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TAGnotes Sat 30 Nov 2002 Vol 4 Number 55 Issue 437
 

The Auction Guild Notes Sat 30 Nov 2002 Part III
************************************************************
Quality, variety & great deals, shop the experienced EMPORIUM
auction sellers http://www.lynnet.com/~jmm/emporium.html
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
$2sday launched EVERY Tuesday. Bidding starts at
$2 NO RESERVE!! http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/$2sday
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
What items $ell on eBay? Don't Guess! Get 100+pages of eBay
info Only $8.95 http://www.aolmemorabilia.com/clkbnksales.html
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Free Stuff For Collectors - Have A Little Fun!
http://CrawfordDirect.com/free.html
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Affordable Navajo made TURQUOISE jewelry by Award
Winning Indian Artists.   SHJAMES http://snurl.com/8ql
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Precious/semi-precious jewelry-Gold, SS Custom made in USA
Use code C4U210 for 15% OFF http://www.createdforyou.us
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
For Great Deals On Your Favorite Music, Check Out
Dandylion Records ! http://www.dandylionrecords.com
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
OVER 15,000 Postcards; 7,000+ starting at JUST $1.00!
http://www.passionforpostcards.com
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Discover the Secrets of 25 Successful eBayPowerSellers in their
own words at http://powersellerinterviews.com/ebook/index.html
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This issue brought to you by the preceding ads, supporting TAG
through their advertising dollars. Please support them, by
clicking on or copy/pasting their links and buying their products.
TAG's advertising rates are at -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic99.html

TAG does not endorse the companies or products advertised         
6100 subscribers
************************************************************
The TAGnotes archive is available in a searchable format at     
http://www.escribe.com/business/TAGnotes/
************************************************************
** Save 5 Cent Store Listing Fee Days 3-5 December **
http://www.ebay.com/promo/freelistingday/

TAGnotes best guess for a US free listing day is for 19 Dec 02.
TAG has been hearing rumors that there will be some kind of
FLD or no fee promotion in association with PayPal, but we have
no info as to a date.
************************************************************
ebaY Outages 1 - 30 Nov 2002 -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic100.html

ebaY - was stable on 27 Nov with no widespread outages.

On 28 Nov at 02:13:19 PT a user reported that they could not bid
on a car. When they tried, they would get an agreement page,
which would then result in a message saying, "We did not
successfully receive all the required information from the page.
Please go back and ensure that all fields are filled in." The site
was stable for the rest of the day.

On 29 and 30 Nov the site was stable throughout the day.

TAG STRONGLY recommends that, if a seller feels that any of
the ebaY outages and glitches appears to have negatively
impacted the sale of any of their auctions or listings of any type,
request refunds. Don't pay for service if you don't receive it.

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 - Sent via email to a seller ebaY is
threatening with loss of their silver powerseller status, "To
maintain your status, we recommend that you use Seller's
Assistant, eBay's Auction Management Software. It will help to
streamline your process - bulk listing, bulk invoicing, leaving
multiple feedback, and much more. Learn more." So ebaY say's
that if you want to improve your financials pay ebaY MORE
money, for a mediocre overpriced service. That sounds like great
advice IF you want to join all the other companies ebaY has
bankrupted or destroyed.

-----------
Board Quote of the Day I - Posted by marginally*marginal on 26
Nov at 18:48:06 PT, "... this is the Holiday Season. It means that
eBay is working overtime, feverishly trying to figure out ways to
keep stuff from selling so they can get more money out of the
sellers when they are forced to relist. This increases the
revenues and profits, which drives up the value of the stock
which increases the net worth of the owners and management.
Does it make more sense now? It's nothing personal. Just
business."

Board Quote of the Day II - Posted by marginally*marginal on 20
Nov at 18:26:32 PT "QUIET TIME" means eBay stops telling
people they are jacking with the code, and then jack with it
anyway.

Board Quote of the Day III - Posted by marginally*marginal on 24
Nov at 18:34:01 PT, "... why would I want to do that? I'd be happy
to pay eBay every dime, if they'd only PROMISE not to jack with
stuff and keep the site stable. Oh. Wait, they already MADE that
promise. I mean, if they actually KEPT their word."
http://www.snyderstreasures.net/

-----------
*** WARNING *** On 26 Nov it users reported that ebaY had
once again reset many users preferences. ALL users are
advised to check their preference settings on ebaY and make
sure they are set to the users NOT ebaY's desires. Users noted
that their image host preference had been changed to ebaY iPix
picture services and that marketing preferences were set by
ebaY to full SPAM mode.

-----------
In an unannounced and unposted move, ebaY is now limiting
'about me' pages to 96 KB

-----------
How ebaY is going to control listing and the listing content in the
NEAR future -

ebaY held a workshop on SYI2.0. It was very ironic since the
person hosting the workshop and singing the praises of SYI2.0,
uses a paid service, Channel Advisor, to list her auctions, and
does not use SYI2.0. Another great ebaY example of do what we
say not what we do. ebaY really fell on their face with SYI2.0, a
universally despised product.   ebaY proves every day how little
consideration they have for their customers by continuing their
unswerving plan to inflict this product on their users, no matter
how flawed and user unfriendly.
http://forums.ebay.com/dwd?50@44.A0nMgYlHzhu^-@.ef8db27

Many sellers have saved the old listing form, and are planning to
continue to use it as long as possible. What ebaY is going to do,
is introduce features not on the old form that will make it
impossible for sellers to continue to use the old form. One of the
methods ebaY is going to use is an expansion of "item
specifics". Starting Jan 2003, ebaY will expand item specifics on
the US site. The plan is to have half the categories on the US
site carrying item specifics by the end of 2003. ebaY's plan is to
make item specifics mandatory by changing browsing and
search functions so they only work if item specifics are used.   
According to our source at ebaY, ebaY will make listings without
item specifics more difficult for buyers to browse or search by
category. ebaY has plans to spread this item specifics function
to the ebaY international sites. Product finder searching and
browsing will not include listings that have no item specifics
attached. ebaY will change their category structure to facilitate
their item specific integration, so once again ebaY will change
their system, not to improve sales for sellers and not based on
customer input or desires, but to gain further control over the
auction listing content.

-----------
ebaY is promoting the idea that sellers provide free shipping on
their electronic items. TAG wrote about this promotion geared
towards ebaY corporate sellers at the cost of smaller sellers, in
TAGnotes Sat 26 Oct 2002 Vol 4 Number 51 Issue 433. The
smaller sellers once again get to subsidize advertising for
corporate sellers, who already get special deals from ebaY.
This promotion can only hurt the smaller seller who can't afford
to participate. http://www.ebay.com/freeshipping_electronics/

-----------
For those still looking for the solution to the Hallmark pop up
promotion, here it is again. Feel free to post this in your auctions
so your buyers can protect themselves getting their last minute
bids fouled.
Hallmark solution -
To PERMANENTLY "OPT-OUT" of the ebaY Hallmark Card SPAM
use the Rockboss™ Sure-Cure.
For MSIE:
1) While in MSIE, go to TOOLS on the ribbon bar. Click "Internet
Options" at the bottom of the Pull-Down list.
2) In the Internet Options, go to the SECURITY tab.
3) Click the RESTRICTED SITES icon.
4) Click the SITES button.
5)Add this URL in the box provided:
http://holiday.ebaypromo.com/
6) Click the ADD button
7) Click OK to close that screen.
8) Click OK again to close the first screen. You're done.
For AOL.
1) Go to SETTINGS.
2) Preferences
3) Choose Internet Properties (WWW).
4) Follow steps 2-7 above.
For more Rockboss solutions go to -
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/rockboss2000/

Remember that ebaY is violating their promise to never put
advertising on the pages paid for by the seller. Hallmark has
spent lots of money on this ebaY promotion and are sure to not
want to be paying for a promotion that garners them bad publicity
and anger from the public, TAG recommends every subscriber
who finds these pop ups objectionable send an email to
Hallmark expressing their disgust with this ad.
Send email to Kristi Ernsting kern-@hallmark.com

If you hear from buyers who lost out on re-bidding for an item,
encourage them to also contact Hallmark. Many users have
been posting that they are boycotting Hallmark until the ad pop
up is removed from these pages, and they are emailing
Hallmark and letting them know.   
http://www.quidnunc.net/~highpointe/ebayhallmark.jpg

-----------
ebaY's SECRET plan to SHUT DOWN sellers!
In another unannounced move, ebaY is now placing restrictions
on how much a seller can sell each week. Sellers have secret
(known only to ebaY) weekly selling limits related to the dollar
amount of goods a particular seller has on ebaY. When a seller
reaches this hidden weekly selling limit ebaY will shut the seller
down stopping them from selling until they provide ebaY with
additional verification. What this additional information consists
of is also secret, known only by ebaY.   The seller will have to go
to My ebaY (if it is working) and from the trust and safety section
of the seller tab, go to the "additional verification" link.    The
sellers will then have to -
(1) contact ebaY (TAG just reminds sellers how easy that is to
do) and ask that the limit be waived for the rest of the week
(2) stop listing until their weekly limit is reset
(3) provide ebaY with the required additional verification criteria.

The additional verification link will not show in a seller's My ebaY
unless they've exceeded their weekly limit. ebaY says they will
not charge for this additional verification.   ebaY will not tell
sellers in advance what information they will be required to
provide if they exceed their secret (know to ebaY only) limit. The
only way a seller can increase that secret limit is to pay the $5.
verification fee and go through the ebaY
ID Verify program. ebaY appears to think their current customer
disservice program is adequate to cover this new program.
ebaY says there will be some situations where a seller will be
instructed to call a toll-free number, though it will still take
24-48
hours to complete the verification.

As always TAG is very skeptical of ebaY's motivation. We do not
see how this might cut down on fraud, but it sure appears to help
insure that ebaY gets their fees from the seller. In addition, ebaY
will slowly but surely garner more fees from those they force to
join their verification program, and TAG foresees this as
becoming a monthly fee.

-----------
TAG has been seeing increasing numbers of posts on the
OAI/OTI boards about two negative trends in the online auction
and trading industry, and particularly on ebaY. There appears to
be a steadily increasing number of deadbeat bidders, ranging
from 2% to 20% depending on the category. TAG has also heard
of an increasing number of non performing sellers, those who
do not receive the desired price for their item, and just ignore the
buyer, not responding to emails. Now if we could just figure out
a way to get those two groups together and leave the rest of the
good faith buyers and sellers alone to trade online, we would all
be in a better place.

One much needed step ebaY could and should take, is to
prevent deadbeat buyers or non performing sellers, from leaving
retaliatory negative feedback for the victimized party. Once a
claim is filed against the offender, the system should lock the
ability to leave feedback and auto-mark the offender's feedback
stating that feedback could not be left due to non performance.
Once resolved the feedback should come from ebaY and reflect
the resolution - so if positive resolution, ebaY should state issue
resolved to satisfaction of all parties, or if negatively resolved,
offender should have a comment left by ebaY as to their non
performance. This could be a completely automated system
triggered by the seller in an NPB and by the buyer in a non
performing seller case.

-----------
Here is a tool for finding ebaY category numbers
http://www.kinem.com/files/cat.htm

ebaY also has 24 pages with their category numbers -
http://listings.ebay.com/aw/plistings/list/categories.html

-----------
ebaY is adding the View Pending Items feature into My ebaY.
This will allow sellers to view those listings that have been
scheduled with Listing Scheduling to start at a future time.   
Sellers will be able to revise, reschedule or delete pending
listings, when and if this feature works.

-----------
ebaY is changing the emails they send users. They plan on
changing the outbid notice, bid confirmation and list confirmation
emails.

The outbid notice will have information about the item and
encourage users to bid again. TAG wonders if ebaY will ever
send the outbid notice soon enough to do the buyer any good.   
The bid confirmation email will have links to other items that the
seller has listed on ebaY, and SPAM links to other items. The
listing confirmation email will have details about ebaY trading.

To preview these emails go to -
http://snipurl.com/edw

-----------
In TAGnotes issue 435, we quoted PayPal board guru Damon
Billian saying that to be eligible for the seller protection program,
sellers had to ship each item separately with a separate tracking
number for each auction. After more research Mr Billian has
come to the conclusion that this is not true, and has been
posting across the OAI/OTI boards and contacted TAG to correct
this error.    

Basically, the seller needs to supply a tracking number per
transaction.
-Buyer buys three separate items with one transaction there only
needs to be one tracking number
-Buyer buys three items with three transactions, there needs to
be three tracking numbers hence three separate packages.

Unfortunately, ebaY's holiday gift program where sellers offer to
ship to third parties, will NOT be covered by ebaY owned
PayPal's seller protection program.

-----------
PayPal has frozen the accounts of many UK members. This
happened when ebaY's PayPal UK implemented an
International verification program that went wrong.    Account
holders who had to update their charge cards due to expiration
of the card, found themselves locked out of their accounts,
unable to withdraw funds.   PayPal claimed this was a glitch that
allowed PayPal to confirm a card through their membership
program only once, so an expired card would automatically
make a user unverified and the system would not accept an
update.

This policy became effective 15 Nov though it appears that
notification of this policy change was flawed. It limited
international PayPal users living in Australia, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New
Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, or the United
Kingdom, to a withdrawal limit equivalent of $500 US from their
PayPal account to their local bank account until the user became
International - Verified .

To become International-Verified. users must -
1. Confirm an email address
2. Add a credit card
3. Complete Membership by entering a Member Number.
The workaround for this problem has been created. There is
also a fix going in shortly to prevent it from happening.

Unfortunately, even users who fulfilled all requirements were
locked out of their accounts. PayPal was aware of the problem,
claimed there was a temporary workaround in place and that
those with problems should contact Damon Billian at
paypal-@ebay.com or contact the International account
team - no number provided by PayPal, BUT users came to the
rescue - Phone number for PayPal from the UK
001 40 29 35 20 80
*(you will then reach an automated telephone router, DON'T
listen to all the messages it will take you forever).
*press (option 3) (option 1) (option3)
*Then wait for the next available operator when you are through
ask for CARD SERVICES. THIS IS DEPARTMENT YOU NEED..
http://forums.ebay.com/dwd?50@@.ef8c194
http://snipurl.com/edv

In an interesting post, be-@ebay.com UL said," When Billpoint is
phased out existing sellers will maintain their seller status
regardless of whether they sign up with Paypal or not." which
would mean that ebaY UK is losing its current requirement that
ALL sellers must offer ebaY payments, soon to be ebaY PayPal.
TAG really wonders why this came about, and if it was part of the
concessions in negotiations with the regulatory agencies
reviewing the merger.

-----------
On 14 Nov, Meg Whitman sold another 50,000 shares of ebaY
stock bringing her ebaY stock holdings down to 7.4 million
shares, and her take on ebaY stock in the last 11 months to 1
Billion dollars.   http://snipurl.com/eb3

-----------
Fraud fraud and more fraud, with ebaY acting as the "fence"
wittingly or not -

Fake computer sales - Boston Globe -
http://snipurl.com/eb0

Dow Jones Newswires   Charleston, W.Va. (AP)-- "A man was
sentenced to 15 months in prison for cheating more than 180
eBay (EBAY) customers out of $153,000 for trading cards he
never delivered.   Vernon Derl Bell, 48, also must pay $153,000
in restitution. He pleaded guilty July 29 to fraud and was
sentenced Thursday."

Sports Collector Digest 9 Nov 2002
An ebaY seller, Denise Wallman of Mississippi was nailed on
autograph fraud, "as opposed to the 35 plus defendants charged
in the investigation to date, a married couple were indicted and
arrested, the first time a plea wasn't struck with the accused prior
to an arrest." They were charged with 8 counts of mail fraud and
1 count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud. Wallman's ebaY IDs
included gwal188537, autohound63 and autoalley1. The first
two had a combined feedback number of almost 3000, but the
third id is now inactive". guntherthegreat (1271) was also
involved with autograph forgeries.

-----------
ebaY Half.Com sellers have not been able to leave feedback on
transactions for about two weeks. ebaY suggested
workarounds appeared to fail also for many users. ebaY
suggested that sellers -
1. Find the transactions you need to leave feedback for in your
"Sales" section or "Payments History" section on the site using
the transaction number and buyer's user id.
2. Copy the link below into your browser.
http://cgi2.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?LeaveFeedbackShow
&useridfrom=selle rid&useridto=buyerid&item=transaction#
Where the link has buyerid replace it with the buyers user id.
Where the link has sellerid please replace it with your user id.
Where the link has transaction# please replace it with the
transaction # you need to leave feedback for.
3.   You should be able to leave feedback when the new page is
loaded.

-----------
Here is an interesting tool for use on ebaY to help you determine
a sell price for your item in order to make a certain percentage of
net profit -
http://nucite.com/calcs/ebay/calc_from_net_percent.htm

-----------
ebaY held an invitation only "private" meeting for their top 200
seller accounts in conjunction with Comdex in Las Vegas. Your
listing fee dollars hard at work making ebaY a better and more
stable site - not.
-----------
Ongoing Issues and Information
--------------------------------------
See the TAG website for miscellaneous ebaY info at -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic91.html

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

* * * * * * * * * *
Amazon , zShops and Marketplace - On 14 Nov at 08:33 PT,
Amazon reported that there was a problem with their Inventory
Loader and Book Loader uploads. These were being queued
and processed in the order submitted, but were delayed in
uploaded listings appearing live.

On 22 Nov at 16:19 PT Amazon announced they were doing
maintenance which would delay processing of Amazon
Payments between 20:00 PT and 21:00 PT on 24 Nov.

On 28 Nov at 04:42 PT, Amazon reported that their auction bulk
loader was not working retuning error messages. Sellers could
list items individually. Amazon said this was fixed at 09:43 PT.

Amazon sellers reported that overall the site appears functional
again. Buttons have re-appeared on the bulk loader and listings
are running again. There has been a site update delay of up to
12 hours where the pages don't update to show current bids etc.   
The auction itself will show the current info, but if you are
searching a category or keyword, the pages aren't updated.

-----------
Amazon announced that they had made changes to the
webpage design and content for
Amazon Marketplace listing and editing.
The changes are -
* Character limit is now 200 for all types of Marketplace condition
descriptions. Previously, Used items were limited to 70
characters.
* Amazon has added competing offer information to Marketplace
listing and editing pages.
* Seller zip code will now automatically populate for all
recognized sellers.

To view the recent changes, go to -
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/sdp/sai-identify/

---------
Amazon has updated and restructured their online help
department for Auctions, zShops, and Marketplace sellers. The
new reference pages are organized to address topics by
platform. To find the info go to -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/1161232/

---------
Amazon live telephone customer service 16 hours a day
Auction/zShops/Marketplace have no customer support on
weekends.
Toll-free in U.S. and Canada: (800)201-7575
Auction Pro phone number 1-877-251-0696
NEW! Amazon Contact Info Page on TAG website -
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic97.html
http://.amazon.com

* * * * * * * * * *
Yahoo Auction/Stores/Classifieds (YA)

For those looking for information on how to retract a Yahoo!
PayDirect "Send Money" transaction in pending status -
1. Sign in to your Yahoo! PayDirect account at:
http://paydirect.yahoo.com/
and click on the link "Sign in here". Next, sign in with your Yahoo!
ID and password, then enter your Security Key for verification.
2. Under "Pending Transactions", click the "Edit" link next to the
transaction you wish to delete.
3. Click "Delete".
4. Click "Yes".

The transaction will then be cancelled and the funds will not be
charged to the credit card you used to fund this transaction.
Please note that if you used a bank account to fund the
transaction, the money will return to your Yahoo! PayDirect
balance.

If you wish to transfer the funds from your Yahoo! PayDirect
account back to your bank account, you will need to click on the
"Withdraw Money" link, located under "Basic Account Info". Enter
the dollar amount that you wish to withdraw. In the "From:" field,
select "Yahoo! PayDirect", and for the "To:" field, select your bank
account. Please follow the online instructions to complete the
withdrawal of your funds.

---------
Yahoo auction counts as of 11/28/02:
Antiques & Art   21493
Automotive 3487
Books & Comics 14439
Clothing & Accessories 17999
Coins, Paper Money & Stamps 38907
Collectibles 16594
Computers 5662
Electronics & Cameras 4132
Food & Beverage 720
Home & Garden 10534
Jewelry & Watches 22680
Movies & TV 9350
Music 8666
Sports & Outdoors 3932
Sports Cards & Memorabilia 46444
Toys, Games & Hobbies 30445
Video Games 2784
Other 4573
Total 262,841

As of 15Sep02 Yahoo had 265,155 (-4720)
As of 19Sep02 Yahoo had 448,829 (+183,674)
As of 15Oct02 Yahoo had 268,023 (-180,806)
As of 7Nov02 Yahoo had 258,791 (-9232)
As of 28Nov02 Yahoo had 262,841 (+4050)

Yahoo Auction counts brought to you by
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/copper-maven/
-----------------
Ongoing Issues -
------------------
Yahoo Contact Information
http://www.auctionguild.com/generic.html?pid=38

Yahoo Customer Support form
http://add.yahoo.com/fast/help/us/auct/cgi_feedback
email - auctions--@yahoo-inc.com
http://.yahoo.com/

* * * * * * * * * *
uBid closed their person to person Consumer Exchange
program on 15 Nov 02. Open auctions with bids will remain
open, and will close as originally scheduled, in accordance with
the uBid auction rules and policies. uBid has also discontinued
uBid Shops and video. Seller will continue to have access to
their seller account for purposes of obtaining existing order
information, fee information and other information relating to
past transactional activity.

* * * * * * * * * *
iOffer is now offering a store option to their sellers and as with
most of the great options on iOffer, this is free. This will allow
buyers to more easily purchase multiple items from sellers, and
make it easier for seller to manage their sales. For full details
go to -   http://www.ioffer.com/stores/index.jsp

iOffer has added a showcase gallery where sellers can
announce sales, promote items to other iOffer users and
lurkers. You can find this at -    
http://www.ioffer.com/forum/viewthread.jsp?mid=10304&

To easily move auctions to iOffer's format use their Mr Grabber
tool at -   http://www.ioffer.com/mrgrabber/index.jsp

http://www.ioffer.com

* * * * * * * * * *
Carnaby is having a contest where browsing, bidding buying and
selling, gets you more chances to play and win. Contest -
http://cashcow.carnaby.com/myCow.asp?cow=1.377505E-02

Carnaby has lots of items for buyers to fill their christmas
stockings at good prices.
Auctions - http://www.carnaby.com/
Fixed Price Books, Movies, Music, Games -
http://www.grababargain.com/ -

* * * * * * * * * *
Don't forget there are many places to SHOP even if you don't
want to list there. This is a buyers paradise, where there is often
no competition to buy great items at very reasonable prices.   
Here is a sampling to try -
*** Antique-Photographs
-http://www.antiquephotography.com/auctions/XcAuctionPro.asp
Stereoviews and other vintage photos and equipment
*** Bargain and Haggle - http://www.bargainandhaggle.com
Wide variety for those who love to haggle on price.
*** Bidville - http://www.bidville.com Lots of books on tape and
CDs at good prices
*** EggBid - http://www.eggbid.com THE place on the net to buy
those 3 French hens and the Partridge for the pear tree.
*** ePier - http://www.epier.com Check out some of their vintage
clothing items
*** InterShopZone -
http://www.InterShopZone.com/General/Barter.htm For
something a little different, a barter site
*** JustBeads - http://www.justbeads.com/ For the craft person
on your holiday list
*** Just Glass - http://www.justglass.com/ Some stunning art
glass - a feast for the eyes if not the pocketbook. Worth a visit
regardless
*** Mission Fish - http://www.missionfish.com/index.msp For
those who like to spend their money where the funds go to non
profits
*** Old and Sold - http://www.oldandsold.com/cgi-bin/auction.cgi
Some great items in an easy to use format - some great cast
iron listings
*** Playle's - http://www.playle.com/browse.html for the postcard
of your dreams and other ephemera and paper collectible.
Postcards make great nostalgia items!
*** SYI -http:// sellyouritem.com Has thousands of sport trading
cards and a couple of hundred sport memorabilia items and
almost 10,000 assorted collectible items

* * * * * * * * * *
Federal Express is raising their rates 6 Jan in line with the UPS
rate increase. FedEx will raise rates for domestic shipments and
U.S. exports by an average of 3.5 percent to 3.9 percent. FedEx
Ground service prices will rise an average of 3.9 percent. FedEx
also will increase its delivery area surcharges from $1.50 to
$1.75 and raise Saturday pickup and delivery surcharges from
$10 to $12.50. The rates schedules will be on the FedEx site in
early Dec.    http://www.fedex.com/

* * * * * * * * * *
If you use your computer to surf the Internet or read email and
your computer is any Windows based system except Win XP (or
Win95 or 3.1 since they are no longer supported), you will need
to apply the latest patches

http://snipurl.com/edu
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-966575.html

* * * * * * * * * *
The internet state tax program continues to progress. A recent
meeting in Chicago, brought together lawmakers and tax
officials from 30 states. They endorsed a proposal to simplify
their tax laws and enter into a voluntary pact to collect online
sales taxes. The voluntary program would take effect when at
least 10 states representing 20 percent of the U.S. population
have amended their laws to implement the program.
Participating states would then be free to ask Congress to
approve a mandatory, nationwide online sales tax regime. It's
unclear, however, if Congress would go along with any online
sales tax proposal. Under the states' plan, online sellers would
be required to purchase approved software to compute the
appropriate state and local taxes or to certify with the state any
in-house calculation systems already in place. E-tailers could
choose to outsource tax collection to a certified third-party under
the states' plan.
Excerpted from a Washington Post article at -
http://snipurl.com/bpo
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TAGassist Contributors

http://www.ertl-family.com/ebay.html

http://www.ioffer.com/viewProfile.do?userID=bikersbasement

http://www.antique-central.com

http://www.ioffer.com/viewProfile.do?userID=oldzbutgoodies

http://www.longlocks.com

http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/copper-maven/

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