eBay and Online Marketplace News
The auction giant offers seller savings with Spring promotions, eBay Live dropped for next year, ahTXT for sellers on-the-go, eBay Bucks in testing, plus Craigslist's Jim Buckmaster comments on the lawsuit.

eBay Spring Promotions
For those sorting their stuff into eBay piles while doing their Spring cleaning, eBay is offering a few promotions to encourage listings. Sellers can take advantage of any of the following promotions to sell on eBay with discounted fees.

• eBay Stores Free Trial: The company extended its free eBay Store trial period. If you have never subscribed to a Store before, you can try a Basic or Premium Store at no charge for 30 days. To qualify, a seller must subscribe between April 29, 2008 and July 31, 2008. For this promotion, you will be charged a Store fee, but a credit for the first month will be posted to your account.
  
• Fixed Price Listings Promotion: Sellers who used the Fixed Price format from May 7 to May 14, 2008 will find the insertion fees have been capped at 50 cents. This offers a deal on any fixed price item you list at $10 or more. This promotion applies to sellers on ebay.com and ebay.ca.
  
• eBay Motors.co.uk Promotion: UK sellers listing on eBay Motors.co.uk can take advantage of eBay's half-price listing weekend promotion. The normal Insertion Fee is discounted 50-percent when listing in the Cars, Parts and Vehicles specified sub-categories on May 10 and May 11.

eBay Live Dropped for 2009
Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Marketplace Operations, announced that eBay is planning to drop its popular eBay Live! conference for 2009. While Norrington indicated that the event will be held again in 2010 (August 12-14 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando), she did say that eBay will focus on multiple, smaller venues in 2009 to allow for more face-to-face interactions with the community. No dates or venues have yet been announced for 2009 conferences.

eBay Bucks Program
EBay buyers can log in to eBay and sign up for a chance to test the new eBay rewards program. Designed to reward loyal shoppers, eBay Bucks are earned by participating eBay users when they make qualifying purchases. Those enrolled in the program will automatically earn eBay Bucks on purchases. At the end of the earning period (which runs from May 15, to Aug. 14), those participating will receive an eBay Bucks coupon in the amount of their earnings, based on the total value of their qualifying eBay purchases.

In order for purchases to qualify for rewards, they must be paid for using PayPal, the payment must occur after enrollment in the program, purchases must be made between May 15 and Aug. 14, 2008. Purchases on eBay Motors (except Parts & Accessories), Classifieds, Giving Works, Real Estate and Business & Industrial Capital Equipment do not qualify for eBay Bucks rewards. EBay Bucks can be redeemed on any qualifying item on eBay.com that accepts PayPal. The eBay Bucks FAQ can be read here.

My eBay Script v.1.5 Released
This week Tyler Enterprises released version 1.5 of My eBay Script (MeS). MeS is an eBay Storefront generator that lets sellers host their own eBay store. Using MeS you can design your store any way you want and the products and listing information is pulled from eBay.

Importing your eBay items to MeS requires sellers to either copy the eBay URLs into the MeS Feed Import Wizard or by using category IDs and an eBay RSS feed URL. MeS also enables you to add a search function to your own eBay Store that searches only your store — not all of eBay.

This new version also offers support for eBay's new in-house affiliate program, the eBay Partner Network. My eBay Script 1.5 is available for $95 on the MeS Web site, which also offers a downloadable free demo trial.

ahTXT: For Sellers On-the-Go
ahTXT, is an eBay Compatible Application that provides sellers sales information, offers, questions and feedback in real-time on their cell phones. The service is free to join, and requires an online registration. Once you register and add your mobile number and connect your ahTXT account with your eBay profile, you're ready to start receiving text messages about current events taking place on your eBay account. AhTXT works by sending you text alerts about your eBay details, so while ahTXT is free to use, you will want to set your alert frequency if you pay your mobile provider per-message rates.

Landbidz Now Offering Stores
Landbidz.com, a marketplace for real estate buyers and sellers, recently added Featured Stores to their offerings. Sellers can use the Featured Store to offer potential buyers details about their company while receiving increased exposure on various pages at Landbidz.com. The Landbidz Features Store is available to sellers for $50 per month.

Buckmaster "Calls the Kettle Black"
While Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Chief Officer Jim Buckmaster have remained relatively quiet about eBay's corporate governance suit, the Craigslist blog was recently updated by Buckmaster. He wrote, "eBay is suing us for implementing protections for Craigslist that it clearly believes are perfectly appropriate for protecting itself."

Buckmaster cites specific examples through many links and notes in which eBay is suing Craigslist for issues eBay has protected itself from. " eBay is suing Craigslist for implementing an indemnification agreement, which calls for Craigslist to pay legal fees for Craigslist directors and officers should they be sued individually in the course of their duties. Here is a 1998 filing by eBay regarding a similar indemnification agreement for its own directors and officers."

You can keep track of Craigslist's version of events and comments on the corporate governance suit on the Craigslist blog, or read more on the suit in last week's  ebay Watch, Third-Party Service for Negative Feedback.