Newswires were glowing white hot on Saturday with the story of a 7 month old baby for sale on eBay.  Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and USA Today all ran the story as did many smaller publications and several baby care and maternity blogs, and Germany’s own Bild newspaper. 

The story also appeared as far away as Australia where the Australian Broadcasting Commission news network ran it, as did News Corp.  Major news throughout UK and Europe ran the story, including the BBC, Sky News, and the Telegraph.  All of which proves that bad news sells, and sells well.  Something eBay should try to remember during all the current changes they’re making.

Associated Press and Reuters both syndicated the story that a Bavarian 23 year old mother had listed her baby son for sale because “he cried too much” and valued him so little she started the listing at just one Euro (approx US $1.50).

The listing was live for around two and a half hours before reports hit the police and eBay, who promptly removed the listing, banned the seller, and passed full contact details to the police in the town of Krumbach, Bavaria, according to an eBay Germany spokesman.

Baby Merlin is now in hospital for observation, and his mother Tanja has to take psychiatric tests this coming week.  She insists it was a joke and done because her husband and brothers thought it would be funny to see if anyone placed a bid.  Police spokesman, Renee Beck stated that despite the mother’s assurances it was a prank, detectives are investigating for evidence of child trafficking.

Personally, I cannot believe anyone could do something like this.  My own son, Edward (that’s him in the photo, taken at New Year) was seven months old a week ago, and the joy he brings to Tan and myself is overwhelming at times.  He is the light of my life and I cannot ever imagine wanting to part with him, let alone in the crass and stupid manner of this “jest”. 

As he’s the same age as Baby Merlin, it really brought home to me the complete heartlessness of a young couple who would try to sell their child as a joke.  I’m hoping the Bavarian child has responsible grandparents who can be given custody and guardianship.

Overshadowing the story about a mother’s stupidity, is just how fast and far this eBay story ran in all forms of the media - imagine if PayPal lose that ACCC filing in Australia next month - will it get anywhere near the same coverage? 

It’s going to be interesting to watch eBay’s PR department go into damage control overdrive on it though, even if they did demonstrate they can act lightning fast when needed to, and full praise must go to them for that.  Can we please see some of those same reaction times when sellers report scamming buyers or feedback extortion, please?

Gaz

eBay.com logo” title=”eBay.com logo” />A years-old security vulnerability in the eBay auction system has been revealed and demonstrated to the world’s press by Falle-Internet.de 

The vulnerability exists because sellers in Germany, with over 500 feedback or an account older than 500 days can insert certain forms of code into their listings.  Whilst the UK and US do not permit this code insertion, users from those countries could find themselves opening or viewing German listings carrying the code, thus revealing a broad list of confidential user data to potential phishers and criminals.

AuctionBytes have run a lengthy and detailed report of the problem, and their blog is filling up fast with comments from readers.  I don’t want to repeat their blog report and detract from focussed traffic that this expose deserves, therefore please visit the AuctionBytes report & blog for full details. 

Other blog sites are also running the story, all of them drawing from AuctionBytes as their source, I’m guessing this will be hitting the offline newspaper and magazine racks later this month.  More bad news for sellers at a time when sales are already depressed due to the changes announced in Washington in January.  It’s also a confirmation that spreading your inventory to additional venues is going to be essential this year.

Ed

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February is a short month, we all know that.  However despite being a few days short of a regular serving, various eBay sites around the globe have never let that stop them from throwing a cheap listing day (CLD) around about St Valentine’s Day.

Unusually this year, only the US (13th March) and Canada (also the 13th) did so (in fact, Canada did it twice (5th-6th March)) - the CLD-addicted UK did not, and there’s been some online gossip it was in retaliation for the severe grief the pommie pinks got in the discussion boards concerning January’s policy and focus shifts.  They got no worse that did the North Americans, and the US doesn’t have Tame Bay’s to gush enthusiastically and favourably about every proclamation eBay makes.

In Europe, the French (1st - 3rd March), Italians (7th), and the Belgians (10th - 11th) had CLDs early in the month, but the UK’s last offering was 24th January, another month in which many countries held double or triple CLD’s and the new UK boss must have put his foot down on UK sellers, needing to get them used to paying full whack on what is already eBay’s most expensive-to-use site (apart from Germany,  but that might swing with the new fees).

However it seems the dry patch is over. 

eBay.co.uk have just announced a Half Price listing weekend for 1st & 2nd March.  Before you fire up the intravenous coffee for an all-night listing marathon, be aware that it’s for Motors only. 

On the other side of the planet, the Aussies have been rewarded with a Half Price listing fest from 29 Feb through to 3rd March inclusive - that’s a 4-day binge of cheapies.  PayPal being offered is compulsory to get the discount, and “Qualifying Sellers” for the purpose of this promotion are sellers who are validly registered members of any eBay site with an Australian registered address - yah, boo, hiss.  The shackle-shakers never let the rest of us in on their fun .

One condition of the Aussie promotion has me a little concerned - a clause I’ve never seen on any promotion-day announcement before - “Persons whose eBay accounts have been temporarily or indefinitely suspended or made inactive by the Promoter during the Promotion, are not eligible to enter this Promotion. “ 

Now call me paranoid and whack me with a wallaby, but that newest stipulation sort of sends the message that eBay Oz will be picking and choosing who gets to have an active account during promotional listing periods.  And as I’ve blogged many times, what gets trialled in Oz, filters out to the rest of us eventually. 

You’ve still got 2 days left of the eBid Half Price Lifetime membership offer, and then every day will be not only a CLD, but a FREE listing day - for life!

Ed

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Following last year’s cut of trans-Atlantic visibility and a year of tweaking and twiddling restoration for specified categories, then cutting it again on UK promotion days, which all came after the much called-for Location Abuse Policy came into force, eBay has apparently handed it’s most prized territories back to the sellers that were most complained about - the Asians.

Starting from 20th February 2008, PowerSellers in Australia, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines will receive the same PowerSeller Incentives (Invoice Discounts) as sellers in Germany, the UK, and the USA, who list on those three as their home sites.  This concession might also apply to China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand but I’ve not yet been able to get translations from their announcements pages.  The wider eligibility has been hinted at in some announcements and comments on the South East Asian markets mentioned first, but I must stress I’ve had no firm confirmation of it yet.

Spain has also made the same announcement, and I expect other smaller European sites to follow suit over the weekend.  Keep watching our main eBay Forum for all the international announcements as they arrive from each eBay site around the world.

As European and North American buyers and sellers pause for breath in the heated forum exchanges regarding the feedback, business registration/address visibility changes etc. how many have looked beyond their own borders for further implications?

On eBay India’s International Selling Forum,  there’s no new threads or comments about the changes, despite prominent links to announcements about them.  The “Selling on eBay” board also has neither threads nor comments about the changes.  In fact, I couldn’t find any discussion anywhere on the sub-continent’s site, either for or against the changes.

In Malaysia, the International Trading Board the most recent thread is actually complaining there’s no benefit to being a PowerSeller, and that being one is no fun.   In the General Discussion board, there’s one thread of discussion with the OP (posted by a western expatriate) having links to the early announcements on dot com.  Most of the posters also seem to be UK & US expats.

Strangely, Singapore’s International Trading Board has neither comment nor posts about the new cross border discounts for Powersellers.  Normally it’s a very lively board (and a great initial source of info for new on-eBay scams from China) .  There’s not even any mention of the topic in the General Discussion Board.  In fact, there’s no discussion at all on any of the Singapore boards.

In the Philippines, the same OP as in Malaysia has contributed to a thread in the Filipino International Trading board but in the context of getting a PayPal account verified, there’s no discussion of the new changes.  In the very active General Discussion board (well over 100 threads started since the announcements)  there is one thread about the changes by the same OP as above (he gets around doesn’t he?), it even has a “pink” posting in it, but it has under 30 posts in total - most of them echoing concerns aired by sellers in the UK & US.

The Australian International Trading Board also has nothing about the changes, nor does the PayPal forum.  In the Member to Member board, the feedback restrictions get their own (currently 3-page) thread and a “pink” response, plus a shorter thread.  The lack of fee changes for Oz has a thread as well, but no replies, from the pinks or anyone else.

So does this lack of on-eBay discussion throughout the Asian region mean that Asians are not that bothered by the changes, or does it mean they’re too busy loading up Turbo Lister ready for February 20th?

In the last quarter of 2007, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the Philippines were added to the range of countries supported by Turbo Lister.  India and Singapore were added in 2006, and Australia the year before that.  China and Taiwan are in there too, but not in English.  With the wider Asian region already having more Powersellers amongst the expatriate community than most individual European countries have at home, has it been fair to penalise these westerners-gone-east in the way that eBay has done over the last 3-4 years?  They were certainly the core user-base that enabled eBay’s expansion in the Orient to progress as far as it has done.  The anouncements of cross-border PowerSeller Incentives may just be the boost they needed to staunch the haemmorhaging towards other channels that has occurred in the last 18 months.

Should Germany, the UK and the US be concerned about a second tsunami of Asian listings in their eBay markets?  I predict they should. 

The first wave were mainly from the expats and from China/HongKong.  Today, nearly two years after that tide ebbed, the far greater number of users stretched from Karachi to Kamchatka, and from Mongolia to Melbourne are locals, and they have grown dramatically from two years ago.  They’re also far web-smarter than the early adopters, and have access to more payment channels having learnt from earlier lessons. 

Many are the new generation entrepreneurs operating from regular business premises, with bank-provided credit card and merchant services facilities, in addition to online services such as MoneyBookers & PayPal.  In northern hemisphere Asia, an incredible number of them undertook post-graduate education in Europe or the States and have bank accounts there with verified postal addresses - overall, the genuine ones will be far easier to trade with than previously, and will be able to offer far more attractive pricing on many products, than could home-based westerners.

The scammers will resurface too, smarter, sharper, and more experienced of what does and does not work - whether it be outright scams, counterfeits, or simply fake goods. 

With the new feedback policy that buyers can only receive positives, and opening the big three markets to PowerSeller discounts for (all?) Asian sellers, the opportunity is going to be just too attractive to the Orient, whether the seller be genuine or fraudulent.  There will be no way eBay could police it all, despite the assurances from Mssrs Cobb and Donahoe et al.

I think it’s time the West began selling to the East, and listing on those lovely eBay sites with zero or near-zero insertion and final value fees.  Our goods will probably have more visibility that way round (and cost a darn sight less to sell at the same time).

Ed.

In the UK, the 5th of November is the annual Bonfire Night and Fireworks Festival, held annually to commemorate (or commiserate) the unsuccessful attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up the British Houses of Parliament, or Westminster Palace as it was then.

On planet eBay, 5th November 2007 will be remembered for many things -

•  India announced a 20% REDUCTION in Front Page Featured Fees which will last for 5 days.
•  Italy announced a week-long FREE listing period for Motors & Motorcycles.
•  Canada announced a 5-week period of FREE Gallery in core listings.
•  USA also announced a 5-week period of FREE Gallery in core listings.
•  USA announced a 5 week period of INCREASED STORE LISTING VISIBILITY in core search & browse.
•  USA
  announced that browsers can use GUEST BUYING to buy on eBay.com without an eBay or PayPal account.
•  India announced MAJOR CHANGES to PaisaPay terms including a maximum delivery period that must be adhered to.
•  Germany announced that seller email addresses will no longer be shown to buyers after a sale, in an attempt to curb harvesting for Spam purposes.
•  UK announced it was changing how SELLER ACCOUNT BALANCES and calculations are shown, this followed closely announcements on several other sites.

All these announcements come hot on the heels of a flood of announcements, during the last week, regarding all sorts of functional and cosmetic changes to how eBay are going to treat or do business with their buyers and sellers.  In no particular order, they included  -

•  eBay Gift Cards launched in the USA with a major marketing program.
•  Finally, eBay saw the light and announced Skype buttons would be allowed on all listings in all categories on the UK and USA sites.
•  USA announced a November competition for Stores Sellers with $2,500 prizes up for grabs, which looks miserly next to Canada’s $50,000 competition.
•  Hong Kong announced the Beta of their site in both English and Chinese, obviously hoping to pick up some international buyers for their manufacturing and exporting sellers.
•  Both UK & USA made announcements regarding re-introducing TRANS-ATLANTIC VISIBILITY in certain categories, subject to sellers meeting certain criteria, which discussions on eBay forums, backed up by comments by UK staff, prove to not be getting applied evenly on both sides of the pond .
•  UK then promptly announced that the trans-Atlantic visibility will not apply to CLD listings, nor to listings inserted between 10am the day before, until 10am the day after a CLD.
•  Meanwhile, almost every site has been announcing changes to the sign-in pages, and Canada announced the launch of a new shipping calculator, which will surely add to the global problems of the bug-ridden eBay checkout’s, combined shipping calculations?.

So, there’s lots of changes going on at eBay around the world, and the general impression is one of trying to improve the safety reputation of the sites, whilst further fragmenting the “global marketplace” that is continually touted in eBay marketing and PR.

There is also an increasing appearance of desperation to maintain volume of listings and the GMV of sold items.  This of course, is perceptual, and should only be thought about with long experience and knowledge of what has been happening on eBay over the last few years.  After 20 months of punitive measures seen as anti-seller / pro-buyer policies (always denied by eBay) the swathe of fee reductions (albeit only for limited promotion periods) brings some welcome relief to the long-suffering sellers. 

The changes and promotions do not change the basic position that eBay has milked and squeezed their paying customers to the point of causing a mass exodus to other venues, whilst trying to set itself up as a replacement for the government agencies that should be regulating consumer protections, and ignoring eBay’s own liability to the people who buy services from them. 

They do, however, show there is a glimmering of recognition that the sellers are no longer happy to use eBay, and that eBay is haemmorhaging the experienced and knowledgable long-term business sellers, who, no longer available to help the newbies, have moved off to their own sites, and other venues such as Amazon and eBid.  Such contractions of user-base knowledge must be having a punishing effect on eBay’s notoriously sluggish Customer Support, especially when coupled with the wholesale banning of many sellers from the eBay Community forums - newbies now have to rely on other newbies for help and advice, much of which is incorrect or misguided.

It would seem that, following eBay’s withdrawal from China,  they are living under the Chinese curse of “living in interesting times”.  Or, have they been preparing for the flotation of alibaba.com, which launched on the stock exchange on 5th November, and doubled it’s market value in the first 24 hours .  It is now China’s largest dot com by stock value, and now eBay’s largest business to business+consumer, online-marketplace competitor.  No doubt now being a public company, it will not be long before it expands dramatically in eBay’s core market regions, and that level of competition may also explain what is becoming a general reduction of eBay prices, by proxy of promotion days.

Ed

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