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TAGnotes Wed 18 Apr 2001 Vol 3 Number 51 Issue 312
 

The Auction Guild Notes for Wed 18 Apr 2001
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ebaY was relatively quiet 15, 16 April, with most of the problems
noted on the OAI/OTI boards relating to the defective launch of
My ebaY and the category changes reported in TAGnotes
Vol 3 Number 50 Issue 311. ebaY made several changes to My ebaY
on 14 April but WebTV users had to wait until 16 April for My ebaY
to function again. My ebaY continues to be problematical for all users
with many glitches and problems including the fact that minimize
works only in IE browser not Netscape, the entire feedback profile
downloads even if the feedback profile is minimized, items appear and
disappear when moving from tab to tab etc. On 15 Apr ebaY in an email
to a user acknowledged that they were aware that relist items was not
working with either a half page, a blank page or a 'Page cannot be
displayed' error message showing up when sellers attempted to relist.
Despite their knowledge of this problem, there was no post made on the
AB about it. On 16 Apr at 18:14:41 PT users reported My ebaY was once
again accessible to WebTV users. ebaY posted the
information at 19:28:08 PT. TAG is very critical of the fact that ebaY
made no effort to email WebTV users and notify them of the problem and
what workarounds were available until the problem could be fixed. TAG
monitored the OAI/OTI boards and posted alternate site info and emailed
alternatives to all the Web TV users who posted problems, something ebaY
could have easily accomplished with a few keystrokes, reaching nearly
100% of their WebTV users instead of the small percentage TAG could
reach. TAG welcomes all the new Web TV subscribers to TAGnotes. On 17
Apr at 14:55:39 PT users reported listing slow and at 15:21:35 PT page
downloads slowed to a crawl. Users also reported problems with Mister
Lister which continued intermittently, with users reporting Mister
Lister down on 18 Apr at 17:24:19 PT. At 18:10:10 PT on 18 Apr, users
reported cgi 5 relisting very slow and not working properly. Users
also reported that changes posted to the ebaY gallery were not updating
in excess of 18 hours. ebaY end of auction (EOA) notices were also not
going out, with one user reporting having an auction end on 1 Apr and
receiving the EOA notice on 17 Apr, long after the deal was concluded.
Some users reported timely EOAs arriving on 18 Apr.

ebaY has noted that older bookmarked (favorite) searches are not
displaying any items, or are causing an error message to be displayed.
Users need to recreate these title (or title and description) search
bookmarks (favorites) in order for them to work successfully.

$$$$ PLEASE NOTE $$$$$
ebaY is changing their maintenance schedule on 19-20 April. ebaY
will start maintenance TWO hours earlier, and extend it by ONE hour.
The ebaY site will be unavailable from 2300 PT on Thursday the 19th
until 0400 PT on Friday the 20th.

Pink Quote of the Day, Katy@ebaY on 15 Apr at 10:59:31 PT, when
asked about the WebTV My ebaY incompatibility problem said in a
classic corprospeak prevarication, "engineering has been working
on this problem and most WebTVers should be able to view the
page correctly now. You might try doing a reload with CMD-R. If
this doesn't help, can you tell me what version you are using so we
can pinpoint the problem? Are you using WebTV Classic? And if
you have WebTV Plus, did you do the upgrade in the past year?
....................Katy". In TAGs view this not quite truthful
statement, trying once again to lay blame anywhere but on ebaY becomes
all too clear when juxtaposed with the ebaY statement on 16 Apr at
19:28:08 PT nearly 33 hours later that, "Last week, some WebTV
users were experiencing difficulty viewing the new My eBay. We
have been working diligently to identify and correct the problems
associated with WebTV browsers.   We are pleased to announce
that today we have made changes that will allow all WebTV users
to once again access and view My eBay items"

Since in TAGs opinion ebaY has made My ebaY a critical feature
for buyers to access saved favorite sellers and auctions, all sellers
who had auctions end between the time ebaY launched the new
My ebaY on 11 April until is was accessible to all users again at
19:28:08 PT on 16 Apr, we recommend that any seller who feel
their auctions were negatively impacted by this problem, request
refunds from ebaY for all listing, special feature and final value fees.
All links and information for requesting ebaY refunds go to
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=33

On 16 Apr at 14:34:56 PT, ebaY acknowledged their error in
changing the Autograph Category and they were working on
reinstating the category as it was. In the meantime, all Autographs
that were in Collectibles (except Science and Sci-Fi) can be sought
in Historical Memorabilia
Autographs: General Other Historical Memorabilia
Autographs: Historical Other Historical Memorabilia
Autographs: Political Political U.S.: Other U.S. Political Items
Autographs: Space Space Exploration: Other U.S. Programs
Autographs: Science Science: Other Science Collectibles
Autographs: Sci-Fi Pop Culture: Science Fiction: Other Sci-Fi

ebaY, in another desperate effort to boost their dying ebaY Premier,
is running a contest. All successful bidders on items sold through
ebaY Premier will be automatically entered to win a trip for two to
visit a museum or art fair of their choice during a five-day stay in
one European city: Paris, London, Madrid, Lisbon, Amsterdam, or
Berlin. You may also enter without a purchase.   Contest ends
15 May, drawing is 24 May 2001. For more info go to
http://www.ebaypremier.com/themepromo/art-of-europe.html
With approx 936 items for sale, down from a high of approx 1600,
plagued by sellers with less than stellar feedback ratings, and
infamously absurd shipping and handling fees, ebaY Great
Collections now called ebaY Premier, has been a failure from
start to finish. Another losing ebaY enterprise carried on
the backs of the US sellers.

ebaY Motors users continue to have problems selling successfully.
This appears particularly true for sellers who have items other than
vehicles to sell. ebaY has isolated ebaY Motors, by no longer
including all ebaY on the search drop down menu on Motors.
ebaY also no longer allows the thumbnail pic, as it is included
automatically for vehicles, but not for other automotive items, so
those sellers are denied the feature by default. Motors is still
lacking a Collector Car model/make list, or a true Collector
CAR Parts & Accessories category. There are also problems with
glitches in Motors search engine.

ebaY quarterly earnings are coming out on Thursday 19 Apr.
ebaY paid high salaries and very large bonuses to their top executives.
Fot more info go to   
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-5644049.html?tag=pt.
msn.cdf.hl.ne_5644049
and for more ebaY financial news go to
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900
-1028-5651909-0.html?tag=ltnc

Reminder - ebaY now has a block bidder tool that can be accessed at
http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/biddermanagement.html

Check your HTML before you post your listings,
Go to      http://watson.addy.com/
http://validator.w3.org/
It will catch all of the common mistakes like unmatched tags.
The validation site can also be used to check ebaY pages - TAG
wishes EBAY would use it!!!

jac-@ebay.com is hosting an ebaY newsletter called the ebaY
Community Newsletter on her about me page. she is soliciting
articles for future issues, and they can be sent to jac-@ebay.com
The newsletter is posted biweekly. The next issue will be up on 26 Apr.
Due date on articles is the Wednesday before the posting date. Articles
will be used in the order in which they are received. Articles can be
about your home board topic, your hobby or a subject that would be of
interest to others. Such as buying and selling on ebaY, or perhaps your
search for a item that you finally found on ebaY. Activities hosted by
board habitues can also be included. Send questions to jac-@ebay.com.
TAG read the first issue and felt it was dreadful and had erroneous
information. TAG sent an email to Jackie requesting the payment
schedule for those who submit articles that are used in the newsletter.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/jackie@ebay.com

In an effort to tap into a market that ebaY has been particularly
unable to attract, ebaY is starting an Artisan Showcase page,
sponsored by OneMade.com. To join go to
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/onemade.com_for_sellers
To view the showcase go to
http://pages.ebay.com/artisanshowcase/index.html
TAG has written to OneMade and requested criteria for joining.

For sellers who feel they have not had their refunds or other situations
dealt with to your satisfaction, you can file reports with
The Attorney General of California and also in your home state
http://caag.state.ca.us/piu/mailform.htm
The Better Business Bureau
http://www.bbbonline.com
The Federal Trade Commission
http://www.ftc.gov
The Office of Consumer Affair, US Department of Commerce
send email to - Caff-@doc.gov
The FBI's Internet Fraud Units
http://www.nipc.gov/contact.htm#arrow,
National Fraud Information Center
http://www.fraud.org
eComplaints http://www.ecomplaints.com/


TAG strongly recommends ALL users read the new User and
Privacy Policy Agreements (UA/PP).   Effective 15 May. Links
can be found at the bottom of nearly every ebaY page and on the
site map under community. For a summary of the revisions to the
UA and Privacy Policy, go to:
User Agreement: http://pages.ebay.com/help\basics\uarevision1-faq.html
Privacy Policy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/pprevision1-faq.html
To view the entire revised User Agreement, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-user.html
To view the enter revised Privacy Policy, go to:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/community/png-priv.html
We have heard from many WebTV users that they can not view
the user agreement. We contacted ebaY about this but have still
not heard from them about it.

Announcement Board Marketing - (ABM)
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/marketing.shtml
Announcement Board Status (ABS)
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml

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 5.03 mil auctions inflated by approx 6% for double cat listing
yielding approx 4.73 million auctions. On 18 Apr 2000 ebaY had approx
4.3 million auctions
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace has had some outage
and listing problems in April. To see the detail go to the Amazon
Announcement Board at http://amazon.remarq.com/list/16791839
Amazon sellers have reported a variety of glitches, one where an
item that is now out of inventory relists itself unbeknownst to the
seller, and another where in the marketplace the ship to setting is
not necessarily the one selected by the seller, though it is correct
in zShops.

Amazon Outage Policy -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/537786//102-
8796943-5722526

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 has completed the first phase of a server upgrade to
increased the speed of their pageloads. They have also redesigned
their Gallery to allow viewing auctions by photo only.
Approx 550,000 auctions, but still with very few bids.
http://www.bidville.com
* * * * *
Yahoo gets a new CEO, former Warner Brothers co-chair Terry Semel
http://biz.yahoo.com/st/010418/23781.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

http://list.auctions.yahoo.com/
* * * * *
PayPal is changing their users opt in SPAM notification preferences
on 7 May 2001. Users will see a clickthrough page where they can
keep the current preferences as is or change them. The old preference
settings were incorporated into the setting of the new options. They
have a new PayPal news and updates category.
* * * * *
Online Auction Users Association

Live chats -
Thursday 19 Apr 21:00 ET - Chat with OAUA President Jen Hassler
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
To participate in weekly live co-op chats go to
http://pages.zdnet.com/labellebooks/OnlineSellersCoop/
Every Sunday Night at 8:00 PM EST.

Vintage Items Co-Op info can be found at
http://www.ali-baba.org./ and
http://pages.zdnet.com/juststuff/vintmarket/
* * * * *
And on a totally unrelated to anything OAI/OTI, topic - there is now a
site where you can go search for information on family members who came
through Ellis Island. This will probably be incredibly busy for several
weeks or months until the newness wears off, but it is worth saving to
check on in the future. There is also a new exhibit at Ellis Island
themed on this new database, with photos, displays etc.
http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
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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.drexelantiques.com

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&ro-@ix.netcom.com&since=-
1&sort=2

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&u-@aol.com+&include=0&since
=-1&sort=3&rows=200

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme2/backintimetreasures/

http://www.dandelionfarms.com

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=
ViewListedItems&userid=bllamb&include=0&since=-1&sort=3&rows=200
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