Learn How I make up to $11,000 a month on eBay!
WE RECOMMEND THIS BOOK BY MR. OMIDYAR, FOUNDER OF eBAY:
History
Bizarre Items for Sale On eBay! Want a Laugh? Click here! This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book and
confirmed by eBay.) Omidyar had tried to register the domain name "EchoBay.com"
but found it already taken, so he shortened it to his second choice, "eBay.com".
eBay is headquartered in San Jose, California. Meg Whitman has served as eBay's
president and CEO since March 1998. eBay boosters have claimed that in terms of
revenue growth, eBay is among the fastest-growing companies of all time.
More Secrets to Make Big Profits on eBay!
eBay was founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar as "AuctionWeb", part of a larger
personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek
tribute to the Ebola virus. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology
Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. (The frequently repeated story that eBay was
founded to trade PEZ dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in
1997 to interest the media.
Items and services
Millions of collectibles, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles,
and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily. Some items are
rare and valuable, while many others are dusty gizmos that would have been
discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders worldwide, proving that if
one has a big enough market, one will find someone willing to buy anything. It
is fair to say that eBay has revolutionized the collectibles market by bringing
together buyers and sellers internationally in a huge, never-ending yard sale
and auction. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest
products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced
storefronts. Regional searches of the database make shipping slightly more rapid
or cheaper. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay
through the eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program.
In June 2004, eBay prohibited the sale and auction of both alcohol and tobacco
products on the British site ebay.co.uk. Some exceptions to this rule are made
for rare aged liquors, where a bottle may sell for many times higher than its
actual value in alcohol.
There has also been controversy regarding items put up for bid that violate
ethical standards. In late 1999 a man offered one of his kidneys for auction on
eBay, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative (and, in the United
States, illegal) market for transplantable human organs. On other occasions,
people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke. In general, the
company removes auctions that violate its terms of service agreement within a
short time after hearing of the auction from an outsider; the company's policy
is to not pre-approve transactions. eBay is also an easy place for unscrupulous
sellers to market counterfeit merchandise, which can be difficult for novice
buyers to distinguish without careful study of the auction description.
eBay's Latin American partner is MercadoLibre.
Profit and transactions
A screenshot of eBay's Homepage.eBay generates revenue from sellers, who pay a
fee based on the selling price of each item, a fee based on the starting price,
and from advertising. In February 2005 it was announced that eBay would increase
fees it charges to eBay Stores sellers, which caused considerable enough
controversy among eBay users that the President of eBay's North America business
recently emailed all eBay users with news that other fees would be decreased.
eBay does not handle the goods, nor does it transact the buyer-seller payments,
except through its subsidiary PayPal. Instead, much like newspaper want-ads,
sellers rely on the buyers' good faith to make payment, and buyers rely on the
sellers' good faith to actually deliver the goods intact. To encourage fidelity,
eBay maintains, rates, and publicly displays the post-transaction feedback from
all users, whether they buy or sell. This way, the buyer is encouraged to
examine the sellers' feedback profile before bidding to rate their
trustworthiness. Sellers with high ratings generally have more bids and garner
higher bids. However, it is possible for sellers to make their feedback private
and just leave the numbered rating (number of positive, negative and neutral
feedback with a positive feedback percentage), which means that bidders and
sellers cannot see the comments other users have left. eBay also has a
significant affiliate program, and eBay affiliates can, for example, place live
eBay product images and links on their web sites.
Acquisitions
In May, 1999, eBay acquired the online payment service Billpoint, which it shut
down after acquiring Paypal.
In 1999, eBay acquired the auction house Butterfield and Butterfield, which it
sold in 2002.
In June, 2000, eBay acquired Half.com.
In August, 2001, eBay acquired Mercado Libre, Lokau and iBazar, Latin Americas
auction sites.
In July, 2002, eBay acquired PayPal, for $1.5 billion in stock.
On 11 July 2003 eBay Inc. acquired EachNet, a leading ecommerce company in
China, paying approximately $150 million in cash.
In June 22, 2004, eBay acquired all outstanding shares of Baazee.com, an Indian
auction site for approximately US $50 million in cash, plus acquisition costs.
In September 2004, eBay moved forward on its acquisition of Korean rival
Internet Auction Co. (IAC), buying nearly 3 million shares of the Korean online
trading company for 125,000 Korean won (about US$109) per share.
In May 2005, eBay acquired Gumtree, a network of UK local city classifieds
sites.
Controversy
eBay has its share of controversy, ranging from its privacy policy (eBay
typically turns over user information to law enforcement without a subpoena) to
well-publicized seller fraud. eBay claims that statistically fewer than 1 in 200
transactions fail.
Seller Fraud
While eBay has various measures in place to prevent seller fraud, it remains
essentially an honor system: buyers send their money to sellers and trust that
they will receive the promised goods. A relatively small amount of fraud occurs,
but the sheer volume of business passing through eBay means many people are
affected. Fraud has included:
Paying and not receiving merchandise
Paying and receiving items other than those described
PayPal fraud
Credit card fraud
Counterfeit merchandise
Sale of stolen goods
[edit]
Other Controversies
Other notable controversies involving eBay include:
On 28 May 2003 a U.S. District Court federal jury found eBay guilty of patent
infringement and ordered the company to pay US$35 million in damages. The jury
found for plaintiff MercExchange, which had accused eBay in 2001 of infringing
on three patents (two of which are used in eBay's "Buy It Now" feature for
fixed-price sales) held by MercExchange founder Tom Woolston. As of November
2004 this decision is under appeal.
On 28 July 2003 eBay and its subsidiary PayPal agreed to pay a $10 million fine
to settle allegations that they aided illegal offshore and online gambling.
According to the settlement, PayPal between mid-2000 and November 2002
transmitted money in violation of various US federal and state online gambling
laws. Paypal was also forced out of this market, which accounted for some 6% of
its volume. These offenses occurred prior to eBay's purchase of PayPal.
On 17th December 2004 Avnish Bajaj, CEO of eBay's Indian subsidiary Baazee.com,
was arrested after a video clip showing oral sex between two Indian students was
sold online. The company denied knowing the content of what they were selling
and removed the offensive material as soon as they became aware of it. The
Indian government attempted to make the case that Bajaj broke a law under
India's IT Act, that forbids "publishing, transmitting or causing to publish"
obscene material, even though the actual material was never published on
Baazee's servers. eBay is strongly supporting Baazee.
On 14th June 2005 eBay backed down and removed auctions listing the sale of free
tickets for the Live 8 charity auction. Hundreds of people complained about such
auctions, and following a statement from Bob Geldof, many of these auctions were
bombarded with fake bids. Under normal circumstances, selling of charity tickets
is not illegal under UK law.
Trivia
The five most expensive items sold on eBay (as of 2002)
Grumman Gulfstream II jet ($4.9 million)
1909 Honus Wagner baseball card ($1.65 million)
Diamond Lake Resort, western Kentucky ($1.2 million)
Shoeless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" baseball bat ($577,610)
Round of golf with Tiger Woods ($425,000)
[edit]
Largest item
One of the largest items ever sold was a World War II submarine sold by a small
town in New England that decided it did not need the historical relic anymore.
Largest failed auction
One of the largest items ever to be put up to auction and not sold was a
decommissioned aircraft carrier. The auction was placed by an anonymous seller
from Brazil on EBay Motors.
Unusual sale items
In June 2005, Karolyne Smith sold the right to permanently tattoo an ad on her
forehead to GoldenPalace.com for $10,000.
In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Josef
Kardinal Ratzinger (who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005) was sold on eBay's
German site for €188,938.88. The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com
online casino, known for their outragous eBay purchases. [1]
In January 2004, a man put up a Windows file folder for sale, which was at
£10,000,000 when it was ended by eBay officials.
A 16-year-old offered to sell his virginity on the website.
In 2004, a Seattle man posted pictures of himself wearing his ex-wife's wedding
dress. While he initially admitted he was selling the dress to earn some money
for Mariners tickets, the bidding got into the thousands of dollars.
Countless numbers of people have sold their soul on the auction site, getting a
large sum of money as payment for it (Often times people just wrote their name
followed by the appropriate punctuation and the word soul, probably inspired by
the Simpsons episode "Bart Sells His Soul", in which Bart Simpson sells his soul
in this manner).
A common joke item is a "ghost in a bottle" which invariably includes a picture
of a bottle with said ghost in it. The ghost is usually portrayed as some white
steam and is sometimes photoshopped.
There was at one point an auction for the first ride on Kingda Ka, the tallest
roller coaster on Earth. The winning bid was $1691.66, and the winner rode in
the front seat. [2]
A Sydney man pocketed AUS$1,035 after auctioning a piece of Nutri-Grain
resembling ET, in Dec 2004.
A 50,000-year-old mammoth. Weighing in at 250,000 kilos, Max was put up for sale
in 2004 by his Dutch owner due to lack of space and sold for £61,000. A bargain
considering he was one of the five best and most complete mammoth skeletons in
the world, consisting of 90% of his original bone material.
A British man auctioned off an "air guitar" which included a shipping price of
$8.
An empty bag of M&Ms was sold for $400.
The owner of Cockeyed.com sold advertising space comprising a single pixel on
the homepage for 21 days for $100 [3]. The advertisement is still on the home
page as of 9th August, 2005, far longer than the original auction specified.
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