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TAGnotes Tue 18 Jan 2005 Vol 6 Number 1 Issue 454
 

The Auction Guild Notes Tue 18 Jan 2005
************************************************************

THIS ISSUE -
************************************************************
EBAY FEE INCREASE EDITORIAL
************************************************************
VENUES OTHER THAN EBAY (VOTE)
************************************************************
EBAY FEE INCREASES SUMMARIZED
************************************************************
OTHER EBAY INFO
************************************************************

MINSTHINS AUCTIONS A New Year for GREAT BUYS, Clothing
And MUCH more. Everything must go! Prices start at 49 cents. Go where
those in the know go for great prices! http://www.minsthinsauction.com
************************************************************

PAYPAL'S ORIGINS EXPOSED IN "THE PAYPAL WARS"
An insider's account of PayPal's beginnings, and its clashes
with the Mafia, lawyers, and eBay! http://snipurl.com/bs0q
************************************************************

Professional Affordable Website Design, Low Cost Web
Hosting and Creative Graphics http://www.tjbailey.com/
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Looking for something to read?    IDOBOOKS
Check my latest listings at http://snurl.com/2pco
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Wide variety of items in excellent condition, from Digital Cameras
to an '89 Dodge Raider. Shop http://blujay.com/dustyseller
     * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Looking for reliable image hosting? Check TAG's image hosting
directory at - http://www.auctionguild.com/generic80.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

The complete TAGnotes archive can be found at -
http://www.escribe.com/business/TAGnotes/
Visit The Auction Guild Web Log at -
http://auctionguild.blogspot.com/

TAG does not endorse the companies or products advertised
9000 subscribers   

************************************************************
EBAY
************************************************************
Pink Quote of the Day - On the issue of ebaY profiting from the
various charity efforts on ebaY to raise funds for Tsunami victims,
ebaY posted on their marketing board on 12 Jan 05, “We
continue to be inspired by the Community’s commitment to
nonprofits - during this critical time in Southeast Asia and coastal
Africa, as well as throughout the year. We are pleased to announce
that effective January 1, 2005, eBay.com will donate all insertion
and final value fees on listings created through eBay Giving Works to
the member-selected nonprofit organization when the seller agrees
to donate 100% of the final sale price. We will be retroactively
donating fees for qualified listings that were created January 1,
2005 or later. (Please stay tuned for future announcements
with more details.)” It took severe criticism by TAG, and users
on the ebaY boards to get ebaY to consider even this small
concession.   A testament to ebaY’s amoral view of the world, and
focus on obscene insider wealth at the cost of users, stock holders
and the world at large.

**********
Board Quote of the Day 1 – A seller who is a member of ebaY’s
voice program, an elitist group of ebaY users subverted by ebaY
to act as ebaY shills, spies and snitches (not that all of them do
this), after spending years making positive posts about ebaY, and
arguing with any posters who were critical of ebaY, jtshadow2000
posted on 16 Jan 05 at 11:48:36 PST, “Afternoon everyone.......I
was one of eBays biggest cheerleaders ( if you don't believe that
look at my ME page ). I thought they were the best thing since
sliced bread. When I had to quit working with the horses because
of my back, eBay helped pay the bills. For the first time in 6 years
I feel like I really belong in DNF. I'm sure it will be hard for
many of you to believe but my heart is broken. I feel like I have
lost a dear friend. I am sure I'll stay here and list my better items
but I am also going to some of the other places. I just hope some
bidders show up there.” And when asked about the joked about
ebaY implants that are installed in all voices drones, said, “
....the[y] function until someone kicks you in the butt hard enough
to pop them out.”

BQOD 2 - In some chat board satire alice_and_diefen posted on 16
Jan 05 at 13:00:34 PST, “Question: How many eBay programers
does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: All of them. Nobody wants to be left out .
--------------------------------------------------
Question: How many Live Help weenies does it take to change a light
bulb?
Answer: No one knows because LH doesn't know what a light bulb is,
but are sure if you clear your cache and toss your cookies it will
start working again.
--------------------------------------------------
Question: How many site designers does it take to change a light
bulb?
Answer: None. They don't believe we need light bulbs, but are
convinced that moving brackets and fiddling with icons is a much
more valuable site enhancement.
--------------------------------------------------
Question: How many eBay staff members does it take to change Meg's
light bulb?
Answer: Unknown - We are experiencing intermittent issues at this
time. We are working to resolve these issues as quickly as possible.
--------------------------------------------------
Question: How many eBay Voices members does it take to change a
lightbulb?
Answer: We'll never know. They can probably do it, but the
non-disclosure agreement they sign prevents them from telling us.
--------------------------------------------------
Question: How many ebay techies does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Ebay techies don't change light bulbs. They create a 9 page,
20 link tutorial on the subject, in HTML and download to the computer
in the janitor's closet.
--------------------------------------------------
Question: How many ebay executives does it take to change a light
bulb?
Answer: None. They just have marketing portray the dark do nothing
dead bulb as a new feature, force you to turn on and off the optional
switch, and charge a substantial fee to see it not work.”

************************************************************
EBAY FEE INCREASE EDITORIAL
************************************************************

On 18 Feb 2005 ebaY will increase fees on some of their sites,
including ebaY US, ebaY Canada, ebaY United Kingdom, ebaY
Australia, ebaY Spain, ebaY Netherlands, ebaY Switzerland,
ebaY Germany and ebaY Austria.   We have provided some
info on the increases for the ebaY US, CA, UK and AU sites.
Please visit the appropriate announcement boards if you need
information about the fee increases on ebaY Spain,
Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

**********
ebaY US is once again raising its fees to sellers, with many
increases in the 50 to 100% range. This fee increase is not
surprising since ebaY wants their stockholders and
potential stockholders to continue to buy ebaY stock, and fee
increases look good to stockholders. ebaY wants the public to
keep buying stock, so that the ebaY insiders can continue to
cash out their stock holdings. In 2004 ebaY insiders
cashed out $7,846,507,701.00 in stock (yes folks that is
7.85 Billion in the pockets of ebaY insiders). This is nothing
unusual, as ebaY insiders have been cashing out their stock
as fast as they can, since they were first allowed to do so.

For more insider info –
Major Stock Holders
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=EBAY
Insider Transactions
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=ebay

As usual, the ebaY boards and chat boards across the online auction
and trading industry (OAI/OTI) are filled with outraged sellers
screaming about the price increases. Once again we will repeat
what we at TAG have been saying for the past 6 years. What
sellers can’t be made to realize, is that the power to change the
industry rests with themselves, as ebaY will charge the sellers
whatever the sellers ALLOW ebaY to charge them. All it takes is for
sellers to move a sufficient number of listings to other OAI/OTI
sites, and break the ebaY monopoly. The buyers will follow the
sellers. If sites other than ebaY have what the buyers want, that
is where the buyers will go. If enough sites develop viable markets,
someone (Google?) will come along with an improved meta search engine
(the technology has been around for over 4 years to do this but was
never perfected) that searches all these sites, and updates in real
time, so buyers can search the net for items they want,
and sellers will be free to list wherever they want.

Petitions, one day “strikes”, boycotts etc are all useless
and foolish. They have no impact on ebaY and do nothing to
expand the industry. So far they have all failed, and done
nothing but reinforce ebaY’s arrogance. ebaY will sit back and
let the sellers moan and groan about the increase, maybe even
make some small concessions, and then go about
their business, confident that the sellers will NOT act to change the
industry. ebaY will continue to raise fees as long as the sellers
knuckle under and pay the fees. What will change the industry,
is sellers selling on what we at TAG call VOTE sites (venues other
than ebaY).

Here is what sellers can do to change the face of the OAI/OTI
permanently, which will mean more competition, hence lower
charges to sellers, and better customer service for
those who use OAI/OTI sites.

As individuals – Build your own website and use it as the hub to
link to places you sell online. There are many very inexpensive
web site hosts, and most ISPs provide free server
space for web sites. Search Google for page templates, learn basic
HTML (many sites are available online to teach the basics for free),
use a site that has templates, or hire someone to build you a
simple site. Get your site indexed on Froogle. This is free, and
you can sign up here - http://snipurl.com/c27j Email every past
customer, thanking them for their business and telling them
where you are currently listing and offer them incentives to buy
from you from your website or from the VOTE site(s) you are using.

As organized groups – there are lots of OAI/OTI chat boards, on
ebaY and off, and frequent communication between sellers of
same or similar items. Start a chat group OFF ebaY, such as on
Topica.com, Google Groups or Yahoo Groups, or on one of the
OAI/OTI bulletin board systems, and email sellers in your category,
inviting them to join your effort to move your entire category to a
VOTE site. Agree on a site, and have everyone participating email
all their past customers and tell those customers where the category
is now located. Put up a group webpage, and provide links to the
group member websites and VOTE site listings. As a group, you
can even pool some resources and advertise in a trade paper or
magazine for your category, or buy some banner ad space online.
Work together as a community and you will all benefit together as a
community.

You do not have to stop selling on ebaY. USE ebaY (as opposed to
letting ebaY use you) as a way to build your customer base. There
are ways to do this that are still ebaY legal, such as including
offers and incentives for purchases made on the VOTE sites you
are selling on, in every email you send out. Include your email
address prominently in every listing on ebaY, so potential buyers
can contact you directly, without having ebaY looking over
your (and their) shoulder. Encourage potential buyers to contact you
via email. Build opt in mailing lists of customers, via your emails,
and include incentives in your list mailings. Send a coupon in every
package you send out, offering incentives to customers who buy
from you either from your website or from a VOTE site.

When you use ebaY, do not use the extras. List 7 day auctions,
don’t use gallery, don’t use BIN, and close your ebaY store.
If enough sellers do this, ebaY will have to back off these
fee increases. TAG still holds that gallery is now and has always
been a waste of money, and anecdotal evidence from sellers is
that when they stop using gallery, their sell through does not
change. ebaY has been very successful at brainwashing sellers into
believing whatever ebaY tells them is true, including that the world
of online auctions and trading only exists on ebaY. It is time the
sellers took control of the industry back from ebaY.

For those of you who are just going to moan and complain and once
again knuckle under anyway, who want to do something that makes
you feel as if you did not take this increase lying down, even if it
really means nothing, here are some links to petitions, and boycott/
strike sites.

Anti Fee increase petition -
http://www.petitiononline.com/ebayfee/

Boycott/Strike page –
http://www.nolistingday.com/
There are also posts about not listing 1–18 Feb 05.

Protest auctions -
http://snipurl.com/c2fz
http://snipurl.com/c2gc
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6505708303

Rate Meg Whitman’s performance -
http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/01/cx_ceointernetpoll.html

************************************************************
VENUES OTHER THAN EBAY (VOTE)
************************************************************
Several of these are sites that have been around for a few years,
have stable working sites, with tools that give the seller the
ability to easily transfer feedback and/or auctions from ebaY
to their site. These sites have been dedicated to giving online
sellers alternatives, but have not had sufficient participation by
sellers to give buyers enough merchandise to look for. If sellers
move around 3 million listings to each of these sites, ebaY’s
shelves will be pretty bare and the sellers will go to these sites
to find what they want.

There are hundreds of online auction and trading sites on the net.
Search Google if what you want is not in this list. These are the
ones with the most traffic (as far as we know) and the ones we
have heard about most frequently.

Here are a few VOTE sites listed alphabetically-

GENERAL MERCHANDISE –

Amazon Marketplace – Though Amazon also has auctions and Z-Shops,
they are a mere adjunct to their Merchant Marketplace, and much
marginalized by Amazon. The Amazon Marketplace is very dynamic
and provides sellers an ever expanding way to sell fixed price
merchandise. When a buyer searches Amazon for an item, the retail
item comes up, but links also come up to Merchant Marketplace items
new and used. Listing in the Marketplace is free. Final Value Fees
are 99 cents plus 6-15% depending on the item. Amazon has chat
boards and a toll free customer service number, though their CS
can be a frustrating experience for sellers.
Selling on Amazon - http://snipurl.com/c45c
Marketplace Overview - http://snipurl.com/c44r
Marketplace - http://snipurl.com/c44o
Marketplace fees and explanation - http://snipurl.com/c44w
Pro Merchant accounts $39.99 per month, includes free Z Shop, Free
Auction listings. 99 cent Marketplace fee waived and more -
http://snipurl.com/c453

Bidville.Com – auction site has approx 3 million listings (though
it is more like 2 million real listings, since over a million
listings are sports cards and records listed by 2 or 3 sellers)
There are no listing fees, final value fees are reasonable and
can be found at http://www.bidville.com/help/newfsf.html
Bidville also has stores with a basic store fee at $5. a month and
final value fees for sold items. Other store fees and options are at
http://www.bidville.com/storefront/fees.html
Sellers can import their ebaY feedback number from their Bidville
Trackpal page, but there is no auction import tool that we could
find. Random spot check shows a sell through rate of approx 23%
The search engine leaves much to be desired in that it is slow, only
returns a max of 2,000 items, and often does not complete the
search but gives a “timed out” message. Customer service is
believed to be responsive, and has good community boards.
http://www.bidville.com

ePier.Com – auction site has approx 145,000 listings. Full
feature stores (more like a mini website) have email and image
hosting, for $12.95/mo or $99. per year plus a final value
fee on sold items - http://www.epier.com/AdvancedStores/default.asp
There are no listing fees, final value fees are reasonable and can be
found at http://www.epier.com/pricing.asp
The search engine works fairly well as to speed, but we could not
get past auctions to show up, nor get the listings to sort.   We were
not able to determine a sell through rate. ePier has a bulk upload
tool, but no import tool to move items from ebaY to ePier. In the
past customer service has been variable, as have the community
boards.      http://www.epier.com/

iOffer.Com – negotiation site with approx 377,000 listing and
extensive wanted item section. Has good search engine, feedback
and auction import tool called Mr Grabber. Does not have
completed item information so no way to determine sell
through rate. Listing is free, stores are free, and the final value
fees are reasonable –
http://www.ioffer.com/help/feesNCreditPolicy.jsp?showTopBottom=false
Customer service is believed to be responsive, and has good community
boards.     http://www.ioffer.com

Overstock Auctions – The newest site on the scene, this is a
general merchandise auction site, has approx 30,000 listings. With a
wide customer base for their Overstock merchandise, this company
is also doing the most advertising of their auctions. Overstock
has listing and final value fees that may be viewed at -
http://snipurl.com/c3gl
There is no completed item search but anecdotally sellers report an
approx 7% sell through rate. Customer service is good with a toll
free number to call for help. Chat boards appear friendly, with
Overstock personnel stopping by to help users.
http://auctions.overstock.com/

SellYourItem.Com - auction site, has approx 58,000 listings. Sell
through is at around 5%. Listing is currently free, and final value
fees are reasonable –
http://www.sellyouritem.com/SellersFAQ.html#cost
SellYourItem does not have stores, but does have an auction import
tool. Both customer service and the community boards are rated
very highly. The boards also include a board where users can post
items and get help from other users to identify what it is. The
search engine works well.
http://www.sellyouritem.com/index.html

Yahoo Auctions – auction site, has approx 200,000 listings. Sell
through is at around 10%. Yahoo Auctions has chat boards that
are ok. Their customer service is as bad as ebaY’s, and that is
saying much. Their site generally runs very well, and has good
tools and features.      http://auctions.yahoo.com/

NICHE SITES

ADULT/SEX/PORN/FETISH (Please don’t look if you find this stuff
offensive)
4BidN – Brand new, only a handful of listings, currently no
listing or final value fees.     http://4bidn.com

Naughty bids – 10 cent listing and final value fees -
http://www.naughtybids.com/faqs.aspx#
http://www.naughtybids.com/

ANTIQUE MALLS
TIAS – one of the oldest and best established online trading
sites (comes up 5th on Google search for antiques). Fixed
price stores $34.95 minimum price or 10% commission on
sales, whichever is greater. Can also upload items to auction
for a 2% commission (on top of auction site fees). See through
is unknown. Site claims over 570,000 listings. Programs are a
bit complex, for more info go to –
http://www.tias.com/makeashop/index.cgi?groupKey=1&page=fees.html

Ruby Lane – well established online trading site (comes up 12th
on Google search for antiques).. Fixed price stores Fee system
is complex, more info at-
http://www.rubylane.com/info/aboutshops.html#costs

AUTOMOBILES
AutoTrader – $15. online classified ad, $27- $54. for combination
Ad in Auto Trader Magazine and on AutoTrader.com
http://www.autotrader.com/

CarsDirect - $25. to list a car For more details -
http://www.carsdirect.com/sell_cars/faq
http://www.carsdirect.com/sell_cars/home
http://www.carsdirect.com

BOOKS -
Abe Books – Fixed Price listings, with monthly subscription fee -
$25 minimum, 8% final value fee and 5.5% charge card fee if you
don’t have your own method of accepting charge cards.
http://www.abebooks.com/
Seller info - http://www.abebooks.com/docs/Sell/

AB Bookman – http://www.abbookman.com/
Auctions – Currently completely free
http://www.abbookauction.com/auction/auction.asp
Books Wanted -     http://snipurl.com/c4fi
Books fixed price listings- $10 minimum book value to list, 25 cent
fee for 90 days, currently no final value fee -
http://www.collectorsbookmarket.com/Mart/Mart.asp

Alibris - Fixed Price listings 20% final value fee on books $499. and
under. Seller info - http://sellers.alibris.com/why.cfm
http://www.alibris.com/

GUNS AND AMMO
AuctionArms No listing fee, final value fees are at-
http://www.auctionarms.com/help/fees.cfm
Approx 34% sell through. Lots of bids.
http://www.auctionarms.com/

PAGAN
ePagan - listing and final value fees are currently free
http://epaganauction.com/

eWitch – listing is free, 3.5% final value fee
http://www.e-witch.com/

AuctionWitch - – listing is free, 2% final value fee
http://www.auctionwitch.com/

POSTCARDS AND EPHEMERA
Playle – 76,000 postcards, Ephemera, Stamps, Postal Covers.
Listing and final value fees with unlimited free relists in
postcards and other paper categories. Free listing in
Antiques and Collectible, Stamps and Postal Cover cats. Dealer
flat fee monthly packages. Sell through in the 30% range but
over 50% in some sub categories.
Fees - http://www.playle.com/accounts.php3
http://www.playle.com/browse.html

POULTRY/EGGS
EggBid – listing is free, final value fees 10% to 1.5%, 40% sell
through. Fees at -
http://www.eggbid.com/help/fee_schedule.cfm
http://www.eggbid.com/

************************************************************
EBAY FEE INCREASES SUMMARIZED
************************************************************
This is a summary of the ebaY fee changes effective 18 Feb 05 for
ebaY US. From these increases, it is obvious that ebaY is forcing
out the smaller low ticket item seller, the ebaY “middle
class” and providing lowered fees for the big ticket
sellers.

ebaY will increase the gallery fee from $0.25 to $0.35 per listing.

Buy It Now (BIN) (that used to be free and about which ebaY once said
they had no plans to charge a fee for BIN at all) will now be based
on the BIN Price -
$0.01-9.99 BIN costs 5 cents
$10-24.99   BIN costs 10 cents
$25-49.99   BIN costs 20 cents
$50+            BIN costs 25 cents

ebaY will raise the 10-day duration listing from 20 cents to 40 cents
per listing.

ebaY will raise the monthly fee for the basic ebaY store from $9.95
to $15.95. The monthly fee for featured and anchor stores will not
change.

ebaY will increase the final value fees for store inventory items as
follows:
$0.01 - $25 old fee was 5.25% of the closing price new fee is 8%

$25.01 - $1,000 old fee was 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of
the remaining closing value balance. New fee is 8% of the initial
$25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01-$1000)

Over $1,000 old fee was 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the
next $25.01 - $1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value
balance ($1,000.01 - closing value). New fee is 8% of the initial
$25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining
closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).

ebaY is changing the reserve, insertion and Final Value Fees for
select high price item capital equipment categories in
Business & Industrial The fee changes for these capital equipment
categories are as follows:

Reserve fee: Lowered to $5, refundable if the item sells
Insertion fee: changed to a $20 flat fee regardless of starting price
Final Value Fee: Lowered to a 1% flat fee, with a $250 maximum
charge.

ebaY is changing the fees for ebaY Motors vehicles listings. ebaY
will charge a flat $5. reserve fee for all ebaY Motors vehicles
categories except Pocket Bikes. 10 day listings will now cost an
additional $8. for all ebaY Motors vehicles categories except
Pocket Bikes.

ebaY will lower the pocket bikes category insertion fee and
transaction services fee from $30 to $3 each. The following fees
will remain the same: Reserve ($2 flat fee, refundable if
item sells), Gallery (free), Listing Designer ($5) and Highlight
($5). The Motors Homepage Featured fee will be lowered to $24.95
and the Vehicle Picture Pack fee will be lowered to $1.50. All other
fees will be lowered to become the same as those for ebaY Motors
Parts & Accessories categories.
More info at - http://snipurl.com/c3ac

**********
ebaY CA has one of the most extensive fee changes, with most fees
increasing.
http://www2.ebay.com:80/aw/marketing-ca.shtml#2005-01-11153230
Some of the changes follow:

ebaY is increasing store final value fees to the same percentages as
in the US (see above)

ebaY is increasing gallery fees from C 25 cents to C 45 cents
including ebaY Motors non vehicle listings

Buy It Now (BIN) (that used to be free and about which ebaY once said
they had no plans to charge a fee for BIN at all) will now be based
on the BIN Price -
C$0.01-9.99 BIN costs C 5 cents
C$10-24.99   BIN costs C 15 cents
C$25-49.99   BIN costs C 25 cents
C$50+           BIN costs C 30 cents

Highlight increasing from C$2 to C$6.50
Featured Plus increasing from C$5. to C$25.95

Insertion fees for real estate for auction and fixed price formats
will go from C$70 to C$45. 30 day Real Estate Ad format from
C$70 to C$195. and 90 day Real Estate Ad format from
C$150. to C$390.

Monthly basic store fees are increasing from C$9.95 to C$15.95

ebaY is changing the reserve, insertion and Final Value Fees for
select high item price capital equipment categories in
Business & Industrial.

The fee changes for these capital equipment categories are as follows:
Reserve fee: Lowered to C$6.50, refundable if the item sells
Insertion fee: changed to a C$25 flat fee regardless of starting price
Final Value Fee: Lowered to a 1% flat fee, with a C$325. maximum
charge.

ebaY Motors pocket bike fee changes are those as posted for the US
BIN for ebaY Motors vehicles is going from C 5 cents to C $1.30
Bold for ebaY Motors (non vehicle listings) is going from C$1. to
C$1.30
Bold for ebaY Motors Pocket Bikes is going from C$1. to C$1.30
Bold for ebaY Motors vehicles is going from C$1. to C$5.
ebaY Motors reserve fee is increasing to C$6.50
ebaY Motors scheduled listings are going from free to C$1.30

**********
ebaY UK fee changes effective 18 Feb 05

ebaY will reduce the fee for scheduling a listing using the sell your
item form or Turbo Lister from £0.12 to £0.06 per listing.

ebaY will reduce the fee for using a subtitle for the item title from
£0.50 to £0.35.

ebaY will increase the fee for using the highlight option from
£1.50 to £2.50.

ebaY will increase the Final Value Fee in vehicles categories (Cars,
Classic Cars, Motorcycles, Other Vehicles) from 0.5% of final sale
price to 0.75% of final sale price (minimum of £15 and a
maximum of £30 applicable as before). Insertion fees for vehicles
will remain at £6.

**********
ebaY AU fee changes effective 18 Feb 05

Insertion fee for items starting at AU$0.01- 0.99 will now be AU$0.30

Insertion fee for items starting at AU$1.00- 19.99 will increase to
AU$0.50 from AU$0.35

The insertion fee will be decreased from AU$0.35 to AU$0.30 per
listing for items starting between AU$0.01 and AU$0.99.

For items starting between AU$1.00 and AU$19.99 will be charged at
AU$0.50 (currently AU$0.35 for the start price range of
AU$0.01-19.99).

ebaY will now charge store inventory format listings
30 Days AU$0.10 increased from AU$0.05
90 Days AU$0.30 increased from AU$0.15
Good Till Cancelled AU$0.10 per 30 days duration increased from
AU$0.05

ebaY will raise gallery fees from AU$0.50 to AU$0.59 per listing.

************************************************************
OTHER EBAY INFO
************************************************************
ebaY announced on 11 Jan 05 that they would donate the listing and
final value fees for items sold through eBay Giving Works where the
seller donates 100% of the final selling price. This will be
retroactive to 1 Jan 05.

ebaY received much criticism from TAG and from their users for
profiting on charity listings, so ebaY has made this small concession
to help combat the tarnish of their greed.

**********
ebaY is defrauding sellers again. TAG is always a little amazed at
all the little ways ebaY illegally steals money from sellers, and
gets away with it. Rather than have a policy to do the right thing
every day, they commit fraudulent and unethical acts until someone
makes enough of a fuss to force them into changing their action.
This latest fraud is the non functioning dead beat bidder process,
now called by ebaY, the Unpaid Item Process.

When sellers try to access their Dispute Resolution Console, and try
to close an open dispute, they receive a message saying, “Dispute
Information Unavailable The information you requested is
currently unavailable. Please try again at a later time.”

This problem was acknowledged by ebaY on the Technical Issue board on
6 December 04, but there are no posts on the ebaY announcement
board or system board, even though ebaY is well aware of it. Sellers
are prevented from closing these open disputes, and getting their
deserved final value fee refunds, and ebaY gets to hold the money
and does not pay the seller interest on these improperly held funds.
If this problem is not fixed within the next 30 days, it will be
exacerbated because according to ebaY’s deadbeat
bidder policy “A dispute can only be open for 60 days after the
transaction date (i.e. the date when the buyer commits to buying the
item and the seller commits to selling it). If the seller has not
closed the dispute within 60 days, it will be automatically closed.
When this automatic closure takes place the seller does not receive a
Final Value Fee credit and the buyer does not receive an Unpaid
Item strike.” So sellers will lose out on their deserved final
value fee refunds altogether, unless they carefully track them and
demand the fees back from ebaY.

In some interesting correspondence between a seller who has
experienced this problem, ebaY representatives demonstrated the
inconsistency of ebaY’s customer service. In the first
correspondence on 12 Jan, the seller was told, “We are aware that
some members are receiving the error that the "Dispute information
is Unavailable." We are currently investigating the cause and hope to
have it resolved soon. We ask that you please try to close the
dispute at a later time.” In response to a second email 3 days
later (23 days after the auction end), the ebaY CS rep did the right
thing and refunded the final value fee, saying, “At this time, we
don't have an estimate as to when we expect to have this corrected.
As such, I went ahead and issued a credit for the final value fee you
were charged …” But on 17 Jan, a request for a credit for
another item caught in this ebaY glitch, the response from ebaY
was, “The dispute filed for that item number was filed on
December 31/04 and you have 60 days from that date to close
the dispute to receive the credit. At this time we will not be
manually processing the FVF credit for that dispute. If it gets
within a week of that 60 day timeframe, and you still cannot
close it, then please email us back at that time and then we can
manually process the FVF credit then. You have until March 1st to
close the dispute, so if you cannot close it by February 22nd, then
email us then to request that we credit you for it. In between now
and that date, please keep checking every 6-7 days to see if you can
close the dispute, as hopefully this system glitch will be fixed
between now and the end of February.”

ebaY not only lies by omission, by not posting about this glitch on
the system status announcement board, but also expects the seller
to add even more time to the process of getting back their final
value fee (FVF). The cost effectiveness of filing for FVFs has
always been in question, and many sellers don’t bother because it
costs them more in time than they get back in fees to do so. This
makes the problem worse, and amounts to fraud, since ebaY now
gets to keep the sellers money for times much longer than the
7 days they should have it, and in many cases may allow them not
to return it at all.

**********
ebaY.com, ebaY.ca and ebaY Motors Parts & Accessories is holding a
promotion for listing upgrades they are calling, Buy One Get One
Free, on Wed 19 Jan 05. Sellers can take advantage of one or both
of the following options: add border to the listings and get subtitle
free and/or add bold to your listings and get gallery free.
http://pages.ebay.com/promo/buyone/?ssPageName=CMDV:AB1000

**********
Sellers report that downloading the newest version of Turbo Lister is
causing their settings to default to accepting some of ebaY’s
extra cost options such as listing designer. TAG advises sellers
to carefully check their settings before listing, if they have
updated any of ebaY’s programs.

**********
Buyers have reported that when they BIN an item on ebaY they receive
upwards of 21 emails from ebaY about the purchase. This occurs
intermittently, but can be a very annoying problem.

**********
ebaY is sending email coupons to users with inactive accounts (no
posting on the boards, buying or selling activity). The coupon is
good for $5. off any item $24.99 or more, from any seller who
accepts PayPal.

**********
A decision on ebaY’s appeal of the May 2003 $35 million patent
law suit judgment found against ebaY is expected before the end
of January. This will decide if ebaY has to pay MercExchange the
judge reduced penalty of 29.5 million for infringing Merc’s
Patents., though ebaY vows to continue to fight the judgment.

**********
And on the subject of why the ebaY site is so slow, when other sites
just zip along, it is because ebaY pages are bloated beyond reason
with superfluous and just plain bad coding, Some ebaY pages are
the size of a small website.

To see what we mean use this tool to analyze how large files are
and what the problems in the coding are –
http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/

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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

BSNE Gifts http://www.bnse.biz

Andy's Toys http://www.Andystoys.com
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