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TAGnotes Wed 21 Feb 2002 Vol 4 Number 14 Issue 396
 

The Auction Guild Notes for Thu 21 Feb 2002
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Noritake Blue Moon Warming Stand Hard to Find Ends 3 Mar
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/copper-maven/
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This issue brought to you by the preceding subscriber ads,
supporting TAG through their advertising dollars. Please support
them, by clicking on their links and buying their products.
Subscribers ads $5.00 - Commercial rates available via email.
4600 subscribers.
TAG does not endorse the companies or products advertised
************************************************************
Please remember we are moving TAGnotes from Topica to Yahoo Groups. The
TAGnotes archive is available in a searchable format at    
http://www.escribe.com/business/TAGnotes/
More info about TAG is on our website at
http://www.auctionguild.com You can find contact info for several
sites and services there, along with editorials and other info.
************************************************************
TAG RESEARCH PROJECT. So far we have received 248
responses. We would really appreciate if we could get at least
400 responses, so are still collecting information. Please send
the number of User ID's you have on ebaY, active or inactive. If
any of them are no longer registered (NARU) please let us know
that also. Anyone who knows of a deceased person who had an
ebaY ID, please send us that User ID also. Thank you!
************************************************************
**** WARNING **** FRAUDS use ebaY to steal sensitive info ***
Users reported receiving email that looks as if it comes from ebaY that
starts, "Dear eBay member! Your information in our eBay file, was marked
(flagged) as incorrect and/or (fraudulent). To avoid any inconvenience
concerning an interruption of your service membership, in future. Please
take just a moment and update your eBay billing file. Remember to
"doublecheck" all the fields for any possible mistakes." There is a link
that takes you to a page that asks for all your secure information
including passwords, credit card etc. This is a FRAUD, is NOT from ebaY
and you should NOT go to the page and provide any information. If you
get ANY official looking email that appears to come from ebaY, check the
HEADERS before you make any response to insure the email is not coming
from somewhere else. Send any suspicious email to safeh-@ebay.com.
Warn everyone you know about this, particularly less experienced users .
*************************************************************
ebaY - On 19 Feb at 17:56:58 PT ebaY acknowledged on the SAB that due to
a processing error, Direct Pay processing was delayed by one day for
users who pay their ebaY accounts with Direct Pay on file. ebaY will
deduct funds for the billing cycle ending 31 Jan (they said 2001 but
meant 2002) from users' checking accounts on Tuesday, 21 Feb instead of
the committed date of 20 Feb.

On 20 Feb at 05:57:08 PT users reported errors in MisterLister. When
trying to list using Mister Lister users got "Run Time ERROR '9'
Subscript out of range" messages whilst trying to choose a category. At
09:15:09 PT ebaY posted that listing confirmation emails were not sent
from approximately 19:00 PT on 18 Feb until approx 22:00 PT on 19 Feb.
ebaY will not send listing confirmation emails for items listed during
that time frame.

On 21 Feb at 14:16:03 PT ebaY users reported search problems, and could
not open the search results pages.

On Fri 22 Feb, ebaY will take the site down for maintenance from 01:00
PT until 03:00 PT. ebaY will take the ebaY Billpoint payment system
down during the same time frame.

Overall ebaY was stable from 19 through 21 Feb, though with the
continued and ongoing problems troubling users on the site. ebaY
ongoing problems -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=32

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.
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=17
If you don't get your refunds complain to the BBB Online at
http://www.bbbsilicon.org/index.htm
And also file a complaint with the FTC
https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm

Pink Quote of the Day - From eCommerce Times article on ebaY, "Those
bullish numbers illustrate EBay management's longstanding fiscal
discipline, according to company spokesman Kevin Pursglove. "[CEO] Meg
Whitman has committed to running EBay by old-economy rules," Pursglove
told the E-Commerce Times. "While [e-commerce companies] competed for
first-mover advantage and market share, Meg ensured that expenses did
not outpace revenue and that every dollar invested returned at least a
dollar."" TAG sees this as a conveniently selective memory on ebaY's
part, or maybe downright delusional. Where are the dollar for dollar
returns on Butterfields ($260 mil), iBazar ($100 mil), Korea's Internet
Auction ($120 mil), Billpoint and Kruse ($275 mil), not to mention ebaY
investments in Tradenable, eStamp, Returnbuy, Keen, Blackthorne,
321Gone, Up4Sale.Com etc.

eCommerce Times' Mark W. Vigoroso feels ebaY deserves a gold medal for
it's profitability. TAG thinks the only gold ebaY deserves is the same
type ebaY provides to its users and stockholders - pyrites.
http://www.EcommerceTimes.com/perl/story/16387.html

And TAG may no longer be alone in that assessment -
http://biz.yahoo.com/ts/020117/fund1_020017.html
"I picked eBay simply because it reported earnings yesterday and many
sleight-of-hand tricks used by Corporate America can be seen in its
press release.", by Warren Gump
http://www.fool.com/EveningNews/foth/1999/foth990727.htm

ebaY's new user page http://pages.ebay.com/help/index.html

The ebaY Wanted board on ebaY Australia is no longer available. As US
users discovered it and started to use it, ebaY removed it. For an off
ebaY Wanted Board go to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WantedBoard/
Yahoo Auctions has also added a Wanted Board at -
http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=topics&board=1602424511&sid=1602424511&type=r


On Wednesday, ebaY made an out of court settlement of their trademark
infringement suit against BidBay.Com. As is ebaY's normal practice,
ebaY settles and requires non disclosure, so TAG can only speculate on
the real story behind this deal, and wonders if and just how much, ebaY
paid BidBay to quietly go away.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020220/ap_on_hi_te/ebay_copycat_1


From the SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 2002
ebaY has repurchased Wells Fargo's equity stake in Billpoint, for $43.5
million. Wells Fargo will continue to support ebaY Payments by Billpoint
through its payment processing and risk management services. And from
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 21 /PRNewswire/ Financial DNA, LLC White Paper on
PayPal.    "PayPal is a classic example of a "winner takes all" economic
model. "Indeed, today, eBay reported the acquisition of BillPoint from
Wells Fargo, a would be competitor, which may signal the beginning of
the end for that competitor." TAG also wonders if this reacquisition of
Billpoint by ebaY is the beginning of the end for Billpoint. Was Wells
Fargo fed up with the never ending complaints generated due to
Billpoint's poor service, unjustified chargebacks, and the ongoing
negative Better Business Bureau ratings Billpoint could not shake?

NEW YORK, Feb 21 (Reuters) The NY City's chief attorney sent a
cease-and-desist letter to ebaY, complaining about the sale of WTC
items on ebaY. The letter charged that the sale of certain items was
illegal, such as logos and insignias sold for private profit that
infringe city trademarks. TAG says that ebaY sellers who create items or
sell unauthorized items created by others that have a trademarked logos,
are breaking trademark law, but those who have purchased legitimate
items, or collected legitimate items, should be allowed to sell them in
peace. Is this a politician exploiting WTC for political gain? Why is
it more repugnant to sell WTC memorabilia than it is to sell Civil War
items?   

ebaY is still testing the new sell your item auction listing page. Try
it and send ebaY your problems or comments to syi2fe-@ebay.com
Remember to request that ebaY update Mister Lister as ebaY hinted that
unless sellers do request it specifically, Mister Lister might go away.
Mister Lister, when combined with the Vrane.Com scheduling tool is one
of the best products for bulk listing on ebaY for Windows based PCs.

Effective 18 Feb, the standard Final Value Fee (FVF) schedule for Dutch
Auctions applies to each item sold, not to the total dollar amount of
all the items sold. The FVFs for each item sold will be the same as the
standard ebaY FVFs.
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html

There are problems with AT&T Worldnet service emails. Some users may
not currently have access to email. ebaY suggest you give AT&T members
the benefit of the doubt until the problems get fixed. You can get
contact info and reach ebaY users you are involved in a transaction with
from http://cgi3.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?MemberSearchShow
For more information AT&T's website at
http://worldnet.attecc.com/bulletins/index.html

The third part of ebaY's Jewelry series is on 22 Feb 16:00 PT to 19:00
PT. This one is called "Understanding Diamonds and Colored Gems". ebaY
member Nitefaze will provide info in the area of diamonds and colored
gems.
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/workshopevents/

ebaY is changing the sports category and adding what they are calling a
fan shop for licensed apparel and other licensed sports merchandise.
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catfanshop.html

ebaY is changing the business categories. They have added portal pages
and made category changes for
OFFICE PRODUCTS - Office furniture, office supplies
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catoffice.html
RESTAURANT & FOOD SERVICE - Equipment, furniture and supplies
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catfoodservice.html
METALWORKING - Machinery, equipment and supplies
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/catmetalworking.html
TEST, MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/cattestequip.html

Effective 7 Mar ebaY is implementing a new pricing structure for Real
Estate. *Timeshares and Land
3,5,7,& 10-day Auction Current: $50   New: $50
30-day Auction         Current: $100 New: $75
30-day Ad              Current: $100 New: $100
90-day Ad              Current: $200 New: $200
*Residential, Commercial, Foreclosures and Other
3,5,7,& 10-day Auction Current: $50    New: $100
30-day Auction         Current: $100   New: $150
30-day Ad              Current: $100   New: $150
90-day Ad              Current: $200   New: $300
*Sellers will no longer be able to list in two categories in the
auction-style format.
*Once an item is listed, sellers will no longer be able to change
categories.
For more information on the new pricing structure for Real Estate go to
http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/realestate.html

Ongoing Issues and Information
----------------------------------------------------------------
Break the ebaY monopoly!   Provide ebaY the incentive it
obviously needs to provide better service to its users, and to its
customers, the sellers. Sellers need to develop other
marketplaces so they can insure they have an online
marketplace for their goods into the future. TAG has an editorial
on the website titled 'ebaY- a solution NOW'.
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=78

TAG recommends that IF you are going to list on ebaY, do NOT
use Billpoint, ebaY pic services, Checkout, or ANY ebaY provided
service beyond the most basic ones. None of ebaY's services
are reliable, and the feature and site reliability continues to be
problematical.

ebaY Billpoint payments problems, some solutions, and why you
should not have a Billpoint account can be found on the TAG
website at http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=63

Is ebaY an Enron waiting to happen? Editorial on the TAG
website at http://www.auctionguild.com/generic81.html
ebaY is not a profitable company and here is why - they are in the
same circumstance as the other companies mentioned in this
article -
http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?ptitle=Top%20Financial%2
0News&s1=blk&tp=ad_topright_topfin&T=markets_bfgcgi_cont
nt99.ht&s2=ad_right1_topfin&bt=ad_position1_topfin&middle=a
d_frame2_topfin&s=APG4R_BZ.TWljcm9z
Do you have information you feel the Securities and Exchange Commission
should investigate? File a report at
http://pages.ebay.com/catindex/cattestequip.html

Is Checkout interfering with your online business? Is the new
search slowing down your sales? Tired of the scam
Chargebacks form Billpoint? You pay ebaY for services, so file a
complaint against ebaY with the Better Business Bureau, the
FTC and or The Consumer Trouble Shooter.
http://www.troubleshooter.com/data/access.html
BBB Online - http://www.bbbsilicon.org
FTC - https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm
FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center at: http://www.ifccfbi.gov/

To move an item to another category go to -
http://cgi5.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ChangeCategoryShow
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

TAG no longer reports ebaY numbers because we don't believe
ebaY is providing accurate numbers in their categories anymore.
To see the trends on ebaY go to the MedVed site
to view their long term records.
http://www.medved.net/cgi-bin/cal.exe?EIND

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

ebaY Community boards
http://pages.ebay.com/community/index.html
ebaY news board
http://pages.ebay.com/community/news/index.html
ebaY status announcement board (SAB)
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/announce.shtml
* * * * *
Yahoo Auction/Warehouse/Classifieds
Yahoo Auctions has added a Wanted Board at -
http://messages.yahoo.com/bbs?action=topics&board=1602424511&sid=1602424511&type=r


Ongoing Issues -
In contrast to ebaY's 10 day or less limit on completed search,
completed search on Yahoo Auctions is available at the bottom
of the search result page and goes back approx 3 months.
Yahoo Auctions completed search only shows sold items.

Users can attempt to seek user to user help at -
http://experts.yahoo.com/expertinbox?b_id=383051397&t_id=op
enboard
and community chat boards at
http://auctions.yahoo.com/html/community/
Live chat
http://chat.yahoo.com/?room=Chat%20Central::1600326456
Yahoo Buyer Protection Plan
http://auctions.yahoo.com/phtml/auc/us/ins/protectionpromo.html

Yahoo contact Information
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=38

Yahoo Category breakdowns as of 21 Feb
Antiques & Art   26661
Automotive 4105
Books & Comics 14757
Clothing & Accessories 23948
Coins, Paper Money & Stamps 41815
Collectibles 22468
Computers 8324
Electronics & Cameras 4490
Home & Garden 16056
Jewelry & Watches 40558
Movies & TV 12049
Music 11396
Sports & Outdoors 5426
Sports Cards & Memorabilia 51736
Toys, Games & Hobbies 35424
Video Games 2367
Other 7807

As of 23Jan02 Yahoo Auctions had 313,102 listings on their site
As of 25Jan02 Yahoo Auctions had 620,132 listings on their site
As of 8Feb02 Yahoo Auctions had 333,846 listings on their site
As of 21Feb02 Yahoo Auctions had 329,387 listings on their site
http://auctions.yahoo.com/
* * * * *
Amazon Auctions, zShops and Marketplace
Ongoing Issues -
Friday sales, where many sellers pick up great bargains for
resale -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/548166/ref=outl
et_nav_fs/103-1162116-7199055
Find links to all events on the Outlet tab.
http://www.amazon.com

Amazon Announcement Board
http://prospero.amazon.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=am-sellan
nounce&nav=start&ctx=0

Amazon chat boards -
http://prospero.amazon.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=am-sellcon
nect&nav=start&ctx=0

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
* * * * *
Auction and Trading Sites to take a look at -
http://www.gruvo.com
http://www.danceauction.com
http://www.AuctionCow.com
http://www.swapmonkey.com/
http://gametz.com/
http://www.auctionsaloon.com
http:// www.thefrugalcook.com
* * * * *
PayPal appears to be implementing a personal account manager program
for its top accounts. Users reported that PayPal is also providing a
direct phone number to their desk and 24/7 voice mail for select users.
http://www.paypal.com
* * * * *     
Online Auction Users Association
http://www.auctionusers.org
************************************************************
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
*************************************************************
Have any information for us? email us at
ta-@theauctionguild.com
TAG Subscribers often contribute information reported on in
TAGnotes. Visit their auctions or websites.
TAGassist Contributors
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/copper-maven/

http://user.auctions.shopping.yahoo.com/show/auctions?userID
=coraandjohn&u=%3acoraandjohn

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/fishpond@webtv.net/

http://www.longlocks.com

http://www.esnipe.com/

http://hdolly.safeshopper.com

http://www.antique-central.com
***********************************************************
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and eTRADERS GUILD
www.auctionguild.com
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877-SAFETAG
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***********************************************************
"The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off." -
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