Ebay Adds New Listing Restrictions on Gun Parts

In response to the Virginia Tech tragedy of April 2007, Ebay has revised their policy to provide for greater restrictions on firearm related items. The objective is to prohibit listings of any firearm parts that are required for the firing of a gun.

Among the items affected are items like bullet tips, brass casings and shells, barrels, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, and trigger assemblies.

The complete Ebay policy on firearms, weapons, and knives is here.

Policy violations may result in

• Listing cancellation

• Limits on account privileges

• Account suspension

• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

• Loss of PowerSeller status

EBay Scammers Working Hard Against Sellers

Beware of aggressive attempts by Nigerian scam artists who work somewhat sophisticated ploys to separate people from their merchandise without paying.

If anything, the scammers have a good understanding of human nature. They play on greed to entice people into handing over their goods in exchange for a richer than expected payday. It's also the reason why 419 scams persist to this day: people still fall for them.

An example of how fraudsters misuse eBay played out on the McAfee Avert Labs blog. Research Seth Purdy put an item up for bids, and was delighted when his $250 asking price ended up with a winning bid of $395. Joy turned to frustration quickly as an eBay takedown notice hit Purdy's inbox.

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When is a neutral not a neutral?

“It’s only a neutral.” A phrase that crops up again and again on eBay message boards. “It could’ve been worse, at least it wasn’t a neg.” Because neutrals don’t affect feedback percentage, and disappear from the feedback scorecard after a year, most experienced sellers tend not to worry about them. More often than not in my experience, neutrals are about buyer’s misplaced expectations (”these 6mm beads are smaller than I expected”, “these black jeans are not the colour I wanted”), or circumstances totally outside a seller’s control, like delivery delays. Much as we’d all like to, you can’t please all the people all the time.

Well, it seems that the days of “it’s only a neutral” are over. eBay’s new seller non-performance policy counts a neutral the same as a negative:

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Economists puzzled by irrational eBay buyers

By Chris Gaylord, Christian Science Monitor

In the 12 years since eBay's launch, the online auction house has established itself as a one-stop shop for all things rare, kitschy, and collectible. But recently, a small group of economists have mined the site for a different prize: clues on how people spend their money.

Behind the millions of online auctions lies a virtual mini-economy flush with raw data. Harvesting this information has fed a new branch of economics, one that has proved again and again that shoppers act in unexpected ways.

Auctions can be hard to predict. Various items, be they ancient coins or next-generation electronics, can inspire odd behavior in buyers.

Late last year, crowds waited for days outside retail stores to buy the new Play­Station 3 video-game system. Many of those in line then sold the $600 machines on eBay for thousands of dollars.

But when Apple's iPhone drew similar crowds last month, resale prices on eBay were rather flat.

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EBay Must Protect Youth From `Harmful' Media, German Court Says

July 12 (Bloomberg) -- EBay Inc., the world's largest online auction company, must ban sales of ``harmful'' media, including pornographic or violent movies, to juveniles, if it knows such products are offered on its German Web site, a court ruled.

The Federal Court of Justice, Germany's highest civil court, ruled that EBay must act if it learns about a specific illegal offer. The case was remanded to an appeals court for a final ruling, the Karlsruhe-based Court of Justice said in an e-mailed statement today.

In Germany, books, films and games with pornographic or violent content may only be sold in stores that limit access to adults.

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EBay Launches U.S. Site for Classifieds

SAN FRANCISCO - EBay Inc. has launched a free classified advertising site in the United States, an experiment the online auction company says could lead to new sources of revenue.

Since February 2005, San Jose, Calif.-based eBay has been operating an international classified forum called Kijiji, which means "village" in Swahili. The site allows users in more than two dozen countries to buy and sell goods and services that are difficult or impossible to ship or sell on eBay, such as baby-sitting services in Montreal or a leather recliner in Beijing.

EBay's U.S. classified site, which launched last Friday, covers 220 cities in 50 states. Topics include "apartments for rent," "lost and found," "pet adoption" and "garage sales." It also includes personals sites such as "missing you," "just friends" and "activity partners."

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Mozilla and Ebay Launch Firefox eBay Edition

Mozilla and eBay have now officially launched the Firefox eBay Edition, an eBay focused version of the Firefox browser, along with an official eBay addon for existing Firefox users. This new edition now presently works for European eBay sites including the UK, France and Germany.

Functions include:

- An eBay sidebar that provides quick access and real-time updates on items users have bid on, are selling or watching
- Status alerts, including outbid notices
- Integrated eBay search
- Built in support for eBay’s Account Guard

Financial details have not been disclosed, however this partnership does seem to point to a greater commercialization of Mozilla.

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http://pages.ebay.co.uk/firefox/

Law exempts Texans from tax on eBay sales

AUSTIN — Texans who sell their used stuff on eBay no longer need to worry about being sales-tax scofflaws, thanks to a freshly minted tax exemption.

A law that took effect Sunday updates the exemption that already allowed people to have a couple of garage sales a year without collecting sales tax on the state's behalf.

The new exemption allows people to sell personal items in Texas by means including an online auction without having to worry about sales tax, as long as total sales receipts in a calendar year don't exceed $3,000.

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