eBay after the bell 9-19-06: The Yahoo! effect

Yahoo's slide is due to reduced advertising revenve
of big ticket (durable goods).
Ebay is not in this market, as will be seen as the dust settles.

eBay's Myworld is a farce. Why was it even available to be seen? Did you get a leak? Why would any company have a page that is able to be seen but that the links don't work? Why would any company do this repeatedly? eBay is a joke. As I write this, http://myworld.ebay.com now has a redirect to the ebay homepage. This morning you could see the page and there was even a link to it in MyeBay. Not now though. Gone. Pathetic.

This is a comment from Meg this past February regarding Tiffany's suing eBay over fake Tiffany jewelry being sold on eBay. Meg comments that it is very difficult to "police" this kind of activity, and refers to the number of manhours it would take to scrutinize the listings.

Actually, we eBayers have been doing their job for them for months...reporting these fraudulent sellers and listings...and eBay has ignored them and they still remain on eBay today.

I also question the numbers that she gives out...


Ebay CEO Comments on Tiffany Lawsuit

Ebay CEO Meg Whitman says the company's business is changing according to a recent Macworld article. Whitman said over 1/3 of eBay sales are now bought at fixed prices (eBay's But it Now feature) and not at auction.

She also commented on the recent lawsuit from Tiffany's over fake Tiffany jewelry being auctioned on eBay. Commenting on the recent decision by jeweller Tiffany & Co. to sue eBay for failing to take adequate steps to prevent fake Tiffany items from being offered on its site, Whitman said eBay had been "disappointed" by the move as the company worked with intellectual property holders to
combat the sale of fake goods. "Counterfeit items are not allowed [on our sites]," she said, adding that eBay has focused on the problem of fake items. "We have a number of technical tools to help intellectual property owners identify goods and remove them," she said.

Having customers maintain trust in the eBay service is crucial, she said. The number of transactions resulting in disputes is "less than one hundredth of 1 per cent" and is falling, she said. But the company
wants to further reduce that figure. "We will invest in activities to fight the bad guys," she said. Whitman pointed out that the company helps mediate disputes, with customer support representatives getting involved in cases.

eBay may have difficulties removing fake items without increasing costs because of the extra man hours it would take to scrutinize listings.
The article also said eBay is not planning any new major acquisitions in 2006 and they believe they will face increasing competition from Google for both eBay and PayPal.

Posted on February 8, 2006