Online Sellers: Beware of Fake Check Scams

Brian Krebs

If you sell enough stuff online at sites like Craigslist and eBay, eventually you will receive an offer for your wares that far exceeds your asking price. Such offers are often the first stage of a scam in which the fraudster sends a counterfeit check along with some elaborate explanation for offering such a high amount. The scam artist then asks the seller to wire back the difference after the check is deposited.

It should surprise no one that the checks always bounce, leaving anyone who falls for the scam liable to their bank for the entire amount. This is not a new scam, but I had never seen one of these fake checks in person until my colleague here at washingtonpost.com - Dan - recently received one of these fairly official-looking checks after advertising an $300 bike frame for sale on Craigslist.com. The outer envelope was hand addressed with a postmark from somewhere in Michigan.

source and complete article at: washingtonpost.com

EBay's PayPal rule in Australia draws fire

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- EBay Inc. is exploring whether to require customers to use its online payment service PayPal, a move that has angered users and prompted antitrust scrutiny in Australia, where a PayPal-only rule takes effect next month.

It's unclear whether eBay will institute a similar policy in the United States and other countries. However, the online auction company often tries big changes in smaller markets before expanding them worldwide, and says it is open to that in this case.

"We are going to take learnings from it and apply them accordingly," said eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman

source: Yahoo Finance

Limited Ebay U.S. Listing Promotion

Ebay is holding a listing sale for auction style listings on March 25, 2008. A number of restrictions apply.

Listed items must have a starting price between $0.01 and $0.99, shipping charges must be specified, and sellers must have Detailed Seller Rating of 4.5 or higher on all criteria or be a new seller with no DFSR rating.

Details may be found at: http://pages.ebay.com/promo/startlow08/

Ebay Announces New Partner Network; Dumps Commission Junction

Effective April 1st 2008 Ebay will no longer be running its afiliate program through the Commission Junction / Valueclick system. Ebay will be running the program in parallal with CJ from that date until May 1st, at which time they plan to completely run the program in house.

Affiliates will be able to register for the Ebay Partner Network on April 1. Ebay claims that access to the Editor Kit and affiliate API, the flexible destination tool, and the payout structure will remain the same under the new system.

Ebay Suffers Traffic Drop but Remains #1 Shopping Destination

A report posted by Internet Retailer indicates that although Ebay continued to suffer a decline in traffic in February, it remained as the top online shopping destination as reported by Nielsen Online.

According to Nielson Online unique traffic to eBay.com slipped 5% in February from February a year ago, to 56.6 million. But by unique visitors, eBay still outnumbered No. 2 Amazon by 19%. Amazon, where traffic grew by a healthy 17% in February, hosted 47.7 unique visitors in February.

Another eBay Boycott Planned for May Day (?)

The extended eBay boycott that concluded Sunday will not be the last hurrah for sellers angry about recent policy changes. Organizers are gearing up for a May Day strike of the online auction site.

"We have picked the date of May 1 [because] it gives us time to organize and spread the word, [and] it coincides with the month the new feedback changes go into effect," Mary Killion, a seller who has been organizing boycott efforts through eBay's forums, wrote in a recent post. "And personally, I always think of May as the month when things really begin to grow."

complete post at: PCMag.com

CNN - EBay boycott winds down, anger remains

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- A weeklong eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) boycott initiated by sellers upset with fee and policy changes that began rolling out last week ended Monday with uncertain results.

During the first three days of the boycott, Medved.net, a third-party Web site that tracks eBay's listings totals, reported a decline of about 17% in the number of listed items available for sale on eBay. The number of live items jumped a few times during the remaining days of the strike but currently sits at around 13 million, 10% lower than when the boycott began Feb. 18.

However, separating out boycott effects from standard, everyday fluctuation in eBay's listings totals is a tricky task (eBay doesn't publicly release listings numbers, forcing observers to rely on third-party statistics).

source: CNN Money

CNN - EBay seller boycott set to start Monday

Ebay sellers plan a weeklong strike to protest changes to the site's fee, search and feedback policies.

By Stacy Cowley

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Activists opposed to eBay's (EBAY, Fortune 500) upcoming fee and policy changes are readying for a weeklong site boycott starting on Monday, with buyers and sellers waiting to see if this strike will succeed where past protests have failed.

The boycott, planned to run Feb. 19 - 25, is scheduled to overlap eBay's Feb. 20 rollout of significant changes announced last month.

Sellers say eBay's new policies are likely to cost them more money, but what's really inspired an outpouring of wrath is an adjustment to eBay's feedback system: sellers will no longer be able to leave negative commentary about their buyers. Critics say that will leave sellers vulnerable to negligent bidders and scammers.

source article

You Tube Video Calling for World Ebay Strike

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23TomS5--nQ

Ebay U.S. Listing Fee Sale Feb. 13

Ebay is holding a one day listing fee sale on 2/13/08. For this one day period, the listing fee for auction and fixed price style listings is 20 cents.

Promotion does not apply to the following listing types: All eBay Motors listings including Parts & Accessories, Passenger Vehicles, Motorcycles, Power Sports, Other Vehicles, Motors Local Market, International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad Format and Store Inventory listings. The following business and industrial categories are excluded from the Insertion Fee Sale: tractors & farm machinery (91952), heavy equipment (25249), concession trailers, carts (67145), imaging and aesthetics equipment (92035), forklifts and other lifts (97185), manufacturing equipment (92080), metalworking equipment (92082) and commercial printing presses (26247).

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/feb20cent2008/

Ebay to Cut Media Listing Fees in Response to Pressure

Responding to pressure from a number of high volume sellers, Ebay is making further cuts in the insertion fees for books, music, movies and video games. According to Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Global Marketplace Operations, the cuts will be effective February 20th and will be comprised of the following:

$0.01 – 0.99 (auction-style only)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .20
New Media fee: $ .10

$1.00 - 9.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .40
New Media fee: $ .25

$10.00 – 24.99 (auction-style and fixed price)
Original Categories Insertion Fee: $ .60
New Media fee: $ .35

Selling on eBay? Keep an Eye on Gains

By Charles Delafuente

EBAY and other Web sites have transformed the neighborhood garage sale into a never-ending global auction, vastly expanding the number of potential buyers. The market for a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card is no longer limited to the kids on the block — nor is the price determined by what those kids are able to pay.

Higher prices and greater profits, in turn, mean increased income tax liability for sellers, at least in theory. In practice, though, the I.R.S. is interested in enforcing the rules for high-volume sellers, not for people who occasionally sell personal items of limited value.

Read entire story in New York Times

EBay's PayPal funds freeze plan draws fire

By Kathleen Ryan O'Connor

(FORTUNE Small Business) -- In the uproar that erupted over the planned fee hikes and other policy changes eBay announced last week, one drew particular ire and incredulity: eBay's plan hold payments sent through its PayPal payment service for up to 21 days in certain circumstances.

The freeze will apply to transactions eBay (EBAY, Fortune 500) considers high-risk, and is intended to protect buyers from the hazards of a bad transaction. By hanging on to funds, eBay can easily refund them if a seller doesn't ship a purchased item or sends damaged goods.

Complete article at MoneyCNN

Ebay to Ban Seller Feedback

Ebay has developed plans to change its benchmark feedback system by banning sellers from leaving negative feedback effective May of this year. It is Ebay's contention the the change is to "improve the overall customer experience". (huh?)

Ebay, from the early days to what is has now become has operated as a community, will both buyers and sellers given opportunity to rate their experiences. While certainly not a perfect system, it is one which has served the both the company and the site users well. To remove one half of the feedback system (buyers may still leave feedback) completely alters the system of checks and balances and skews the entire process in favor of the buyer.

Ebays New Fee Increase - Decrease

Ebay has unleashed their new fee changes to be effective 2/20/08. Though they are making a lot of noise about "lowering fees", it can be a tough call whether this is a good or bad thing. The better your sell rate, the now higher FVF can make this feel a lot more like a fee increase than decrease. The lower your sell through rate, the more it will seem like a fee decrease (but then if your sell rate sucks its hard to get excited about paying less to make less).

Powersellers get a shot at offsetting FVF increases that is not available to the common folk. As a part of the new fee structure, higher DSR (detailed seller ratings) can qualify powersellers for a 5 - 15% discount on final value fees.

If it seems the deck is stacked in favor of powersellers, it is likely because it is. I've nothing whatsoever against the high volume sellers.... just sorry to see Ebay continually alienating and disowning the hundreds of thousands of smaller sellers (collectibles, used goods, clothing, books, etc.) who have made them what they are. By all appearances, they seem to feel the future is in filling their marketplace with the hundreds of thousands of common goods available in any department or big box store. So why hassle with Ebay if one can get this stuff anywhere?

A link to Ebays fee changes is here

EBay Courts 'Power Sellers'

by Catherine Holahan

New management at eBay (EBAY) wants to send the message that it's listening to users' complaints. It did that Jan. 29 by announcing sweeping changes to what it charges people who sell items through the e-commerce giant. But if there's a subtext to the message, it's that eBay's listening to some users more than others.

The changes clearly favor larger merchants who sell higher value goods at set prices, as opposed to merchants who use an auction arrangement. The new fee structure reduces up-front fees up to 25% for listing items in an auction, but up to 50% on store items, which have fixed sale prices. Meanwhile, smaller merchants who sell goods priced at $100 or less will see fee increases. New fees on the final sale of an item decrease as the item price increases. EBay is also offering Power Sellers, the name eBay gives its highest rated, most prolific sellers, a discount of up to 15% on the final value fee.

source artcle - Business Week

Ebay to Cut Listing Fees

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — EBay Inc. said Tuesday it will cut by up to 50 percent the fees it charges sellers to list their goods online, in an effort to boost listings and keep pace with other burgeoning e-commerce sites.

To balance the fee cut, the company plans to increase its commission on items that do sell — a method eBay says sellers prefer because it lowers their risk if items do not sell.

EBay will also increase fees on some items, including auctioned goods selling for less than $25. EBay’s fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price.

source - quickfw.com

Ebay CEO Whitman Retiring?

According to an article in todays Wall Street Journal, Ebay.com's Chief Executive Office Meg Whitman is preparing to retire.

It is believed that Whitmans decision could come within weeks and that John Donahoe, the head of eBay's auction business unit is the leading contender to replace her. Donahoe joined Ebay in 2005.

Whitman, one of the most powerful businesswomen in the country, has been quoted in the past as saying she would stay no more than 10 years on the job. Ms Whitman joined Ebay as president and CEO in early 1998.

There has been no official confirmation from Ebay.com at this time regarding Whitman's plans.