eBay News & Announcements
As we mentioned back in early November, eBay announced a new initiative called "The Safeguarding Member IDs Project." It was initiated on eBay motors and was planned for widespread adoption on eBay.com this month but appeared on eBay.com over the recent three-day holiday weekend.
The changes mainly revolve around masking a bidder's user ID so those not directly involved in the selling or winning of an item over $200 cannot see the eBay user names involved in the bidding process. Some of the changes include removing member IDs in the bid history and removing access to the high-bidder column from bid and watch tables in My eBay.
eBay recently has recently been criticized for not policing spoof second-chance offers in which scammers contact the bidders who lost a high-value item, pretending to be the original seller, and offer it at their last (losing) bid. Some bidders, not realizing the messages were bogus, got scammed out of their money. eBay says that by safeguarding member identity on the high-value items, it will reduce the instances of fraudulent second-chance offers, thereby limiting the number of people scammed on the auction Web site.
eBay, also recently under attack from sellers irate with fee hikes, is now facing buyers demanding to know why the auction giant has removed such a valuable tool from the process. For buyers there is insecurity about bidding on high-value items when unable to see competition is, and, by masking usernames, it is all but impossible to tell if you are up against legitimate contenders.
eBay member Mike Peters, who uses the seller name "Seth523," has been an eBay member since 1998 and has been a collector of military memorabilia for many years. He frequently uses eBay to expand his personal collection and says he feels at a disadvantage not knowing who he is bidding against, and if there are shill bids being placed. Being able to check a competitive bidder's history was, according to Peters, a valuable tool on which to base your bidding strategy. Peters told E-CommerceGuide that on the U.S. eBay discussion forum there are many long-time sellers posting examples of auctions showing that this type of anonymous bidding just isn't working. He feels insulted by the loss of community and the lack of contact that bidders with common interests are able to make through the auction Web site now.
"There used to be bidding wars, and now you have no sense of there being another person involved. Before you could see a name and knowing another person was outbidding you would get the bids increased," said Peters. "In live auction you can see the person, see what he looks at, and evaluate interest and authenticity of an item just by knowing who was bidding on it. Being able to see a bidder's ID and history on eBay allowed you to do the same in an online auction setting."
Through the eBay U.S. discussion forums, eBay members have questioned why eBay did not choose to simply remove the Second Chance option instead, removing any potential for people to be scammed by fake offers. eBay member "lad6823" also suggested eBay consider removing the ability to contact eBay members in a buying role through e-mail and on-site messaging unless you are directly involved in a buyer-to-seller or seller-to-buyer live transaction.
For those interested in reading more comments from eBay users on the topic of masking bidder's IDs, you can peruse the US eBay discussion forum thread. While it has already been noted that some posts have been removed from within this thread, Mike Peters has also started a discussion on the Google's eBay Inc. Finance beta page.
More eBay Security Initiatives Announced
In other security news, eBay will require all sellers registered after Jan. 17, 2007 to offer at least one safe payment method, meaning of course, PayPal unless you are a merchant with your own merchant credit card processing account and can accept credit card payments. Sellers listing in some categories such as Motor Vehicles and Mature Audiences will be exempted. Herein we have another hot topic all on its own as eBay has been quoted as saying they would not force sellers to use PayPal, a company owned by eBay. Still, as many sellers are individuals and not retailers with their own merchant accounts, many new sellers will have no option but to use PayPal if they want to sell on eBay.
eBay also decided to work on anti-counterfeit measures to curb the listings of illegal and counterfeit goods. Options for one- to three-day day auctions have been removed cross-border trade restrictions are now in place and there is a delay between the time listings are added and when they show in eBay's search. There is also discussion of limiting the number of listings per seller.
Lastly, eBay has announced changes to its feedback system. Called "Feedback 2.0", changes will allow buyers to leave "Detailed Seller Ratings" on four aspects of a transaction, including item description, communication, shipping time and shipping & handling charges. Buyers will still choose an overall positive, neutral or negative Feedback rating.
Another change will make the item title and price for each feedback visible on the Feedback Profile page for 90 days, allowing buyers to easily determine the item type and associated with a particular Feedback. Later this year, eBay says it will archive all but the last 24 months of feedback history. This will not affect a member's total scores, but a member's percentage of positive feedback will be based only on their last two years of activity.
eBay & E-commerce Tools Round-up
London-based Web design agency, Pod1 launched a "single-page checkout" that they say will help merchants with the estimated 40 to 60 percent of abandoned shopping carts. In other cart news, MagneticOne released the commercial version of Zen Cart Google Base Data Feed, designed to help you easily add your products to the Google Base engine. Some of the key features include multiple languages and currency support, options to set payment types, the ability to include (or exclude) products marked "out of stock" or "zero quantity" and more. Zen Cart Google Base Data Feed is available online for $39.00.
Softpedia is hosting the download for eBay Auction Typo Finder 1.0. Designed for consumers, resellers and anyone looking for a bargain, the eBay Auction Typo Finder allows you to search for auctions ending soon, and even those listed at under $1. Auctions with typos in the title may not show up in correctly spelled eBay searches, and as a result, the items may sell at a cheaper price. You can view the details and download it here.
Google just updated its AdSense Online Program Policies. The new version of the AdSense Online Program Policies can be read here.
Only on eBay...
We know Nike sells, but amazingly enough, so does a french fry in the shape of a Nike logo. Our favorite IT on eBay this week comes from seller "timhawaii" who claims this Nike SWOOSH was found in an order of fries from McDonald's. With less than a day left, the current winning bid amount is a whopping $3,000,100, though we can't quite believe this is legit. Unfortunately, with the new eBay security initiatives, we can't actually tell who the winning bidder is.
A couple weeks ago we mentioned the couple in Colorado auctioning off "overstock" snow from a recent blizzard. While trying to figure out how to get three snowballs to a wining bidder in Connecticut, Frontier Airlines offered to fly the couple for free to New York City — an hour away from where the auction winner lived. According to several news reports, this purchase by the winning bidder represented the one thing his children wanted for Christmas, but didn't get (snow). Just like the now infamous "paper clip trader," it never ceases to amaze us how some things, ahem, snowball on eBay, and the Internet in general.
Vangie Beal is a frequent contributor to EcommerceGuide.com. She is also the managing editor of Webopedia.
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