In a Financial Times article yesterday on eBay's desire to "cash in" on blogs, a competitor in that space laid down the ultimate fighting words: "eBay can't do this because they don't have the inventory." This being letting bloggers list products on their own sites, receiving half of the fees if the product sells.

The competitor, MeCommerce, is selling mainstream stuff -- books, music and t-shirts -- through third-party distributors, so in a way, co-founder Yobie Benjamin is right. eBay doesn't have deep inventory in, say, the copy of Penelope and the Pirates that I might recommend on my own blog.

Claims that eBay "doesn't have inventory" are made to stir up interest, to inspire a second look. And I'm not buying the razzle and dazzle. I am interested in these "cash in on blogging" plans, but it seems all murky, hopeful, and "open source" (which in this case seems to be eBay speak for "we'll let someone else make a decision here"). UK managing director Doug McCallum says "Our approach would be to develop new tools that we can turn over to bloggers, so they can define the natural shape of the marketplace on their own." While it may be "how eBay originally developed," it doesn't give investors much to go on.