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Jackie Strobl wasn’t looking for another career when she started selling outdated clothing and collectibles online in 1999.

But since then, the Webb City woman has become something of a self-taught eBay entrepreneur, selling personal items for herself or for friends, as well as a random collection of objects she picks up at estate sales. When she started selling on eBay, Strobl said, the online site had few rules, and a copy of “eBay for Dummies” taught her most of the basics.

Fast-forward eight years. Strobl says the global Internet marketplace has become a complex beast that’s constantly changing.

Strobl recommends that anyone who is interested in selling on eBay read everything and anything that is available on the subject. She said she has posted items such as antique toy guns and a medical device only to see them pulled off the site by eBay administrators because they violated the Web site’s rules.

“With all the rules and regulations, it’s so involved now,” Strobl said. “It’s not that simple. Read everything you possibly can — how to sell, how to list — and try to get training.”

Strobl said people should try to learn as much as they can about the items they are selling, and they should never underestimate the power of the unusual.

Without much thought, Strobl said, she posted a two-page golf brochure from 1928 and a 1912 boxing postcard on eBay, each with a starting price of less than $10. Each item brought more than $150, adding to Strobl’s belief that items are worth whatever someone will pay for them.

Another time, Strobl paid $2 at an estate sale for an orange butter dish with no other matching dishes and no maker’s mark. She put it online, and it sold for $60 to a woman who later told Strobl that she had been looking for an orange butter dish for the past 20 years.

With more than eight years of eBay selling under her belt, Strobl’s final piece of advice is to never underestimate the amount of time it takes to be successful online.

She estimates that she spends three to four hours a day taking photos of her merchandise, posting items and checking on auctions, and an additional hour three times a week boxing and shipping items she has sold.

Posted by News Desk at 03:06 PM | Permalink

Bankruptcy administrator in Germany said that BenQ business will be divided and sold, according to German media reports.

According to Reuters news service the company's properties including office equipment, computers, furniture and even plants will be sold on eBay. Pluta.net, a German firm that specializes in asset sales, is handling the transactions.

The company took over mobile phone unit at Siemens several months ago but could not save the operation. Approximately 3,000 employees were employed in Germany.

The trade union declared that the main reason for the final collapse was serious management errors committed by the management of Siemens in the past.

Posted by News Desk at 02:45 PM | Permalink

eBay is charging sellers for typos. Last week, we reported that some sellers continue to complain that their eBay listings do not appear in search results, or do so in a sporadic and unexplained manner. One user found out after weeks of frustration why his items had failed to appear: he misspelled the word "ship."

Sam Mindel had entered in his shipping terms in a listing-tool template, and instead of typing the word ship, he typed "shit." Rather than rejecting Sam's listings with the typo, the eBay system allowed them, but failed to index them because the misspelled word sets off a profanity filter. And by not indexing Sam's listings, they did not show up in search results. However, they did show up in Sam's list of items for sale in his My eBay account, meaning he might never have discovered that his listings were not searchable or browsable by buyers.

That is eBay's policy, spokesperson Hani Durzy said. That policy cost Sam not only listing fees for items that never showed up in search, but also weeks of frustration trying to find out why his listings were not appearing when shoppers searched for items he offered. "I got pretty angry about the whole thing," Mindel told AuctionBytes, complaining that eBay is charging sellers for auctions eBay isn't putting up.

Durzy said, "This was a case of user error, but we really fell down on helping this guy. We should have caught this sooner if we were helping him."

Durzy said the policy regarding certain typos is a balance between providing transparency, without giving "bad" people who intend to violate policy the tools to do that. "Pop-ups can give people ways to go around the filter," adding that, "people do have to be responsible for their typos. The idea that search is broken is very clearly wrong."

However, another seller who reported that his items sporadically appear in eBay search is not satisfied. After finding out about Sam Mindel's typo, he wrote in an email, "I assure you that was not an issue w/my listings. However, I am not immune to making typos." He also wanted to know why eBay does not have a warning about expletives and other words or phrases that potentially violate eBay policy, which he said is supposed to show on the page just prior to submitting listing.

Durzy also mentioned that there are more listing delays as eBay clamps down on Trust & Safety, and as eBay looks at listings for malicious code due to pharming issues (a variation on phishing fraud).

Posted by News Desk at 05:38 PM | Permalink

More than eight years ago, Bob Bull was, as he describes himself, one of the "walking dead." With a bad heart, emphysema, multiple sclerosis and diabetes, Bull must be on oxygen 24 hours a day. "I was so depressed, I couldn't do anything," says Bull, 70, a retired construction superintendent who lives in Dewey, Ariz.

Bull remembers the exact day when his world changed. On April 22, 1998, he discovered eBay (www.ebay.com), the online trading site where you can find everything from brand-new shower curtains to secondhand clarinets. He registered on a lark and started browsing the message boards, where members write about items and their own trading experiences.

Bull and his wife, Alice, decided to trade Beanie Babies and other collectibles. Unfortunately, the Beanie Babies craze died fast. "We ended up donating $9,000 in Beanie Babies to Toys for Tots," he laughs. "We had 830 of them." Bob began using the message boards to help new traders learn the ropes. "And I've been doing it ever since-seven days a week, 80 to 90 hours a week," he says.

Bull has plenty of company in the eBay senior community. In March, about 20% of all visitors to eBay were 55 or older, according to the company. For many older adults like Bull, eBay is a way to keep busy and a place to make online friends. Others look to make a quick buck, using eBay as an alternative to a classified ad. And many retirees have developed eBay-based businesses, selling possessions of friends and relatives for a cut of the profits.

With millions of potential customers, the odds are good you'll get more for that antique sideboard or Persian rug than you would get at a consignment store or a garage sale. "There's a learning curve, and it does take work," says Jim Griffith, eBay's dean of education and author of The Official eBay Bible (Gotham, $24), a guide for traders. "But once you've got it down, after you've sold two or three items, you'll find ways to make it more efficient."

Earn Pocket Change and More
The company doesn't release average sales figures because volume differs significantly from seller to seller. But you can earn anywhere from pocket change to thousands of dollars, depending on your skill and the time you put into it. "There are power sellers who sell in the six figures, but there are only few who do it," says Marcia Cooper, 71, an eBay trading assistant, the title sanctioned by eBay for someone who sells on consignment for others.

To sell on eBay, you need a digital camera and merchandise. Getting started is easy, thanks to the many tutorials on eBay's site. You'll need to register, which is free. Then check out Seller Central (click "Sell," then "Seller Central"), which provides instructions on all aspects of selling, such as how to list an item and how to complete a sale.

You can either go the auction route or the straight sell. Cooper, who lives in Fort Lee, N.J., buys sporting tickets online or at the box office and straight-sells them on eBay. "If I start them at auction, I might get way below my buying price," she says.

If you think you want to use eBay for more than an occasional sale, Griffith suggests that you start off by buying something. That way, he says, you learn how eBay works from the perspectives of both buyer and seller. He notes that retirees usually do well because they understand the importance of customer service-shipping merchandise in the condition that was described, for example. "Older folks generally have fewer problems than younger people, because they bring a lifetime of experience," he says.

As in any business, your reputation is worth money on eBay. Every member has a feedback score, which is based on online ratings from your customers. If you sold a 1960 baseball pennant, for instance, the buyer can rate the experience as positive, neutral or negative via an online survey. Of his customers' 286 comments, Bull says: "I'm 100% positive, so people trust me."

The company gets a cut of every transaction. You pay to list an item, and you pay when you sell it. For an item with a starting price of $10 to $24.99, the listing fee is 60 cents. If that item sells for $25 or less, the final fee is 5.25% of the sale price. You'll also pay to post a photo. The buyer pays for shipping.

A digital camera is a must. "If you have to go to the extra hassle of getting film developed, and getting a CD made, it takes time and money," says retired photography instructor Norman Lenberg, of Madison, Wis.

Lenberg, 61, joined eBay in 2002 to clear out old photo equipment around the house. Soon after, he began selling items for friends, family and acquaintances. He's since become an eBay trading assistant. He offers this advice: If anything's damaged on the item you're selling, be sure to show it. Most of Lenberg's business comes by word of mouth. "I'll never run out of things to sell unless I run out of friends and neighbors," he says.

If you have items to sell but don't want to do the work yourself, you can turn to a trading assistant who lives near your home. (On the eBay site, click "Sell," then "Trading Assistants").You drop off your merchandise, or the trading assistant picks it up. The assistant photographs the item, writes and posts the ad, and sends you a check once the merchandise sells. The downside is you'll make less money. Lenberg, for instance, charges a 25% commission, and he's on the low end. Cooper charges 40%.

Cooper found eBay after being laid off at age 65 from her corporate marketing job during a downsizing. Her son introduced her to eBay, and she and her partner, Harvey Levine, 70, took to it quickly. "We started with the top shelf of our closet," she says, first selling household possessions, and soon after they began selling concert and sporting-event tickets. Today, they sell antiques, collectibles and other items, most of which come from their customers. They also look for merchandise at antique shops.

"From the outside in, it looks very easy, but making a living on eBay is not easy," says Cooper. In fact, 40% of her and Levine's annual income comes from teaching others how to use eBay. "We give classes at colleges and fund-raising events, and we travel all over the U.S. if people want us to lecture," she says.

Posted by News Desk at 10:19 AM | Permalink

Like most who sell on eBay, my initiation with the site was as a buyer.
Once I had a feel for how things operated, I realized it was the ideal way to achieve my dream of making money without ever having to theoretically put on pants.

Fast-forward five years and selling on eBay has become my primary source of income.

As most full-time students understand, it can be difficult to keep afloat with academics and still scrape up enough cash for bills and extracurricular activities.

While I'm known in my circle of friends as the guy without an alleged real job, eBay has allowed me to bring home enough coin to cover the aforementioned items and flex my hours to fit my schedule for the given day.

Make no mistake, though: turning a respectable profit on a regular basis takes a great deal of effort.

It will also take a period of growing pains, where losing money may not be uncommon.

Like most infomercials, programs that promise you'll become filthy rich selling on eBay with minimal work are misleading.

Their accuracy probably ranks with the infomercials that assure you buckets of money are to be had selling crappy ceramic cats and pottery to your friends and associates.

The learning process for selling on eBay never subsides, but there are a few basic things all sellers should know. The buying end of the eBay spectrum requires less knowledge, but buyers can still benefit from being aware of some key points.

eBay can be a place where great bargains and lost pieces of childhood are found. On the selling end, becoming a millionaire through eBay isn't a few steps away.

But with time, knowledge, and the right product, it can generate as much or more income than the typical job held by the college-aged person. And don't forget about pants being optional, a perk you won't find elsewhere.

Beware of knockoffs

It isn't uncommon to find a great bargain on eBay, but like the old adage goes, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. This especially holds true for high-end items like electronics and designer clothing.

Pricey electronics can be a risky purchase because of the amount of scammers using hijacked accounts to peddle products they don't have.

Despite efforts to crack down on counterfeit merchandise, the eBay market is still saturated with such products.

At the risk of dishing out a hearty helping of ethnocentrism, buying from certain countries is rarely a good idea because of the ratio of phony products that typically come out of them.

Before you get too excited about all of those great Lacoste shirts at dirt-cheap prices from that seller in Singapore, realize you probably aren't getting the real thing.

A bid is a contract

The reason for eBay requesting that its users be at least 18 years of age is that a bid is equivalent to a legally-binding contract. When a potential buyer makes a bid, they are agreeing to pay for the item if they should win.

Unfortunately, this is an ancient eBay term that countless buyers fail to understand or respect.

Buyer's remorse may be okay with that DVD you got from Best Buy, since no money is lost on their part. But few things are more frustrating for an eBay seller than having someone win and not pay.

It not only wastes time, but it costs sellers fees that cannot be fully recovered.

So before you place that bid, make sure you are willing to pay. You don't want some seller to snap and track you down.

Different sellers & terms

Because eBay's selling base is comprised primarily of individuals, terms of sale vary. Just because one seller accepts certain forms of payment does not mean they all do. Some sellers are more lax about the window of opportunity to get your payment to them than others are.

Most sellers include their terms in the auction description, so be sure to read it. Some sellers opt to make their policies 27 times longer than the actual description of the item, so in those cases, just try and get the gist of it.

If you get conned

Realistically, you aren't likely to come across a seller who won't ship your item. In the rare instance that it appears the seller has taken your $14 and skipped town, steps can be taken. If using the online site PayPal, the most common form of payment on eBay, you can file a complaint.

PayPal will investigate the matter and if the seller cannot prove they shipped the item, you will likely get your money back.

If paying with check or money order, things can be less promising, with eBay offering a few options, but nothing that is likely to get your money back.

PayPal is probably the most secure way to deal with money on eBay, so try and buy from sellers that accept it.

Read, read, read

Reading isn't one of this country's favorite pastimes, however, doing so when buying on eBay can spare you of any nasty surprises. More unscrupulous sellers may try and hide unappealing facts about the item and their selling policies by burying them deep within the description. While it may be a pain to read through everything, it will help you catch sentences like, "Buyer is aware that item was once covered in what appears to be barbeque sauce."

Know the fee structure

A source of chronic aggravation among the site's seasoned sellers, eBay's fee structure is an annually-rising beast that can negate your selling endeavors right out the gate.

Insertion fees, the cost to list each item, can range from 20 cents to $4.80. Added perks are available, however, for an additional cost.

Of these add-ons, the photo gallery is the only one worth its price (35 cents). This feature allows a thumbnail of your item to be on the search results page, instantly making it stand out.

If your item sells, eBay will take a cut based on the final price. This starts at a 5.25 percent slice and rises accordingly.

The increasingly higher fees have made it counterproductive to deal with items that bring in already small returns.

Take great pictures

Including pictures with your auction is optional, however, vital for success. The auction that includes at least one picture will invariably fetch more bucks than the one without any.

But with competition growing, it isn't enough to just take pictures. You have to take quality pictures.

Nothing damages an item's selling potential like atrocious photos. A potential buyer cannot pick up and study the product, so good photos are a must. Invest in a quality camera and accessories. Use a good amount of lighting and utilize editing programs like Adobe Photoshop to create clean, professional-looking pictures.

Know what sells

Probably the biggest misconception about eBay is that anything will sell for a nice chunk of change.

Success stories have blurred the reality that despite a community of millions, there's a weak market for many categories. Most sports cards and comic books typically generate a small fraction of their price guide value, for instance. I went through a stretch in my early selling days of making almost nothing hocking things that allegedly had value at one time.

So before you drop out of school or quit your job because you have a box of beat-up Silver Surfer comics in your garage you think is going to put you on easy street, know what makes money on eBay.

Communication is key

Face it, the Internet has a rep among many as existing for the purpose of scamming others. But even these people buy on eBay, which does little for their Internet paranoia.

For this and other reasons, it's important as a seller to keep in regular contact with your buyers.

At the very least, an e-mail should be sent when the item has been shipped. And make a habit of responding to e-mails from buyers. The last thing you want is some guy in Baxter, Minnesota convinced you've conned him out of nine bucks because you haven't responded to his e-mails.

Learn shipping rates

Okay, so you've made your first sale. You've finally done this whole selling on eBay thing and you're psyched.

That elation does a disappearing act when you go to the post office and realize you only charged four bucks to ship an item that's going to cost $20 to mail.

You've learned the hard way why it's key to be familiar with the shipping rates. If you plan to sell with any regularity, invest in a postage scale. These allow you to weigh the package and check the post office's Web site for pricing.

Many carry reasonable price tags and will pay for themselves by saving you money you'd be losing by underestimating the cost to ship something.

Once you know the actual shipping cost, tack on a buck or two to cover packing supplies. Be careful not to overcharge, though. Excessive shipping and handling charges violate eBay policy.

Write detailed descriptions

The drawback to online shopping is being unable to physically see and hold the item that draws your interest. Because of this, a detailed description coupled with good pictures will more times than not, boost sales.

When writing the description, put yourself in the buyer's shoes and think what you would want to know about the item.

Where does it come from? What kind of condition is it in? Does it smell like your leaky basement?

Posted by News Desk at 05:08 PM | Permalink

The Listing description is your opportunity to really let prospective buyers know what they will be getting when they purchase your item. Make money on eBay by making that description complete and correct. It is important to include the right details to ensure that prospective buyers do have an accurate understanding of the items that you list.

Make money on eBay by describe your item in enough detail to generate buyer interest. Your description should also help buyers know exactly what they will get when the item arrives. Be sure to include all of the important information such as:

- Color and texture

- Item size or dimensions

- Brand Name / Manufacturer

- Year the item was made

- Materials that the item is made of

- Item condition (new, used, antique, broken, etc.)

- All flaws, repairs, or imperfections

- Any special or unique information specific to your item (History, unique features, warrantee, and other information that you feel may be of importance.)

Your item description is the place to include all information about payment options, shipping costs, and other special information (You do International Shipping, for example). Also include information about guarantees that you may offer.

Once the description is completed, be sure to double check everything. Make money on eBay by ensuring that spelling is accurate, all information is complete, that you have been accurate in everything that you have written, and that you have complied with eBay policies and guidelines regarding listings.

A well-written description will help you make money on eBay. Invest the time and energy to create a description that draws attention and accurately describes the item that you are listing.

Posted by News Desk at 04:45 PM | Permalink

Ben got started as a seller on eBay when he had to get rid of unwanted wedding gifts and old junk to make room for a new baby in his small home near Kansas City.
But he quickly “caught the bug” and became one of more than 4.3m people that make a significant chunk of their income from eBay.

The full-time engineer says that in his spare hours he buys up discounted items such as downhill skis “that people don’t really need” in the Midwest - “where it is pretty flat” - and sells them online to people in places “where there are more hills”.

What makes Ben stand out is that – unlike many eBay users – he will in April voluntarily declare this income to the Internal Revenue Service and pay US business tax rates.

Kristine McKinley, his accountant, says this is the first year that clients have come forward to her main street practice because they “are making enough from eBay that they are concerned about whether or not they need to pay tax”.

People’s caution in coming forward has prompted the Bush administration to propose compelling eBay and auction businesses such as Sotheby’s to report to the IRS any customer that carries out more than 100 transactions a year worth at least $5,000 (€3,850, £2,565).

The Treasury expects to collect $2bn in extra taxes from the new regime, due to come into force on January 1 2008.

But eBay is fiercely resisting the proposal and has mobilised its extensive lobbying operation on Capitol Hill to question the legality of the proposed changes.

Representative Rick Boucher, who has received campaign donations from eBay, said he had been contacted by the company and shares its view that the Treasury and IRS would be stretching the limits of their authority by extending rules that cover “brokers” to the website.

The online auction group argues it is not a “broker”, or a “middle man” or an “auctioneer” or an “auction house”. So what is it then? It offers an “auction-style” service but is more “like a shopping mall,” a spokesperson says.

In turn, the company argues that the Treasury’s plan would be unfair because it regulates in such a way that exempts competitors like Craigslist that have different business models based on plain classified ads without the auction or payment tools of eBay.

EBay says forcing it - and not Craigslist - to snitch on customers would be the equivalent of requiring indoor shopping malls to report tenants’ behaviour but not open-air strip malls.

“Business owners would relocate to the strip mall,” says a spokesperson.

But it is precisely eBay’s solid business structures and overarching customer service that has helped attract the unwelcome attentions of the overworked and cash-strapped taxman.

Ebay already tracks the volume and value of its customers’ transactions, notifying them when they reach key milestones and soliciting them with customised services.

The Treasury proposal would open the way for the financially stretched IRS to piggyback on the company’s systems by requiring eBay to report to authorities when customers hit milestones.

The company says it will cooperate with the IRS in investigating named individuals and entities, but does not want to act as a “go between” for customers “en masse”.

It wants tax collectors to rely on their own wiles and defends the hands off approach to tax that is apparent from interviews with eBay users.

Elena Neitlich, who runs a highly successful online store from home called Moms on Edge, says eBay appointed a special adviser to coach her almost daily on every nuance of her auctions from catering to different timezones to the optimal names for potty training toys.

But the award-winning eBay seller says she cannot recall ever being reminded of her tax liabilities.

“I don’t remember anyone saying to me that now we needed to go through the tax issues. No, that didn’t happen,” she says.

The eBay spokesperson says: “We believe that it is the seller’s responsibility.”

Ben – who asked that his last name be withheld because he runs a blog that details a lot of personal finance information.

“What I do is just like any other small business, so I should pay tax,” he says.

Posted by News Desk at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Fancy owning a piece of TV motoring history? Well now you can, after the owner of the Pink Panther limo posted the vehicle on ebay today.

The famed stretched pink monstrosity from the opening Pink Panther cartoon credits, based on an Oldsmobile, was designed by legendary Hollywood car designer Jay Ohrberg – responsible for the original TV series version of the Batmobile among others – and has notched up just 10 miles of actual driving. Used primarily for static display, the car has an opening bid of £75,000.

According to the Lancashire-based seller, the limo “attracts a lot of attention and can in fact be used as a source of income if marketed properly on the motor show, shopping centre, corporate and private hire circuit”. Seeing as its 23ft long, it’s easy to understand the appeal, but it’s uncertain whether or not it’s road legal.

And it gets stranger. The seller claims that on February 27 he will also be selling the Batmobile on ebay.

Posted by News desk at 10:37 AM | Permalink

An eBay ad has been banned after a user complained he could not find the advertised goods at the quoted prices.

The disgruntled complainant said that the ad was misleading because he had been unable to find a coffee machine which was advertised as being available, and that a retro chair advertised for £50 was only available for £250.

Bosses at eBay said that the ad was meant to show generic items available on the site, which is why they did not include brand names or product numbers, and that hyperlinks from the ad led to a search results page of products related to the depicted items.

They said that most users of the site would realise that the ad was not meant to create an expectation that the exact items were available on the site, because eBay was not a retailer and did not control the supply of items listed on the site.

They added that they had used this kind of advertising for years, and that this was the first complaint they had received.

They also showed that when the ad was running, a coffee machine had been sold for £75, and that a retro chair had been available at the fixed price of £45, and provided other examples of similar products that had been available.

eBay said they always checked the stated prices when running this kind of advertising campaign to make sure that they reflected the market prices available on the eBay website, and that because there were more than 50 million items on the site at any one time, the complainant might not have been able to find them even if they were available, and that they intended to make it easier for buyers to find items on the site.

But the ASA upheld the complaint, saying that the coffee machine and the retro chair had only been available for some of the time that the ad was running, which was why the complainant had not been able to find them.

They also said that while most people understood that the availability of items was limited, the ad was misleading because people might think it referred to specific items.

An ASA spokesman said: "We considered that consumers were likely to understand the text and pictures in the ad to refer to specific items available to purchase on eBay at the time the ad appeared because, for example, the text stated "coffee machine" and showed a picture of a specific designer coffee machine.

"We considered that most consumers would not interpret the ad as a reference to generic items available at the stated price, for example coffee machines in general, instead we considered most consumers would click on the links in the ad and expect to be able to buy the specific product for the stated price.

"We considered, therefore, that all the items depicted in the ad should have been available for the whole time the ad appeared and, as soon as the items were no longer available, the ad should have been withdrawn.

"Because eBay had not demonstrated that the specific coffee machine and chair depicted were available for the whole time the ad appeared, we concluded that the ad was misleading."

The ASA warned eBay either to make it clear that the were referring to generic items in future ads, or withdraw them when the items had been sold

Posted by News Desk at 10:01 AM | Permalink

Britain's defence ministry yesterday launched a rival to online auction site eBay, offering surplus and ex-government military equipment at knock-down prices.

Among the items being sold by the Disposal Sales Agency (DSA) are "his and her" military uniforms, outdoor gear - mostly in camouflage green - seven light aircraft, three ships and an eight-person rowing boat.

ceremonial kilt (unused) and a police riot helmet (used) are also up for grabs alongside military fire engines, bullet-proof cars, buses, mechanical diggers, bulldozers and radio equipment.

The goods are either ex-government or put up for sale by government contractors.

The DSA, an executive arm of the the Ministry of Defence (MoD), said it had raised more than £700 million ($1.4 billion) through marketing surplus equipment since the early 1990s.

Previous sales have included warships.

"The DSA recognises that with more and more transactions being carried out online, we must adapt our approach in order to maximise the return to the Ministry of Defence and to the taxpayer," said DSA spokesman Les Taylor.

He said the site - www.edisposals.com - is likely to appeal to specialist collectors, scrap metal merchants, adventure training companies and scout groups.

No weapons or ammunition are allowed to be sold on the website, while some items can only be sold to registered users.

Britain's total planned defence budget for this financial year is about £30.1bn, according to MoD figures.

Posted by News Desk at 09:44 AM | Permalink

One of the top complaints against eBay is the level of fees. It is therefore surprising that many large eBay sellers make unnecessary and easily avoidable payments to eBay. This article lists 14 easy-to-implement ways to reduce eBay fees and improve the profitability of your eBay business.

Strategies for all eBay Sellers
These fee-saving strategies can be implemented by all eBay sellers, no matter what items they sell or their listing strategy.

1. PayPal Merchant Discount
If you are a volume seller on eBay, then you are probably eligible for a merchant discount on PayPal fees. The merchant fee structure is as follows:

UK PayPal Fees
£0.00 to £1,500.00 - 3.4% + £0.20
£1,500.01 to £6,000.00 - 2.9% + £0.20
£6,000.01 to £15,000.00 - 2.4% + £0.20
£15,000.01 to £55,000.00 - 1.9% + £0.20
above £55,000.00 - 1.4% + £0.20

US PayPal fees
$0.00 to $3,000 - 2.9% + $0.30
$3,000.01 to $10,000 - 2.5% + $0.30
$10,000.01 USD-$100,000 - 2.2% + $0.30
above $100,000 - 1.9% + $0.30

To receive discounted fees you must log onto your PayPal account and apply. This can be done from PayPal's fees page.

Potential saving: up to 2% (1% on PayPal.com) on all PayPal transactions.

2. Relisting Credits
Insertion Fees are generally non-refundable. However, eBay will automatically credit the Insertion Fee for an unsuccessful auction if:

You relist the item by clicking the "relist your item" button on the item page for the ended listing (or any other relist feature on the website) and the relisted item is sold the first time you relist it.

Potential saving: Up to £2 ($4.80 on eBay.com) per relisted item.

3. Reclaiming Non Paying Bidder Fees
If a buyer does not pay for their item, you can claim back the eBay fees via eBay's unpaid item process. An unpaid item can be reported up to 45 days after an item closes.

See http://pages.ebay.com/help/tp/unpaid-item-process.html for more details.

Potential saving: Final value fees on unpaid items. (And if the item is relisted and sells the second time, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee for the relisting, see point #2 above.)

4. Host Your Own Photos
If you need to use more than one photo to describe your item, eBay will charge per additional picture. However, it is simple to host your own photos, and avoid this extra cost.

If you have an eBay Store (eBay Shop), eBay provides 1MB of free picture storage. In addition, there are many free photo hosting services such as http://www.theimagehosting.com or http://www.pictiger.com

Potential saving: £0.12 ($0.15 on eBay.com) per additional picture.

5. Tweak your Starting Prices
Be careful when you choose your starting price, as a very small difference in price can lead to a large increase in insertion fee, especially if you are selling multiple items. For example, an item with a starting price of £29.99 incurs an insertion fee of £0.75, whereas a starting price of £30 would cost £1.50.

On eBay.com a staring price of $49.99 incurs a fee of $1.20 where as a starting price of $50.00 would cost $2.40.

Potential saving: Up to £0.75 ($1.20 on eBay.com) per listing.

6. Pay for Your eBay Fees Using a Cash Back Credit Card
Several credit cards give cash back on money spent. By using an American Express credit card to pay your eBay fees, you can receive a small rebate for your eBay fees. Bear in mind that this only works if you pay your credit card bill in full each month.

Potential saving: Up to 1.5% cash back on eBay fees.

7. Teach Yourself HTML
Many sellers use eBay's listing designer service to improve the look of their listing. If you are listing multiple items, this cost will soon add up. By learning some simple HTML or employing a designer, you can develop your own template and save on the extra listing fee.

Potential saving: £0.07 ($0.10 on eBay.com) per listing.

8. Open an Ecommerce Store
Potentially the best strategy of all is to expand your business beyond eBay. By setting up your own ecommerce store you can upsell to customers you have acquired through eBay, and pay no fees at all. Channel Management software such as eSellerPro, Marketworks and ChannelAdvisor enable eBay sellers to run an ecommerce store off the same inventory as their eBay sales.

Potential saving: You pay no eBay fees on items sold off eBay, though you will pay for using the channel-management software.

Savings Fees on Listings
The following fee-saving tactics involve changes to your eBay listing strategy and should therefore be considered in the light of your business objectives. For each of these tactics, run a limited trial and compare the conversion rates (percent of listings that sell), average sales price (sales total/number of items that sold), take rate (% of sales that eBay takes as fees) and margin against your current listing strategy.

9. eBay Store (Shop) Listings
Despite the recent rise in eBay Store (Shop) listing fees, they are still on the whole cheaper than listing on core - if you sell a certain volume, since there are monthly subscription fees. The best use of Store listings is for upselling commodity items and for unusual items that require a longer listing period.

10. Sell More Expensive Items
eBay has a sliding scale of fees, taking a higher percentage of the sale price (take rate) of less expensive items. By selling more expensive items you can reduce eBay's take rate. For example, the take rate of a £5 item is 9.25 percent, whilst for £200 item it is 4.55 percent.

11. Reassess Your Use of Listing Upgrades
Listing upgrades are expensive, and should not be used unless they are improving sell-through rates and average selling prices. eBay research products like eSellerStreet (http://www.esellerstreet.com), Hammertap (http://www.hammertap.com) and Terapeak (http://www.terapeak.com) will allow you to investigate the effectiveness of listing upgrades for products in your categories. You should also conduct your own trials.

12. Second Chance Offers
eBay's Second Chance Offer feature allows more than one item to be sold from a single listing, saving on the listing fee for each additional sale. When using second chance offers, you should be aware that you are making a trade-off between price and sales volume, as second chance offers are inevitably lower than the item's final price.

Potential saving: Up to £2 ($4.80 on eBay.com) per sale.

13. Lower Your Starting Prices
eBay's insertion fees are linked to the starting price of an auction, by lowering your starting price you will encourage bidding and lower your listing fees.

Potential saving: up to £1.85 ($4.60 on eBay.com) per listing.

14. Dutch Auctions
Dutch auctions, like the Second Chance Offer, allow you to sell multiple items off a single listing, saving on multiple listing fees. (See details at http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html).

Potential saving: Up to £2 ($4.80 on eBay.com) per item.

Posted by News Desk at 11:14 AM | Permalink

Collectibles flourish on EBay after soccer's star deal with the Galaxy, but buyers should exercise caution about some sellers' claims.

When a disappointed David Beckham stalked out of the stadium in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, after England's loss to Portugal during last summer's soccer World Cup, he was wearing a scowl.

Whether he was also wearing his World Cup credential, normally found draped around the necks of players, coaches, referees, journalists and tournament officials, is up for debate.

Within days of Beckham's signing a projected $250-million contract to play for Major League Soccer's Los Angeles Galaxy, that credential — or one purporting to be the real thing — showed up on EBay. It was offered on the online auction site by a German dealer. The theory is that Beckham, disgusted by England's 3-1 loss on penalty kicks, had flung it aside, or he simply left it behind or gave it to someone as a souvenir.

Whatever the provenance, the credential was sold to a German buyer for $222.53.

Little more than a month has passed since Beckham's Galaxy deal, and Beckham-mania has flourished on EBay. The number of Beckham collectibles being offered surpassed 1,000 in the week of his signing, and although the number dropped to 760 on Monday, interest remained high.

Items for sale include Beckham books, magazines, photographs and trading cards, Beckham jerseys, boots, sunglasses and cologne, Beckham action figures, posters, DVDs and license plates. There has also been a fair amount of skulduggery going on.

For instance, the Galaxy made it clear that the team would be changing its logo and colors, as well as its jersey sponsor, to mark the arrival of Beckham, yet buyers are happily paying significant prices for what are essentially fake items. "Be the first to own the new Los Angeles Galaxy David Beckham No. 23 shirt!!" trumpeted the description on one jersey put up for auction by a dealer in England. "This is the authentic Adidas home strip for 2006 and 2007. Home gold and green."

Well, no, not really. At some point this year the Galaxy gold and green will be ditched, reportedly in favor of a deep space blue, with a more galactic logo. And even though Beckham is expected to wear No. 23 because he is a fan of Michael Jordan, he has not officially been assigned that number. Nevertheless, that Galaxy jersey sold for $141.79 to a fan in England.

A similar Galaxy jersey, also with Beckham's name and number on the back, was sold last week by another English dealer for $143.98. His description was even more truth-stretching. "To highlight his celebrity status, Beckham's shirt No. 23 sold out in record time on the day of his transfer, and the club were reported to have received around 600,000 [pounds] in shirt sales alone," it stated.

Not true. The Galaxy has not put a single Beckham jersey on sale and will not until the new line comes out. "I'd prefer we not mislead people. There will be a time to buy a Beckham jersey, it's just not now," said Tim Leiweke, chief executive of AEG, which operates the Galaxy.

"Will we see a lot of Beckham jerseys out there that people will go make themselves? Probably. Are we missing an opportunity from a money standpoint? Maybe. But I happen to believe that it's a bit misleading to go sell them the old jersey and then three months from now announce, 'Hey, here's the new jersey,' " he said.

That has not stopped the unscrupulous from trying to tempt the gullible.

One seller in Chicago described a Beckham jersey he was offering at a starting bid of $300: "Many fans are hustling to buy L.A. Galaxy shirts with 'Beckham 23,' " he wrote, "but the rumor is David will be wearing his favorite No. 7…. If David had played for L.A. in 2006, this is the shirt he would have worn."

Unrealistic asking prices mean that not everything to do with Beckham is selling.

A dealer in Florida got no takers when he offered — at a starting price of $5,000, no less — a "training top [that] was actually worn by David Beckham. It is signed by David Beckham and four of the Spice Girls — Posh (Victoria), Emma, Mel C. and Mel B. Beautifully mounted and framed."

Beckham's wife is former pop star and Spice Girl Victoria Adams.

Galaxy season tickets also are being offered on EBay at greatly inflated prices even though they still are available at face value from the club. "David Beckham is history in the making! Be there to witness it!" reads one current EBay offer for two on-field Galaxy season seats at the Home Depot Center at a "buy it now" price of $10,000.

No has jumped to claim them, probably because a limited number of on-field seats still are available through the club at $3,000 apiece.

The Galaxy has not moved to act against the sellers of fake jerseys or those trying to make a quick and profitable turnaround on tickets, according to Tom Payne, the team's assistant general manager.

"I called Adidas and they actually said they really can't do a lot about it," he said. "They said they just can't kind of keep up with it and they can't worry about every little thing and they're hoping it's just small numbers."

Still, Beckham has been a hit with EBay sellers and buyers ever since the star's pending move from Real Madrid to Los Angeles was announced.

For instance, one English dealer in Beckham's home city of London offered a copy of "My World," a 2000 Beckham biography. The book, No. 239 in a limited edition of 1,500 signed and numbered copies, sold for $166.41. Another copy of the same book is now being offered on EBay at $196.91, with a startling "buy it now" price of $984.65.

However, there are two copies of the book available online through rare book dealers in England at just more than $400 apiece.

Elsewhere, a 1997 Upper Deck trading card showing Beckham in an England national team uniform was touted as being certain to climb in value. "This is already a scarce card, and with Beckham coming to the USA to play in Major League Soccer this card will soon become virtually unobtainable," read the EBay seller's pitch. He received $57.99 for it.

An EBay seller in Kansas managed to get $97.50 for an official MLS soccer ball that the seller said "will be the ball that David Beckham uses when he plays for the L.A. Galaxy this upcoming MLS season."

A replica California license plate, personalized to read "Beckham 23," sold the same day on EBay for $19.95.

Already flourishing online now, Beckham-mania is expected to spiral into an even higher orbit with his anticipated midsummer arrival in Los Angeles. But the caveat emptor warning remains.

Source: LA Times

Posted by News desk at 01:09 PM | Permalink

To the uneducated eye, the silver tea service on Snappy Auction's photo table looked like any old set of silver plate -- something you could walk by at a garage sale without a second look.

But Brian Sun, manager of Snappy Auctions in Sarasota, researched the maker's marks on the bottom of each piece in the elaborate set.

He found that his consignor had brought him a Colonial-era tea service, made by Gerardus Boyce of New York in sterling silver sometime between 1814 and 1854.

Most of the stuff Boyce made is in museums. Some pitchers recently sold for $10,000 each in Palm Beach.

Say Sun lands a $15,000 high bid for the tea service.

His store would generate more than $3,000 in commissions, just for posting a seven-day auction that could be seen by millions of eBay bidders around the world.

"It's like that every day," said Sun, manager of eBay drop-off stores on Stickney Point Road and on Main Street in Sarasota. "You never know what you're going to be getting next."

There is no doubt that the multibillion-dollar Internet auction house is a great venue for a quick sale of unwanted stuff. But most people don't have time for the work involved: researching, photographing, writing the description that will appear online, keeping track of payments, answering questions, packing and shipping.

Because of that, helping others sell their stuff online has been around ever since eBay sellers started shipping Pez dispensers and used stereo speakers back in 1995.

In the last few years, it has become a more visible phenomenon, as stores have popped up. These drop-offs -- independent from eBay itself -- allow consumers to unload unwanted possessions and then just wait for a check in the mail.

Specialized home-based eBay trading assistants will always have their place, but right now the real competition is between two kinds of storefront businesses: franchises and independents.

It is not unlike the ongoing tug-of-war for consumer votes between franchised copying centers and independent printers, or between mom-and-pop sandwich shops and sandwich chains like Subway.

Already, Sarasota has 13 eBay drop-off stores registered with the company's voluntary "Trading Assistant Program."

Some, like Snappy with its two Sarasota stores and iSOLDIt with one, are franchise deals. Others, including Snorp, SpeedeSale, and Sellit4U, are independent operators.

"It really is in its infancy," said Roy Rodriguez, who bought the existing SpeedeSale drop-off store at University Parkway and Lockwood Ridge Road from its founder in November. "It will eventually work like the Subway chain. You're going to see one in just about every location."

So what do you pay?

Fees for the service vary widely.

Generally speaking, though, stores charge 30 to 35 percent on the first few hundred dollars of each successful sale, then scale down to smaller percentages on higher-ticket items.

Each store has its own policy about whether it charges an up-front fee or not. Snappy lists for free if the seller allows the bidding to start at 99 cents, but charges extra if the seller insists on a reserve price or a higher starting bid.

Most of the drop-off stores turn away most items that they feel won't sell, or that won't generate at least a $50 bid.

"You're dealing in small percentages," said Rodriguez, who charges 32 percent on the first $500 in value. "Someone comes in and gives us a $50 camera, that is $15 you've made in commission. You've got to sell a lot of $50 cameras to make overhead."

With a couple of employees, Rodriguez estimated that his little store needs to make $12,000 to $13,000 a month just to break even. Helping him out is the fact that he is selling a lot of his own merchandise, tools and imported electronics, using the SpeedeSale log-on name to eBay. Also, he is an authorized UPS and FedEx shipper.

The mortality rate in general is high, as the trading assistants struggle to pay rent on a storefront while trying to find the right balance: what business should they go after, what should they refuse and how much should they charge?

One of Sarasota's first drop-off stores, 1StopAuctions, has closed its doors. Its Web site, which still shows up high on search engines, is up for sale on the Net.

Its owners did not return a call for comment.

In South Florida, where more auction drop-off stores have existed for a longer time, Rodriguez guesstimates that the failure rate is 80 percent or more.

"Of the 20 stores that used to be around two three years ago, only five are still in business," he said.

All those involved in the drop-off game now realize that to succeed, they must do more than sit in their shops and wait for valuable objects to arrive.

"The reason we are on Main Street is to go after business-to-business deals," said Sun, the Snappy Auctions manager in Sarasota.

He recently liquidated a large collection of leftover women's clothing for a Sarasota boutique eager to make room for fresher fashions.

Rodriquez applauded his competitor's liquidation move. A boutique might pay $20 per item in hopes of selling it for $100.

"If he can sell it for anything north of $20, he is a hero," Rodriguez said. "The beauty of eBay is it takes you away from that little boutique store, and now you have the whole world buying for you."

"There are people in small towns who don't have access to that boutique, and see that dress and say, 'That is a cool dress.'"

The takeoff

Auction newsletter writer Ina Steiner says the drop-off auction store really got its start in 2003, when a newly formed company called AuctionDrop.com received venture capital funding to set up a chain.

"All of a sudden, everybody jumped on the bandwagon," Steiner said.

But there were plenty of growing pains in trying to figure out the right formula.

AuctionDrop's original concept was to own a chain of drop-off stores that would screen goods for value, then ship them to one central site, which would handle the auctions and shipping.

"They were going to open a chain of drop-off stores by the end of 2004, and now they are not offering any drop-off stores," Steiner said. "The idea was that rather than have each store have to have all these skills they would have one person who was great at photos, one person who was an expert on antiques."

The problem: the goods required too much handling. AuctionDrop still exists, but it has morphed into an eBay seller dishing out "luxury goods at incredible prices."

A glance at the site shows an emphasis on brand new, in-the-box watches, jewelry and electronics.

AuctionDrop "didn't have a franchise model," Steiner maintains. "They owned everything. They didn't have those stores for long. They quickly realized it wasn't going to work."

Snappy Auctions looks like one of the survivors, having recently moved into second place for the number of franchised stores bearing its name. Numero Uno is iSOLDIt. No. 3 is QuikDrop.

An iSOLDIt franchisee from St. Petersburg opened a store on Beneva Road in Sarasota in August.

David Crocker, iSOLDIt's senior vice president, has great hopes "for the whole concept of people selling their things which have value, in addition to just buying."

If you add together the sales of the 180 iSOLDIt stores in the U.S., plus others in Ireland, Australia and the United Kingdom, iSOLDIt is the largest eBay seller of them all.

"We are by far the largest, but you know what?" Crocker said. "I want to see the whole category succeed and there is room for more than one player."

EBay: Playing dumb?

With 222 million members worldwide, eBay has become a global power.

The public relations staff at the original Internet auction house likes to throw around the idea that if eBay were a country it would be the fifth largest nation in the world.

EBay is equally glib at handing out other tidbits to fill in the blanks in features like this.

"At any given time we have 105 million items listed and on average 6 million new items get listed each day," said spokeswoman Catherine England.

But the Silicon Valley-based company is not so eager to share data on the percentage of its revenues that comes from eBay trading assistants, or from the drop-off stores, which are a subset of the assistant universe.

England would say that there are now nearly 1,000 online auction drop-off stores in the nation.

"We don't actually have any data," England said. "Anecdotally, I can tell you it is something we think is growing."

"One of the things these drop-off stores do is they help inventory that might otherwise sit in someone's attic and get it listed," England said. "So we see them as a good thing for our community of buyers and sellers."

"It is just a very growing number, and significant to eBay's bottom line to where they are taking note," maintains Debbie Wilson, founder of Snappy Auctions, from her headquarters in Nashville, Tenn.

Indeed, some industry observers predict that eBay will simply let the franchises duke it out amongst themselves for a few years and then take over the best brand, using it to springboard into a new business.

Going it alone

When Rodriguez bought SpeedeSale in November, he already had become a heavy eBay seller by selling equipment like leaf blowers and other power tools through the site.

More recently, he has begun handling consumer electronics items imported from China. For him, buying into the existing Sarasota store was a way to add a better software system and a retail presence.

The previous owner invested at least $100,000 in building out the store, even though it is not a franchise. He spent the money not just on the look of the store, but on building a brand image, on computer equipment, and on software.

As the new owner, Rodriguez plans to build on that. His first goal is making Sarasota profitable, and his second is to open a SpeedeSale closer to where he lives, in Boca Raton. After that he is thinking of becoming a franchiser himself.

Doug Baum opened his own Sarasota eBay drop-off store, called Snorp, more than two years ago at Lockwood Ridge and University.

However, Baum plans to keep his day job.

The store, run by two employees during the week, is "barely profitable. I couldn't support a family on it, that is for sure."

"On paper it looks so perfect," he said. "You get free inventory. You sell a few things. You don't have to do much."

The reality is that running a drop-off store is "a lot more work than I thought it was," Baum says.

"You've got the stuff coming in, the packing, the shipping, the questions you get from people, and just the general nastiness of people on the other end of e-mails, which is surprising. More so than you'd expect."

Before deciding to go it alone, Baum flew out to California to research the iSOLDIt franchise.

Franchises cost in the ballpark of $25,000, and then take 3 percent to 5 percent off the top every month after that in return for providing sellers with ongoing training and software support.

"There is not a big margin in this to begin with and then to have to fork over a chunk like that," Baum said. "For the most part what I get from the franchises is they are out to sell franchise."

Perfect drop-off customer

Snappy Auctions might have found its perfect customer in Mark Zeitler, a Sarasota software executive who feels he simply must own the latest electronics.

Zeitler is perfectly capable of putting his own stuff on eBay, and in fact, he has sold plenty on his own.

But he finds it a bit tedious, especially the packing part. So now, he just drops off his 2004 Denon receiver, the powerful Windows computers he has decided to replace with Apples, and the $3,000 Paradigm speakers that he found too large for a family that now includes a toddler.

"I've done eBay before many times," Zeitler said. "The problem is it's just a hassle."

After turning over a few items to the Snappy store on Stickney Point Road a year ago, Zeitler has become addicted.

"Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I see it as kind of a garbage dump and then I get a check in the mail."

Affluent consumers like Zeitler are exactly the reason why Snappy Sarasota franchise owners Tom Gallagher and his partner, Mark Gill, were trying to find a Sarasota business involved in reselling valuable goods.

They spend eight to 10 months of each year on the open seas, running art auctions for Princess Cruises.

As the Herald-Tribune interviewed Gallagher by phone last week, he was aboard the new Crown Princess docked at St. Lucia in the eastern Caribbean.

"We were looking for a land-based business that we could tie into our passion for buying and selling on eBay," Gallagher said.

"Our first store was open 11 months and we started seeing a profit, which is pretty impressive. The second store we hope will be profitable by the end of this year as well."

With Brian Sun -- the partners' manager -- incentivized by a piece of the action and the potential for opening his own store later on, Gallagher and Gill hope to open no less than three and as many as five stores between Bradenton and Naples.

"The Lakewood Ranch location would have the young upwardly mobile disposable income people always wanting the new gadget and wondering what to do with the old one," Gallagher said.

"In Venice, it is an older demographic group and you have people who might be downsizing, might be moving from a house to a condo."

By the time he and Gill are ready to give up their life at sea a few years from now, they expect the Snappy stores to have developed into a business that will support them in style.

For now, Gallagher feels empowered by Snappy's online software system, which allows him in effect to look over Sun's shoulder anytime.

"I can do everything that my store can do from my laptop."

Up in Nashville, Snappy founder Debbie Gordon says the 65 stores that now fly her flag are just the beginning.

"We just sold a license in Japan, and the first store in Tokyo will be open in April," she said.

The business is based on three fundamentals, Gordon says.

"First, that people and businesses will always have stuff that they don't need anymore.

"Second is that the Internet is the vastest and largest marketplace."

Third is that some of those people are going to be "willing to pay for a service that offers value."

"Those three things are why we are going to continue to grow, and it is not going to go away."

Posted by News desk at 01:03 PM | Permalink

Ebay said today quarterly profit rose 24 per cent as moves to stabilise its auctions business showed signs of taking hold.

The company - which employs over 900 staff in its west Dublin centre along with its sister company Paypal - said fourth-quarter revenue rose 29 per cent, fuelled by demand for hard-to-find Sony and Nintendo gaming consoles and strengthening business in international markets such as Germany and Britain.

That reassured investors worried by three years of slowing revenue growth for the online marketplace.

Gross merchandise volume, the total value of goods and services sold on Ebay auction sites, grew 20 per cent to $14.4 billion. That volume figure grew 17 per cent, year-over-year, in the third quarter of 2006.

Fourth-quarter net income rose to $346.5 million, or 25 cents a share, from the year-earlier quarter's $279.2 million, or 20 cents a diluted share. Excluding one-time items, net income rose 27 per cent to $431 million, or 31 cents per share, topping Wall Street's consensus forecast by three cents.

Net revenue of $1.72 billion, up 29 per cent from a year earlier, marks a steadying of Ebay's growth rate, which has fallen over the past three years from above 50 per cent. Analysts, on average, had expected growth of only 25 per cent.

The results led Ebay's shares to surge 13 per cent.

Posted by News desk at 12:19 PM | Permalink

Sellers on the auction website eBay are being warned to check if they need to register as self-employed with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and pay tax.

Research suggests that about 68,000 people make all or a substantial part of their living selling things on eBay.

However HMRC suspects that many can be defined as self-employed traders but are not paying their proper taxes.

It is warning them that they should pay income tax, national insurance and possibly value added tax (VAT) as well.

Two hundred people registered in the first two days of the HMRC advertising campaign last week.

The publicity drive by HMRC does not represent a change in the law. It is merely highlighting the existing position.

"The overwhelming majority (of online sellers) are selling off unwanted goods. We are concerned with the minority conducting a business," said a spokesman.

The advice is not just targeted at eBay users but people using any online auction forum such as Yahoo! Auctions.

It is also targeted at the growing number of buy-to-let landlords, some of whom may not be aware that they have to pay tax on their income from letting a property.

The HMRC's attention was drawn to these people by the tip-offs it received to its tax evasion hot line last year.

"There is a problem. These people stood out among tens of thousands of tip-offs" the spokesman said.

The HMRC is not just relying on the hot-line for evidence. It is using a robotic computer software programmes, called Xenon, to scan internet sites like eBay and look for people making multiple transactions.

"It is much more efficient than trying to do the same thing manually as we have in the past," said the spokesman.

HMRC says it will consider that people are trading online for a profit, and not just offloading unwanted goods, if they buy goods to then sell online, make items themselves to sell for a profit, sell goods for others, on commission or sell a service and get paid for it.

If someone can answer yes to any of these points then they need to register as a business within three months of starting up.

They will be liable to pay income tax, national insurance contributions and also VAT if their turnover is greater than £61,000 a year.

The penalty for hiding tax that should have been paid is a fine of up to 100% of the unpaid tax plus payment of the tax itself and interest.

eBay had about 15 million users in the UK as of February last year.

The company declined to say how many it thought might be fully fledged businesses, or individuals who might fall into HMRC's definition of a self-employed e-trader.

However the web site has become slanted more overtly to established commercial sellers in recent years, with large sections devoted to shops and other business sellers.

A spokesman pointed out though that "when you sign our user agreement you agree to pay any taxes applicable in your country."

Posted by News Desk at 11:01 AM | Permalink

A school in Bartlesville, Okla., is letting eBay bidders decide just what a year's education is worth.

Oklahoma Wesleyan University is auctioning off a year of tuition, room and board, KOTV, Oklahoma City, reported. Usually, tuition alone costs $23,000, but the school hopes the auction allows someone big savings. With a few days to go, the bidding was already up to $17,000.

EBay says this is the first year of college the on-line auctioneer has put up for bid.

Posted by News desk at 05:35 PM | Permalink

Having recently covered the Arizona collector car auctions, one might have believed our taste for muscle cars would be sated by now. But then something fun and outrageous and oh -so-American pops up to show us why we fell in love with those beasts in the first place. It's a 1966 Dodge Coronet Wagon.

It's powered by a 440 Magnum Six Pack manipulated through a Hemi 4-speed and routed through a Hemi Dana 90 rear end. Now, we know this isn't a numbers matching, all-original, ultra-rare option code vehicle. In fact, we know for a fact that the factory never even built one of these.

No, this is what happens when an enterprising soul has a totaled '70 Challenger sitting around with an intact drivetrain and a spare '66 Coronet Wagon waiting for a Mopar upgrade. Total wolf in sheep's clothing here. The body looks straight and clean and so does the interior. But when you twist the key, 60 is just over 5 seconds away. The first person to pony up $19,000 gets this sleeper, and for an extra $500, the seller even promises to deliver it within 600 miles of his Georgia home. It's eBay item number 130077506291, and there are still 2 days left to make it your own.

Posted by News desk at 03:39 PM | Permalink

Vodafone says that it is to offer the new eBay mobile service to customers, enabling them to keep up with their latest purchases, wherever they are and whenever they wish. The eBay application will be free to download on Vodafone live! or embedded on key customer Vodafone handsets. Launching in Italy initially, the new eBay mobile service will be available across Europe later this year.

The eBay mobile application, accessed directly from the customer's handset, will include the ability to search and browse items, find deals, bid on items and buy fixed price products. The application will be embedded onto key consumer handsets from Vodafone in the future. Customers with compatible handsets will also be able to download the application from Vodafone live! The application will help consumers track their eBay activity in real time on their phone and will also ensure their mobile and web activity is synchronized.

"As we move closer to the convergence of web and mobile, it is essential that we can offer our customers, leading Internet based services, such as eBay, in an easily accessible way, "said Frank H. R?amp, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone. "There is a strong demand from eBay users to benefit from a mobile application where they don't miss the end of auctions and bid back when they are outbid. Today's announcement offers just that and gives Vodafone customers a great service and a clear advantage allowing them to make the most of their time."

"We are thrilled to launch a new rich mobile experience for eBay with Vodafone," said Henri Moissinac, Head of eBay Mobile. "Working with Vodafone will help us build and deploy best-in-class mobile services for our users."

Posted by News desk at 02:52 PM | Permalink