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TAGnotes Fri 5 Oct 2001 Vol 3 Number 103 Issue 364

The Auction Guild Notes for Fri 5 Oct 2001
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We would like to offer our apologies and beg the indulgence and
understanding of our subscribers for the dearth of TAGnotes issues
during this very difficult time. Our editor is a member of the US Army
Reserves and has been working innumerable hours in a military capacity,
while her unit has been on high alert and running 24/7 operations.    
With units mobilizing at an increasing pace, this situation might last
for many months. We hope our readers will understand this situation,
and bear with us, as duty, honor and country take a high priority. We
rely on your loyalty and support as we attempt to continue operations,
if even at a reduced level. Thank you. -TAG
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Detailed disaster contact information, disaster relief information and
links for contributions to the United Way, Red Cross, Salvation Army
etc. on the TAG website at
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=67
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For quality, variety & great deals, shop the experienced auction
sellers of the EMPORIUM http://www.lynnet.com/~jmm/emporium.html
       * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
$Buck98 on eBay. No reserve$1.98 opening bid auctions. Next event starts
9 Oct 01   Don't miss the bargains or the fun
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/$buck98/
      * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Support the people who support TAGnotes. Click on their links, bid on
their auctions and buy their products. You too can participate in a Win
Win solution. Support TAG and promote your website or auctions. Seller
group ads also available. Subscribers Ads $5.00 - Commercial rates
available, email ta-@theauctionguild.com for details.
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The TAGnotes archive is available in a searchable format at
http://www.escribe.com/business/TAGnotes/
Interested in more information about TAG? Go to our website at
http://www.auctionguild.com You can find contact info for several sites
and services there, along with editorials and other information.
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* WARNING EBAY IPIX INFECTS USERS WITH NIMDA VIRUS *
Anyone using ebaY pic services, on any of the ebaY sites, US or
International, while listing on 2 and 3 October, needs to scan their
computers for the NIMDA virus. TAG has always cautioned our subscribers
that using an ebaY service, that required an ActiveX download, was
opening a dangerous portal into your computer. Since there are
innumerable services that provide reliable pic services that do not
require such a download, we have always and continue to recommend folks
stay away from ebaY pic services. Once you get NIMDA cleaned off your
computer, change ALL your passwords on ebaY and all other sites you use.
To check for and clean up after the NIMDA virus, go to one of these
sites
http://www.microsoft.com/TechNet/security/topics/nimda.asp
http://vil.mcafee.com/dispVirus.asp?virus_k=99209
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.nimda.a@mm.removal.tool.html


It was also revealed by a Billpoint user that Billpoint had a virus
infection on or around 26 Sep, which it took them 48 hours to clean off
their system. This was acknowledged by an ebaY CS person on one of the
ebaY chat boards on 2 Oct, but no information about this has appeared on
any of the ebaY announcement boards. If you received an email from
Billpoint on or around 26 Sep, and if you were exposed to a virus at
that time, you may be able to track it to Billpoint as the source.

The problems with sign in/cookies continue in an unrelenting manner.
ebaY appears to hope the users get accustomed to all the problems, as
they do not seem to be fixing any of them. The updates ebaY posts are
just rehashes of the same information, but hundreds of posts on the
OAI/OTI boards show that users are still having serious problems.
Sellers can't sell, or track what they are selling, they can't relist or
revise. Buyers can't get access to their watch lists, can't track what
they are bidding on, and often can't bid. If sellers find their sales
continue to be depressed they need to look at all these problems as one
serious and important part of the equation. How long will a buyer mess
around until they go elsewhere, disgusted with the endless ebaY
generated problems?

On 28 Sep at 10:15:05 PT users reported the Mister Lister back end was
not working, prohibiting users from uploading their listings.

On 30 Sep at 14:46:51 PT ebaY posted that the view items page on the
International sites UK and Germany were down from 13:35 PT to 13:55 PT.

On 1 Oct at 06:57:57 PT users reported that list and relist were down.
This continued to be reported until 10:34:41 PT.   Users also reported
that there were still problems with Mister Lister. When a seller would
try to upload a collection they would get a message that the collection
was not accepted because the seller not qualified to use Mister Lister.
This was happening to sellers who had hundreds and even thousands of
feedbacks and had been on ebaY for years. At 16:48:09 PT ebaY posted
that the feedback system was down.

On 2 Oct at 03:50:12 PT ebaY announced that ebaY was down from 03:17 PT
to 03:27 PT. The Feedback Forum, My ebaY, ebaY Motors, Real Estate and
ebaY Premier were unavailable from 03:20 PT to 03:40 PT. Users reported
most functions were down until 03:40:39 PT. Some users also reported
that ebaY had once again reset all their preferences to accept SPAM.
TAG advises ALL users to go check their SPAM preference settings on
ebaY. At 18:08:09 PT users started to post problems with ebaY pic
services. At 18:26:23 PT ebaY personnel started to post on the threaded
chat boards that iPix, the third party provider of ebaY Photo Services,
informed ebaY that anyone using the iPix photo hosting service may have
contracted the Nimda computer virus. ebaY users who have used this
service should go to
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/Fixnimda.com
to clean their system of the virus. For more information on Nimda and
this removal tool,
esponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.ni-@mm.removal.tool.html

More info can be found at http://www.commandcom.com/virus/nimda.html

ebaY took the pic services down until further notice. Since ebaY knows
who the ebaY pic service users are, TAG feels they should have sent an
email to every iPix users warning them of the possible infection. ebaY
did not do this, and TAG feels this is a serious failure on ebaY's part.
TAG also notes with interest that ebaY has been referring to the iPix
service as ebaY picture services, but as soon as the problem was
discovered immediately reverted to calling it iPix and mentioned in
every post that iPix is a third party service provider, to give ebaY
some distance from the responsibility of this problem.

On 3 Oct ebaY announced at 06:39:14 PT that the iPix system had been
disinfected and that ebaY had brought ebaY picture services back online.

*Only ebaY picture services were affected, no other ebaY system was
impacted.
*Only members who were uploading photos Tuesday afternoon through ebaY
pic services and the Sell Your Item form were at risk.
*Those users of Windows operating systems were vulnerable.
*Viewing an item uploaded through ebaY Picture Services was not affected
at any time. Images uploaded before this point were viewable at all
times. Viewing an image uploaded through ebaY pic services should not
have transmitted the worm.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the ebaY incident, write
to ebaY at
virus-ph-@ebay.com

Users reported the feedback system not working properly at 15:55:21 PT.
At 17:40:46 PT ebaY posted that there was a problem in the feedback
utility that converted the feedback of users to 25, regardless of the
true number of feedback. ebaY never posted if they fixed the glitch.

The ebaY system was down for regularly scheduled maintenance from 01:00
PT until 03:00 PT on Fri 5 Oct. The Billpoint web site and functions
were also down for maintenance during this time period. When the system
came back, Billpoint remained down until 03:40 PT.

TO REQUEST REFUNDS from ebaY go to
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=33
Don’t take no for an answer; keep requesting until you get them.

Pink Quote of the Day on 2 Oct at 20:17:26 PT in a discussion about
ebaY's inadequate notification of users who were exposed to the Nimda
virus via ebaY pic services, and why the ebaY function lights all
remained green despite the problem, Gwyneth@ebaY said, " The lights are
problematic; in this case, there's no light for third parties. EBAY is
fine; it's our provider that's down. There's no light to indicate that.
:(" This is a very interesting position for ebaY, since ebaY actually
owns part of iPix, and presents iPix as their own picture services, NOT
as a third party service provider. ebaY has shoved iPix on users, making
it difficult to get past the iPix page when listing, and new users don't
even realize they have other options. In ebaY's usual manner, rather
than taking responsibility and liability for the problem, ebaY chose to
quickly disassociate themselves, and put all the blame on this alleged
third party service provider.

ebaY 10.7% ownership of iPix revealed in SEC filing
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/011004/n04355044_1.html

Users have reported to TAG that they are not receiving their Deadbeat
Bidder acknowledgments and FVF notices. According to ebaY CS their
engineering team knows that sellers are not receiving their Non-Paying
Bidder and Final Value Fee notices after they file the alerts, but the
alerts are still being sent to the bidder, and the seller is still
receiving the Final Value Fee credits. As always with problems such as
this, TAG warns sellers to track their deadbeat FVF refunds to insure
they are really being credited by ebaY.

ebaY has announced that all dutch auctions within Auction of America
must have a starting bid of at least one dollar. Buy It Now prices on
Auction of America listings must also be at least one dollar. ebaY will
remove Dutch and Buy it Now listings that do not have at least a one
dollar minimum bid price per item. Single quantity auctions within
Auction of America do not have a minimum opening bid requirement.

In ebaY's continuing efforts to get users to use Billpoint ebaY is
holding another in its endless Billpoint promotions. Use a Visa card on
ebaY through ebaY payments during October and be entered to win a trip
to the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Other prizes include limited
edition skis or a snowboard from Evolution.
http://www.billpoint.com/promotion/olympics2002.html

ebaY has added a category discussion board for Car Audio & Electronics
at
http://servlet.ebay.com/ForumController?dest=http://forums.ebay.com/dws?14@@.eed5968


In late October, ebaY is adding a checkout feature. ebaY says this will
be a free option for sellers. Sellers may use checkout when listing an
item to provide details such as shipping and handling, insurance and
sales tax along with accepted payment methods. When the listing ends,
buyers will know the total price and can use checkout to provide their
shipping address and pay via the seller's chosen and accepted payment
methods.
More information on checkout is available at
http://pages.ebay.com/checkout/faq.html
Preview checkout online tutorials at
Seller Tutorial    http://pages.ebay.com/checkout/seller_1.html
Buyer Tutorial   http://pages.ebay.com/checkout/buyer_1.html
For questions or comments go to
http://servlet.ebay.com/ForumController?dest=http://forums.ebay.com/dws?14@@.eed08f5

It looks as if ebaY is going to force checkout on all sellers eventually
as checkout appears on the listing even if the seller does not want it.
It should cause lots of confusion and will probably work as well as the
other new ebaY features, causing months of glitches and problems. To
see users views of this upcoming fiasco in the making go to
http://forums.ebay.com/dws?50@163.M16MbDDC6Kq^-@.eed7288
TAG wonders if this is part of the Half.Comming of ebaY.

ebaY has a revised version of Mister Lister available for download. This
version is compatible with Auction of America and allows sellers to
specify shipping charges. The new version of this program is not a
required upgrade, as existing applications should continue to work. Only
those who wish to use this tool to participate in the Auction of America
program and who wish to specify shipping charges must download the new
version. To download the new version go to
http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/composer-info.html

Seller's Assistant and Seller's Assistant Pro currently support Auction
of America, but not the shipping option. ebaY claims it will upgrade
these programs to include the shipping option in a few weeks.

ebaY is now allowing sellers to have the option to be reimbursed by the
winning bidder for their shipping costs on Auction of America sales.
the sellers will be able to enter a shipping amount in the Instant
Purchase field within the ebaY online payments section of the Sell Your
Item form. This amount will then be displayed to buyers and shipping
costs will be charged accordingly. 100% of the auction proceeds of the
item will still go to charity. However, sellers can now be reimbursed
for shipping costs through ebaY's Billpoint. The shipping cost will not
be deductible if the seller is reimbursed. Sellers will receive a tax
receipt only for the price of the item.   ebaY strongly encourage
sellers to specify a fixed shipping amount up front in the Instant
Purchase field in order to be reimbursed. If the seller does not know
the shipping cost up front, contact the buyer immediately after the
auction closes to determine the correct shipping amount. Buyers will
have the opportunity to enter the correct shipping amount when paying
through ebaY's Billpoint.

ebaY claims tens of thousands of sellers have listed items on Auction of
America.   They say 80 percent of these items are ending successfully,
and that Auction of America has collected $4,000,000.00 in auction sales
and cash donations. Auction of America listings peaked around 20,000
(30% double category listed yielding approx 14,000) and have been
dropping slowly.

ebaY has bough a 19.5 % stake in Argentina's MercadoLibre online
auction site. MercadoLibre will acquire Brazilian auction site iBazar,
a branch of eBay-owned iBazar of France, and will merge it with its own
Brazilian site. ebaY has committed to transferring technology, and to a
commercial agreement linking both online auction sites. Press release
at
http://investor.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-7367327-0.html


Passport problems and why you should NOT use it
http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2814881,00.html


Article on ebaY users falling victim to a fraud ring.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,64483,00.asp
TAG wrote about this problem in August
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=65

ebaY Live Auctions of Antiques, Americana, Collectibles, and Furniture
will take place on 6 Oct at 07:30 PT with a two-day Antique and
Americana. Part two will be on 7 Oct at 07:30 PT. On 6 Oct at 09:00 PT,
a two-day Furniture sale will start. Part two will be on 7 Oct at 09:00
PT. Preview and register for auctions at
http://www.ebayliveauctions.com/

Community overview board –
http://pages.ebay.com/community/index.html
ebaY news board - http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/index.html

ebaY categories with the category number
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/categories.html
An off ebaY category number locator page
http://www.kinem.com/files/cat.htm

ebaY contact information including analog mail and email addresses and
phone numbers, regular and toll free, refund info and insider trading
info etc can be found at
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=17

ebaY announcement board http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * *
g-module art gallery presents
Katia Santibanez : Jardins Artificiels and Mark Dean Veca : Toile de
Brooklyn
October 5 - November 17, 2001
visit: http://www.g-module.com for documentation, have a nice trip
g-module, 15, rue Debelleyme, 75003 Paris, France
Telephone 01 42 71 14 75       Fax 01 42 71 14 67 inf-@g-module.com
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace, main Amazon home page has link
to donate directly to the Red Cross from their site.
http://www.amazon.com

Amazon users problems continue. On 5 Oct Amazon posted at 1219 PT that
maintenance on transaction detail data resulted in temporary inability
to access details in the seller account. All listings were available
for purchase, purchases could be completed, all appropriate buyer and
seller notifications were being issued, and no action was required on
the part of sellers.   Maintenance was scheduled to be completed within
approximately 3 hours.   At 1321 PT Amazon reported that there were
missing payments transaction details that affected seller fulfillment
reports, refund forms, and secondary invoice payment forms. Amazon said
they would restore these details and that no action was required on the
part of sellers. At 1516 PT Amazon announced that they had restored
transaction details to refund forms and secondary invoice payment forms.
Sellers could issue refunds, and secondary invoices could be paid.
Amazon was still investigating seller fulfillment reports. At 2021 PT
they posted that they would restore order fulfillment reports within 24
hours.   At 2029 PT they decided to do maintenance beginning at approx
2000 PT on Sat 6 Oct until approx midnight PT Sat 06 Oct. Amazon.com
Auctions and zShops will not be available and Marketplace items will not
be available for purchase during this period. Pro Merchant inventory
and report tools will be available during this time, however submitted
files and report requests will be queued and processed upon completion
of maintenance. Auction listings will be extended per the standard
outage policy.
Announcement Board
http://prospero.amazon.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=am-sellannounce&nav=start&ctx=0


Sellers be warned, many users are reporting errors in their listings in
the Marketplace, such as books that were sold still showing as current.
Also unexplained double listings showed up in seller lists, as these
chronic appearing and disappearing listing problems continue to haunt
both Amazon auctions and Marketplace. TAG recommends careful and
frequent monitoring of these listings as much bad feedback is generated
when a seller does not have the book or item shown on Amazon.
User to User boards
http://forums.prospero.com/am-sellconnect/messages/?msg

Amazon live telephone customer service 16 hours a day
Toll-free in U.S. and Canada: (800)201-7575
Auction Pro phone number 1-877-251-0696
http://auctions.amazon.com
* * * * *
Fairmarket is waiving their fees for Auction of America auctions for
those merchants who sell through Fairmarket on ebaY using MarketSelect.
http://www.fairmarket.com
* * * * *
Gegy.com will be officially launching on 20 Oct. The site is open for
pre-registration. TAG does not recommend Gegy, as they have been
revealed to be spammers, and untruthful in their dealings with potential
users. We do not believe users should trust such a company with even
more personal information such as you home address credit cards etc.
For information on Gegy's misdeeds go to
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:ms68FXpiTos:www.geocities.com/gegysucks/+gegysucks&hl=en

http://www.gegy.com
* * * * *
Cookies and understandable information on how to get rid of them for
both IE and Netscape   http://www.paperdots.com/cookie.html
* * * * *
PayPal has filed for an initial public offering.   As of 1 Sep, PayPal
claims 10 million registered users and processed online transactions
totaling $747 million in the three months ended June 30, according to
its prospectus. The company has lost $231 million since its inception
and management warned in the prospectus that the red ink is expected to
continue at least through the rest of this year. But the company is
narrowing its losses as its revenues climb. During the first six months
of this year, PayPal lost $56.9 million on revenue of $34.2 million
compared with a loss of $70.6 million on revenue of $3.3 million at the
same time last year. PayPal is run by one of its co-founders, Peter
Thiel, 33, a former securities lawyer. Other major shareholders in the
company include another co-founder, Elon Musk, and Silicon Valley
venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, Nokia Ventures and Clearstone
Venture Partners. Investment bankers Salomon Smith Barney, Robertson
Stephens and William Blair & Co are underwriting the IPO.
For the full articles go to
http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010928/20/paypal-ipo
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010928/wr/tech_paypal_dc_2.html
* * * * *
Canada Post rates are increasing 14 Jan 2002.
http://www.canadapost.ca/personal/default-e.asp
* * * * *
Online Auction Users Association
OAUA has put together discount packages for their members for auction
management services.    http://www.auctionusers.org/discounts-am.shtml

Interested in volunteering and serving the Online Auction Community?
Check out http://www.auctionusers.org/volunteerop.shtml

http://www.auctionusers.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
*************************************************************
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 or websites.
TAGassist Contributors –

http://www.longlocks.com

http://www.pantheus.com/

http://shop.auctionwatch.com/crusader69
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