eBay partners with Buy.com

GAILOn 05.08.2008 at 11:12 am Said:

I am both a buyer and a small seller on eBay. From a buyer’s perspective, here’s what I see as eBay’s future in light of this deal with Buy.com. EBay will simply become a portal, like Shopping, Bizrate, NexTag, and a multitude of others. Of course, this is not eBay’s intention, but it’s what will happen if eBay continues to make deals with huge sellers that already have their own sites.

If I search on eBay for a certain item, and find that Buy.com is selling it, I’ll go directly to Buy.com to purchase….and Buy.com offers Google Checkout. So, why bother with eBay when a google search will give me all the pricing comparisons I need.

If eBay’s pricing structure, best match mess, and DSR nonsense make it prohibitive for small sellers of antique, one-of-a-kind, or bygone treasures to survive on its ‘venue’, then eBay will simply become redundant.

Treasures from an estate sale or someone’s attic are what draw people to eBay. IPods and cell phones with ‘authentic’ warranties are better purchased directly from reputable sellers who don’t live in China. One transaction is all it takes for a buyer to learn this, albeit the hard way. Want a 1950s Kitchenaid electic mixer, look on eBay. Want a new one that isn’t a return or a dropped box, go to Kitchenaid.com or your local Target.

Want terrific customer service, buy from a small seller. For the most part, eBay’s ‘preferred’ top tier Powersellers are too busy to even acknowledge an email. But, they’re making lots of money for eBay, and I guess that’s all that counts.

vlpOn 05.09.2008 at 5:43 am Said:

Moderators are now pink slapping posters who talk about this partnership on the eBay boards. Be very careful and do not mention Buy.com by name nor link to it’s ebay store. This will get you pink slapped.

I suggest using ” b.c ” as an way of discussing the company without getting slapped and of linking only to the Inkblog page and telling users that it is the 7th red word in the article (as some old folks have trouble reading this typeface and color).

TheBrewsNewsOn 05.09.2008 at 1:03 pm Said:

Quote from Usher Lieberman:

“eBay is aggressively using price as a lever to improve the value and selection on eBay.com. Consistent with our goals, we have entered into a partnership with Buy.com to bring their new-in-season merchandise onto eBay.com. We expect to learn a great deal from this partnership and we will build upon the results.”

***************
Interesting. eBay is aggressively using price as a lever? Okay, let’s put that to the test. I went to the Buy eBay store and looked around. I decided to do a price comparison on some items. In looking at Buy’s feedback, I noticed that there were several items that Buy was selling but then had to refund because they didn’t actually have the item in stock. So I decided to choose 3 items from the first feedback page where positive feedback was left for Buy. That way, I could safely assume that Buy was able to deliver these items and thus I could compare three items from Buy’s inventory to other competitors who state that the item is currently in stock. Okay, enough of how I chose the items to compare. Let’s see how great of a deal Buy eBay customers received:

First item:
eBay auction number 170214529031
Description: Sharp EL219RII Calculator w/ Tax Keys
Buy’s price on eBay - $47.99 + $0 shipping = $47.99
(Competitor) Keenzo.com - $37.97 + $8.95 shipping = $46.92

Second item:
eBay auction number 170215967523
Description: Navigon GPS Protective Hard Shell Case
Buy’s price on eBay - $19.24 + $4.49 shipping = $23.73
(Competitor) Amazon’s price - $19.99 + $0 shipping = $19.99

Third item:
eBay auction number 150242840961
Buy’s price on eBay - $21.99 + $4.40 shipping = $26.39
(Competitor) TigerDirect.com price $22.99 + $3.99 shipping = $26.98

I find the information rather interesting. Now, I am sure that I could have found these items significantly cheaper from other competitors but I wanted to stick with well-known internet mail-order companies who have a good reputation.

Value and Selection. Interesting choice of words by Lieberman. When I typed those words into my search engine, do you know what came up? What came up first for me was an article about Walmart dated April 2008 titled “Two Neighborhood Markets Bring Value and Selection to the Valley”. I guess Meg Whitman was correct when she said that the customers found in the aisles of Walmart are the typical eBay buyer; eBay stockholders and eBay management are not likely to be purchasing on eBay according to Meg. I have to wonder if she was right. But, unfortunately, I can’t validate her supposition because I really don’t know much about the Walmart customer; it has been more than 8 years since I have been through the front doors of a Walmart.

KDOn 05.09.2008 at 8:42 pm Said:

Cheap, downscale, no frill selling, (that means selling yourself short, to me), will be easy to do on future eBay. This kind of selling will involve very little effort on the sellers part to create a buyer experience of any kind, because there really will be no buyer experience, other than clicking to buy, clicking to pay and receiving packages from the USPS. Nothing more, nothing less.
With this kind of simple, non-personal, automated selling, why even rate with DSR’s? Why any feedback, positive or negative? Feelings about a transaction will be meaningless, so why ask?

Where there is excellent selling, you will find the following attributes: prompt shipping, safe packaging, clear, caring and friendly communications, detailed product descriptions, extra frills (holiday cards, packaging surprises, custom wrap, theme selling, creative sales ambiance built into buyer experience, custom service and niceties, etc.), the ability and time to work problems out on a personal seller to customer basis, and selling with an overall unique business identity that the customer can relate to.

The real “suck up” shops are on Rodeo Drive…not on future eBay, not on big retailer, like a mall eBay.

How can eBay be making all “The Changes”, telling everyone eBay’s only focus is on buyer’s experience and security, to justify the drastic changes? That’s such hot air.
It’s so obvious it’s the money gained by mass selling, subscribing and advertising to masses that motivates eBay. The buyer experience and security, if anything, will be much worse on the changed eBay.

If eBay were concerned about wonderful buyer experience, selling should have been left alone and up to the individual sellers (as they were) on eBay, just the way it used to be. What can be better than near one on one customer service that can be provided by individual sellers where they handle their own business?

Giant eBay made a Giant misTake.

So I say, eBay’s “buyer focus” reason to “change”, is hypocritical and phony. The way it was, provided a unique approach that had a unique ability to successfully achieve great buyer experience and security.

People like to be paid attention to, people like to emotional shop”. They don’t like stark, emotionless, generic, automated buying.

Maybe being that Meg Whitman was a woman helped to keep eBay more fun until now. Most men generally hate shopping and can’t understand the whole concept of loving to spend money. So, maybe the new leader should have been a woman again.

eBay messed around where no man/woman should go after realizing such a successful and excellent concept to meet buyer expectations, while at the same time fulfilling their own gains and profitability extremely successfully.
eBay can’t do this now. Buy.com can’t do this ever.
Only the conglomerate of individual, small seller businesses could do this.

eBay’s is saying, “we are laser focusing on buyer experience”. That just doesn’t go along with the Kmart/Walmart mentality, which eBay says it wants to emulate as expounded in their new plans to create a mall-like “retail selling environment”.

Mr Usher needs to see reality and what a fool he is making of himself. Bigger businesses do not add up to great buyer experience, in fact buyers become more obscure in the commonality of the big retail experience. Plus fraudulent transactions will get so lost in the vast number of transactions, they’ll be written off, while the buyer loses. That is unless the buyer wants to try filling out countless online forms, provide receipts, go through investigations, file more forms and waste a lot of time.

Big numbers, big business, big satellite business, big partner business all means growing profitability. Period.
Mr Usher, please stop telling everyone that you want buyers to have a better, safer experience on eBay, when you really want to get so big, so rich and so powerful.
==================================================
I always believe that God is protecting me and for all of my life it’s been proven to me over and over again, with countless testaments, that God’s love is ever present. My faith, hope and trust in God tell me that everything is really okay, no matter what~

And God is protecting me right now and I need it. So do all the individual sellers that once made up eBay. The eBay that Donahoe, Usher Lieberman and the likes are blowing up to gain for themselves has cost many innocent people their businesses.

Mr. Donahoe tells everyone that the small sellers can go and “good luck on moving” they say, after they made sure the sellers would fail via changes in DSR’s, search, high fees, taking control of selling away, making users invisible to each other, getting sellers and buyers to turn ugly on each other, getting sellers in an uproar and destroying little businesses, hundreds and thousands of innocent little businesses that could not possibly defend themselves against eBay management and three years of their planning every move they’ve made and will continue to relentlessly make for three more years, until they are done taking the old eBay apart, despite that the old individual sellers had no way of knowing eBay was making all the moves to wreck their businesses.

It’s shocking and unbelieveable that anyone can get away with this.
==========================================================================

Usher Lieberman will acquire, “”the smug look of a toad breakfasting on fat marsh flies” (William Pearson).” smile~

Mr Usher…humble yourself. And that’s from the Holy Bible~

“Those who humble themselves will be exalted, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled”
============================================================================
Too many good people have been hurt or devastated by drastic changes, unilaterally made on eBay by new eBay management.
The changes were made to free eBay to change the way the management thought eBay should be to grow bigger.
That would be fine as long as thousands of small businesses didn’t get ruined.
Not one eBay executive, manager or employee thought the fate of thousands of small business sellers, that made eBay and make up eBay, was even worth thinking about, at all.
They all made a concerted effort to just blow sellers apart and not look back.

John over at 3rd Power OutletOn 05.10.2008 at 7:58 am Said:

Hey Usher (or Ursher in Atlanta speak ),

I met you for a sec. in New Orleans and said I was a straight shooter and would give you my unbiased opinion on “thangs”, from my unique perspective. So here it is as one powersellers thought…

My problem has been more with the supposed “secrecy” of how this was revealed more so than the deal itself. I think they (eBay execs.) are genuine in there search for a solution to what ails the site.

Having said that, Buy.com or any other large retailer has got the same issues to deal with as us small sellers when it comes to doing business on eBay. This marketplace is NOT like anything else and buyers here are extremely unique in what they require as a good “buyer experience”. We have all seen the crash and burn of many big retailers and large independent sellers on the site due to factors like, poor customer service, intense competition, low feedback ratings, etc.

If Buy.com is able to navigate the mind fields of customer satisfaction, where others (both retailer and independents) have failed, so be it. If eBay finds a good mix and then is able to pass some of the creative financing “love” for store/core listing fees downhill? Even better.

As long as Buy.com and eBay are playing by the rules when it comes to feedback and DSR’s then I do not feel that eBay has suddenly did some nefarious dealings with us, the small guys.

BUT eBay, next time when you get caught with your pants down, at least appologize for showing us your nudity You guys know that part was WRONG and it demeans the trust between us all.

john

“thats my 2 cents and it is really overpriced”

DaveyOn 05.11.2008 at 6:22 pm Said:

I’m a bit late on this thread, but I find it extremely interesting that BUY.COM is the partner chosen to represent a good buyer experience. This just happens to be the only online commerce company that I will NOT do business with anymore as they may have the only customer service organization that is worse than eBay’s, and the most pathetically slow shipping of all the major players (although budget shipping is free). Need help or have questions to ask about the merchandise? Forget it, unlike smaller sellers on eBay who take pride in their wares.

It will be interesting to find how the feedback and DSR numbers get massaged and if there is any side “deal” to adjust those numbers that we general users don’t know about. Of course, my guess is that their contract fees are quite a bit less than us unwashed masses.

I also wonder why anyone would come to get buy.com’s stuff at eBay rather than BUY.COM’s site itself?

Doctor-DealsOn 05.15.2008 at 4:26 pm Said:

Buy.com “BUY” now has over 424,000 active listings on eBay right now. Over the past 90 days or so they have listed over 110 MILLION items in over 1 MILLION individual listings. Almost all of which were 1 or 3 day Fixed Price Multi-Item CORE listings. Listings that would have cost every other seller on the marketplace between $3,000,000.00 to $4,000,000.00 to run in CORE. An amount far less than even Buy.com’s total sales in this period were.

So unless Buy.com is in the business of spending more money on eBay listings than it generates in total sales, Buy.com is listing TENS OF MILLIONS of items in eBay CORE each month for basically FREE. A “Special Deal” no other seller gets and a distinct marketing advantage over ALL other sellers. The facts and figures DO NOT LIE, at most, Buy.com is paying a penny or two per item listed while the rest of us pay dollars per item to list in CORE.

787 of Buy.com’s active listings compete directly with me in one single category, External Hard Drives. My hundred or so active listings in this category that I spend thousands of dollars a month to list up against 787 FREE or nearly FREE active listings from an internet retailer handpicked by eBay to drive me out of business. Buy.com gets to save over $30,000.00 a month in listing fees to keep just these 787 items running in the category. Because of FREE listings in the CORE search from Buy.com my sales in the category have dropped and Buy.com’s have increased. How am I supposed to compete with a $30,000.00 monthly listing subsidy from eBay to Buy.com?

Let Buy.com compete with me fairly head to head and pay for their listings as I have to. Or eBay, let me list in core for a penny or two per item. Either way works for me, but in a category like this where margins are razor thin, don’t give my competitor a $30,000 a month subsidy so they can run nearly FREE listings at any outrageous volume they want to smother my listings. In fact in the subcategory Buy.com lists in there are only 2179 active listings so their 787 listing represent about 36% of the offerings. It looks a lot like an overwhelmingly disproportionate share of the market for a single seller to have. What about the “Finding Experience” when buyers only have one major seller taking up so much of the category?

EBay, I implore you, make the terms of your “Secret Back Room Deal” with Buy.com public. Rebalance the playing field so Buy.com does not keep sucking business away from 99.9% FB sellers like myself because of their unfair advantage. This is not the type of “Reward” a long time Top Seller like myself deserves.

Thank you,

Doctor-Deals

MechelleOn 05.15.2008 at 6:10 pm Said:

I’m sorry eBay is treating you so terribly- what a slap in the face. Some people just lack basic ethics and any integrity. I am personally an atheist, but if I’m wrong I know where these people are headed, and I find pleasure in the thought.

How can some people be so terribly cruel- I cannot imagine what could be inside these people that makes them feel it is ok to treat people this way.

Of course, the hypocrisy in expectations of customer service is rich in their actions

eBay- you people are rotten to the core- you really should not be allowed to impose your poison on the rest of society. Really you all should be locked up with the other social deviants.

Richard I know your going to take this out, and that’s fine. However, I think you are a good person and it saddens me to know that you will wear eBay’s putrid reputation from here on out in your career. eBay Inc. is no longer a positive perception to the general public or the eBay marketplace.

You should seriously consider if you want to be a party to such inhumane actions toward other people who clearly deserve so much better. Only a cold B****** would read that and not see he is being treated so wrong.

I know some unethical- immoral- inhumane people couch everything in the “it’s a business yada yada crap”, but the truth is eBay is a business, but it’s management act like demons. There is a difference between being a business and being successful- eBay had the success before, but some how the culture of the company, the humanity- just got taken over or was replaced with the ugliest people I have ever seen, heard of, or imagined possible.

My point - consider who it is you associate with, because they shape your public appearance, and I don’t think you want to be viewed the same as eBay. For eBay management it really doesn’t matter as far as they are concerned, but your job is public and if eBay erodes your credibility where will you go when it’s over. No one is going to pay a blogger the big bucks if the public has a sever distaste of the individual.

Doctor-DealsOn 05.18.2008 at 10:39 am Said:

@Richard

A little bit of an update:

The latest data, Week of May 6th - May 12th, has Buy.com listing over 83 MILLION items in eBay CORE in just 7 days for FREE or nearly FREE.

And while their sell through rate on those items dropped to about 0.02%, that is still almost 16,000 transactions where the former active eBay buyer is now going to be incessantly bombarded to become a direct Buy.com customer.

If you have ever bought from Buy.com you know that they send constant, almost daily emails, as well as direct mail offerings once they have a buyer “hooked”.

EBay is basically selling hard earned eBay active buyers off to a competing web site, Buy.com, for a pittance, what eBay might be getting as a FVF on the sale.

I imagine it cost eBay 5-20 times as much to have gained those customers in the first place compared to what Buy.com has acquired them for poaching them on eBay.

I am quite confused why eBay would want to sell off 16,000 active eBay buyers a week, as many as 800,000 a year, to a competing online marketplace like Buy.com.

And at this pace it looks like eBay is giving Buy.com about a $170,000.000.00 listings subsidy annually to flood eBay with items that do not sell 99.98% of the time.

That looks exactly like the “Disaster” in the making that Pierre told John Donahoe would happen if eBay went down this path of “Secret Back Room Special Deals”.

http://ebayinkblog.com/2008/04/29/john-donahoe-interviews-pierre-omidyar/

“Level Play Field” - “Equal Access”….ONLY if you are a competing online marketplace with a few hundred million dollars in annual sales….NOT for long time trusted eBay sellers!!!

Richard, can you get any comments from Pierre, John Donahoe and Lorrie Norrington about the “Level Playing Field” - “Equal Access” & “Losing 16,000 Active eBay Buyers Per Week to a Competing Online Marketplace Like Buy.com” aspects of this “Special Deal”? I would like to know if they share any of the eBay seller’s concerns on this.

Thank you,

Doctor-Deals

PS: Oh, and if I could get that $170 MILLION a year eBay listings subsidy as well, that would be cool to!

BiggfreddOn 05.19.2008 at 12:01 am Said:

EbAy is trying to be like Amazon.

Amazon learned their lesson when they got into bed with Toys-R-Us.

Some people learn by watching others, some have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

BiggfreddOn 05.19.2008 at 4:32 am Said:

“What Pierre is really referring to, in the above quote, are the special privileges, discounts, and search rankings awarded to Power Sellers over other everyday sellers. He believes that eBay allows everyone the opportunity to become a Power Seller”

The only way to become a parfulseller is to sell a bunch of stuff and keep customers happy.

If you’re not a parfulseller, there’s a man standing outside your store telling potential customers the store down the street has what they want, and that you might not be reputable. The store down the street also gets a better deal on the rent.

I don’t see anything level about that, nor do I see where it’s anything like Amazon, the company that many are saying ebaY is trying to imitate.

On Amazon, whoever has the best deal gets the best placement. I have even been given top placement over Amazon itself. Amazon posts FB, too, but instead of warning people that a 4 out of 5 indicates a bad seller, it lets people know that they can order in confidence, because the transaction is guaranteed BY AMAZON, regardless.

BiggfreddOn 05.19.2008 at 11:16 pm Said:

“[removed instructions on how I can report those 6200 other listings, and "It can take up to 72 hours for the Community Watch Team to investigate your report."]”

I don’t understand why ebaY has to rely on complaints from users. Don’t they have anyone there smart enough to type “like new” in the search box and find the offenders themselves?

DaveyOn 05.23.2008 at 7:43 am Said:

I find it interesting with all of eBay’s harping on cross-border selling (including the new fee for international exposure), that Buy doesn’t even ship to Alaska or Hawaii, let alone international, on all the items I checked. Great partner, eh?

Patricia1On 05.23.2008 at 9:37 am Said:

“On Amazon, whoever has the best deal gets the best placement. I have even been given top placement over Amazon itself. Amazon posts FB, too, but instead of warning people that a 4 out of 5 indicates a bad seller, it lets people know that they can order in confidence, because the transaction is guaranteed BY AMAZON, regardless.”

As a buyer on Amazon I can vouch for the fact that the best prices are given priority - the seller himself doesn’t count in that placement….also that they stand behind the transaction. The one problem I had with a transaction prompted a call FROM Amazon (withing 5 minutes of me leaving a complaint and my phone number) and the first words were “don’t worry, we back everything 100 percent and if you don’t get your item you’ll receive a refund within two weeks”. Thems powerful words to a buyer - words that you just do NOT hear from ebay in spite of all their fancy footwork and their fancy ratings system!

Alan WelchOn 05.27.2008 at 4:14 am Said:

Someone PLEASE…Give me the alternative to selling on eBay! We all want, need, desire the ability to make a “living” outside of the JOB we have, eBay was the vehicle to make the change and from what I gather it will no longer be that vehicle.
So… where is the bus to the new “eBay” that we want! I need a ride!
I sit here with shelves full of inventory (No, I am not a large eBay store with thousands of dollars invested)that I need to move to recoup my small (yet still important to me) investment!
Mr. Wizard!! I don’t want to be an eBay statistic anymore…..!

tomOn 05.27.2008 at 10:50 am Said:

The “level playing field” ended the day ebay took away a seller’s right to leave neutral or negative feedback to buyers. A buyer’s feedback now has no meaning, so I predict a sort of wild west atmosphere from now on where anything goes. I saw one buyer in the ebay Communities forum that left 12 negatives for sellers the day this policy started in response to the negatives he had received in the past. And regarding ebay’s decision to stop digital download sales (except for a $9.95 month “classified ad”), the Information Age we live in took a giant step backwards.

tomOn 05.27.2008 at 9:19 pm Said:

There are many alternatives to Ebay. You could try an auction site where many auction sites are networked or partnered together like Bidlynx.com. If a few thousand people would just post their used items lying around the house, it could get a site like this off the ground.

Patricia1On 05.27.2008 at 9:56 pm Said:

Tom - I don’t know what you sell but I believe your best bet is to spread your stock around. There are plenty of up and coming sites that don’t even charge a listing fee. I’m not allowed to list them here but ask around - others know them well. Remember the economy is taking a hit now…this was the absolute worse time ebay could have made these changes. Its made matters a lot worse. I’ve got 3 listings left on ebay and when they’re done…I’ll turn my attention to my own website. I never believed I’d see the day when my website got more hits then my ebay listings! So, look around - don’t stay and keep wasting fee money.

MechelleOn 05.27.2008 at 10:11 pm Said:

@Alan

go to the powersellers unite look at the different auction venues and pick the one with the most listings (not ioffer). You get traffic with keywords- that is why there is traffic on eBay- it is only because we list our stuff creating the keywords for search engines to find us. So if you add your stuff to the most populated of the alternatives you will benefit from all the listings (keywords) that the other sellers have provided, and they from yours.

The ColonelOn 05.30.2008 at 11:20 pm Said:

Quick question on the buy deal here.

How come there is no mention of it in the 10 K?

LegendsOfBatmanOn 06.06.2008 at 11:17 am Said:

Usher;

First, I want to let you know, despite you being paid to spin for ebay, the interview I had conducted with you, I felt you were a relatively decent person.
I say this, because you were polite, and courteous. Much more than I can say about myself.
But, I say “relatively”, because I could not spin for ebay, as I dont believe a word coming from the execs.

But that aside. I’d like to know how you are spinning the numbers with regards to Buy.

Here are the numbers. You can verify them yourself. The source is Terapeak.com:

These numbers were taken from Terapeak and are based on a 90 day history (March 2, 2008-May 31, 2008).
The most current info I have:
Seller: Buy
Total Items Listed: 2,708,987
Total sales: $3,924,907
Successful listings: 64,638
Total Items Offered: 249,431,285
SELL THRU RATE: 2.39%
Average Sale: $44.43
MINIMUM listing fee would be: $270,898.70 (based on the minimum 10 cent listing fee, AND does not include dutch auctions, or Final Value Fees).
Minimum fee, including dutch auctions: $24,943,128.5 Does not include Final Value Fees).

It does NOT take a rocket scientist to see what is going on here.
Ebay is offering Buy.com free listings to pad the numbers to demonstrate our boycott is ineffective. You yourself was quoted as saying how ineffective the boycott was. Based on numbers I saw, ebay lost a minimum of $2.4 million per day, just on listing fees alone. When we add in extras that were lost, FVFs, and store closures, it looks closer to $5, maybe even $10m.
I realize ebay generates a ton of money; which is why I am so perplexed by the greed, and the need to push out sellers.
There is no doubt that ebay’s owned shopping.com (and, yes, Buy IS an SDC company) is padding numbers and pushing sellers out.
Earlier this week, Buy had 44% of ALL items listed in Books.
What was even MORE puzzling is the fact that Buy cancelled MANY auctions at 1am, and many were “dutch” auctions, “because they were no longer available”.
I’d love to hear ebay’s spin on this.
Tim
[Comment edited: see Comment Policy]

SandiOn 06.06.2008 at 11:32 am Said:

and the need to push out sellers.

ebay has a problem they do not discuss for whatever reason. Counterfeits. They lost another lawsuit yesterday.

They are in deep dodo in Europe simply because of the way the court system is (so some of their actions are bizarre in relationship to US sellers).

They are losing alot of money in these court battles and European law holds a higher standard to ebay on this issue than other courts - and european nations have a centralized legal system.

ebay has seen the problem growing, losing more and more suits in European, being find, paying out cash.

Now the counterfeit issue falls onto ebay’s lap - they should have stopped the practice years ago when they were minor. Now it is a monster.

They have two choices that I can think of (maybe there are more but 2 are all my feeble mind could come up with).

1. Expend monetary resources and eliminate counterfeits on the site.

2. Remove private small sellers and replace them with major retailers who are less likely to sell counterfeits.

Which do you think ebay opted for?

DaveyOn 06.26.2008 at 10:07 am Said:

This great partnership with Buy is producing several pornographic listings. Apparently Buy also gets a bye on observing eBay policies that would get a normal sellers’ listings pulled so fast the T&S bots would break the sound barrier:

Here are the item numbers:
180258161717
150263326627

This abuse of the marketplace and double-standards are so against what Pierre said last month in his video interviews, it is clear that the videos were simply window dressing and like Pierre’s Values Statement, are being cast aside.

dimesOn 06.26.2008 at 10:20 am Said:

Speaking of buy.com, I saw one of its Howie Mandel TV spots last night and was amused to hear the VO “Buy.com accepts google checkout.”

Guess it doesn’t want to put all of its eggs in the paypal basket.

DaveyOn 06.26.2008 at 11:14 am Said:

Yes, I have reported, as have many others–so far no action. It will be interesting what happens on the enforcement front. Why Buy does not consider eBay’s policies up-front, I don’t know. Many of their listings have multitides of policy violations that would get any of the rest of us sanctioned, but I haven’t heard of any of them being pulled yet. For those of us who have had listings pulled when they didn’t violate anything, because some bot had no syntactical intepretation abilities, only adds to the burn.

I’m curious how many policy violations Buy would be allowed before being restricted?

If your kids were shopping for comic books on eBay, who would want them seeing this stuff? That’s about the time ebay.com would get into my firewall’s blocking filter.