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Something I learnt today was that eBay will remove feedback if contains mention of Paypal disputes or investigations. A certain seller suddenly fell ill a few weeks ago, and came out of hospital on Christmas Eve to find 18 negatives on his account for non-receipt of items, and most mentioned that a Paypal dispute had been opened to resolve.

After emailing each buyer with an apology and offer to resolve, he then contacted Live Help to see if there was anything else that could be done, as his account was restricted under the Seller Non-Performance Policy.

It turns out that the buyers’ feedback mentioning the disputes were eligible to be removed under the Feedback Abuse and Removal Policy!!

Feedback that meets any of the circumstances below is Feedback abuse and both the rating and the comment may be subject to removal. Feedback that doesn’t meet any of the reasons outlined below will not be removed under the abuse policy:

- The Feedback comment contains profane, vulgar, obscene, or racist language or adult material. Inflammatory language, such as “fraud, liar, cheater, scam artist, con man” etc, while discouraged, will not be removed.

- The Feedback comment contains personal identifying information about another member, including real name, address, phone number, or email address.

- The Feedback makes reference to an eBay, PayPal or law enforcement organisation investigation.

- The Feedback comment contains links or scripts.

- Negative Feedback intended for another member will be considered for removal only in situations where the member responsible for the mistaken posting informs eBay of the error and has already placed the same feedback for the correct member.

- Feedback left by a person who was ineligible to participate in an eBay transaction at the time of the transaction or at the time the Feedback was left. The eBay User Agreement provides that a person may not use the Site if he or she is under the age of 18 or he or she is not able to form legally binding contracts, or if his or her eBay membership has been suspended.

- Feedback left by a member who provided eBay with false contact information (i.e. a false email address) and could not be contacted by eBay. In general, the transaction period is considered to be 90 days from the end of the listing or 30 days from the date the Feedback was left, whichever was longer.

- Feedback left by a member who bid on or purchased an item solely to have the opportunity to leave negative Feedback for the seller, with no intention of completing the transaction. This will be determined on a case-by-case basis, and the final decision will be made by eBay.

- eBay will automatically remove Feedback from members indefinitely suspended within 90 days of registration. Not all suspension types qualify for automatic Feedback removal. For example, accounts that are suspended for non-payment of eBay fees and instances when eBay provides the member with the opportunity to fix the issue (and be reinstated), do not qualify for automatic removal. This will be determined on a case-by-case basis, and the final decision will be made by eBay.

- eBay is provided with a valid court order finding that the disputed Feedback is slanderous, libellous, defamatory or otherwise illegal. Claims of defamation submitted by solicitor do not constitute valid court orders. While such a claim will result in Feedback comment removal, the rating will not be removed without a court order.

This is something sellers also have to be wary about when leaving Negatives for non-paying bidders, especially those that have not responded to the Unpaid Item Dispute.

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Up for auction with NO RESERVE is ‘Vampire’, the jet dragster seen on the BBC Top Gear programme and which holds the Official British Land Speed record at an average, each-way speed of 301mph.

The cars owner helped build the vehicle originally and had lovingly cared for it and driven it since 1981: it is one of three land speed cars he operated. Shortly after the car was wrecked he suffered a near-fatal heart failure and now needs to raise whatever funds he can by selling everything off, including Britains fastest ever electric car – see the other listing.

In first-class pre-crash condition, Vampire is now a little the worse for wear after its much-publicised excursion into the weeds. It is being sold as scrap without any warranty or guarantees whatsoever.

The chassis is bent, the historic afterburning Rolls-Royce Orpheus turbojet engine might run again (there is a comprehensive spare parts inventory to go with the car, including a new jetpipe), and just about every component on the car is damaged in some way. The rollcage was removed by someone post-crash and has not been returned to us. But this is the only key component which is absent from the car, everything else is there exactly as it was last used.

Vampire was built at the Santa Pod workshops around 1981 and has appeared at drag races, exhibitions, air shows and other special events all over Europe. In the past 12 years the car has been driven by its two full-time professional drivers at a number of high profile events. Its last public appearance prior to being crashed was at a UK speed record attempt at RAF Fairford in July 2006 where its owner posted a one-way average speed of 310mph and a peak of 331mph. Its sister car, driven by the teams other full-time driver, had posted an average of 339mph and a peak of 362mph at the same event. It is seen in one of the pics alongside Vampire.

Vampire is currently located about 40 miles north of London and you will need a very large trailer or a lowloader to remove it: the car is just under 30 feet long. We can lift it onto your trailer at this end for you. It may be possible to arrange delivery for a £400 fee plus round-trip fuel at 10mpg within the UK. Mileage will be calculated on the AA’s online routefinder and you will be expected to pay up front for the delivery when you pay for the car. Don’t forget that you will need to arrange to lift the car off the trailer on arrival at your end.

The winning bidder will acquire a genuine piece of UK automotive history who’s demise has been well publicised.  You will clearly need somewhere to store it, so bear this in mind if you decide to bid on it. No viewings will be possible: what you see is what you get. If you bid and you win, be advised that Vampire needs to be removed within 7 days, and that the owner requires contact to be made (via me) within 24 hours of the auction closing.  He prefers cash on collection but a bankers draft or cheque will be acceptable providing you don’t figure on collecting the vehicle until the bank has confirmed that the payment is OK.

The vehicle is being sold complete, as is, and will not be broken up into smaller parts.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150197264730

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Recently, eBay UK have send a number of members a small set of USB christmas lights with the eBay logo that lights up. A number of message boards have had people excitedly announcing their latest piece of eBay-ania!! But the USB lights are far from the only novelty item that eBay have issued to members - people have reported mousemats, mugs, umbrellas, fleece jackets and even flip flops!!

I have a rather groovy alarm clock that was issued to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of eBay, and I also have a time capsule with 11 pin badges celebrating milestones in eBay up to the 10th anniversary - neither are for sale….

 Searching eBay itself seemed like a good place to find this sort of merchandise, but it is a bit rare on the UK site. I noticed that most of the items available were listed on eBay.com, and lo, they have a whole category dedicated to eBay-ana!!

Given how many people wanted to receive some lights but didn’t, got me thinking that there must be a larger market available for this sort of merchandise, and I subsequently found this site - http://www.theebayshop.com/ - a site full of eBay T-shirts, eBay books, eBay pens, eBay Backpacks, eBay cups and even an eBay roll-up calculator!!!

All this would seem to be the sort of thing that eBay members would love to get their hands on, but alas, it’s USA Shipping only…

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A little parody animation followed by a game.It was posted (briefly) on the main eBay discussion boards, before somebody took offence!

http://www.ioffer.com/info/parody_feepay

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This vehicle is a one off Guiness World Book of Records holder( most cylinders on a land vehicle ) 48 cylinder machine hand made by a Ducati enthusiast ( also known as the mad professor ). It is currently held at Red Dog UK a new ( new Ducati dealership of the year ) Ducati dealership in Potters Bar. We are a couple of miles from the South Mimms service area on the M25 / A1M Junct ( 24 )

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260195049651

And seen on YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXGYWSIePf4

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Official Colin Calderwood Manager of the Month Trophy

The Football League Manager of the Month Trophy for November 2007 was awarded to Colin Calderwood. his Trophy has since been in the Nottingham Forest Manager’s Office.

The only owners of these awards are professional football managers from The Football League. This award has also been inscribed with Colin Calderwood’s name and the month he won the award, November 2007.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220185094125

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20 December, 2007 | 10:51AM GMT
We announced a couple of weeks ago that we would be significantly reducing the visibility of listings from sellers with very low Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) for postage & packaging.

We are pleased to announce that this change is now live. From now on, all listings from sellers with a DSR for postage and packaging of 3.9 or lower will be displayed at the bottom of search results, below listings from all other sellers.

This affects a tiny minority - roughly 0.5% - of all sellers on the site. All other sellers will be unaffected by this change.

We are introducing this change as a first step towards curbing excessive postage and packaging charges on the site. These excessive charges deter buyers from continuing to make their purchases on eBay, and harm the success of the vast majority of good sellers on the site.

We encourage all sellers to review their DSRs regularly and to ensure that their postage and packaging is fairly priced.

We plan to make further changes to the display of search results to protect buyers during 2008, including extending the use of Detailed Seller Ratings to other areas of concern for buyers, and we will announce these in due course.

Regards,

The eBay Team

Source.

It’s nice to see that we are given constructive advice on how to improve the DSR for postage an packing - given that according the the star rating “Fair” would be a 3 - which is under the acceptable threshold….

It’s also worth bearing in mind that for new sellers of low value items, it would be easily possible for a competitor to maliciously buy a number of items, leave positive feedback, but low DSR’s - resulting in lower exposure for their future items. Conversely, for high volume sellers with close to the limit DSR’s, it would take many hundreds, if not thousands of straight 5’s to move their level higher, and this is difficult enough at the best of times as even sellers offering “Free Postage” are rarely seen with a DSR score of 4.8 or 4.9, let alone 5.

 2008 is likely to bring further “improvements to the buying experience” related to DSR numbers - and probably all just as well thought out and implemented as this.

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Hello. This is Kristina Klausen from the eBay Shipping Team. As we enter the busy fall and holiday season we know that buyers are looking for great deals on eBay – including fair prices on shipping. To encourage the use of fair shipping prices, we’ll be launching a number of programs and changes over the next few weeks.

A new sort option for buyers - “Price + Shipping”
Starting next week, we’re replacing the existing “Price” sort option with “Price + Shipping” sort in most categories. (For buyers using the new Finding experience in the Playground or as part of a test, it will be available later.) This new “Price + Shipping” option organizes search results by factoring in the item’s price PLUS the cost of the shipping & handling. The sort can be ordered highest to lowest or lowest to highest.

We’re making this change to help [u]improve the buyer experience on eBay[/u]. We know some buyers become frustrated shopping when they find deceptively low priced items that have high shipping costs. “Price + Shipping” sort allows buyers to see a better representation of the total cost of the item they are considering bidding on or purchasing.

For sellers, “Price + Shipping” sort makes items with reasonable shipping costs more visible to buyers than those listings with unreasonable shipping costs.

Source.

Another move to improve the buying experience, but in reality it’s a revenue raiser for eBay.

There is no such thing as “Free Shipping/Postage” - it’s simply included in the price of the item. In order to offer “free shipping” the seller will need to start the listing at a higher Starting Bid, or higher BIN price, therefore a higher insertion fee will need to be paid.

Secondly, the final selling price will be higher than an identical item with postage extra, which means eBay collect a higher final value fee.

The lure of higher exposure may be fine for certain sellers, but what about those selling heavy items, or products requiring specialist packaging/handling? I don’t see any mention of financial incentives for sellers to offer this.

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One of the local delivery offices in Burslem, Stoke on Trent, has this week started  a 2 week strike period, due to finish on January 2nd. It is in support of 12 colleagues who have been suspended over bullying and harrasment allegations.

This will affect any mail going in or out of the ST6 postcode area, although contingency plans are in place to attempt to reduce disruption, but it may be worth contacting any buyers you have in this area to remind them of the problem. Likewise, any sellers would be best going to a Post Office outside of the ST6 area, such as Kidsgrove or Newcastle to ensure items are despatched without coming into contact with the affected office.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/7149284.stm

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What is it?

For the entire day of Saturday 29th December 2007 (local UK time), sellers who list one or more items in an eligible category using the Auction-style, Auction-with-Buy It Now or Buy It Now Only (Fixed Price) formats will pay a 10 pence Insertion Fee per item they list. Please see below for more details.

When is it?

Saturday 29th December 2007 from 00:00:01 GMT until 23:59:59 GMT (promotional period).

What’s included?

Only items listed in British Pounds Sterling on eBay.co.uk using the Auction-style, Auction-with-Buy It Now or Buy It Now Only (Fixed Price) formats are included. 
Sellers can list items with any starting price to qualify for the promotion.
Any item previously scheduled to go live on Saturday 29th December 2007 will qualify for the promotion.
If sellers re-list an item on Saturday 29th December 2007 that had previously closed without a successful sale, the re-listed item will qualify for the promotion. If the re-listed item sells and is eligible under the eBay re-list policy, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee at the Promotional Insertion Fee price of 10 pence.
Items listed in the ”Parts & Accessories” sub-categories of the Motors Category are included.
Items listed in the Photography and Toys & Games categories are included.

What’s excluded?

Apart from items listed in the “Parts & Accessories” sub-categories of the Motors Category (detailed in the “What’s Included?” Section above), all other items listed in the Motors Category are excluded.
Items listed in the “Residential Property” sub-category of the “Home & Garden” category.
Items listed in the “Mobile Phones with Contract” sub-category of the “Mobile & Home Phones” category.
Items listed using the eBay Express Only format.
Multiple-Item listings in all formats. This includes both Auction-style (also known as Dutch Auctions) and Fixed Price formats. See the full details about Multiple-Item listings.
Identical listings that do not comply with our Duplicate Listings policy. See the full details about our Duplicate Listings policy.
Shops Inventory Format listings. See the full details about listing items using the Shops Inventory Format.
Any item listed on Saturday 29th December 2007 but scheduled to start after the promotional period will NOT qualify for the promotion.
Any items listed which do not comply with eBay’s Listing Policies or Prohibited and Restricted Items Policies.
Only the basic eBay Insertion Fee will be 10 pence. All other eBay fees will still apply, including but not limited to Final Value Fees, optional Reserve Price Fees and all Listing Upgrade Fees such as “Gallery”, “Subtitle”, “Bold” or “Highlight”. See the full details about eBay fees. 
Sellers listing using the Auction-with-Buy It Now format will still be charged the Listing Upgrade Fee for Buy It Now.

Source

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