eBay Introduces New Coin Grade Policies

On September 17, 2007 eBay officially introduced new policies restricting the listing of raw and certified coins. Under this new eBay policy, coins being listed by a seller that has not been certified and encapsulated by either Professional Coin Grading Service, ANACS, Independent Coin Grading, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation of America, or NGC affiliate Numismatic Conservation Services are considered “raw” coins and subject to a different set of listing criteria than may be used for coins graded and encapsulated by one of these sanctioned coin grading services.

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Canadian Sellers - The Taxman is Watching

Globe and Mail
PAUL WALDIE

Canadians who sell a lot of stuff on eBay best beware - the taxman is watching.

The Canada Revenue Agency has won a Federal Court order requiring eBay Canada Ltd. to turn over the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all high-volume sellers on the popular website. The CRA wants to find out whether those individuals or companies are reporting the income they made from online sales in 2004 and 2005.

"The CRA is seeking to verify compliance with the obligations and duties under the Income Tax Act of certain Canadian taxpayers selling goods in an online marketplace," said an affidavit filed in court by Aziz Fazal, a Toronto tax officer who heads an audit group within the CRA that is leading the probe.

"In particular, the CRA seeks to verify the reporting of income by certain Canadian taxpayers selling goods via the eBay marketplace."

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EBay's Bid to Win Back Buyers

by Catherine Holahan

The online auctioneer aims to regain seller—and investor—confidence with a site overhaul that's more than screen-deep

Time was, small-business owner Evan Prytherch considered eBay (EBAY) capable of performing e-commerce magic. Prytherch would list his entire music-accessory inventory on the auction Web site and within days it all seemed to disappear. Sold.

But in recent years, much of that magic is gone, Prytherch says. Shoppers are simply not buying all the inventory anymore. Some items languish without a single bidder. Many shoppers opt for other sites including Amazon.com (AMZN), use sophisticated search engines such as Google (GOOG) and Yahoo! (YHOO), or head to store sites directly.

complete article from BusinessWeek

When does eBay selling become taxable? (UK)

Selling any unwanted possessions on auction websites like eBay can be a good way to make a bit of money.

Yet if you become a little too successful or too regular a seller, HM Revenue & Customs may come knocking, looking for some tax.

Here, small business expert George Derbyshire explores when being an eBay enthusiast crosses over into a taxable business operation.

complete article BBC News

Ebay Announces an Easier Listing Process for New Sellers

In a Sept. 13 announcement, Ebay has announced that tey are rolling out a "simplified" version of the Sell Your Item form targeted to new sellers. When sellers enter the listing screen, they will be given the option of using the new simplified listing process which consists of Ebays more popular listing options, or use the current (considerably more complicated) form.

The new form will contain:

* A shortened, colorful listing flow with only the most common listing options available. This will dramatically cut down on the number of choices a seller has to make to get their item listed.
* Several of the fields pre-filled, but editable. For example, all listings will have a pre-filled $0.99 starting price, although the seller can of course change that if they wish.

This feature is expected to be available over the next few weeks.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200709.shtml#2007-09-13161748

Project San Dimas: eBay's Desktop Application

Project San Dimas is suppose to be eBay's new and potentially disruptive desktop application. In other words, San Dimas is a program that resides and runs from your own hard drive but uses eBay's extensive breadth of API's to bring you the functionality of the website along with new desktop-only features. The primary advantages, apart from the added features, are that the application can be designed from scratch (as opposed to having to work within the boundaries of a browser), that the application supports offline use (such as listing an item offline which then syncs automatically when online), and that it offers users a much higher degree of customization.

complete article from Seeking Alpha

Drug suspect allegedly got ingredients through eBay

By Tillie Fong, Rocky Mountain News
August 23, 2007

Carl Andrew Dubois, who was arrested last week for manufacturing Ecstasy at his south Boulder home, apparently didn't cover his tracks very well, according to a search warrant.

Dubois, 29, allegedly obtained all of the ingredients and supplies to make the club drug on eBay. And he paid for all the purchases through Pay-Pal, using a MasterCard credit card.

Morever, he used the address freebasing@hotmail.com for his eBay and PayPal accounts. As noted in the search warrant, "freebasing" is a method of producing salts for the manufacture of MDMA, commonly known as Ecstasy.

Last Tuesday, Dubois and his girlfriend, Debra Cerio, 41, were arrested for manufacturing illegal drugs. A search of the home at 720 S. 46th St. found enough chemicals to make 50,000 to 80,000 tabs of Ecstasy, with a street value of up to $3.2 million.

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Not exactly a selling tip...but got my attention nonetheless