eBay Auction Site News
This week in eBay news, the blog platform gets an update, starting with a redesign of the Hub page, which is the main eBay blog page. EBay bloggers can now include their eBay To Go widgets in their posts and embed videos from YouTube, as long as they comply with eBay's links policy. Blogs can also be personalized with new templates or your own HTML and style sheets. For those interested in using some of the new features, the blog discussion board offers some information on how to use your own style sheets and more.
In other eBay site news, the company recently updated to the Firearms, Weapons and Knives Policy. Back in April, eBay denied there was a connection between the tragedy at Virginia Tech and items purchased on eBay, however in this announcement, Matt Halprin, vice president, trust and safety for eBay.com said, "After learning that some items purchased on eBay may have been used in the tragedy at Virginia Tech in April 2007, we felt that revisiting our policies was not only necessary, but the right thing to do." New changes now prohibit any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun to be listed on eBay. This includes items such as bullet tips, shells, barrels, slides, magazines, trigger assemblies and so on. The new policy covers both the US and Canadian auction sites. You can read the Firearms policy here.
Eye On the Little Guy: Garage Sale for Facebook
Buy.com launched its Garage Sale platform for online sellers to list items for sale on social networking sites. Currently it is available on Facebook, however the service is expected to be rolled out to other social networks later this year. Facebook users can add the Garage Sale application to their profile and then upload product information and photos to sell online through their Facebook profile pages.
Being somewhat of a Facebook addict myself, I couldn't resist giving the application a try. Once you register with an e-mail address and password you can instantly start uploading information for items you want to list. Garage Sale offers a single listing page with only the basic detail requirements. You need to include an item title, description, tags, price, quantity, condition, shipping method and shipping cost and then upload a product image.
The Garage Sale application is still in beta, and as such you will encounter some issues to work around. For example, on the first try I specified a price range for shipping, which was not a valid entry. When I went in to fix that, all the form fields were cleared, leaving me to enter all the information a second time. When I went in to edit an existing listing, I noticed all the form fields retained the information except the tag field, so I had to re-enter the tags again.
However, once you figure out where the few inconsistencies are, you can easily avoid them moving forward. For management options, you have access to three areas. My Items shows what you have listed and you can edit existing listings here as well. My Sales details all items you have sold using Garage Sale. Lastly, My Money tracks your received payments and will allow you to withdraw the funds to your PayPal account or receive the money by check. These payment options will only be visible when you have a balance in your account.
Garage Sale's one-page listing process takes only seconds, if you have some details ready to copy and paste into the form, to just a couple of minutes if you have nothing prepared and write the details as you list. The ease-of-use holds the most appeal, and as such, it will be interesting to see if Buy.com stays out of the bloatware (define) category as they work toward a full Garage Sale release after the beta testing.
There are no listing fees for Garage Sale, but if you do sell an item, the company takes a percentage of the total sale for that item. No tiers, no levels — just a straight 5 percent cut of the deal.
Before Garage Sale appeared on Facebook, users already had access to an eBay application, as well as the Facebook Marketplace. Unfortunately, the eBay application is more of a social application than a selling application. It allows Facebook friends to see your eBay identity and view the number of items you have listed, what you bid on and what is in your watch list. The eBay application does allow users to click through to the actual eBay listing from the Facebook display, but only Facebook members who are in your friends list will see your eBay details.
Marketplace allows Facebook users to buy, sell, and place or read ads, but when it comes to sales you have to rely on the good old honesty system for paying and receiving the item. Marketplace works well for local sales and pick-up. Garage Sale allows a Facebook buyer to checkout right from your profile page using a credit card. Garage Sale then bills the buyer's credit card and notifies you when billing is complete and you can ship the item.
In its early testing phase, so far more than 900 Facebook members are using Garage Sale, with that number increasing at a fast clip. I don't expect to see any bulk uploads or Turbo Listers any time soon, but it certainly looks promising for those looking to try another online selling venue.
Research Says...
This week eBay Pulse data shows that the top keywords searched for on eBay.com are for the Wii, followed by the Xbox 360, Webkinz and Apple iPod. Here is a snapshot of several eBay categories from the U.S., Canadian and U.K. sites, along with the corresponding top three searches in each for Aug. 9:
- eBay.com > Collectibles: Star Wars, Precious Moments and Harley Davidson.
eBay.ca > Collectibles: Swarovski, hockey cards and Harley Davidson.
eBay.co.uk > Collectibles: Hornby, police and Royal Doulton.
- eBay.com > Travel: Airline tickets, cruise and Las Vegas.
eBay.ca > Travel:Airline tickets, Canada and Toronto.
eBay.co.uk > Tickets & Travel: tickets, package holidays and take that .
- eBay.com > Jewelry & Watches: Rolex, Chanel and Cartier.
eBay.ca > Jewelry & Watches: Vintage, Rolex and Chanel.
eBay.co.uk > Jewelry & Watches: Gold, Gucci and Rolex .
Only on eBay...
This week our favorite IT auction is a luxury roadster. Recently auctioned off on eBay was a pricey, celebrity-owned 2005 Lamborghini Murgielago E-Gear Roadster. The auction details do not specifically state which celebrity owned the vehicle, but MTV was one of the first to claim it indeed comes from Curtis Jackson's (a.k.a. 50 Cent) collection.
Some fans and sleuths have also linked this car to a YouTube video of 50 Cent being arrested for a traffic violation. So, while the auction keeps the celebrity owner a mystery, how many chromed-out customized 2005 Lamborghini Murgielagos in the world are going to look exactly the same?
With that in mind, bidding hit $310,000, so if you can come up with the 10 percent down in 24 hours, and full payment within 30 days, why not splurge a little on eBay this week? After all, it's a 12-cylinder automatic with just 1,414 miles — and most likely previously owned by 50 Cent.
Vangie Beal is a seasoned eBay seller and frequent contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com. She is also managing editor of Webopedia.com.
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