A Norwegian Internet radio site has been shut down pending an FBI investigation of a possible attempt to swindle customers of the eBay Web auction house, the company hosting the site said Wednesday.

"EBay had found a possible swindle attempt, and contacted the FBI. Then they contacted us, and we shut down the account immediately," Trond Didrichsen, of the site host lettnett.no, said by telephone.
 
Neither the operators of the NordicRadio Internet site, which was closed Tuesday, nor the Web host company were suspected of direct involvement in attempted fraud. However, Didrichsen said one member of the NordicRadio staff was being investigated by the FBI.

The fraud attempt involved copying eBay's Internet pages and posting them via the NordicRadio site, in the hope that customers of the auctioneers would unwittingly reveal personal information, such as credit card numbers, to swindlers.

Such attempts are often called phishing. Didrichsen said the attempt could have been by a hacker with no connection to the radio site, and that it was not clear whether anyone had been duped.

NordicRadio manager Daniel Anundsen told the Internet edition of the Oslo newspaper Aftenposten that he had no reason to suspect his employee, who voluntarily went on suspension, of any wrongdoing.

"I talked to him and he has no idea what this is about," Anundsen told the newspaper.

Didrichsen said he suspected that a hacker had broken into the site and misused its Web pages.

"They'd have to be good, but it can be done," he told The Associated Press. "They could sit anywhere in the world and do it."

He said the radio station would be allowed back on the Internet as soon as it is was cleared of involvement in the attempted scam.

Two men and one woman were sentenced to prison terms Tuesday after pleading guilty to defrauding home improvement giants The Home Depot Inc. and Lowe's Companies Inc. of more than $200,000 by selling improperly obtained store cards and merchandise on eBay.

David Oliver, 36, was sentenced to three years, 10 months in prison. Accomplices Mindy Oliver and Marcus Abercrombie were both sentenced to one year, eight months in prison, according to a statement from David E. Nahmias, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.

eBay did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Olivers were ordered to pay $229,127 in restitution to the two companies, and Abercrombie was ordered to forfeit over $186,000 to compensate Lowe's and Home Depot, according to the statement.

The three were accused of operating a scam at stores in five states beginning in March 2002. The scam involved switching bar codes of high-priced items with those from lower-priced items, allowing them to purchase the expensive items at a reduced price. The three would then return the high-priced items for store credit in the form of store debit cards, and then fence the cards and merchandise purchased with the debit cards on eBay.

The U.S. Secret Service investigated the case.

eBay, which conducts tens of millions of auctions at any one time, has been found to be a frequent outlet for those hoping to fence stolen wares. In May, the Washington Post reported on the story of Karen Todd, a Census Bureau employee and mother of two who found an Apple iPod and laptop computer that had been burgled from her home for sale in an eBay auction.

eBay policy strictly prohibits the sale of stolen goods on the company's auction network. The company provides law enforcement with records about pending and past listings of sellers suspected of fencing stolen goods, according to information on the eBay Web site.

The entrepreneur from Largo, Fla., sells roughly $250,000 worth of baubles every month on the auction site. But the revenue Jansma gets from eBay has declined over the past year, and in January the company raised fees, denting his profits.

To compensate, he added inventory on his own site, gemaffair.com, which sells about $60,000 worth of pearls and other luxuries each month. In November, he opened an account with Overstock.com, where he sells $35,000 in merchandise per month. In February, he began selling on Amazon.com, where sales have more than doubled each month.

"I hope eBay gets the message: People have choices, and if we're not happy, we'll look elsewhere," Jansma said. "I hope eBay will rise to the occasion."

With roughly 150 million registered users, eBay ranks among the world's most powerful companies, online or otherwise. It had more than 1.4 billion items listed last year. For every $100 spent online worldwide, $14 was spent on eBay.

But some say eBay's blockbuster growth has engendered arrogance.

Entrepreneurs say executives pander to big-ticket electronics vendors and industrial manufacturers - not the teddy bear enthusiasts and numismatists who were faithful a decade ago, when eBay was founded and enjoyed a kitschy obscurity. They complain about shoddy service, including site crashes and anti-fraud software that too often mistakes a legitimate business for a huckster.

Meanwhile, eBay executives are looking for new revenue as growth slows in North America and competition heats up from Amazon, Yahoo Inc., Google Inc. and plucky startups. Business experts agree that eBay faces daunting obstacles, such as cracking the nascent Chinese e-commerce market and broadening the audience for PayPal, the online payment division that still does 71 percent of its transactions through eBay.

"They've made good strides but haven't fully monetized other opportunities," said David Edwards, an analyst at American Technology Research in San Francisco. "The nature of a marketplace is that once you have a critical mass, it tends to stick, and there's not a lot that can unseat it. But that's not to say that eBay doesn't have significant challenges ahead."

EBay foes concede that it would be nearly impossible to eclipse the world's largest online auction company, but that hasn't stopped them from carving out niches where they perceive eBay to be weak.

Take fraud, for example. EBay says less than one-hundredth of 1 percent of all listings are fraudulent, but scammers target high-priced items such as plasma TVs, and some victims have lost thousands of dollars. Although eBay's fraud-detection software alerts internal investigators of suspicious listings, executives say it's impossible to police a site receiving as many as 2,000 new listings per second.

By contrast, Chicago-based UBid Inc. verifies addresses and checks bank references for all 3,700 of its sellers. Service representatives place random orders to ensure prompt delivery, Chief Executive Officer Bob Tomlinson said.

EBay also has gained a reputation as unresponsive to complaints, a company that acts like an unregulated monopoly and only recently has extended an olive branch.

In mid-January, eBay warned sellers in a terse e-mail that the monthly fee to operate a "Basic eBay Store" would increase from $9.95 to $15.95 and standard listing fees would double, to 40 cents. Sellers peppered eBay executives with angry mail, forcing the company to reduce some fees.

EBay CEO Meg Whitman acknowledges that some of eBay's user relationships have been difficult. But the company, which routinely flies in buyers and sellers for focus groups, has "redoubled" efforts to be innovative, she said. "Sometimes it's a little bit like being a politician," she said. "We have work to do in understanding our users' sentiments."

Bill Cobb, president of eBay North America, said the company would try to mollify disgruntled sellers with a new rule. If a winning bid comes from someone who has no intention of paying, the seller's rating will not suffer in eBay's "feedback" feature. Sellers often complain of too many fake bidders, particularly on cultural zeitgeist items.

But eBay's contrition might be too late. Salt Lake City-based Overstock.com launched an auction site eight months ago that addresses complaints from eBay sellers partly by charging roughly one-third of eBay's listing and transaction fees. It has 225,000 listings, from tractors to sneakers.

Holly MacDonald-Korth, senior vice president of Overstock auctions, takes calls directly from sellers. By contrast, eBay only stopped sending automated e-mail responses to sellers in February.

"Larger sellers give us a depth of inventory that we need, but the smaller sellers really give us the flavor," MacDonald-Korth said.

The bidder, according to published reports, is Mohnish Pabrai, managing partner of Pabrai Investment Funds in Lake Forest, California.

On Sunday, he could not be reached immediately for comment.

The auction on eBay Inc. began on Thursday, and closes on June 30 at 10 p.m. EDT.

Since 2000, Buffett has donated lunches to benefit the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco non-profit organization that offers programs for the poor, hungry and homeless.

The lunches began after Buffett's wife Susan, who died last year, introduced him to the affiliated Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. Until moving to eBay in 2003, the auctions were held in San Francisco.

As in previous years, Buffett will host the winner and up to seven friends for lunch in either Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett lives and works, or in New York.

In 2003, David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager at Greenlight Capital LLC, won lunch with a $250,100 bid. Last year's winner, Singapore resident Jason Choo, made a $202,100 bid, and later increased his total donation to $250,000.

In a Thursday interview on CNBC television, Buffett called Glide "one of the most remarkable charities in the country."

The billionaire, known for his folksy manner and long-term approach to investing in companies he considers undervalued, runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc.

Trying to make eBay as attractive and comprehensive as possible for small businesses that represent a huge portion of eBay's revenue, the auction company is offering to help customers create their own Web sites to complement their eBay presence.

The move comes at a crucial time for eBay. The company this month is celebrating its 10th anniversary, amid growing customer complaints about everything from lack of attention and reduced sales volume to recent price hikes and potentially better deals from rivals.

Those online auction rivals include Overstock.com, Amazon, uBid and Yahoo, and some have viewed recent eBay price hikes as their opportunity to woo a disenchanted eBay installed base.

Recent moves—including eBay's purchase of Shopping.com—have now been met with a new program to help eBay sellers have their own Web sites as a complement to their eBay space.

Many of eBay's sellers are small companies that often do not have any Web presence other than eBay. The more those sellers are locked into an eBay environment, the less likely they will be to work with rivals. 
 

The service is dubbed ProStores, and eBay describes it as helping sellers launch their own sites integrated with eBay "customized with its own branding, categories and unique Internet address," according to the eBay statement announcing the service.

"And for the thousands of eBay sellers who already use an eBay store, ProStores integrates with their existing store, allowing them to manage listings and inventory for both stores and accept PayPal for payments," the statement said.

Buffett has since 2000 donated lunches to benefit the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco non-profit organization that offers programs for the poor, hungry and homeless.

"It has meant to us a relationship with a very powerful person who undoubtedly feels very strongly about our programs," said the Rev. Cecil Williams, who heads the Glide foundation and affiliated Glide Memorial United Methodist Church.

"He's always there, helping, reaching out, wanting to know how we're doing." Williams said he speaks with Buffett four times a year.

The auction began Thursday at 10 p.m. EDT. Forty-five seconds later, "miraclemuffins" opened the bidding at $25,000. As of 4 p.m. EDT on Friday, the highest bid, $53,099, came from "mpabrai." The auction closes on June 30 at 10 p.m. EDT.

The lunches began after Buffett's wife Susan, who died last year, introduced him to the church. Until moving to eBay, the auctions were held in San Francisco.

In a Thursday interview on CNBC television, Buffett called Glide "one of the most remarkable charities in the country."

As in prior years, Buffett will host the winner and seven friends for lunch in either Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett lives and works, or in New York.

Last year's winner, Singapore resident Jason Choo, made a $202,100 bid, and wrote another check to increase his donation to $250,000. In 2003, David Einhorn, a hedge fund manager at Greenlight Capital LLC, won with a $250,100 bid.

"It has the 'wow' factor of how much someone would really pay, and the curiosity of what Warren might talk about," said Thomas Russo, a longtime Berkshire investor. "People willing to put down a quarter of a million dollars to lunch with Warren Buffett are a very rare breed."

Buffett, known for his folksy manner and long-term approach to investing in companies he considers undervalued, runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc..

With a recent net worth of $44 billion, he trails only Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft Corp., on Forbes magazine's list of the world's richest people. Gates is a Berkshire director and bridge partner of Buffett's.

Glide's Williams said he didn't expect ongoing investigations into Berkshire's General Re Corp. reinsurance unit to affect the auction.

Buffett told CNBC the winning bidder will set the lunch's agenda. The billionaire said he'll basically talk about anything except what Berkshire is buying.

"You could get a very long lunch, and you could even get dessert if you ate well," Buffett joked.

An Internet casino on Wednesday added a Lawrenceville man's water-stained plaster panel bearing what he calls the likeness of Jesus to its collection of "weird" items, including the famed Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich.
Jeffrey Rigo, 30, an Internet network engineer, noticed the water stain next to his shower June 11, removed the panel and auctioned the item on eBay.

Rigo rejected several bids and required future bidders to be pre-approved by him after two potential buyers, whose ability to pay was in question, drove the price over $320,000.

There were no additional bids until Tuesday when goldenpalacecasino.com offered Rigo's original asking price of $1,999.99.

Drew Black, spokesman for the Antigua-based casino, said the company is interested in collecting "weird" items that grab the public's attention.

"This water stain from the shower just fit right in with the other purchases we've made,'' Black said. "For us, it's a no-brainer. The public is interested in these things, and we get the exposure."

The company is planning a traveling museum that will appear in cities nationwide, Black said. Among the items the casino has purchased that might be on display are a pretzel shaped like the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus, a pregnancy test that Black said belonged to Britney Spears and a potato shaped like the head of Who guitarist Pete Townsend.

After Rigo discovered the water stain, he used a rotary tool to cut out that section of wall and found a water leak. He then made a box, filled it with plaster and placed the "Shower Jesus" inside to dry.

Rigo couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

In November, goldenpalacecasino.com paid $28,000 for a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich auctioned on eBay by a Florida woman who said the sandwich -- missing a bite -- bears the image of the Virgin Mary. The sandwich is on display at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Black said.

Eager to find new sources of income beyond its popular online auction format, eBay Inc. launched a new service today that encourages small- and medium-sized sellers to build Web stores that operate independent of the e-commerce powerhouse.
 
EBay's new ProStores service will allow sellers to design their own fixed-price e-commerce site with a unique Web address. The service, which costs $6.95 per month with fees ranging from .5 percent to 1.5 percent of transactions, will allow users to link their custom-built site to their eBay site and use PayPal, eBay's popular online transaction service.

The move, which eBay announced at the start of its annual shareholder meeting here, comes as revenue growth slows in the company's core auction format — particularly in the United States and Germany, where eBay's market penetration is nearing saturation. The San Jose-based company has been aggressive about expanding into emerging markets such as China and India, but it also has experimented with online classified advertisements, real estate and other new business ventures to try to maintain double-digit revenue increases in the lucrative e-commerce markets of North America and western Europe.

For several years, eBay employees have been charged with expanding the company beyond an online auction — including creating services that transform eBay into a sort of consulting service for small business owners looking to build their e-commerce presence, said Michael Dearing, eBay senior vice president and general merchandise manager.

About one in three of eBay's largest sellers — such as those who sell entire lines of discontinued clothes from China and computer vendors who sell millions of dollars of equipment each month — operate their own e-commerce stores. But the hundreds of thousands of smaller sellers, who hawk everything from handmade sweaters to Pez dispensers, often don't have sites other than their eBay store, Dearing said.

"We are all about helping sellers succeed online, and we're building products and services to help them do that," Dearing said in a phone interview Thursday morning. "The marketplace will continue to be a foundation for a long time, but we know that sellers are interested in finding buyers all over the place and this can help them do that."

The new service comes about a half-year after the San Jose-based company enraged many small-scale sellers with a hefty price hike that threatened to dent their profits. In mid-January, eBay warned sellers in a terse e-mail that the monthly subscription fee for people who operate "Basic eBay Stores" would increase from $9.95 to $15.95, and the fee for a standard listing of 10 days would double, from 20 cents to 40 cents.

After sellers peppered executives with angry phone calls and e-mails for several weeks, executives relented with a conciliatory gesture that reduced some fees. In February, executives also promised to boost customer support services for small sellers in the United States and Canada, who have long complained that eBay had become unresponsive to their concerns and focused mainly on wooing million-dollar vendors, known as "PowerSellers."

INTERNET-users looking to offload their wares are turning away from auction sites such as eBay in favour of other electronic platforms, according to new figures.
Over the past two years, individuals and companies that sell their goods online have shifted their allegiance to other websites, including search engines such as Google.

The figures, compiled by Vendio Services, show that 21.9 per cent of online sellers surveyed by the American software group are considering selling through online auctions this year. This compares with 25.6 per cent of respondents surveyed in 2003.

EBay has attracted a strong core of individuals and companies that use the auction site as one of their key sales channels, holding auctions to sell their goods.

The company estimates that about 430,000 people in the United States make part or all of their living from the site.

However, some sellers complain that the charging structure, which requires sellers to pay a fee for listing their product and pay a commission on its sale, is forcing them to move their business elsewhere.

The survey found that online sellers increasingly are looking to independent websites to find buyers, with 46.3 per cent of respondents looking to this channel this year, against 43.2 per cent in 2003.

Amazon is thought to be a key beneficiary, as the company does not charge a listing fee for products being sold alongside its own products. Search-engine advertising also looks set to steal market share: the survey found 22.3 per cent of respondents looking to search engines this year against 18.5 per cent two years ago.

While eBay remains the industry giant, analysts say that increasing competition is posing a threat to its future growth.

Hundreds of thousands more people will be able to enjoy the Live8 concert at Hyde Park.

Giant screens are being set up to relay the show to fans without tickets.

More than 150,000 fans are already set to squeeze into the fenced-off area in the park. 
 
The new measures could mean more than half a million people will be able to see the concert on screens set up throughout the 350-acre park.

Bob Geldof, the man behind the series of concerts designed to highlight poverty in Africa, let slip the plans as he was awarded an honorary degree.

At the ceremony in Dublin he said: "I'm not supposed to talk about this but other people tell me there are arrangements to allow hundreds of thousands more into the park on the day."

The Evening Standard understands that three large screens will be set up alongside the Serpentine to accommodate those who missed out on the text message ticket lottery.

"There will be giant screens with PA systems in other parts of the park so families can enjoy the day," said a source.

It is understood that police have asked for the contingency set-up, based on previous experiences with large popular events such as the Queen's Jubilee concert-outside Buckingham Palace. As happened then, thousands of people are expected to descend on the site despite not having tickets, creating a possible safety and security risk if they crowd around the fenced-off area.

Screens are already due to be erected in Birmingham, Manchester and other locations to relay the 2 July concert around Britain.

More than two million text messages were sent as music fans scrambled to get the tickets available for the event, which will feature U2, Madonna, Joss Stone and Robbie Williams, among others. With one in 27 attempts being successful, dozens of tickets are now exchanging hands on the black market for as much as £1,000.

Geldof also announced that new concerts will take place in Tokyo, Toronto and Johannesburg, with details due to be confirmed tomorrow.

Geldof said: "Three weeks ago Europe agreed, unbelievably, to double aid, throwing the ball back to the Yanks, the Japanese and the Canadians.

"So that forced me now to do, which I didn't want to do, concerts in Tokyo and Toronto, which we are announcing tomorrow."

He added: "We will also announce Johannesburg tomorrow, which will be Live 8 Africa, which Mandela, if he is well enough, will bring to the world."

The other Live 8 concerts already confirmed are to take place in London, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome and Berlin, all on 2 July. The concerts are designed to coincide with the G8 summit of world leaders meeting at Gleneagles near Edinburgh.

In 1969 the Rolling Stones attracted 250,000 people for their free concert in the park. The gig was expected to attract 50,000 fans but police later estimated that 5 times that amount turned up.

Fans toasting a jury's decision to find the “King of Pop” not guilty say the grilled bread, which is going for up to US$300 (RM1,140) per slice, magically popped out of their toasters at the exact moment Jackson was acquitted a week ago. 

“This is a wonderful memento of this historic day that you will cherish for years to come,” boasted one seller on the eBay online auction site. 

“As I was watched the jury's verdict being announced on June 13, 2005, my toast popped up just as Michael was acquitted!,” said another enterprising seller trying to cash in on Jackson's vindication on all charges against him. 

One slice of toast, bearing an elaborate image of the singer's face, complete with trademark hairstyle and round glasses, has fetched US$300 in offers. 

Another slice, from the same toaster in the midwestern state of Illinois, had notched up US$200 (RM760) in bids after the seller urged buyers to “Bid Now To Have This Holy Toast!” 

A less fortunate fan toasting the King of Pop had garnered only US$7.50 (RM28.50) in bids for his twin slices featuring the words “Yeah” on one and “Not Guilty!” on the other that he said popped up just before Jackson was acquitted. 

“I was shocked, so I saved it and waited and then today at 4.30pm my time it came on the news and there it was Michael Jackson is found NOT Guilty! 

“What a find. I could not believe that the morning of the verdict it was on my toast FIRST!,” the owner of the holy slice crowed. 

The auction of images of the pop icon on breakfast food comes seven months after a 10-year-old grilled cheese sandwich apparently bearing the image of the Virgin Mary caused a bidding war when it was offered for sale on eBay. 

The holy sandwich fetched a bid of US$22,000 (RM83,600) before the online auction house disqualified it

Alan Horner has had the pleasure of his wife's long hair for 12 years. He washes it three times a week and caresses it constantly. Kusmuryarti Horner's nearly 6-foot locks stretch down her spine and extend longer than her 5-foot-1 frame.

But now Kusmuryarti, 31, is going to let down her brown hair, cut it off, pack it up and sell it on eBay.
 
The Horners hope the money they make on her auctioned mane will help them put a down payment on their first home.

The Indonesian woman and her North Dakota-native husband have lived with their three children -- Wyatt, 11; Asia, 8; and Aaron, 3 -- in a Wellington duplex for eight years. But their hard work hasn't paid enough for the Horners to become homeowners. Alan, 54, is a handyman who works on antique and patio furniture. Yarti does nails and facials.

Business at times has been less than booming. When sandals are out of season, Yarti's appointments drop.

"I've been working hard -- me and my husband," said Kusmuryarti, known as Yarti to friends, "but it looks like we'll never make it."

With few options and little money, she's resorted to cutting her hair -- all 5 feet, 9 inches of it. The Horners are hoping to find a haircut sponsor on eBay, someone who will pay her to cut her hair. They'll keep the cash proceeds of the auction and the trimmed tresses will be donated to a charity that uses human hair to make wigs. The sale is being handled by Snappy Auctions, an eBay affiliate in Royal Palm Beach.

"If they can sell a corn flake that looks like Abraham Lincoln, maybe somebody will want to buy her hair," Alan Horner said.

The higher the bid, the more Yarti will cut off. She'll chop off at least 8 inches -- the minimum required by charities that make wigs -- and lose another inch for each $1,000 bid.

If someone's willing to pay $100,000, Yarti said she'd shave her head.

"God has blessed my hair," she said. "I've got long hair, so my hair will grow again."

The Horners have a long way to go to meet their goals. The 10-day auction, which began on Wednesday, yielded no takers by Thursday evening. Bidding starts at 99 cents.

While eBay prohibits the sale of human body parts such as bones and bladders from being auctioned, human hair is allowed. The site features scores of human-hair wigs, extensions and other products at a wide range of prices.

But Snappy Auctions president Debbie Gordon said a woman selling the hair straight off her head is unique.

"It's something crazy," she said. "That's why it's so neat."

Alan, who lived in Indonesia in the early 1990s, was browsing around a local shop for a laser disc player when he first met Yarti. They married in 1993 in traditional Indonesian style. They moved to Montana in 1996 so Alan's dying father could meet his son's new bride.

When Alan got a job in South Florida at Biotech Resins in 1997, the family was off to bigger -- and warmer -- things.

Six months later, Alan said, the company closed.

"We both were pretty depressed," he said. "I started working at the church; Yarti was cleaning houses. We did what we had to, to survive."

The Horners don't know how much money Yarti's venture will make, or if it will even work.

"We're not dreaming of anything big, but if we could have enough for a down payment, that helps," Alan said. "We're just hoping we'll have some success."

Bidders can find the auction at www.eBay.com and search for Kusmuryarti or at www.SnappyAuctions.com.

Authorities said they used EBay, the online auction site, to locate a man suspected of abducting his daughter.

The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department tracked Eric Gotsch, 31, to Burnet County, Texas, after spotting Gotsch's various EBay offerings on the Internet, officials said. He was arrested Wednesday.

Gotsch was supposed to drop off his 3-year-old daughter at her mother's home in McKinleyville on June 2, but he failed to arrive and didn't show up for work.

Gotsch will probably be extradited to California, where he will be charged with felony child concealment, according to the Sheriff's Department.

The site, as its name implies, caters to buyers and sellers of sports cards, sports memorabilia and sporting goods of all types. And there are other significant differences between big online auction sites and Sports Only Auction. Sellers can add up to five pictures at no extra cost. Upgrading to featured listings on the Sports Only Auction home page or gallery is free. And adding a reserve price or listing a Dutch auction is also free. Another big plus for sellers is the ability to add links to their other sports-related auctions or other sports-related sites in their auction listings. And, in stark contrast to sites that charge exorbitant fees for big-ticket items, Sports Only Auction charges just $0.20 per transaction, whether an item sells for $10 or $10,000.

Sports Only Auction, which boasts a clean design and simple navigation, automatically relists any unsold item for up to six months, again with no added fees, eliminating the hassle of manually relisting auctions. In keeping with its mission of being the fair place to buy and sell, Sports Only Auction eliminates bid sniping by automatically extending any auction receiving bids within the last five minutes.

Members in need of greater exposure can purchase classified ads on Sports Only Auction, and at $1 for a four-week listing of 500 words, sellers would be hard-pressed to find a more reasonable option.

Traders also have a place at Sports Only Auction. For a nominal five-cent listing fee, a trader can include five photos of items available for trade and add a link to his or her personal site and entire wish list.

It all adds up to big savings for buyers and sellers, said Moseley, an entrepreneur who grew up around auctions. "We believe buying and selling at online auctions should be fair to everyone involved: the buyer, the seller, and the middleman," Moseley explained. "Sports Only Auction is a win-win situation. When the seller pays less to list and sell items, the buyer will pay less to purchase the items. It’s the fair way of doing business."

Debris from the plane crash that killed Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente was pulled from a memorabilia auction after his family threatened a lawsuit.

Seaford, N.Y.-based Lelands.com announced Friday it was pulling two items — a light metal piece of the airplane and a gray steel propeller — from the collection of four dozen Clemente mementos.

“Lelands.com did exactly what they had to do to avoid severe legal action and salvage what is left of their damaged reputation,” Roberto Clemente Jr. said in a statement. “They made a tasteless business decision by trying to make a quick buck off of my father’s tragedy and they were exposed. It is a shame what some people will do for money.”

Clemente died Dec. 31, 1972, when the DC-7 he was on crashed after takeoff from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The plane was headed to Nicaragua with supplies for earthquake victims.

Clemente’s family two weeks ago said it was considering legal action to stop the auction house from selling the airplane parts.

“This episode has caused me and the entire Clemente family considerable pain over the last few weeks, and we are glad to finally put this behind us,” the son said.

Lelands.com plans to return the light metal piece, measuring 19 inches by 14 inches at its largest point, to the collector who consigned the item into the auction. The propeller will be donated to the Puerto Rico Sports Museum.

“Just like hundreds of historical items that are on display in museums throughout the world or are sold privately or in auctions every day, these two items are of great historical significance,” Lelands.com founder Josh Evans said in a statement Friday. “We believe that they help completely tell the story of Roberto Clemente, his philanthropy and the price he paid to help people in need. We believe that they should be on display to honor his legacy.

“On the other hand, the wishes of the Clemente family need to be respected and once we found out that they objected to the sale, we realized that the right thing to do was to remove the items from the auction,” Evans said.

Other items in the auction, which ends June 24, include a glove Clemente used in a game in the 1960s; an autographed photo of his 3,000th, and final, career hit; an autographed rookie baseball card; and a photograph of Clemente getting a haircut from his hometown barber.

To bid on the Smart Car Americanized by ZAP, visit http://www.eBay.com" title="http://www.eBay.com" target="_blank"http://www.eBay.com and use the keyword "Smart Car" or eBay item number 4556842599 to bid on the car.

ZAP is auctioning the Smart Car on eBay to raise awareness of its marketing strategy to start a dealer network for fuel-efficient, low-emission and advanced technology vehicles. With the Smart Car listing, ZAP is seeking to make a statement about the importance of improved transportation technology to promote cleaner air and increased fuel efficiency. The Company will share auction proceeds equally with The American Lung Association and the U.C. Davis Institute of Transportation Studies. ZAP also wants to make a statement about rising gas prices and the Company's mission to help consumers contain transportation costs: the auction winner of the Smart Car will receive a one-year supply of gasoline. Restrictions apply; see listing for detail.

ZAP recently reported that it is preparing to deliver U.S. certified Smart Cars to qualified dealers in eight states and is organizing service training later this summer. The first Americanized Smart Car was delivered to a Nevada purchaser several weeks ago in a ceremony in Reno that attracted international media attention and widespread interest from potential new consumers.

ZAP is organizing U.S. marketing and distribution for the Smart Car, a highly fuel-efficient vehicle that has created worldwide interest since its European release in 1998. The Smart Car ForTwo Coupe is popular among drivers in Europe, Canada and other countries. But with U.S. gas prices at record highs and American drivers increasingly demanding greater fuel efficiency and advanced energy transportation solutions, ZAP CEO Steve Schneider is confident that the popularity of this internal-combustion microcoupe will continue to grow in the domestic market. At the same time, dealers across the country are also expressing enthusiasm about the chance to sell these cars.

ZAP is now establishing a distribution portal and hub of automotive dealerships in the United States that cater to car-buyers looking for the next generation in automotive fuel technologies, including zero-emission electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell technology, and other energy-efficient, low-emission and advanced technologies. The Smart Car is one of several vehicles that ZAP is planning to offer through this distribution network.

ZAP listed a Smart Car on eBay previously, but the auction was delayed to finalize U.S. compliance of the car. According to an eBay spokesperson, the auction website wanted to see the 'Americanization' of the car completed before allowing it to be sold. CEO Schneider noted that the Americanization of the car has now been completed to U.S. Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency standards. Furthermore, the U.S. DOT has acknowledged a certificate of compliance that lifts a Performance Bond, allowing the import and certification of the Smart Car. These regulatory approvals clear the car for sale in 45 U.S. states. Excluded are California and four other states that follow different emissions testing procedures, which are not yet completed.

About ZAP

ZAP, Zero Air Pollution(R), has been a leader in advanced transportation technologies and energy products since 1994. ZAP has a 10-year license to the technology developed by Smart-Automobile LLC to Americanize the popular European-made Smart Car for the U.S. marketplace. ZAP Americanizes the Smart Car to meet U.S. federal and state safety and emissions standards. ZAP is not affiliated with, or authorized by, smart GmbH, the manufacturer of SMART automobiles, or the smartUSA division of Mercedes-Benz LLC, the exclusive authorized U.S. importer and distributor of those vehicles. The Smart Car is manufactured by global automotive company DaimlerChrysler. ZAP purchases its vehicles from non-affiliated direct importer Smart-Automobile LLC. For more information, visit http://www.zapworld.com" title="http://www.zapworld.com" target="_blank"http://www.zapworld.com. For investor-specific information, visit http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/zap" title="http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/zap" target="_blank"http://www.trilogy-capital.co.... To read or download the Company's Investor Fact Sheet visit http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/zap/factsheet.html" title="http://www.trilogy-capital.com/tcp/zap/factsheet.html" target="_blank"http://www.trilogy-capital.co....

Cautionary Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the Company's products, increased levels of competition for the Company, new products and technological changes, the Company's dependence on third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

During the search for his missing wife, Laci, Scott Peterson came upon a car in the parking lot of the Del Rio Country Club in Modesto, Calif. The car's owner, like many others in that Southern California community, had placed a flier on the dashboard with Laci's photo on it.

Peterson took out his business card and dashed a quick note on the back, then tucked it under the windshield wiper. The note read, "Thank you for having Laci's picture on your car. Scott."

Now, seven months after Peterson was convicted of murdering his wife, that business card has reappeared as Lot 139 in the current Americana auction held by Seaford-based firm Leland's.

Standing at the intersection of celebrity, money and the macabre, auction houses have found a significant market in the sale of memorabilia relating to highly publicized and often gruesome deaths, a niche that raises a multitude of questions of ethics and taste.

"We're known for specializing in unusual memorabilia," said Josh Evans, 43, founder of Leland's, whose primary expertise is sports memorabilia. "People bring these things to us. Our phone rings all the time."

Sprinkled into the Americana auction and a concurrent sports auction are a few morbid items, including the Peterson card (with a bid of $666, as of Wednesday evening); a section of the fence from the grassy knoll at Dealey Plaza, where John F. Kennedy was assassinated ($5,000 bid); and a piece of the airplane in which Pittsburgh Pirates player Roberto Clemente died in 1972 ($2,196.50 bid).

"We, as human beings, have always been interested in the darker side of human behavior," said Dr. Mitchell Schare, professor of clinical psychology at Hofstra University.

Indeed, the sale of crime- and death-related memorabilia is "an underground industry that's come into mainstream America via the Internet," said Andy Kahan, director of the crime victims assistance office for the mayor of Houston. In his off time, Kahan has become the leading expert on what he calls "murderbilia." He has discovered Web sites that sell nothing but items related to serial killers, like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy, and he has campaigned for laws banning the sale of such items.

To victims' families, he said, "there's nothing more nauseating and disgusting" than to find that people are profiting from the death of a loved one.

Many families fight the public commodification of their private tragedies. Clemente's heirs threatened to sue Leland's in order to halt the auction of two pieces of the plane in which he died during a relief mission to Nicaragua. Evans says he is in discussions with the family but hasn't decided if he'll pull the items.

He adds, on the general topic of such sales, "If we think it's historically interesting, we'll sell it. If we think it's morbid and it's just for exploitation, we're not interested."

It's difficult to parse historical importance in our celebrity-obsessed culture, where newspapers and television broadcasts devote countless resources to grisly murders and runaway brides. What is truly historical, truly important?

The lines are often fuzzy, Evans admits. Jeffrey Dahmer items, for instance, are beyond the pale, but O.J. Simpson paraphernalia has historical value, he said.

Evans once passed on the album that John Lennon signed for Mark David Chapman moments before Chapman murdered the Beatle.

"We thought it was over the line," he said. "It was just too horrific."

That album is now owned by Gary Zimet, who, through his company, Moments in Time, plans to sell the record this winter at the 25th anniversary of Lennon's murder. Yoko Ono almost purchased the album last year for over $500,000; she eventually pulled out of the deal, Zimet said.

The Peterson card came directly from the owner of the car on which it was found. Evans said he accepted it because "most of the story is there in that card, because he's saying, 'I'm trying to help,' when in fact he wasn't."

As for those who bid on these mementos of the macabre, experts cite many motivations, occasionally sick and sometimes simply voyeuristic. For some, it's a vicarious way to connect with a national drama.

"The Scott Peterson case was a very emotional experience for people," Schare said. In buying a piece of that case, "they're holding on to the excitement, the publicity, the discussions, the questions about what it meant."

EBAY have said they will stop people attempting to sell tickets for LIVE 8 on the internet auction site.

Yesterday organiser Bob Geldof branded concert-goers who are selling their tickets for profit on auction sites like eBay a “fucking disgrace”.

Earlier this week (June 14), numerous tickets were being offered on the site, with bids in the region of a thousand pounds for a pair. However, it appears that music fans are hitting back, making offers of ten million pounds in an attempt to thwart the sales.

When he found out, Geldof branded people selling their tickets as “wretches”, saying it was “completely against the interests of the poor”.

eBay offered to make a donation to Live 8, but then went one step further, saying they’d remove listings after listening to customer’s concerns.

The site's UK managing director Doug McCallum said: "Our customers said they were concerned about the profiteering rap being connected with the name of the site they're so passionate about. It is extremely difficult for us to do, even if we wanted to, but in emergency circumstances, which is how our community is viewing this, we will do our darndest to."

Tickets for Live 8, which is being held in Hyde Park on July 2, were offered via text message lottery.

What's the chance to lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett worth?

A meal with the "Oracle of Omaha" will be up for bids on the Internet auction site eBay from June 23 to June 30.

 
Bidding starts at $25,000, and proceeds will go to the Glide Foundation, which works with the poor and homeless in San Francisco.

Buffett will have lunch with up to eight people at a mutually chosen restaurant in Omaha or New York.

It marks the third year Buffett has auctioned a lunch on eBay and donated the proceeds to the foundation. Buffett began auctioning the lunches for the charity off-line in 2000.

Buffett's late wife, Susan Buffett, backed the charity.

Buffett is chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which is based in Omaha.

The city's oldest amusement park is being advertised for sale on eBay, although prospective buyers can't bid on it through the online auction site.

The listing, which went up Wednesday, is part of an effort to publicize that the 40-acre Joyland Amusement Park, its equipment and rides are for sale. The sale price is listed as $1.65 million, and the advertisement tells interested buyers to contact real estate company Occidental Management.

The park was built in 1949, and the listing says it has "an exclusive collection of vintage rides," including a wooden roller coaster made by the Philadelphia Tobbogan Co.

Stanley and Margaret Nelson ran the park for four decades. They sold it in May 2003 to David Rohr but bought it back in December 2004 after taking foreclosure action against Rohr.

The Nelsons hope to find a buyer by the end of the year, preferably someone who wants to fix up the park and reopen it, Margaret Nelson said.

"It needs someone to come in who is young and has some money to bring it back," she said.

The eBay listing has attracted interest from at least one person — a man who wanted to swap a $3.4 million yacht for the park, Nelson said. She doesn't expect the deal to work out, she said, noting, "I'm not much into boats."

The fateful contract selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox sold at auction on Friday for $996,000, a record for a sports document, auctioneers said.

The sale of memorabilia of athletes from Ruth and fellow New York Yankees slugger Lou Gehrig to tennis great Arthur Ashe brought in $5.5 million, according to auction house Sotheby’s and SportsCards Plus of Laguna Niguel, California.

Ruth’s contract of five typewritten pages has the Yankees acquiring him for $100,000. It is signed by then-owners Harry Frazee of the Red Sox and Jacob Ruppert of the Yankees.

The 1919 agreement changed the history of both teams and set in motion “The Curse of the Bambino,” which is said to have plagued the Red Sox for selling Ruth, known as the Bambino. The Yankees went on to win 26 World Series, while the Red Sox did not win another title until last year.
Buyer Peter Siegel, owner of Gotta Have It Collectibles in New York, said he grew up as a Yankees fan idolizing Ruth and Mickey Mantle.

“This is one of the most important artifacts not only in baseball history but in American history,” said Siegel. “It was a great day for New York.” David Kohler, president of SportsCards Plus, said the price paid for the contract showed the sports memorabilia market was thriving.

“It’s a record by far of any sports document ever sold,” he said. “It blows it out of the water.” Auctioneers had estimated the contract could fetch more than $500,000. The seller, a Rhode Island-based philanthropist, bought the document at a 1993 auction for $99,000 and had said he would sell it when the Red Sox won a World Series. The proceeds would go to charities working to fight hunger, said seller Alan Shawn Feinstein.

A bat once used by Gehrig fetched $156,000, the most ever paid for one belonging to the legendary player, the auctioneers said. The bat had been expected to sell for $50,000 to $75,000

Sold.

Today marks the start of "The Saginaw News Bid & Buy" online auction, which features some 200 goods and services valued at more than $300,000.

The sale runs through Tuesday, June 21, and promises consumers a chance to buy many products for up to half their value.

Automotive, clothing, dining and entertainment, furniture and electronics are among the categories in which residents may make bids.

A catalog with a complete list of the items up for sale is in today's News.

To participate, bidders may visit www.mlive.com/saginaw bidandbuy/ and register. Most people will pay by credit card. However, in the case of those buying one of the two vehicles up for sale, they may secure financing or pay by cash.

James Stevenson, advertising sales manager for The News, said the idea for the online auction originated in Canada.

"They were doing it first, so this is kind of new for us," he said.

"A good thing about this is it brings businesses to the paper that maybe didn't have a big enough budget to advertise before."

After a bid is accepted, the buyer pays The News for the discounted merchandise. The publication, in turn, awards the seller with advertising space valued at their product's original price.

"It's a win-win for everybody," Stevenson said, "and just a good deal all the way around."

Pinnacle Design store Manager Michele Elbers hopes so.

"We want to get some more business out of it," said Elbers, who oversees the furniture store outlet at 3700 Bay in Saginaw Township.

"We need to get our name out there because most people just know that we sell office furniture, but we've also started carrying residential."

As more eBay drop-off stores spring up around the United States to help redistribute the accumulated cargo of an acquisitive culture, some public officials worry that they could become unwitting fences for stolen goods. As some states push to regulate the mushrooming industry, eBay and the stores are joining together to oppose oversight.

The broken front wing from Danica Patrick's Indianapolis 500 race car is up for auction on eBay.

The wing was damaged in a collision with Panther Racing drivers Tomas Enge and Tomas Scheckter during the May 29 race. Her Rahal Letterman Racing crew replaced the nose cone and wing and she was able to continue, eventually finishing fourth, but Enge and Scheckter were eliminated.
 
The damaged wing was discovered later amid the wreckage of Enge's car, and Rahal Letterman gave Panther permission to auction the wing to benefit the Best Buddies Indiana charity.

"We thought wed have some fun with this and help raise money for Best Buddies," Panther co-owner John Barnes said. "I doubt we'd be able to raise enough money to pay for the two race cars of ours she crashed, but with as much attention as Danica's been getting ... this will certainly be a big help for our favorite charity."

The eBay bidding started at $500 on Monday and was up to $2,325 by Wednesday morning.

Patrick has agreed to autograph the wing this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway, and the auction will end on Monday.

Best Buddies is an international organization that works with the mentally retarded.

The son of Pirates legend Roberto Clemente says he will take legal action against an Internet auction house that's selling pieces of the plane in which his father died.

Roberto Clemente died in a plane crash in Puerto Rico on New Year's Eve 1972 while flying to Nicaragua to deliver relief supplies to earthquake survivors. His chartered plane crashed into the ocean just seconds after it left the ground.

Though Clemente's body was never found, parts of the plane were recovered.

Now, nearly 33 years later, Lelands.com is auctioning off pieces of the plane -- including one of its propellers and part of the metal airframe.

Clemente's family is outraged. His son says he will not tolerate anyone trying to benefit from his father's death.

"You take an auction that's supposed to be about baseball; parts of the plane where my father died have nothing to do with baseball -- it's about life and death...

"For us it's actually shocking that someone would actually put that as an item for an auction without even asking the family..." -- Roberto Clemente, Jr., Clemente's Son

The plane pieces have already gotten bids of over $1,000 each; but Clemente tells KDKA he has already hired an attorney to try and block the sale.

Yahoo! Inc. has eliminated fees for customers using its auctions Web site in the United States, undercutting eBay Inc.

Yahoo yesterday stopped charging its customers a fee of 5 cents to 75 cents to list an item on its U.S. auction Web site, a company spokeswoman said. Yahoo also eliminated the fee that it charged when an item is sold. That fee was based on the value of the item.

The cuts challenge eBay and other Internet auctioneers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Overstock.com Inc., which continue to charge fees for listing items on their sites. EBay announced on Thursday that it was buying Shopping.com Ltd., a price-comparison site that's a rival to Yahoo's shopping site.

The minimum bid for the Rayne shoes is £2,930 (RM20,267) but owner Eleanor Graham, 65, said she expected to fetch some £10,000 (RM69,170) on the auction website.  

Graham said she bought the shoes as an investment when she saw Thatcher’s staff donate some of the prime minister’s possessions to a Sue Ryder charity shop in the 1980s.  

“I was just lucky – I was there at the right place at the right time when the shoes were brought in by her secretary,” Graham said.  

She convinced the store’s cashier not to remove the label ‘Made Especially for Mrs Margaret Thatcher’ from one pair by agreeing to re-sell the shoes only after the cashier had died so that she would not get sacked

A South Daytona company that sold 91 undeveloped, inaccessible lots on the eBay auction Web site last year must offer full refunds to all of its buyers, and the state is conducting 15 other investigations into claims of illegal land sales on the Internet.

Davlar Inc. made more than $300,000 last year selling soggy parcels in or near water recharge areas east of DeLand and southwest of New Smyrna Beach.

Now the company, after an investigation by the state Department of Business and Professional Regulation, has been ordered to contact everyone who bought those parcels and offer to give all their money back.

"That would be great," said Mike Bessent, a Loxahatchee resident who last year spent $13,725 for three lots that Davlar had purchased weeks before for $3,000. "I would love to get my money back."

Bessent said he and his wife grew suspicious about the sales in February after a friend who purchased a lot in an undeveloped subdivision called University Highlands, near DeLand, learned from a Volusia County planning official that the lot was in a water recharge area. "I almost died," Bessent said.

A woman who responded to a message left on Davlar Inc. President David McCutcheon's home telephone line said he declined comment for this report.

Rob Walsh, Volusia County's manager of a tax-funded effort to purchase paper subdivision lots for water conservation, said he was excited about the state's action. Competition from eBay speculators has priced many of the lots out of reach of the voter-funded Volusia Forever land-acquisition program, he said. Prices of lots typically purchased at tax-deed auctions for $300 to $500 were being driven as high as $2,800, he said.

McCutcheon agreed on May 16 to the settlement, which also requires him to pay $6,000 to defray the state's cost of investigation. The settlement was made public late Thursday.

Davlar was charged by the state with violating laws requiring sellers of two or more parcels of undeveloped, subdivided lands to register with the state and obtain approval for any advertisements used to market the land. State law also requires sellers to provide purchasers with written statements disclosing restrictions to owners' ability to improve sites or build on the property.

The state required Davlar to pay a $92,000 civil penalty, but agreed to reduce that amount if refunds are offered to all purchasers and either accepted or rejected, or if the buyer fails to respond to Davlar's offer within 90 days.

Meg Shannon, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Business and Professional Regulation, said the case was the bureau's first involving Internet land sales. The bureau was made aware of the practice in September after questions by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, which was conducting research for an investigative report on the subject. That report, titled "Paper Paradise," was published in January.

Investigations into 15 other Internet land sellers are under way, Shannon said.

She said the bureau hopes news of the Davlar settlement sends a message to other land sellers "who are attempting to get around the law by using the Internet that we will investigate and prosecute."

Lucinda Brown, a New York resident who also sells real estate on eBay, says swampland sellers give legitimate brokers a bad name on the site.

"I could have bought a lot of those garbage pieces," she said. "But there's no way I could do that to people. Where's their conscience?"

The 9,400-acre University Highlands, between U.S. 92 and State Road 44, was among dozens of subdivisions throughout the state platted and sold to out-of-state residents out of telephone boiler rooms in the 1960s. University Highlands was subdivided into 6,167 lots and marketed as investment properties to buyers who believed they would one day be developed as home sites.

But over decades, many found out their lots were worth a fraction of what they paid. No one could build on the lots because they were under water much of the year. In addition, the original subdividers failed to map out roads, dig drainage ditches or plan for water and sewer service.

That created a Catch-22 that has rendered the properties virtually unusable: With no roads, owners couldn't get to their lots unless they secured right-of-way permission from every other owner located between their lot and the nearest road. But with owners scattered throughout the world, securing that right-of-way permission would be an almost impossible task.

As a result, many owners stopped paying taxes on the properties, and ownership reverted to the county, which sold them in tax-deed auctions to buyers who would eventually market them on eBay.

The seller of the book by W. Mark Felt said she purchased it at FBI headquarters in 1981, according to the website posting.

A photograph of the book shows the inscription "With warmest regards W. MARK FELT." It is dated 10-1-81.

Bidding opened Tuesday at $9.99. By Wednesday morning, a day after Felt's identity as Deep Throat was confirmed, the high bid was $202.50.

In the 1979 book, The FBI Pyramid: From The Inside, Felt denied he was the source who provided the Washington Post reporting team of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein with crucial information that helped drive President Richard Nixon from office.

"I never leaked information to Woodward and Bernstein or to anyone else!" wrote Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the FBI during the scandal.

The American Board of Surgery is being forced to rewrite its certifying exam and change its examination rules after 86 answers to the test turned up for auction on eBay in August, 2004.

Apparently, rectal specialist Craig Edward Amshel, of St. Augustine, Fla., failed the 2002 exam, however, under rules in place at that time test-takers were allowed to review their tests privately.

Amshel then, according to his lawyer, David R. Dearden, sold sets of questions that were auctioned off on eBay for up to $300 each.

Amshel passed the board's test in 2003 but has since had his board certification revoked. He has agreed to pay $36,000 to the board which is the estimated cost of drafting new questions.