Baby for sale - “It was only a joke”
May 24, 2008
“It was only a joke” is the excuse of a 23 year old German woman, when her 8 month old baby was taken into care after she offered him for sale on eBay.
With a starting price of just €1.00, the listing read “Baby — collection only. Offer my nearly new baby for sale because it cries too much. Male, 70 cm long.”
Saying it was a joke and that she “just wanted to see if someone would make an offer” didn’t stop several people alerting the authorities, and the auction was pulled about 2½ hours after it was posted. The woman is now to undergo psychiatric tests.
Graduate to an eBay business
February 23, 2008
Nic Paton, a writer for the Guardian, asked TameBay readers to help research today’s feature “Bay of plenty”. The article tells the story of students turned Internet entrepeneurs. Gone are the poorly paid part time jobs working in clubs and bars to top up student income, some students can earn far more by selling goods on eBay.
But it doesn’t end at graduation, some traders who used the site to top up their student loans have gone on to carve out successful careers and carried on trading on eBay. These aren’t part time jobs but full blown businesses in many cases earning the ex-graduate many times more than they could expect if they followed their fellow students into mainstream employment.
It’s great to see some TameBay readers stories in the mainstream media. If you’re also a student and making an income on eBay tell us you’re successes in the comments below.
The level playing field and discounts
February 7, 2008
The New York Times sports the title “The End of eBay’s Egalitarianism“, saying that the discounts for volume sellers now disadvantage the smaller seller compared to “I.B.M. unloading a warehouse full of computers”.
The article points out that PowerSellers in the US qualify for discounts of 5% (For lowest DSR higher than 4.6) or 15% (For lowest DSR higher than 4.8). In the UK discounts range from 20% for a bronze PowerSeller to 40% for a Titanium PowerSeller.
This really isn’t the end of the level playing field though, it’s not like the discounts aren’t not only available to all, but are highly achievable. To be a bronze PowerSeller the requirement is to sell just 100 items a month or £750 per month in sales ($1000 in the US).
The entry level to attain discounts doesn’t result in just the largest companies such as IBM being able to qualify. £750 per month sales isn’t out of reach for small sellers, in fact I suspect that there are thousands more sellers at the bronze PowerSeller level than at the silver, gold, platinum and titanium levels combined.
If bronze PowerSellers qualify for discounts the bar for entry certainly isn’t too high to say discounts are available for everyone. If everyone qualifies on equal terms to an open published set of rules then the level playing field is still level, It’ll remain level unless eBay give preferential treatment to a certain group of sellers and bar entry to others.
The biggest bonus coming from the changes is that all sellers, large and small, will up their game on customer service. The discounts are just too attractive not to plan to qualify which will result in better service for buyers.
Better service, happier buyers and smaller sellers qualifying for discounts on an equal footing with the largest merchants. Not only is the playing field still level, but those who give the best service to buyers will benefit the most. 2008 is going to be a great year on eBay.
eBay fined for polluting the environment
January 8, 2008
eBay have been hit with a $79,200 fine for polluting the atmosphere. Emergency generators were apparently left running at data center although there was no emergency or maintenance work was being carried out.
It seems a rather harsh penalty but Larry Greene from the Sacramento Air Quality District said “Bad air is bad for business and discharging harmful pollutants over several days carries a big fine when compromising the air quality and the health of our residents”
The penalty was reached through a voluntary program designed to resolve violations without the time and expense of litigation. Settlement funds will be used to help support the District’s mission of improving air quality in the Sacramento region.
Exploding eBay parcel injures postmistress
December 20, 2007
A parcel containing a car airbag exploded at a Devon post office yesterday. The sub-postmistress at Clyst St Mary was taken to hospital with minor cuts and shock, but is believed not to be seriously injured.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal officers dealt with the package, which Mike Howe, a director of the joint village shop and post office, later said was an eBay purchase which exploded while it was being moved. Police confirmed that the incident was not suspicious.
(And yes, I’m aware the eBay connection on this story is pretty tenuous!)
Stoke postal workers strike til New Year
December 18, 2007
Workers at the Burslem postal depot have voted to go on strike until January 2nd. The depot handles post for 32,000 homes and businesses in the ST6 area, but Royal Mail have said that 200 bosses have been drafted in to handle deliveries.
The strike is the latest action in a long-running dispute between workers at the depot and management, over the suspension of nine colleagues. The Communication Workers’ Union have said that the complaints against the delivery workers were “spurious”, and have condemned RM’s refusal to take their cases to an independent national appeals’ panel.
In seperate action, postal workers in Alderley Edge are to strike on Christmas Eve, in protest at the closure of the village’s delivery office and forced relocation to Wilmslow. 2,000 residents have signed a petition condemning the plan, and union leaders have criticised Royal Mail for putting “the pursuit of hard cash before all else”.
QXL bought for £750m - but not by eBay
December 16, 2007
QXL is being bought by a South African media corporation for more than £750m, reports the Sunday Times. Rumours had been circulating that eBay were to buy the online auction group, which derives most of its revenues from eastern Europe, especially Poland.
The purchasers, Naspers, own pay TV channels and newspapers mainly in South Africa, but seem to be keen to diversify abroad: just last week they bought Polish instant messaging service Gadu Gadu.
QXL was founded in 1997 by Financial Times journalist Tim Jackson. At the height of the dotcom boom, it was - albeit briefly - valued at £2bn.
Auctioning4u, iSold It?
December 5, 2007
What’s happening at the UK’s most prominent trading assistant and drop off shop, Auctioning4u? It’s barely eight months since they acquired the UK arm of the failed iSold It franchises but now it appears they’ve sold themselves.
The auctioning4u eBay ID has changed it’s name today to clocktronix and items listed today no longer have the Auctioning4u listing template.
The Auctioning4u website now states that Auctioning4u is “a brand owned by Bob Rock Ltd“, who also happen to own another trading assistant - Serial Sellers.
If Auctioning4u have sold out this must indicate all is not well in the Trading Assistant world. Auctioning4u in the past insisted, whilst eBay drop off shops were a difficult model to operate profitably, their success came from a centralised processing facility. In July this year Auctioning4u called it quits on their drop off stores, including closing the last remaining iSold it franchise just two months after taking over the brand.
It’s unclear if all, or just part, of the Auctioning4u business has been transferred to Bob Rock Ltd / Clocktronix, another of the Auctioning4u eBay user IDs TheToyAuctioneer hasn’t changed it’s branding or listing templates.
Auctioning4u rasied £4 million from venture capitalists, acquired Auctionicity, Auction Partner, Trading Nation, Sell It Shack and Recycle UR Stuff. iSold it appears to have been their last acquisition before they sold it.
To date there is no press announcement regarding the business transfer to Bob Rock Ltd on the Auctioning4u website.
eBay Ireland chief slams poor broadband availability
December 5, 2007
The managing director of eBay Ireland has warned that the country’s poor internet service is harming its ability to attract foreign companies to locate there. John McElligott said “I am embarrassed to tell my peers in other countries about Ireland’s connectivity problems.”
In correspondance delivered to Irish politicians over the last week, McElligott said that Ireland needs “a major leap in connectivity capabilities in terms of coverage, quality and speed” if it is to become the location of choice for companies expanding into Europe. At the moment, he said, “the UK is the destination of choice. I fear we will regret this.”
The statement will come as an embarrassment to Irish politicians, particularly Michael Martin, the minister for enterprise, trade and employment. Martin said last October that broadband availability was expanding, and that connectivity issues were not inhibiting Ireland’s attractiveness for foreign investors. The government is planning to spend €435m on communications’ improvements over the next five years, but McElligott has called for bigger and better improvements. He said, “I am comprehensively disappointed by what has been achieved to date, and highly concerned about the future.”
Child benefit records appear on eBay
November 21, 2007
One database, 2 CDs, 25 million children’s names and addresses, 10 million adult’s bank account details and national insurance numbers. That’s what the latest spoof auctions on eBay have to offer, following the government fiasco where they mislaid CDs containing the entire countries Child Benefit Records.
The occasional parcel lost in transit is nothing new for eBay buyers and sellers, which is why many insist on trackable signed for delivery services. If the government were subject to PayPal chargebacks they too might be prompted take a bit more care of confidential information.
Back to the eBay spoof auctions, they’re promising the two CDs containing the database. It appears some of the auctions have been ended early but I wouldn’t recommend bidding on those remaining, especially for the one that cheekily states “We can’t guarantee it will reach you in the post, they have a habit of going missing you see.”
“Uneconomical” to sue fakes’ sellers, says Tiffany CEO
November 20, 2007
Tiffany’s Chief Executive has given evidence in his company’s long-running lawsuit against eBay for the sale of counterfeit merchandise. Michael Kowalski said that the company has brought more than 600 actions costing US$14million over the past five years to protect its trademarks, and that they have sued four eBay vendors, but that to pursue every individual seller of counterfeit product was “simply uneconomical”.
At the heart of the case is the question of whose responsibility it is to police pirated designer goods being offered for sale on eBay. Bruce Rich, eBay’s lawyer, said that $14m was not very much for a company of Tiffany’s size to spend, and that they were “trying to shift the burden entirely to eBay”. Tiffany’s lawyer James Swire said “eBay overstates Tiffany’s obligation to police its marks. Tiffany is not shirking its responsibility.”
Bomb scare at eBay HQ
November 15, 2007
More than 200 employees were evacuated from eBay’s California offices on Wednesday morning after a bomb scare. A suspicious package was discovered in the mail room of the San Jose HQ at around 8.55am; eBay themselves initially evacuated one floor of the building, but police later asked the rest of the three-story building’s workers to vacate the premises. The package was later found to be harmless.
“25 million items” still stuck in the mail
October 29, 2007
With the postal strike over for two weeks now, you’d be forgiven for thinking things were getting back to normal. But the Telegraph has some bad news for you: a secret warehouse in north London is storing thousands of items of undelivered mail.
Royal Mail bosses have estimated that up to 25 million items are still stuck throughout the system. What’s most worrying is that, according to one small business owner interviewed by the Telegraph, the parcels he has stuck in the football-pitch sized storage facility were not posted until 12th October, when RM staff were supposed to have returned to work. It seems even deliberately holding post back until the strike was over doesn’t proof your mail against the delays.
An RM spokesperson blamed wildcat strikes in east London for the backlog stored in the Barnet warehouse, but said that it had been “largely cleared”. Those small businesses still dealing with frustrated customers who think things are back to normal might beg to differ.
eBay “very optimistic” about SE Asian growth
October 29, 2007
Sam McDonagh, director of eBay Southeast Asia tells ZDNet Asia that eBay are “very optimistic about the growth of the market … in the whole region”. eBay complement their three operational SE Asian sites - Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines - with “promotional sites” which don’t have direct trading but can act as a local window into the global world of eBay. Vietnam and Indonesia are restricted by local online payment rules. The current “promotional” eBay Thailand site is due to be closed down in December when it will be replaced with a partnership with Thai portal Sanook.
Royal Mail and union reach agreement
October 13, 2007
There’s hope that the postal strike may be coming to an end, as Royal Mail and the CWU have reached an agreement. There are no details as yet - the CWU’s website says a joint statement will be issued on Monday - but the agreement was ratified by union leaders Billy Hayes and Dave Ward, RM chairman Adam Crozier and TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber. The terms will be considered by the union executive on Monday, and if approved by them, put to the membership for a vote to accept or reject.
But BBC business editor Robert Preston comments on his blog that the executive’s assent to the agreement “cannot be taken for granted”.
Unofficial “wildcat” strikes have also affected services in many areas of the country, including London, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Liverpool: some of these walkouts have been in protest at having pay deducted for earlier strike action.
Earlier on Friday, RM had been granted an injunction to halt strikes scheduled for Monday and Tuesday next week, as the CWU had not provided accurate figures of the number of workers affected. Further action planned for later in the week was still to go ahead.
Further news as we get it: you can have just Royal Mail news delivered directly to your feedreader by subscribing to our RM category feed.
eBay writes $900m off Skype
October 2, 2007
eBay have admitted they paid too much for Skype, writing down the value of their investment by $900million. They will also make payments of $530million to former Skype shareholders, far short of the $1.7billion which could have been paid out if Skype had hit performance targets. The loss totalling $1.43billion will be included in eBay’s third quarter figures. Last quarter, Skype contributed just 5% of eBay’s revenues, $90million.
Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis will quit as executives, with Zennstrom becoming non-executive chairman. After selling Skype to eBay, the two set up online video company Joost, which made its software freely available on Monday.
The news was obviously a relief to the markets, as eBay’s share price hit an 18 month high. But how will this affect eBay’s users? When eBay bought Skype back in 2005, the promise was that VoIP telephony would revolutionise communication between buyers and sellers. That hasn’t happened: it’s only in the last few months that “Skype me” buttons have been permitted on eBay listings and that eBay notifications for bidders could be received on Skype. It’s almost as if eBay’s senior managament don’t trust eBayers to talk to each other in case they cut eBay themselves out of the deals. They really need to embrace the technology they spent so much on, or the rest of their $2.6billion investment will be wasted too.
Cheap doesn’t indicate stolen, says German court
September 29, 2007
A German court yesterday overturned the conviction of a man found guilty of purchasing stolen goods on eBay. The 47-year old software engineer had previously been fined €1,200 for his 2005 purchase of a car navigation system which was subsequently found to have been stolen. The device was advertised as “brand new”, but was sold for less than a third of its normal retail price. The lower court had ruled that this should have indicated to the buyer that all was not as it should be, but the state court has now overruled his conviction as he could not have known the item was stolen.
Sky News Technofile features my auction
September 24, 2007
Sky run a feature called Technofile presented by Martin Stanford from Sky news. The latest installment was of great interest because not only did it talk about online selling but I was featured too!
Topics covered included about broadcasting yourself online big brother style, collaboration online, and advertising online, which is where eBay auctions come in. How to get your message across online more effectively? Well the answer is with video and along with vzaar they used one of my auctions as an example.
Technofile finished up with privacy online, if you’re using search engines or using a wireless hotspot you may not be as anonymous as you think you are. It’s like someone looking over your shoulder online, but if someone really is shoulder surfing consider a 3M privacy filter as recommended by Sky News!
eBay University hits the headlines
September 23, 2007
Scotland is buzzing today with news of the Scottish eBay University, held yesterday in Glasgow. At the university I was constantly hearing a journalist wanted to interview an attendee, or another journalist wanted to speak to an eBay employee! Fred and Poppy from eBay’s PR company, Shine Communications, were running around the entire day fielding calls and arranging interviews.
The Scottish sellers were keen to make the most from the day whether it be from learning about how to use eBay tools, selling tips, or just getting that one question answered that would make trading on ebay a little easier. The exhibition hall offered everything from auction management tools (ChannelAdvisor), to video (vzaar), shipping solutions (Just Applications and PostalSupplies), accounting solutions (Sage) and of course eBay themselves with Monisha (eBay community manager).
Afterwards there was time for a couple of drinks in the bar before I had to run for a taxi to the airport for the plane home. I left a group of attendees still discussing the day and how they were going to put their newly acquired knowledge to work in their businesses.
If you haven’t attended eBay University yet the final 2007 event will be on the 10th November in Manchester. Sue and I will both be attending to make sure you come and say hello!
NHS records “sold on eBay”
September 19, 2007
A computer hard disk sold on eBay was found to contain confidential medical records, despite supposedly having been wiped. The information was discovered as part of a research project sponsored by BT, which buys up hundreds of second hand hard drives from various sources, and passes them to a team at the University of Glamorgan, who try to retrieve the data on them. The project is designed to highlight the problem of insecure data falling into the wrong hands. Government rules say that hard drives should be overwritten at least three times to prevent data falling into the wrong hands.
The Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust contract the disposal of their old IT equipment to Siemens Medical Solutions, who in turn subcontract to Computer Disposals. But the Trust says that there is no record of this machine going through Siemens’ systems, and that they are trying to trace the route that the hard drive took after leaving them: theft is one possibility they are looking into.
As well as medical records relating to cancer patients, the hard drive also contained financial information, company records, North Sea drilling information from a Texan oil company, and paedophile material which has been handed to police.
ChannelAdvisor vs Marketworks war is over
September 12, 2007
ChannelAdvisor today announced that they have acquired Marketworks, their biggest competitor. James Scott from ChannelAdvisor said “Over the years, our two companies have competed on many levels, and ChannelAdvisor has always respected the Marketworks team and products; we’re excited to welcome them into the ChannelAdvisor family.”
In recent years Marketworks product offering has resulted in them losing customers to ChannelAdvisor. Reasons given have been the inability to list on multiple eBay sites with multiple eBay user IDs. Marketworks customers should find an easy migration path to ChannelAdvisor products in the future. Even for those loyal to Marketworks, long term the acquisition could be a blessing in disguise, as more sophisticated solutions open up new selling opportunities.
Jon Langley from jons-all-sorts, a long-time Marketworks customer, told us he would hope that the Marketworks option will remain. He said “I would like to think that they would still keep both platforms and pick and choose certain functions to port from one platform to the other.” Taking the best of both solutions would certainly make sense.
The biggest downside of both companies is the buying experience on eBay. Both companies have a customised eBay checkout enabling them to cross sell additional products from their own website. Buyers in general are not comfortable with a non-standard eBay checkout and some buyers avoid sellers using either solution simply for that one reason. If ChannelAdvisor want to attract more eBay sellers they need to implement a option without a custom checkout which still updates the sellers inventory.
You and Yours and yours truly
September 6, 2007
Today I went to the BBC to answer questions on “You and Yours“. I went because I disagree with the court case which the program discussed. At times I’ve had plenty of niggles with eBay and I’ve often voiced my concerns quite vociferiously. This isn’t one of them.
The court case concerns whether a listing appears on the site the instant you click the submit button. The real answer is that it hardly ever does! It doesn’t matter how much computing power you have, it takes time to index ten million listings and to make sure every word, in every title, appears in default search results. It’s even worse when you consider how many words there are in a typical eBay listing, that have to be catalogued for “Title and Description” searches.
Now eBay do a pretty good job but even at the best of times it may be a couple of hours before your listing is correctly indexed. If you’re worried that your listing isn’t on the site you can search to make certain that it is. eBay have a facility to tell you exactly where you auction is, just enter the item number and select “Find location of item”.
Back to the court case, eBay are being sued because of the delay between submitting an auction and it appearing on the site. No one has been able to indicate just how this harms a seller, John Fabry, the Houston lawyer leading the prosecution when asked what actual harm is occuring avoided the question and instead talked about California’s strict auction laws. When asked what damages he hoped to win he simply said for eBay to either deliver the exact time period offered or to clearly explain there may be a delay before the auction appears on the site.
It seems trivial to me, there may be a delay until my auction appears in search results on the site but does it really matter? Suppose Fabry wins his case and eBay run all auctions to the second, I list at 8pm Sunday evening for seven days, there’s a delay of six hours so eBay tack six hours on the end to give me my full seven days - Do I really want my auction finishing at 2am Monday morning when all the bidders are asleep in bed? I think not!
Due to delays sellers will claim Fixed Price listings may have missed out on sales, which is a very valid point. Fixed price listings are a seperate matter and aren’t addressed by the current court case. The few hours delay at the start of an auction don’t in my opinion have any major impact as most bids come in the closing minutes. It’s at the end of an auction that visibility is critical.
There could be a case for eBay to make partial refunds or extend auctions where the delay is more than a couple of hours. Partial refunds (especially for auctions with low starting prices hence low insertion fees) would be negligable. Listing enhancements are not charged according to the length of an auction so no refund would be due. Extending an auction by a day may be a suitable option, but that in itself would cause problems - if Thursday evening is your best night for sales would you want your auction finishing on a Friday instead?
The best option for sellers is to list items knowing exactly when their auctions will end. Time them to maximise on buyers placing bids. Accept that there may be a delay and choose your start times accordingly, but don’t call for eBay to tamper with an auction finish time.
One of ours on You & Yours
September 6, 2007
Make sure you listen to Radio 4’s You & Yours today, which will be featuring a certain Chris Dawson not unknown around here. It’s on today at 12.04pm: you can listen live via the Radio 4 website, or “listen again” if you miss it the first time round.
Listen Again will be available after 3pm.
Police list Diana memorial service programmes on eBay
September 5, 2007
Two policemen have been criticised for offering the programme from Princess Diana’s memorial service for sale on eBay. The twelve page orders of service were listed within hours of the service, marking the tenth anniversary her death on 31st August. One of the officers has received “words of advice” about his conduct, and the other, who is currently on leave, “will be spoken to in due course”. A Metropolitan Police statement said that officers would be given more explicit guidance “about what is expected of them when policing public events.” The most important point, I would have thought, being that if you’re going to sell something that might be a bit sensitive, get someone else to list it for you.
More powerful than the Queen
September 4, 2007
…but less powerful than Oprah, eBay Chairman and CEO Meg Whitman is placed at number 22 on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most powerful women. Headed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the second year running, the list throws up some interesting questions. Is Oprah really powerful, or just inflential? Does the Queen (#23) have more power than Hillary Clinton (#25) - and will their relative positions have changed in next year’s list?
Thanks to Dan for the link.
Recent Comments
- John: However, they are making it mandatory to have 4.3 DSR in all category? There is no point to sell...
- Whirly: #13 “FFS hurry up I have my fingernails chewed down to the elbow” Norf they have to run spell...
- John: The paint is dry. Send more paint.
- northumbrian: FFS hurry up I have my fingernails chewed down to the elbow
- Josordoni: #5 not always - the discount structure for PS is very different as an example. So the fee structure for...
- Board_Surfer: Well I doubt the changes will make much difference to me, I am a fan of auctions and rarely use...
- northumbrian: Someone had blunder’d: Their’s not to make reply, Their’s not to reason why,...
- Sean Mewse: It looks like the announcement for .com have been made http://www.auctionby tes.com/cab/abn/y...
- Richard (from eBay): One small clarification for #3/ #7: we won’t be banning cheques and POs in the UK for the...
- Board_Surfer: I heard you were old and past it Ed :-p
