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eBay Partner centre for deals and offers

eBay have launched their new Partner Centre which promises to bring “great deals and offers from trusted partners” to eBay users.

Currently it’s little more than a collection of eBay’s biggest advertisers and you’ve probably seen all of the “offers” in the sidebar of My eBay at some time or another.

The deals and offers currently are simply plugs for the companies advertising. I could find only one with an offer, and that’s Parcel2Go who give a discount if you insert their logo into your eBay auctions. There aren’t any other deals or offers that you couldn’t get by going to the companies direct.

To build value (for both advertisers and eBay users) the companies featured in the eBay Partner Center need to have some real deals on offer.

Discounts, incentives or promotions specifically for eBay users may entice them to browse the Partner Center. A collection of adverts for off eBay products and services probably won’t.

You can let eBay know your thoughts on Partner Center by emailing them at servicecentrefeedback@ebay.com or clicking the link at the bottom of the Partner Center home page.

eBay increase online ad spend 400%

According to latest Nielson figures, eBay increased their online advertising spend 397% in 2007 spending almost £20m. This has makes them one of the biggest online spenders, second only to Personal Loan Express who spent £28m.

eBay’s online advertising accounts for 55.89% of their total media spend giving a total advertising budget in the region of £35m for 2007. It’s good to know they’re investing so much to attract buyers to the site. It also gives an indication of the budget competitors will need if they wish to compete for buyers in this marketplace.

In comparison Amazon was the ninth biggest spender with a £9.8m spend. This was an increase of 1977% from 2006 and represents almost 99% of Amazon’s total ad budget.

Mcdonalds, Sky, Capital One, Virgin and Dell are all ranked in the top 100 online advertisers and also advertise on ebay. It would be interesting to know just how much eBay recoup from advertising on eBay, from the top 100 spenders, to balance what they’re spending.

Via Brand Republic (log on required)

Dell laptop offsite ad - cheaper than eBay

I’m liking this advert better than the previous McDonalds advert that appeared in My eBay. It’s something that’ll appeal to a lot of sellers but I don’t sell laptops and I’m not so sure eBay laptop sellers will appreciate this one.

I’ve already had one question from a potential buyer who says they’ve just ordered an Inspiron 6400 for the price busting £299.00 and can I supply a docking station to go with it, so the advert is obviously working. But what’s the real impact?

Well for anyone who has been thinking of buying a laptop Dell have a really good deal on, comparing prices the 1.7GHz Inspiron 6400 on Dells website is selling out at £349.00 including VAT and shipping. The lowest price I can find the equivalent model on an eBay Buy It Now is £389.00 with £23.50 shipping to add on, a £63.50 saving for going to Dell then.

We’ve all seen the off site adverts at the bottom of search results, but they’re nowhere near as visible as the ones in My eBay. What will your thoughts be when your best selling lines are advertised in My eBay for off site deals?

On thing is for sure - if you’re in the market for a new laptop it’s a cracking deal, so go shopping while you can.

McDonalds: I’m (not) lovin’ it

I don’t like adverts, I don’t like McDonalds food that much either. I’m certainly not lovin’ it.

Why oh why do eBay find it incumbent upon themselves to carry on inflicting these adverts on us? It’s not like McDonalds is even a product which is vaguely business related. It’s simply gratuitous advertising because eBay decided they wanted more revenue.

I ask you honestly… what would you think of TameBay if we started carry adverts for fast food chains? Would it enhance your enjoyment of the site? Would it be the slightest bit relevant to your business? Or would it simply be an annoyance?

At least if we lowered ourselves into the advertising gutter that eBay have stooped to, you could justify it on the basis you don’t pay to use the site. But you do pay to use eBay, so as they have an income why the need to carry low grade irrelevant adverts?

Money I guess, purely and simply more income for shareholders. It doesn’t look good though, relevant ads I can understand, but I don’t want to wait for McDonalds adverts to load before I can use the drop downs in My eBay. Hello guys…. I’m trying to work here, not to snack on junk food

eBay stole 15 seconds of my life

I wasn’t a keen advocate of adverts in My eBay when they first appeared. Now I’m even less enamoured by them.

The drop downs in My eBay don’t load until after the advert has loaded, and they’re the last part of the page to load. Now a missing advert results in my browser waiting for a non-existant image from rtm.qa.ebaystatic.com.

Once the page has loaded it takes about fifteen seconds for the advert to time out and default to a text link, during which time drop downs are unavailable.

Whilst I understand adverts equal click revenue I find it hard to believe eBay make much revenue from them. Adverts irritate me at the best of time and even more so now they’re not working. eBay are wasting a quarter of a minute of my time for each visit to My eBay.

I thought eBay displaying adverts in My eBay was bad, now I’ve realised that eBay failing to display adverts is even worse

Sponsored links downgraded, SIF upgraded

In welcome news to sellers eBay have posted on the community forums that sponsored links will be moved below all eBay listings in the future.

In November eBay confirmed that sponsored links were here to stay but the placement was still under review. If they negatively impacted eBay sales they said they would “react quickly should we detect negative trends” and it appears that they have done.

The important part of the statement is “We have analysed the latest data and have come to the same conclusion as many of you: sponsored links should not appear above Shop Inventory Format (SIF) items. (As a reminder, SIF listings currently appear in core search results when there are 50 or fewer core results returned.) So from now on whenever any eBay listings are available in response to a user’s search (be it core auction or BIN listings, SIF listings, or listings from international sellers) these will be shown first. Sponsored links will appear only underneath eBay listings.”

Another bit of news gleaned from the statement is that SIF listings will appear below core search results if fewer than 50 items are returned. In the past SIF listings appear to have been displayed if only 30 core listings were displayed in search results. From now on sellers should notice more sales from shop listings from the increased visibility.

Sister wrapped

I guess the papers are short of stories in the week between Christmas and New Year, because the “unwanted Christmas presents sold on eBay” story has been everywhere. “Auction off your dud presents” advises the Telegraph, before rehashing Dan Wilson’s how to eBay series from this summer. The Mirror includes eBay in a list of ways to get rid of unwanted gifts. Even the BBC gets in on the act.

But the prize for best version of the regifting story goes to a surprising winner: Tazbar. “Were your Christmas presents pants?” asks their email. And comes with this delightful image. Would could resist?

Ask Dan : eBay or Adwords?

Question from Sue: Given that eBay are now displaying third party ads above shop results and “next page” links in search results, what percentage of my eBay budget should I be switching into Adwords?

Dan says: Of all the changes we’ve seen on eBay in the past few years, it’s fair to say that the increased display of third party ads in Search and Browse results (I’m less concerned about the ones in My eBay) is one of the most interesting and potentially damaging to eBay sellers. That said, to answer the question, I’d say, for the time being, none.

We really don’t know what the impact of the display ads in eBay search results is yet. And whilst, of course, Shops items are relegated it’s still true that ‘core’ BINs and Auctions get top billing so this is where I’d be concentrating time and energy. Are your non-Shop listings working hard enough? In many cases it’s a case of ‘back to basics’: are you listing enough ’signpost’ listings that drag traffic to your Shop, are your Item Title keywords ship-shape and Bristol fashion, have you got your items spread out over the week to get maximum exposure?

On the general issue of these Ads, two things strike me. I really, genuinely think that buyers are clever enough to see through the tactic and give more attention to eBay items. That’s why they came to eBay, after all: to buy from eBay sellers. Equally, some of the ads I have seen have been very poorly targeted and matched to searches. Secondly, eBay might like the extra revenue from the ads but they won’t want to cannibalise their core market and revenue stream: I imagine they’re testing the waters to see how far they can go. It would be foolish to plan around any changes that haven’t been finalised.

To finish, running headlong toward an Adwords campaign isn’t something that you should take lightly. It can be complex process and you’ll need to spend time understanding how Adwords works, what works best for you and then spend time optimising your campaign. As with eBay, a bit of research and preparation time is essential to get it right so get tooled up with the info before you get your wallet out and hand it to Mr Google.

Now they’re putting ads on listings!

The more cynical amongst us have been expecting this for a while, but now it’s here: eBay are putting ads on listings. Under a section entitled “Helpful information” and then “eBay recommended services”, an animated banner pushing PayPal has appeared, reading “Picking up your item in person? Pay your seller with your mobile phone.” The ad is shown on items which do not allow collection in person; it’s likely to cause some confusion which is not going to improve the famous buyer experience.

I’m told it’s also appearing on listings which don’t accept PayPal at all; the potential for confusion there is going to be a nightmare for the sellers.

Sellers should remember that if they allow collection in person and then take PayPal, via mobile phone or any other means, they will have absolutely no seller protection in the event that the buyer decides to do a chargeback. People allowing collection should use a more secure and reliable method, like cash.

Those of us who pay eBay to list on their site are not going to be happy about this frankly outrageous move. Today it’s ads for eBay’s own payment service; tomorrow, are we going to see ads for our suppliers and our competitors appear on our listings?

Updated to add: It’s gone… for now. A Pink on the Powerseller Board has just commented that “clearly it wasnt the right creative for this placement. I asked PayPal to remove it - looks like its already been taken down.” So ads are coming, just not this one.

Updated again to add: eBay deny that there is any intention to feature advertising on the listing page. Here’s the post from the PSB:

Well… they would say that, wouldn’t they. This is the company who said that third party ads would only appear under search results when there *were* no relevent search results… and now carry more advertising all over search pages, above paid-for eBay listings. So forgive me if I remain sceptical.

eBay fresh on 3

There’s a bonus appearance for eBay in this Christmas’s commercial breaks, as the site features in phone network 3’s new ad. Best known at the moment as the provider of the lovely Skypephone, 3 have their mobile eBayer followed by a string of desirable objects: who says you have to stay in the house to do your Christmas shopping on eBay this year.

Are off-site ads really worth their price?

Picture the Scene:

I arrive at my local market on a crisp Monday morning to purchase my fruit and veg and as I slowly wander around I start to notice something strange. Above each stall is a large BIG BOLD advert, which I have to read twice as its import catches my attention:

“Have you tried the new OUT OF TOWN shopping centre? Morriscos sells these oranges MUCH cheaper than this stall!”

As I wander around, I notice more and more of these strange adverts:

“Buy this item at our new shiny OUT OF TOWN shopping centre… Morriscos!”

“Do not buy this kettle here; Morriscos will sell it to you at cost!”

As I am a long-standing regular customer of the market, when I spot the owner walking around, I go to find out what he’s playing at.

“Why do you tell your customers to go elsewhere?” I inquire with much curiosity and incredulity.

“Well,” he replies, “after much in-depth calculation, we have realised that we get £100 a week from our stall holders. The advertising will generate an additional £10 a week, so our revenue will increase to £110. We have a hundred stalls, so now we are making £11,000 a week instead of £10,000 a week.” Looking at me smugly, he goes on to say, “Don’t you think that’s a stroke of GENIUS?”

I decide not to discuss an obvious flaw in the plan and continue to listen to his rationale. After a little while, I find out that his big brother owns an advertising firm, “ShippingOverThereAdvertising.com”, which also gives another insight into the decision that has been made.

As I wander out of the market, many dark looks and unhappy faces meet my inquiring gaze.

So not thinking much of it, I come back a couple of months later (The new Morriscos really is superb you know, it sells all of the same stuff, maybe at different prices, but they just LOOK so much more professional) and I see my friend the advertising guru looking not quite so smug.

“What’s wrong” I ask, “you don’t seem as happy as last time I saw you…”

To which he responds with a pained expression, “Well I have to be honest, you know that advertising trick I tried?” He continues after a nod of ascent from myself, “Well those traitorous stallholders of mine took advantage!”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Twenty of my stall holders went over to Morriscos and opened small shop units over there! So now we have £8,800 as revenue, and more of them are threatening to move as they say there are fewer established customers here now, and people like the air conditioning and gentle music over THERE!”

The conversation carried on for a while, but the owner finished on this interesting observation:

“Why oh why did I let Morriscos have a foothold in our marketplace, we had a captive loyal customer base of shoppers, but now they have all deserted us and saying we are old hat, not only that we are bleeding sellers faster than we can replace them as they are moving over to Morriscos where all the customers are…”

This would be the obvious flaw in the plan that I did not mention earlier. So I wander away and consider the moral of the story…

Don’t tell the cows the grass is greener on the other side, as they tend to jump the fence when they find that out!

eBay encourage searching on listings

There’s something appearing at the bottom of eBay listings which is rather strange. It’s a box encouraging buyers to search for items on auctions or buy it now that accept PayPal.

Whilst I have nothing against encouraging buyers to search for items the images above are taken directly from the listing that the message below appears on. The listing is an auction, it has Buy It Now available, it accepts PayPal, so just why would eBay need to insert a message prompting buyers to search for the identical item elsewhere on the site?

The only thing I can think of to explain this is that eBay are hoping search engines will pick up on the text, but currently that doesn’t appear to be happening.

I have to say I’m not particularly concerned by the message, not many buyers scroll right to the bottom of a listing but if it was going to be at all effective it should be hotlinked to search results.

Love from you from eBay

Following on from the latest eBay adverts and the Love from you from eBay tag line comes the eBay.co.uk Christmas page.

It encourages you to think about the things the special person in your life likes, and then enter them into the eBay search box to see what comes up. Examples are again “Yellow Retro” with another being “Funky Retro”.

I like the whole idea of “Love from you from eBay“, it prompts buyers to think about their loved ones whilst shopping on eBay and it’s a great association.

eBay have started an email campaign to spread the message. If you’re listing on eBay it’s worth including the word Retro in your items if it’s applicable as there’s sure to be a lot of buyers testing out the search terms.

Get a hit on eBay

You can buy practically anything on eBay, including, it seems, cannabis seeds. The only “weed seeds” available on eBay itself are the kind that tortoises like to eat, so eBay have helpfully improved the buyer experience by including some off-site links to places you can buy seeds and equipment to grow your own.

Selling the seeds might not be illegal in the UK, but listings would certainly be pulled under eBay’s own Drugs and Drug Paraphernalia Policy. Just like off-site links, it seems what’s okay for eBay is not necessarily okay for sellers.

Many thanks to Steve for the screen shot.

eBay coming clean about third-party ads?

eBay have finally made a statement about the proliferation of off-site ads currently appearing on eBay UK. It was posted on the UK Powerseller Board last night, and is as follows:

When third-party ads began on eBay, they were about improving the buyer experience: if the buyer’s desired item wasn’t on eBay anywhere (including Shops), they could be sent somewhere else. There is undoubtedly logic in this procedure, and one has to assume that there was also some money in it, because the accountants who are now running eBay’s marketing and site design have decided to roll it out site-wide.

So let’s take a look at this statement: are eBay finally coming clean with sellers about what they’re up to? Not a bit of it. Firstly, “greater price transparency” is definitely not advantaging eBay sellers: off-site ads are showing items which are cheaper than any to be found on eBay.

Even more bizarre is the statement that, measuring eBayers who see ads against those who don’t, “the behaviour of the two groups is virtually identical and remains so over time”. If I were buying ads from eBay, I’d be very worried by this. If people don’t click the ads and then buy stuff, what’s the point of the ads? Why are these advertisers paying eBay for clicks that don’t translate into actual business? Either eBay sellers or eBay’s advertisers are being mightily ripped off here: and I have a sneaking suspicion it might just be both groups.

Sellers are not likely to be pacified by eBay’s suggestions on how to cope with eBay’s actions: i.e. eBay have promoted third parties above the listings you’re paying eBay for, so pay eBay more money to list on Shopping.com or upgrade your eBay shop. On the contrary, don’t upgrade your eBay shop because of this change: it will not buy you any favours whatsoever in search results, and one has to ask really if this suggestion is deliberately misleading, or if the advertising team just don’t know how Shops work.

eBay take great pains to emphasise that this is an experiment. I think we can expect that the experiment will be judged a success: eBay will have more money than they started with, the accountants will be happy, and I see no evidence that, these days, anyone else’s opinion matters. So what can sellers really do to counter the damage eBay have just dealt their businesses?

Protest There’s always a chance they might listen. Kick up on the community boards, talk to your Account Manager if you have one, talk to any other contact you have at eBay, mail Support… make your voice heard. You’ve got nothing to lose but your business.

Promote your own Shop eBay won’t do it for you, but if a Shop is still a viable tool for you, make sure you promote it yourself. Use the listing frame to promote your Shop and its categories on all your listings; use cross-promotions within your Shop; make sure your Shop feed is going to Google Base.

Use eBay as a customer acquisition tool It’s been said often enough, but every week it gets more true: trading solely on eBay is no longer a viable proposition for most merchants. Give your repeat customers every incentive to come back to you, but back to your website rather than your eBay shop. There’s no nicer feeling than looking at a website order, and working out the FVFs you didn’t just pay for it.

Christmas ad campaign begins

If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s the first in this year’s series of Christmas adverts for eBay. I’m happy to say that the word “cheap” isn’t mentioned at all: the emphasis is strongly on the idea that you can just whatever your loved one wants on eBay. Anyone who can possibly justify including the words “yellow” and “retro” in their listings should grab the chance of some extra traffic before this one’s off our screens!

Would you buy adverts on eBay?

An interesting twist has come to light regarding the adverts eBay are testing on the site in search results.

eBay are consulting website owners to gauge their interest in paying for the adverts and gathering information on the likely take up rate and the amount users may spend per month.

One new snippet that has come out of the research is the question “How interested would you be in a service like this that linked your ad to your eBay Listing or to your eBay Shop?” In other words eBay are now considering offering the opportunity to create adverts to appear in search results which would link directly to your eBay listings or shop, alongside others that link to off eBay sites which could be your own website.

I’m in two minds about this, firstly the ability to drive additional traffic to your own listings could be a way to utilise shop inventory listings more fully. On the other hand if you have your own website it’ll allow you to drive traffic off eBay and save final value fees. The downside of course is you could be competing with large corporates with big advertising budgets. Until more information is available on the cost per click and how the adverts will be implemented on the site, it’s hard to decide if this is a good or bad move on eBay’s part.

One thing is for sure, having paid eBay fees many sellers will be reluctant to pay for adverts to drive traffic to their listings, and even less enamoured with the idea of adverts driving traffic off eBay and losing sales.

eBay will doubtless be measuring the results of the current tests as they can’t afford to lose core site sales and face another debacle, similar to the SIF in Core fiasco of last year.

Be a TV star with the eBay Logo People

If you thought the eBay.co.uk television adverts with the logo people were cool, how much better would it be for you to star alongside them? That’s whats on offer from eBay this Autumn, the chance to be made into a logo person and star in an eBay TV advert!

You don’t have to do anything bar buy and sell on eBay.co.uk between the 9th and 18th November. If you transact on the site you’ll be entered into the draw for advertising fame!

eBay: Just another shopping comparison site

Over the last few days eBay have been increasing the prominence of offsite adverts on the site. Not only have they started to advertise in the sidebar of My eBay and at the bottom of the sidebar in search results but they’ve stepped up off site adverts in the search results themselves.

Originally it was promised that off eBay adverts would only appear when there were few or no natural search results on eBay. I disagreed with this at the time as in many cases simply ticking the “Search title and description” box would find additional matching products. Very soon however off site adverts were appearing on all search results regardless of the number of matches found on eBay.

The offsite advertising box has now moved up above any eBay shop inventory items that search finds. Previously the adverts were appearing at the bottom of the page below any shop items that were presented to the buyer. Now they’re much more prominent having been moved above shop inventory format results.

These website adverts which often include shopping.com adverts direct the user to a website other then eBay where they can browse for similar products.

Worse still are the new format adverts for specific products which now appear just below eBay search results. These adverts are formatted to look like products on eBay. They contain a gallery picture, title and possibly a subtitle, price, and the website offering the merchandise for sale.

eBay shop owners are unlikely to appreciate the benefits of these new adverts. Having off eBay links above relevant shop inventory format results isn’t a particularly attractive proposition having paid eBay fees to have products listed on the site. Much worse though are the products listed just below shop inventory format listings, as they also display the price products can be obtained for off eBay, in some cases considerably lower than those offered on eBay

It’s long been known that many buyers visit eBay to research products and check prices prior to heading out to find the best deal (I have to admit I’ve done it myself!) eBay already own shopping comparison sites such as shopping.com and doorone and there are many others such as Kelkoo, Shopzilla and Pricegrabber. Anyone who watches TV can hardly have missed adverts for moneysupermarket.com billed as “The” shopping comparison site.

It appears eBay are turning the main eBay site into yet another shopping comparison destination to cater to those who already use the site for these purposes. If you know a certain number of buyers have no intention of buying on eBay why wouldn’t you sell sponsored links and gain a little revenue as they click off your site?

What it does for eBay sellers is leave them wondering just why would someone buy from your eBay shop, when they’re presented with an alternative website from which they can buy an identical product at a lower price?

Adverts appearing in My eBay

Here I am, minding my own business (literally!) and checking my eBay sales and bam, the latest eBay advertising hits me between the eyes. Well ok, maybe not between the eyes, but it’s there at the bottom of the left hand navigation bar.

I have a number of objections to this, not least of which is why do I want to waste my valuable bandwidth downloading adverts in which I have no interest? Perhaps it’s time to invest in an ad blocker to zap the annoying things?

Whilst downloading adverts when I’m trying to click dropdown links that don’t work until the entire page has loaded is annoying, I’m more interested in what eBay intend to do with the adverts for the future. It’s the first spot on the site where they could easily serve up adverts personalised to me.

That’s not personalised to the search terms I as an eBay user enter, not personalised based on generalised buying or selling behaviour. I’m talking about personalised based on what eBay know about me as an individual!

I have to question if this is a good move on eBay’s part, they already have off site links in search results which are justified on the basis of a better buyer experience. This isn’t benefiting buyers though, the adverts are appearing in the selling section of My eBay. It’s purely and simply a way to raise revenues, whether it be with eBay owned services or with third party advertisers.

I don’t like it, it’s unwelcome and intrusive, it’s my personal space on eBay where I manage my business and don’t forget I *PAY* for the privilege of listing and managing my auctions. If it was a freebie service fair enough, but I don’t expect to pay for a service and still suffer a string of adverts stealing my bandwidth.

Coming soon: more third party ads

Several months back eBay announced that adverts for third parties would appear on eBay search pages when there were no other results. They were very keen to emphasise this when there are no other results - but I know I wasn’t the only seller who cynically thought it was the thin end of the wedge.

This week, eBay.com’s Announcements Board talked again about on-site adverts for third parties. It’s the waffliest post I’ve seen on the AB for a very long time, but the bottom line appears to be we’re going to put adverts where we like, when we like. This will “improve the buyer experience”.

Let me say it now: I’m absolutely in favour of improving the buyer experience, but this phrase is starting to be eBay shorthand for “it’s our site and we’ll do what we like”. And of course, it *is* their site and they *can* do what they like, but dressing up revenue enhancements as benefits to their users presumes a level of naivity that is close to insulting.

I’ve spent a long time looking this week, and as far as I can see, there are third-party ads at the bottom of every single search results page on eBay.co.uk, .fr and .com. (At least, they are there on every one of the hundreds of pages that I have looked at across dozens of categories.) eBay can state all they like that the ads are not intended to compete with sellers’ listings, but the fact is that buyers get to the bottom of a search page and they have to do *something*. Either they can click the “next” link to look at more eBay results, or they can click the ads. It doesn’t take much analysis to see that this is going to divert some traffic from eBay.

We can take it for granted that sellers won’t like this. eBay can make statements that advertising has “no significant impact to our core transaction business”, but no seller is going to believe it. If it’s true, I challenge them to publish the results of the usability studies. Myself, I’d agree with Skip McGrath’s comments: these ads are just distracting buyers from doing what I want them to do: buy on eBay.

One glimmer of hope might be that the default ads at the bottom of search results’ pages - presumably when no one has directly bought the advertising - seem to be to show results from Shopping.com, so now might be the time to consider advertising with them. Of course, this would be more money for eBay - and throwing extra cash at advertising isn’t a solution that’s available to everyone.

So how about the buyer experience? Is that improved? I don’t think so. If I’m searching on eBay, it’s because I want to buy from eBay. I don’t think of eBay as some kind of search engine for shopping: if I want random websites selling whatever, I’ll use Google to find them, and if I want results from shopping.com, I’ll go there. eBay are in serious danger of undermining their own brand here, which is sad, because sometimes, they get it. Removing home page featured listings cost them ad revenue, but they had a better, more streamlined site because of it. Why undermine that with slapping external ads on every bit of spare space? It smacks of desperation.

Crazy for YOU

eBay continue with their “real eBayers” advertising theme in today’s Mail on Sunday YOU magazine.

This time they’re featuring a buyer, but sadly they’ve been unable to find one who’s bought from the site recently. 2005sbb doesn’t appear to have bought anything since December last year, though she still manages to sing the praises of a chair and a nest of tables she drove all the way from London to Wales (twice) to collect. Good news for anyone thinking of following her example: there are more than 300,000 furniture items listed within 50 miles of London, so you should be able to find something to suit a little closer to home.

I’m slightly concerned by our buyer’s habit of dropping in for tea with people she’s bought off previously too: still, coming from someone who thinks people on the Tube talk to each other, maybe that’s par for the course. You don’t have to be crazy to shop here, but it probably helps.

Half.com sign for sale on eBay

It was the year 2000 and eBay owned half.com came up with a novel way to capture the worlds press. They paid $100,000 and donated computers for the school in the Oregon town of Halfway in return for them changing their name to Half.com. The first dot com city in the world was born.

News coverage was everything expected, NBC news broadcast live from Half.com on 19th January 2000 and Half.com capture media attention around the world. It wasn’t until June 2000 that eBay finalised a deal to bring Half.com (the website not the town) into the eBay group of companies.

The Half.com name was only supposed to remain for a year, but the signs stayed for a lot longer until the dot com era was well established. One sign remains in the town museum but the other is now up for sale with a starting price of 99 cents. Of course there could be no other place to sell the sign than on the owner of Half.com - eBay!

Shop Victoriously with eBay.com

eBay.com have announced their new marketing campaign. With the slogan “shop victoriously”, it’s very much promoting the idea of winning, because “it’s better when you win it”. Here’s one of the TV ads:

To seasoned eBayers, this might look like pushing auctions ahead of BIN purchases - as eBay have been wont to do for the last year or so - but actually, I think it’s non-specific enough that newbies might just see the idea of purchasing on eBay itself as winning: perhaps the bargain prices and/or the breadth of merchandise are a win in themselves. I like the message.

Even better news - or at least, it is for US eBayers - is that eBay Gift Cards are finally to be made available. I know I’ve been grumbling about the lack of these for years, so its nice to see them finally being released - though of course I’ll be much happier when they can be bought in Europe too.

Bid price accurate 20 seconds ago

I’ve just found on of the first in new series of eBay.co.uk TV adverts. In a television first they featured live listings with pricing updated only 20 seconds prior to the commercial airing!

With the title “Did you eBay today” it shows the current price plus posting the actual time and the end time of the item, a “Day Birger + Mikkleson Silk Dress”.

It’s time to keep an eye on the TV, do you know who listed this dress or who bought it? Have you seen and advert with a different eBay listing on it? Was it one of yours?

The US have released new TV adverts too under the theme “Shop Victoriously” playing on the Windorphins theme.

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  • Whirly: @Richard (eBay) If you read this Richard can you supply us with some info please, can you supply numbers,...
  • Jimbo: #7 “Anyone who wants this to go back to the new search is LARGELY in the minority”. Where did you...
  • Jade: I don’t get it. I always thought it was ME (the user/buyer) who controlled how my search results were...
  • dave: Its back to normal post Sept 25 now
  • ebuyerfb: (repost from another thread) I’ve pretty much completed the application that will keep your listed...
  • Whirly: What wonderful news to wake up to.
  • karl: I no longer use ebay, it’s full of overpriced rubbish that you can “buy it now” on any...
  • Jane: I am a buyer. I despise new search. I stopped buying several months ago because of new search. Opt out nonsense...
  • tj: LOL… good old eBay, never fail to make basic selling interesting. Bunch of clowns Hopefully some smart...
  • LordBevan: Seems like a false alarm, its back to best match again

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