eBay has seen a steady decline in page views throughout 2008, and in October suffered a precipitous drop of over 30% compared to the same period last year, according to data provided by Nielsen Online.

AuctionBytes last reported on eBay's traffic numbers in May when we noted eBay's page views had decreased 11.3% year-over-year (YoY) in the first quarter of 2008, dropping from 42 billion page views to 37.2 billion page views. Page views continued its downward trend through October, where they were down 32.6% compared to October 2007. (All of retail took a hit in October 2008 due to economic conditions.)

Page views for the third quarter (July, August, September) 2008 were down 16.58% YoY. This was compared to a 4.22% increase in the third quarter of 2007 compared with the same quarter 2006.

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CHICAGO - A man prosecutors described as a leader in a scheme that swindled thousands of eBay bidders and other Internet users out of $5 million was sentenced Wednesday to 27 years in federal prison.

Adrian Florin Fechet, 39, a Romanian national, received one of the longest sentences in memory for a white-collar offense, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah imposed the lengthy sentence after finding that Fechet was a leader in the scheme and had not taken responsibility for his crime.

Fechet had also engaged in identity theft, Darrah said.

Prosecutors said many victims made unsuccessful bids for items on eBay and were then told in Internet messages from the "seller" that they had a second chance to buy. Such messages, however, did not come from eBay but from other members of the fraud ring based in Romania, according to evidence at trial.
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eBay - The Death of the Common Antique Market

For years now when my Mechanical music friends, mentors, collogues, and myself get together for meetings and other events there is a subject that always comes up. That is the effect eBay is having on them and the antique world. This conversation on antiques always starts out the same way. They start talking about how good the prices for antiques were in the early 1990's. From about 1989 to early 1997 antique prices where the best ever seen. Then the year 1997 came along. This is when the antique market would be changed forever. The launch of eBay was also the death of the common antique market.

Before eBay everything was rarer, harder to find, and in more demand. You only had a few options to buy antiques pre eBay. You could go to your local antique store, auction house, or private sales. With eBay you now have the world at your fingertips; you could see what ever grandma was hiding in her attic. This made the common antique less valuable. For example a Victor VI (6) pre eBay sold for approximately $750 (USD) fully restored, post eBay you can find a Victor VI (6) for right around $350 (USD). This also created a floor in the market instead of only finding one or two of a certain antique now you could find hundreds or even thousands in some cases.

The effects of eBay mainly apply to the common antique market. The rare or one of a kind antique market has been virtually untouched by eBay. The reas ...

Recession 2.0: EBay Seller Worries About UPS

As an eBay seller, I depend heavily on the UPS Store for major parts of my part-time business, so I was alarmed to hear the other night that my local UPS Store is struggling.

I've become friends with the store owners over the last several years, and after dropping off some packages the other night, we began talking about the economy and the financial crisis.

It turns out their UPS franchise is paid off but they are struggling with cash flow issues due to a drop-off in business. The costs of equipment leases, rent, and employee salaries remain the same even as sales fall.

Christmas is typically their busiest time, and with consumers tightening their belts and shipping fewer packages, they're worried about what the holiday season has in store for them.

I would be sad to see their UPS Store close not just due to the personal relationships but also because they provide me with some valuable services.

I prepay my UPS box fees every year in return for a price discount. Not only do I have money sunk into the rental of the mailbox, changing my business address would require a large investment of time on my part. My bank statements, tax forums, legal documents, and commission checks all come to that address, so I would have a lot of work to do if my mailbox no longer existed.

The store owners help me out with estimating shipping costs for and packaging the wide variety of items I sell. They ...

eBay issued a press release to announce that Jack Sheng, founder and CEO of Eforcity, Inc., recently had all four of his eBay IDs (everydaysource, itrimming , accstation and eforcity) surpass the one million Feedback milestone, marking the first time an eBay User ID has reached this volume of Feedback from transactions completed on the site.

To celebrate Sheng's groundbreaking achievement, eBay is adding a new Feedback star to the site. Sheng will be the first seller to have the newly unveiled silver shooting star, denoting a Feedback score of 1,000,000 or more, appear next to his four user IDs on eBay.com. In addition to the new silver shooting star denoting a Feedback score of 1,000,000 or more, eBay has also created a new green shooting star to indicate a Feedback score of 500,000 to 999,999.

eBay President and CEO John Donahoe stated in the release, "Jack represents everything we believe about delivering amazing value to eBay buyers, and we couldn't be more thrilled to celebrate this accomplishment with him.
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Barack Obama, a 47-year-old first-term senator from Illinois, shattered more than 200 years of history Tuesday night by winning election as the first African-American president of the United States.

Obama reached the 270 electoral votes he needed for election at 11 p.m. ET, when NBC News projected that he would win California, Washington and Oregon.

Obama's opponent, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, called Obama to offer his congratulations at 11 p.m. ET, Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, told NBC News. Obama thanked McCain for his "class and honor" during the campaign and said he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them could work together.
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