eBay News & Announcements
eBay this month is launching its Feedback 2.0 pilot on nine of its global Web sites, according to the eBay Developer's blog. The sites that will be used for initial testing include the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium French, Belgium Dutch, France, Ireland, India, Italy and Poland.

The current feedback system hasn't undergone any significant changes in 11 years and Feedback 2.0 was initiated because eBay believes buyers are looking for more specific information about sellers before making a purchase. The current eBay feedback system doesn't offer buyers any information to differentiate between "really good sellers" and those who just aren't performing as well as a seller.

In other eBay site news, eBay and Half.com will begin offering support for the book publishing industry's new 13-digit ISBN. The 10-digit ISBN will still continue to be supported, but sellers will need to adjust their formatting to accommodate an additional data column.

Finally, this week Mike Rou, senior manager, Global Law Enforcement Operations for eBay, posted some interesting statistics regarding the company's role in "catching criminal activity" on eBay. The Global Law Enforcement Operations team works with law enforcement agencies around the world to assist in the apprehension of fraudsters who use eBay or PayPal to commit their crimes.

Third-Party eBay Services & E-Commerce Tools Round-Up Mezine just released StoreBuilderPlus, a Web shop builder that combines multiple tools needed to create a storefront — including the products. The package includes hosting, a domain name, a customizable storefront, shopping cart and a Web site editor. It also includes drop shipping services, provided through a partnership with Doba, along with a catalog of more than 250,000 wholesale products that can be sold through the Web site. A StoreBuilderPlus account costs $49.99 a month; a free trial is available.

FillZ Inc., announced new features for its software for media sellers who list items in fixed-price venues. Clients now get weight estimations based on valid ISBNs, ASINs, or UPCs to help streamline order fulfillment and also receive competitive pricing data for Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and AbeBooks. These features are free for those currently using FillZ.

Cyphermint Inc., a global electronic payment provider, unveiled PayCash Mobile Wallet, a service you can use from any Web-enabled mobile device. PayCash Mobile allows you to securely send money in real-time and get immediate notification when the recipient has successfully received the funds. Users can then use the PayCash NOW Card to withdraw the funds at any of the participating ATMs in the network worldwide.

Only on eBay...
For those who just can't wait for the summer release of Apple's iPhone, you're definitely going to want to see our favorite IT this week. A rather crafty seller in Texas managed to get an iPhone, albeit a cardboard version, and is selling it on eBay this week. According to the auction details, this decidedly low-tech version of the iPhone is made of paper, though it has a fully charged battery in it, and comes packaged in a brown box the seller got from Apple Sacramento. Amazingly enough, the cardboard version of the iPhone already has $150 from 54 bids.

In other iPhone news, several e-mail addresses, such as igotiphones@gmail, "apple.iPhone.to.sell@gmail" and "Apple.Iphone.Seller@inbox" are for sale. Prices range from $9 to $25, but not surprisingly, they haven't received a bid as of yet. One iPhone e-mail address, "Support.apple.iphone@gmail," has a single bid at $1. For those looking on eBay for the anticipated Apple iPhone at a good price, remember that the expected U.S. release date isn't until June 2007.

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