There's no question that PayPal is one of the easiest ways to send and receive payments for items bought on eBay. But since the online auction site was founded, users were able to send checks or arrange payments via other methods if they were more convenient. Now all that's about to change.

Starting in about a month, eBay will stop allowing users to send checks or money orders as payment for items purchased on the US version of the site. You'll only be able to pay using PayPal, ProPay, credit or debit cards (if the seller has an internet merchant account), or pay for the item upon pickup.

In January, eBay will make sure all of these options are easily available in the checkout section. For example, you'll be able to enter your credit card information to complete a purchase if a seller is authorized to accept credit cards.

eBay tried to issue a PayPal-only requirement in Australia earlier this year, but regulators ruled that the move would be anti-competitive.

[via Ars Technica]

Online auction site eBay has two things that make it different from every other online store. First, it's a virtual bazaar where anyone can hawk their own goods rather than a traditional storefront where a company maintains and sells its own inventory. Second, as an auction site, there's a chance that buyers will get a real bargain, or that sellers will get more than an item is worth.

For a while now, eBay has been offering sellers the option of selling items for a fixed price. This way both the buyer and the seller know exactly how much money will change hands up front. If you search eBay for pretty much any item now, you'll find a ton of "buy it now" listings amidst the sea of auctions.

But now it looks like eBay wants to change the ratio a bit, by lowering seller fees for fixed priced items. This will do three things:

1. Make it easier for customers to simply place an order for an item at a specified price instead of waiting a week to find out if they won an auction
2. Help eBay compete with the thousands of other web stores offering items for fixed prices
3. Kill off one of the things that really made eBay special

Now, eBay isn't really going to emphasize that last bit. But the truth is, the move sort of turns eBay into half.com (which is already owned by eBay). Sure, a few sellers might decide it's worth selling their items in auctions, hoping that some buyer will forget to comparison shop and pay way too much for an item. But if it's cheaper to just list the item for the price you hope to get, why wouldn't you? And that takes a way a bit of the excitement involved in the bidding process.

Then again, with so many people using eBay, when was the last time you really got a bargain as a buyer?

As expected, eBay has banned sellers from leaving negative or neutral feedback. Earlier this ear the auction site announced plans to change its feedback policy in order to discourage sellers from leaving negative feedback in retribution for negative comments from buyers.

On the one hand, this seems like a reasonable measure to prevent sellers from abusing the feedback system. On the other hand, there really are bad buyers out there. Some people bid on auctions and then back out either because they misread the item descriptions or never had any intention of paying in the first place. And while sellers can request a refund for transaction fees from eBay, they then have to either offer the item to another bidder for a lower price or re-list the item.

It would probably make a lot more sense for eBay to allow sellers to leave negative feedback -- but only before buyers leave feedback. That way there's no way to leave a nasty comment in response to negative feedback. Or perhaps eBay could allow negative feedback only after a reasonable period of time has passed, like 14 days or a month. That way buyers and sellers should have plenty of time to resolve their differences before leaving feedback.

[via Wired]

Online auction site eBay is changing its policy on digital items that are delivered electronically. Instead of selling these items via auction, eBay now requires sellers to take out 30-day classified ads for $9.95 to sell digital goods. The change is intended to prevent sellers from artificially boosting their feedback ratings by selling thousands of identical downloads for as little as pennies. There's no feedback involved in the classifieds section, but classified ads will show up in a regular eBay search.

The inherent problem with digital downloads is that there are pretty much no delivery costs, and once you produce an item you can sell it over and over again, which gives sellers the ability to game the system. Of course, we know a few record company execs that don't see things that way. And to be perfectly honest, we're not convinced the classifieds section is the right place for digital goods, because while we don't want to see anyone beating the feedback system into submission, if you legitimately sell items that have value on a regular basis, it would be nice to get some positive feedback for your efforts.

Users can still sell digital goods in traditional auctions -- as long as they provide physical media which requires shipping. If you've got software on a CD or DVD for sale, that's fine. Just don't offer buyers the option of digital downloads or you'll be in violation of eBay's new terms of service. That said, when we checked this morning, there were plenty of auctions still available for digital downloads. It'll probably take eBay a while to clean house.

[via Techdirt]

What if you held a protest and nobody noticed? Unfortunately it happens all the time. And while a group of eBay sellers who are protesting eBay's new fees are getting some media attention for their week-long boycott, the truth is that it's hard to findy any real impact on the auction site.

The boycott launched on Monday, and according to Fortune Small Business, eBay listings are down just 3%. That might sound like a substantial figure until you realize that it means there are 14 million items listed for auction, down from 14.5 million a few days earlier.

Those figures come from third party services, while eBay officials tell Fortune that there's been no noticeable impact at all. And even if there was an impact, would it make any real difference? eBay is still the biggest name in online auctions, and even if the site isn't the seller's paradise it once was, it's still the go-to spot for buyers. So while sellers may be able to stage a one week protest, we're guessing they're going to wind up returning to the service soon with no choice but to put up with higher fees.

While eBay isn't the only online auction site around, it doesn't face very serious competition from any other service, so while there's pressure to increase revenue, there's little pressure to stay competitive with Amazon Marketplace or other rival services.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

Have you ever bought something on eBay only to have a problem with the transaction? Maybe the seller never shipped the item, or didn't respond to your questions. Maybe it was damaged and the seller wouldn't let you return it. Or maybe the item arrived late or wasn't as described.

The first thing many of us would do is leave negative feedback for the seller. But sometimes we stop to think twice before doing that. Because if we leave negative feedback, the seller might retaliate by leaving negative feedback for us. And then when we go to sell something we might find it hard to get a fair price because we have a mark or two against us.

eBay is aware of this problem, and is proposing a pretty extreme solution: prevent sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers. The BBC reports that starting in May, sellers will no longer have the ability to leave negative feedback. Of course, sellers aren't particularly happy with the proposed change, saying it removes a tool for dealing with problem customers who refuse to pay or make trouble in other ways.

But honestly, the feedback system is really much more useful for buyers trying to find trustworthy sellers than vice versa. For the most part, if someone wins an auction, the system is set up so that you have to sell the item to them. So there's never been much reason for eBay to allow sellers to rate buyers anyway.

Want to sell some old junk lying around the house on eBay, but don't feel like putting up with listing fees? The company has announced plans to cut listing fees by up to 50 percent.

The cuts aren't across the board. In fact, some fees will be raised. For example, if your items sells for less than $25, you'll now be charged 8.75%, which is a 67% increase.

The new fees take effect on February 20th and are aimed at the US, although eBay plans to announce rate changes in the uK and Germany soon. The move comes at a time when eBay is struggling with flattening growth and competition from other online auction sites.

Do you still use eBay to buy and sell new and used items? Or have you started turning to other auction sites? What do you think of eBay's current listing and transaction fees?

There's a reason we love to shop on eBay and other auction sites that sell new and used goods. It's cheaper to buy second hand stuff than to walk into a store and buy it in a shiny new package. How can you put a value on that? Pretty easily it turns out.

Two researchers at the University of Maryland found that consumers saved more than $7 billion in 2003. While the team didn't look at all of the data from last year, their model estimates that the number may have climbed to $19 billion in 2007.

What's interesting about these findings is that the researchers looked at data from Cniper, a web service that places last minute bids for eBay users. By comparing the maximum amount users were willing to pay with the actual ending price of auctions, the researchers determine that the average customer was willing to spend $4 more per auction than they actually spent.

So on the one hand, eBay and similar sites are proving their worth by allowing users to save some serious money. On the other hand, the study shows that sellers could be making a lot more money than they currently are. Can we blame eBay for the impending recession? Probably not. But it's always fun to have a few more places to point your finger, isn't it?

[via ZDnet/Reuters]

It's no secret that a good photo can make or break your eBay auction. If you snap a blurry photo, buyers have every reason to believe you're trying to hide something. But if you show that same item with a series of bright and shiny photos potential buyers are more likely to trust you. And if you take a video showing that your old PC or motorcycle actually starts up, you're golden.

Vzaar is a new UK-based startup that makes it easier to insert videos into eBay listings. Unlike other video classified sites like Real People Real Stuff, Vzaar doesn't need to build a user base from scratch. While Real People Real Stuff can only succeed if enough people decide to list items for sale on the site, Vzaar is targeted at eBay users. that want to make their auctions stand out.

The site makes it easy to upload videos from your phone or digital camera. Videos can be up to 100MB and 2 minutes long. You can upload up to 1GB per month. And your videos can easily be embedded in eBay listings.

Of course, you could just as easily embed a YouTube listing, but Vzaar also lists eBay data on its site, including latest bid prices and item numbers. If you're looking to organize all of your eBay videos in one place, and perhaps want to browse through other listings with video, Vzaar might be a good place to start.

Some items work better than others in video. One user is trying to sell his baseball card collection by pointing out that some cards (not necessarily his) can be worth millions, while another has apparently outgrown her teenage crush on Matt Dillon and is auctioning off a binder filled with magazine clippings of the actor with his shirt off.

[via Mashable]

What do you do when you own the world's biggest auction site, VoIP network, and online payment service? Hook 'em all together, of course. Today there's a bunch of news floating around about Skype being integrated with both eBay and PayPal. First is a little screenshot from Random Good Stuff that shows two new PayPal functions in the upcoming Skype 2.5, one for sending money via Skype and one for requesting money. Not exactly mind-blowing, but for people who conduct business over Skype it could definitely come in handy. Second is eBay's announcement last night that it would be integrating Skype into its auction pages. On June 19 a pilot program in 14 of eBay's auction categories will allow sellers to place a "SkypeMe" button on their auctions. Marshall Kirkpatrick at TechCrunch has a list of all 14 categories (obvious: wired networking routers, VoIP/Internet telephony; not so obvious: beds, silver coins, Lost in Space collectibles) and some thought on the offering. Like Marshall, I'm not sure how fast this will take off, if at all.