poorly trained overzealous CS rep TAG will be
interested in seeing how ebaY implements this.
Users have been reporting continuing problems with ebaY/Blackthorne's
Seller's Assistant and Seller's Assistant Pro. They are up to version 8
but had to retract it to fix unconquerable problems and have asked users
to go back to version 7 until version 9 is available. TAG is amazed
that people are actually being asked to pay for these programs that just
don't appear to work correctly. ebaY has also reneged on its promise of
24/7 support, and is now only offering email support. For more info and
updates go to
http://www.blackthornesw.com/discus/index.html
Title search approx 3 hours and Title and Description search approx
21 hours delay in search indexing lag times.
http://www.geocities.com/codclass/content/lag.html
For workarounds to ebaY's email system and attempt at exclusive
agency go to http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=50
ebaY Contact Information, analog mail and email addresses and
phone numbers, regular and toll free, refund info and insider
trading info go to http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=17
Approx 5.25 mil auctions inflated by approx 6% due to double
category listings yielding 4.94 mil auctions
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace - appears to be in
complete meltdown. Users reported on 18-19 March, that hundreds
and in some cases thousands of auctions simply disappeared from
the site. Sold auctions are not showing up on the closed or
sold
seller account lists, and Amazon is not sending auction closed notices.
Auctions that closed without a buyer have not relisted when they should
have, keywords used in a title & description search are not bringing the
items up in search, and dollar deals categories are not showing all
listings. On the 19th actions started to reappear and disappear
sporadically. The site also appeared to be suffering from intermittent
outages. There was nothing posted on the AB.
An influential group of security analysts has sent a second letter to
Amazon.com chief executive Jeff Bezos, demanding that the Internet
retailer reveal more financial information to put to rest fears that it
might go bankrupt. For full article -
http://werpfarm.netscape.com/ns/pf/news/ticker/story.tmpl?url=/
news/feeds/pf/ticker_search_associated_spo/defaultCA=
1023020E_7&display=/ns/pf/news/ticker/story_detail&symbol=amzn
Users have reported that Amazon is reducing prices on the new
books and videos Amazon is selling, and the Marketplace sellers are
being negatively impacted by the price reductions. This is particularly
true since Amazon does not notify the Marketplace sellers of their price
reductions on items a seller might have co-listed with a new book that
now has a significantly reduced price item.
Amazon owned Bibliofind.Com is now a free public service for the
bookselling community, as of March 2001.
http://www.bibliofind.com/joiningbibliofind.htm
Announcements board
http://amazon.remarq.com/list/16791839
Amazon User chat board
http://amazon.remarq.com/amazon/threads.asp?g=discuss%2
Eamazon%2Eseller%2Econnection&nav=LAST
Amazon live telephone customer service 16 hours a day Toll-free
in U.S. and Canada: (800)201-7575
http://auctions.amazon.com
* * * * *
BidVille.Com Auction users continue to send positive reports about
customer service on the site. If you have auctions on another such as
Yahoo, you can email BidVille and their techs will transfer the
auctions for you.
Approx 450,000 auctions with a 30% bid rate on closed auctions, and
less than a 1% bid rate on current auctions indicating that a majority
of sales are purchased at a Take It price.
http://www.bidville.com
* * * * *
Yahoo Auction has Showcases sellers can participate in for a fee
http://help.yahoo.com/help/auctions/asell/asell-64.html
Yahoo announcement board
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/announcements.html
Yahoo site map.
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/promo/sitemap.html
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
Yahoo Contact Information
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=38
Yahoo PayDirect phone number
1-877-521-1458
Actual auction count 15 Mar 327,942 of all auctions available via
the Yahoo category page. Spot check yields a 5% bid rate
http://list.auctions.yahoo.com/
* * * * *
Free Image Hosting
http://www.auctiontalk.com/imagehosting.asp
http://www.photopoint.com/
http://www.freepichosting.com/
http://www.baypal.com/
http://www.tupics.com
WebSpace provided by most ISPs with your account. You upload
the photos using FTP software such as Fetch for the MAC or CuteFTP
or WS FTP for PC based computers or WebTV. Many of these type
programs are available as freeware or shareware from Zdnet.
Free Site for Storefront and Customer List
http://www.bigstep.com
http://www.spree.com
Free Auction Management Tools
http://www.vrane.com
http://www.auctionflow.com/
http://www.collectoronline.com/manage/
* * * * *
Internet Traffic Report - a good way to track network slowdowns
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/cgi-bin/tr_chartpage.pl?NorthAmerica
* * * * *
Online Auction Users Association
The March newsletter is out and can be viewed at
http://www.auctionusers.org/newsletter/
Chat Schedule
Thursday, March 22, 9 p.m. EST - Chat with eDeal
(rescheduled from February)
Thursday, March 29, 9 p.m. EST - Chat with Joe Force from
Bargin and Haggle. com (tentative, waiting for confirmation)
OAUA live chat http://www.auctionusers.org/chat.shtml
Interested in volunteering and serving the Online Auction Community?
Check out http://www.auctionusers.org/volunteerop.shtml
http://www.auctionusers.org
* * * * *
Online Auction & Trading Site Co-op
Interested in an OAT Site Co-op?
Interested in getting involved?
Information on co-ops -
http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/rbs/pub/cir55/cir55rpt.htm
http://www.wisc.edu/uwcc/
Ideas for co-ops continue to develop
http://pub51.ezboard.com/bletsbuildacoop
To participate in weekly live co-op chats go to
http://pages.zdnet.com/labellebooks/OnlineSellersCoop/
Every Sunday Night at 8:00 PM EST.
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***PLEASE NOTE: Many long links we post in TAGnotes must be
copy/pasted into your browsers URL/Address box in pieces, with no
extra spaces, to get them to work due to HTML limitations****
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If you would like an Auction House or Service Provider added to
this list, please email us at ta-@theauctionguild.com
Have any information for us? email us at ta-@theauctionguild.com
TAG Subscribers have often contributed to information reported on in
TAGnotes. Visit their auctions.
TAGassist Contributors
-
http://www.321gone.com/member/FBNeNotes
http://cgi6.ebaY.com/aw-cgi/ebaYISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=aj14+&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/customer-glance/
A5TGMPMTNX03S/104-1323617-7144715
http://www.dandelionfarms.com
http://cgi6.ebaY.com.au/aw-cgi/ebaYISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&-@natronics.com.au+&include=0&
since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=amunre&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=pcalton
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