With a history as rich as eBay’s, even in the relatively short time the marketplace has been around, it is always great to see reflections of the eBay Community across all the many offices of the company. I am attending an internal Global Communications Summit for the next 48 hours that is being held in the North Campus (PayPal) and saw this hanging in the entrance to our meeting hall and had to share.

I love finding these amazing pieces of our community’s history and try to share whenever I can. The quilt came with the following description. Enjoy!

Cheers,
RBH

According to an AB post yesterday afternoon, under the revised agreement:

• Buyers and sellers shall work in good faith during the resolution process to determine that the item is not counterfeit.
• If buyer and seller cannot determine that the item is not counterfeit, buyers are required to send the item back to the seller. Cost of return shipping will be paid by the buyer or eBay, unless both buyer and seller have agreed otherwise.
• Covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded will count as a violation by the seller of our prohibited and infringing items policy.
• If eBay determines the buyer is not acting in good faith, eBay may restrict or eliminate their ability to return items or make future claims.
• Sellers shall not list, advertise, or cause that item to appear for sale, barter or trade, on any eBay Inc. web site or service.

The new User Agreement is effective immediately for new members registering on or after today, and on June 14, 2009, for current members.

Given the less than definitive “he said / she said” checks and balances that have to be conducted in cases like this, it has obviously received mixed reviews. It’s my understanding, however, that due to the guiding principles of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that any 3rd party site, such as eBay, although not responsible for the sale of counterfeit goods on its site, does have a responsibility to remove items once identified as counterfeit.

It’s for these same reasons that eBay instituted the Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program to begin with.

So it strikes me as a tough position to be in, for everyone. It doesn’t look good for eBay if they allow the seller to continue to sell items that have been alleged to be counterfeit. It’s also a tough pill to swallow for sellers if eBay requires buyers to destroy items that could be legitimate but for a buyer trying to game the system. And it’s no fun for an upstanding buyer, when they actually receive a counterfeit item and then have to determine what to do next; destroy, authenticate (and if so, where?), or send back to the seller.

As Scott Shipman said in his post yesterday to the Announcement Board:

These revisions to the user agreement are being made to:
* Provide sellers protections against inaccurate counterfeit claims.
* Provide buyers assurances about the authenticity of the item received.
* Maintain integrity of the eBay marketplace.

Scott’s been at eBay for 11 years so I have to think that he’s got some experience in guiding the business to strike the right balance.

Cheers,
RBH

However, having a unique selection alone is no longer enough to maintain a growing and healthy marketplace. People also want to find inventory that includes the latest and greatest brand name models. As a result, in January, we lowered insertion fees, for all sellers, to decrease the risk of selling on eBay and bring more overall inventory onto eBay.

After a few months observing these changes, it is clear that gaps remain between buyer demand and the supply of inventory on our site. This is an obvious opportunity to delight buyers.

We have chosen to partner with Buy.com because we believe their new-in-season inventory, 4.8 DSRs, liberal return policy, and low shipping costs meet unfulfilled demand on eBay.com. Put another way, we are actively pursuing the merchandise our shoppers want and are willing to experiment with new ways of securing it for this holiday season.

We are closely monitoring the results so stay tuned for next steps. But regardless of the outcome of this particular experiment to bring more supply to eBay, we are determined to create opportunities to succeed on eBay for all sellers who consistently deliver great customer experiences– no matter your size.

Thank you,
Lorrie Norrington
President, Marketplace Operations

Well, it’s been roughly 24 hours since the above photo was taken and we went live and I think my April calendar of blog topics just wrote itself based on the 62 comments received so far. With the exception of editing one sentence in one comment and deleting another comment for profanity, we’ve really kicked it off with a bang I’d say – the lines of communication are definitely open.

I’m pleased to see that there are mostly good discussions being initiated here. However, I do feel some of the comments are veering slightly off point – but it’s to be expected when there are only 4 posts available to comment on to begin with I suppose.

That said, thanks to everyone for getting involved right off the bat. Let’s keep this dialogue going and I look forward to adding more substantial posts based on the issues and discussions raised here.

Cheers.
RBH