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Anyone interested in selling your life at eBay?

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ian-usher.gifThere are so many weird stuffs you can stumble upon on eBay. Now here’s a cool way to get over your romantic partner and land a spot on Yahoo’s Odd News section.

Meet Ian Usher, a 44 year-old Brit who moved to Perth, Australia in the name of love and now selling practically all his belongings at eBay in the name of love (lost) once again.

The Telegraph reports Usher is selling everything including his three-bedroom house, car, jet ski, motorcycle, job in a rug store (with employer consent) and even his friends to the highest bidder so he can forget the bitter memories he had in Australia after a failed 5-year marriage. You can check out the complete details at www.alife4sale.com.

This so-called “life package” is his clever exit strategy as well as starting fund to start all over again. Usher expects to get £230,000 out of this online bidding.

So if you’re bored with your life, want to experience the adventures of Usher from a first-person perspective, and most importantly have enough money to win the bid, this whole weeklong bidding fiesta will kick off on June 22. Wife sold separately.

Originally posted on March 18, 2008 @ 9:32 am

eBay and MercExchange reach settlement agreement on patent row

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eBay Inc. has agreed to a settlement with MercExchange, LLC to dismiss all claims and appeals stemming from the patent lawsuit filed by MercExchange in September of 2001. eBay Inc. and MercExchange had been engaged in litigation over MercExchange’s patents and eBay’s online auctions and fixed price-related ecommerce operations.

As part of the settlement, eBay will purchase all three patents involved in the lawsuit, as well as some additional related technology and inventions and a license to another search-related patent portfolio that was not asserted in the lawsuit. These assets will allow eBay to further enhance its operations and trust and safety efforts on its ecommerce sites.

Further terms of the settlement are confidential and were not disclosed.

Originally posted on February 28, 2008 @ 1:35 pm

eBay appoints new CEOs for Skype and Shopping.com

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ebay.jpgeBay Inc. has named Josh Silverman the Chief Executive Officer of Skype. Silverman, currently CEO of Shopping.com, an eBay company, brings more than nine years of experience in running hyper-growth global consumer Internet companies. Silverman will join Skype on March 24, 2008 and report directly to John Donahoe, President and CEO-elect of eBay Inc. Michael van Swaaij, who was appointed interim CEO in October 2007, will stay actively involved with Skype. Before joining eBay in 2003, Silverman was co-founder and CEO of Evite, the leading social event planning web site.

Succeeding Silverman as Shopping.com CEO is another eBay veteran, Andre Haddad. Haddad joined the company in 2001, when eBay acquired iBazar, a leading European online marketplace he co-founded and successfully ran in Paris.

Originally posted on February 25, 2008 @ 4:30 pm

Irate eBay sellers to organize weeklong protest over new policies

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ebay-gag.gifAnother trouble is brewing at eBay. Its irate sellers are plotting a strike against the company’s “unfair” policies such as increasing fees and preventing them from sending negative feedbacks to customers.

The weeklong organized protest is slated in February 18 to 25 to preempt the initial implementation of new policies in February 20. The attacks are seen in several fronts from eBay’s own forum to social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.

Acting tough, eBay shows an unfazed stance on this alarming strike. According to its spokesman Usher Lieberman:

We have a passionate community, and we are not surprised to hear them voicing concern. However, when our sellers have had ample opportunity to evaluate the entire package we now offer and consider the traffic and trading velocity we deliver every day, we are confident that they will conclude eBay remains their best business partner.

Unfortunately, the previous strikes organized by sellers were futile due to lack of unity. As expected, many greedy sellers will take advantage of this opportunity to increase sales while others remain loyal to eBay.

Will this end just like those other failed attempts or can it deliver a blow powerful enough to hurt the auction giant’s operations and heed it to listen to their demands?

Via CNN Money

Originally posted on February 11, 2008 @ 4:20 am

eBay to gag sellers from criticizing buyers

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ebay.gifMaybe eBay is so desperate now that it will do everything just to win back its lost customers. Now, it’s willing to suppress open communication with its new feedback policy banning sellers from leaving negative comments to buyers.

It’s very obvious sellers are fuming about this rule. In defense, eBay says sellers are 8 times more likely to send negative feedbacks against buyers. In the words of eBay North America president Bill Cobb:

Overall, the current feedback system isn’t where it should be,” wrote Cobb. “Today, the biggest issue with the system is that buyers are more afraid than ever to leave honest, accurate feedback because of the threat of retaliation. In fact, when buyers have a bad experience on eBay, the final straw for many of them is getting a negative feedback, especially of a retaliatory nature.

Though some sellers and even buyers tend to abuse the feedback system to smear the image of each other, putting a gag on one’s mouth will not solve the problem. It might even worsen the situation. Remember, communication is a 2-way process. It’s time for folks at eBay to use their overpaid brains and think of more intelligent solutions to this problem.

Via ars technica

Originally posted on February 8, 2008 @ 1:44 am