eBay Business Opportunities Weblog
iTWire - Paymate issues open challenge to eBay over buyer and sell protection
Australian-based Internet payment services provider Paymate has issued an open challenge to eBay Australia to prove claims made to iTWire last week that eBay-owned PayPal offers better buyer and seller protection than Paymate are true. In addition, Paymate says that its payment system can be easily integrated with the eBay site contrary to the claims made by eBay.In what is being widely viewed as a precursor to a global rollout, eBay Australia plans to make PayPal the only payment option other than cash on delivery, eliminating choices such as direct credit card payments and bank deposits, as well as competing payment clearing systems such as Paymate. Opponents are calling on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to block the anti-competitive move by eBay, while eBay is seeking indemnity from the Trade Practices Act, claiming that a PayPal only eBay Australia is for the greater good of consumers.
Reserve Bank could scuttle eBay’s plans - BizTech - Technology - theage.com.au
eBay’s plan to force all of its users on to PayPal faces opposition from the Reserve Bank, which is considering weighing in to the issue.The Central Bank has long called for buyers and sellers to have as much choice as possible in what payment systems they use and strongly opposes any moves that reduce competition in the market.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is investigating whether eBay Australia’s new policy of forcing all items to be paid for using PayPal, which eBay owns, or cash on delivery/pick-up, breaches trade practice and competition laws.
State Auctioning Unclaimed Items On eBay - News Story - WISC Madison
A state auction is offering the chance to purchase its unclaimed property on eBay.Thirty-seven items went on the auction block at noon on Monday. The auction lasts 10 days, WISC-TV reported.
Under Wisconsin law, after five years of inactivity, financial institutions must hand over the contents of unclaimed safety deposit boxes.
The state then has three years to find the owner; after that, the item goes up for auction.
If, after that time, an item is proven to have belonged to someone, the state will pay the owner exactly what the item sold for.
High Bidders Get F-14 Parts on the Web
GAO study finds sensitive military items for sale on eBay and Craigslist.On any random day, more than 114 million items are listed for sale on eBay.
More than 6 million new items are listed every day through 39 trading platforms worldwide. Craigslist, while smaller in scope and localized to individual markets, is another site of brisk sales of almost any imaginable item.
Unfortunately, the two sites are also popular destinations for the sale of sensitive and stolen defense-related items never intended for resale, including F-14 airplane parts, nuclear-biological-chemical gear and body armor plates.
“It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to understand the troubling nature of some of these items being sold online,” Rep. John Tierney, chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, said at a hearing earlier this month. “For instance, Iran is the only country currently operating F-14s.”
EBay shares fall on UK auction listings drop | Markets | Hot Stocks | Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of eBay Inc (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research) fell as much as 4 percent after the company saw a sharp decline in new auction listings in Britain, its third-largest market, Deutsche Bank said in research note on Monday.Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel, who advises investors sell off eBay holdings, said weekly data for the third week of April provided by the company showed UK auction listings dropping 9 percent from a week before. By the same measure, the listing of UK merchandise was down 19 percent from a year ago.
Shares of eBay traded down 3.8 percent, or $1.20, to $30.51 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq. Including Monday’s decline, the stock is down around 1 percent so far in year-to-date trading.
eBay hits back at boycotters - Retail & Leisure - Breaking Business and Technology News at silicon.com
eBay has hit back at a proposed seller boycott over changes to the site that will mean sellers won’t be able to post negative feedback.From May, eBay is banning sellers from posting negative feedback in order to avoid unjustified comments posted on buyers’ profiles unfairly compromising their reputations.
You what&?
Bust through tech jargon with silicon.com’s Cheat Sheets.
The company suggested some sellers alter their feedback ratings by threatening to leave negative feedback in retaliation for less than complimentary comments from buyers.
An eBay statement said although the company doesn’t want to be dismissive about the “small number of sellers who are unhappy at the rate of change taking place on the site” the changes are designed to make sellers more successful.
eBay Snoring, Skype Roaring - GigaOM
Skype continued its strong growth trajectory, reporting $126 million in revenue for the quarter, representing 61% year-over-year growth. Skype added 33 million registered users in the quarter, ending the period with more than 309 million registered users around the world. Skype now has the largest registered user base within eBay Inc.’s portfolio of businesses.
24/7 Wall St.: EBay (EBAY): Spinning Off PayPal
EBay (EBAY) can post pretty good results, and the market does not care. Yesterday, the online auction company put up an earnings increase of 26% on a revenue pop of 24% to almost $2.2 billion. EBay was a bit cautious about what would happen the rest of the year, but, in a recession, the numbers were awfully good.Wall St. traders did nothing. EBay shares barely moved. The company trades at $32, down from a 52-week high of $40.73. Something is wrong.
The EBay’s core auction business is not growing as fast as the company as a whole. Its revenue was up only 14% year-over-previous-year. The PayPal operations grew at 34%.
The fact of the matter is that, with a market cap of $42 billion, the value of PayPal is trapped inside the company. Its revenue run-rate is almost $2 billion a year and it grows at a rate nearly double that of the auction business.
EBay profit gains 22% on higher fees
EBay Inc., the world’s largest Internet auctioneer, posted first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates on increased selling fees and higher revenue from its PayPal payment service.Net income climbed 22 per cent to $459.7 million, or 34 cents a share, from $377.2 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier, EBay said Wednesday in a statement. Earnings excluding some costs exceeded estimates by three cents. The online retailer said sales and profit for the full year will be higher than it predicted in January.
CallGraph.in - Free Skype Recorder | Visit CallGraph.in
Call Graph is handy piece of freeware for all you Skype junkies out there. It’ll let you record your conversations in MP3. So should you want to listen to a particularly funny conversation you had with Aunt Sally in Bolivia on your iPod, it’s possible. It’s also a nice bit of backup to record calls just case. It’s a whole lot easier to record calls with Call Graph on Skype than on a regular old landline. With Call Graph, you can set it up to automatically record all calls, or just do it manually on calls you choose. It supports all of Skype including Skype to SkypeIn, and SkypeOut calls. You can even tag calls for your records. Of course, you can use them to search calls as well. If you’re feeling lazy, they make it easy– default tag is the name of the contact. Automatic updates are supported and as it’s currently in beta, suggestions are welcome.
