After more than a year battling several criminal charges here, the owner of a Hummer limo service in the valley might soon be off the hook.

Prosecutors have requested an Eagle County judge to dismiss charges against Jonathan Levine, the owner-operator of VailLuxuryLimo. Levine, 44, of Wildridge, faces two counts of criminal impersonation, a felony. He is charged with using false identities to gain access on the auction Web site and defraud eBay, as well as eBay's customers, the criminal complaint says. Levine, who is out on a $50,000 bond, originally faced more criminal charges.

District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said new evidence that appeared in the case made it hard to continue.

"It's something that happens from time to time. With any case it's a fluid situation," Hurlbert said. "Even if we have a good case at the beginning, sometimes new evidence comes up and makes it hard to prove the charges. And that's what happened in this case. Avon (police) did a great investigation for us."

Hurlbert, however, filed the dismissal without prejudice, which means if new evidence appears in the case, they could re-file it.

Rhidian Orr, Levine's attorney said they're objecting to the prosecutors' request for dismissal.

"I want them to dismiss it with what would be the equivalent of dismissing with prejudice, which means they can't continue to harass my client," Orr said. "I hope this is the last time.

"The case started with about 14 felony counts initially filed," he added. "All charges have been dropped, but two. They're attempting to dismiss the case right now. That means they didn't have a case."

False ID charges

Avon police arrested Levine in April 2004 for allegedly using multiple false identities to sell items on eBay. According to police reports, Levine, used 11 aliases.

Levine said the charges weren't true and that "he had been framed."

According to a report from the eBay fraud department, there were six suspensions on Levine's account for fraud and illegal activity. All identities allegedly used by Levine eventually came back to his address or a credit card number receiving payments.

According to Avon police investigators, when they searched Levine's home and vehicles they found what they called a "significant" amount of potential evidence against him and a bag of suspected methamphetamine.

If convicted, Levine could face up to 18 months in prison and fines of up to $100,000 for each felony count. Levine is also charged with computer crime, a misdemeanor.

SOPHISTICATED criminals are taking aim at customers of the internet auction house eBay to skim money from their bank accounts.

The emails tell recipients their eBay account will be suspended and they will be barred from the auction site unless they update personal details.

The fraudulent emails also provide a link to a website where the information can be entered.

eBay Australia trust and safety director Alastair MacGibbon said the fraud was an industry-wide problem and most internet companies with large customer lists were targets.

He was unable to say how much money had been lost by customers through the fraud.

To deal with the crime eBay has set up an investigation team and called on people who receive suspicious emails to send them to spoof@eBay.com.au for confirmation.

The company has also advised users to keep their anti-virus software up to date, never email their online account details and to download an eBay tool bar.

The ruthless crooks have also taken aim at Australians who give to charity, with a phony email purporting to be from the Red Cross and asking for donations for London bombing victims.

The emails, usually sent by overseas crime syndicates, are part of identity fraud crime that costs Australia $1.1 billion annually.

The Australian Federal Police say the internet fraud has spiralled.

"The number of individuals who have been affected by this type of crime, and the value of the funds compromised, has increased markedly in recent years," an AFP spokeswoman said.

The crime is being fought worldwide by the US based Anti-Phishing Working Group.

"Police blotter" is a weekly report on the intersection of technology and the law. This episode: an ebay deal goes awry.

What: Dispute over quality of Pfaltzgraff Heritage tumblers that were purchased on eBay.

When: Arrest made September 2001, case decided July 20, 2005.

Outcome: After being arrested on charges of stalking an eBay seller, Jay Howard Rothhaupt sued. He largely (but not entirely) lost before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

What happened: When Rothhaupt bought a set of Pfaltzgraff Heritage tumblers on eBay for $59, he was unhappy with the quality. Even after eBay sellers Seldon and Phyllis Scott offered a full refund plus return shipping costs, Rothhaupt remained irked.

It's not clear what happened next. The Scotts claimed that Rothhaupt refused to leave and they called the police (Seldon Scott is a special deputy with the county sheriff's department). Rothhaupt said he left the property when requested.

Seldon Scott followed Rothhaupt in his own car. Not long after, Rothhaupt was pulled over on interstate 71 by police and frisked. After acknowledging he had a rifle in the back of his car that he said was used for target shooting, Rothhaupt was arrested on charges of second-degree stalking, harassing communications, theft by deception, and third-degree criminal trespass. He was tried on two of the four charges and acquitted by a jury.

In response, Rothhaupt sued in federal court alleging his constitutional rights had been violated. The three-judge panel ruled in favor of the Scotts and the sheriff's department on all grounds but one, saying that the only claim that might have merit is that Rothhaupt was wrongfully arrested.

Quote: "We disagree with the district court on the propriety of the arrest, because (the deputy) lacked probable cause. Under the Fourth Amendment, an officer 'may not seize an individual except after establishing probable cause that the individual has committed, or is about to commit, a crime.'" --from the court opinion

Jennifer Aniston's toilet-paper musings are not for public consumption.

The Southern California lawyer who made headlines this week for promising to auction off memorabilia of his and Aniston's long-ago supposed summer of puppy love, including the birthday card the future Friends star was said to have improvised on two-ply, has scuttled the sale.

Michael Baroni said he nixed the planned eBay auction, set to launch on Friday, after hearing from Aniston's camp that the actress would rather the items not be put up for bid.

"I have nothing but fond memories of Jennifer as a friend, and only wish her well," Baroni said in an email.

Aniston's publicist did not return a call for comment.

Baroni planned to seek at least $100,000 for the lot of photos and trinkets, some dating back to 1984, when Aniston was 15, he was 16, and, according to him, they shared a "summer passion" in New York. Baroni said the fling morphed into friendship, before falling off the map altogether. He said he last spoke with Aniston in 1991, three years before she shot to fame in Friends.

Though Baroni's memorabilia never was publicly offered on eBay, the same could not be said of a host of joke auctions--the one offering the "Jennifer Aniston love letters I will write and never send," or the one offering "an actual Jennifer Aniston love letter my brother sent her that parodied a hit country music tune lyrics." Baroni sounded concerned that he would be linked to those sales. He was not--that is, linked to those sales. Suffice to say, the T-shirts with the T.P. graphic reading, "I used you--Jennifer Aniston," was someone else's brainchild.

With his own eBay auction a non-starter, Baroni said he has no plans to revive the sale. That means the "love letter from Jennifer, handwritten in red pen," the piece of paper Aniston reportedly wrote her name and phone number on--"in her own liptsick!," the page from Baroni's "little black book that contains Jen's old NY address and phone number," and the famous toilet-paper birthday card might forever be off-limits to celebrity archivists.

Though Aniston might have scored a victory in keeping the reputed remainders of her young love life off the market, on the day, she was only one-for-two in the romance department. Friday, after all, would have been her and Brad Pitt's fifth anniversary, but the couple fell several months short of that mark. Aniston filed for divorce in March. Real, not toilet, paper was used.

It was time, sadly, to put my car out to pasture. Time to shift out of the pre-cupholder, roll-down-your-own-window s era into the modern automotive age. So after 13 years, I mustered all my courage and ventured back into the market.

But how did I end up shopping for such a major purchase on eBay? I am, after all, a confirmed and proud technophobe, the owner of no iPods or PDAs whatsoever. I didn't have the chops to shop for a car on eBay. It just turned out that way.

I tried to buy the old-fashioned way, I really did. I knew the make and model I wanted, and I knew I was looking for a used car. I even had a target age: three years old, one of the constant stream of vehicles that roll into dealerships after coming off a lease. My intended car came with a four-year, 50,000-mile warranty, so I'd have the better part of a year to find any kinks and get them fixed for free. All in all, almost-new wheels, at less than an almost-new price.

That was the plan, anyway.

I liked the salesman at the dealership. I told him that I was ready to buy, but that I wasn't going to do it that day. Today, I said, I want to drive and ask questions. Tomorrow, I'll come back and talk money. As the 3-year-old son of a friend once told me, with a withering glance I would have thought impossible for someone his age: "Yeah, right."

In the lot, I checked out a few possibilities, picked out my favorite and took it for a ride. I loved it. When the radio blared Bill Withers's "Lovely Day," it only served as confirmation: This was definitely my car.

But it never happened. The salesman first offered a "today-only" deal, which I turned down, and that car was sold before I could return the next day. Then he mentioned a similar car whose price was higher. I set up an appointment to return the next day.

The salesman called in the morning. The car was up on the lift, he said, getting a stem-to-stern checkup so any defects could be fixed and it could be sold as a "certified" used car, commanding a higher price tag. I tried to hide my disappointment. Certification would put the car beyond my reach. Call me when they're finished, I said. The call never came.

And so it came to be that I stumbled -- or was I pushed? -- onto the Internet to buy a car. Okay, so the only thing I had bought on eBay was a pair of sandals. In an age when the online universe is so pervasive that my own mother is Googling me (hmmmm), I figured it was worth a try. In its five years of existence, well over 1 million cars have been sold through eBay Motors. If all those folks could do it, so could I. Maybe.

It was time for the Great Car Hunt, Version 2.0.

Searching for a car on eBay is fun, and frustrating. Type the make of your would-be wheels into the search engine, and dozens of cars are likely to appear, each with exhaustive lists of specifications and sometimes dozens of photographs. You may not have as many pictures of your own children.

And then there are the tantalizing dollar figures. A few dealers set their initial bids at zero or close to it, creating a feeding frenzy -- and an optical illusion, essentially. I'm sorry to say, but you're not going to snag that snazzy Audi for $250, though it may look like that if you watch an auction (usually 10 days long) as it begins. Other sellers start bidding at more realistic levels.

On the opposite end of the equation, some sellers advertise -- usually with capital letters and several exclamation points -- no reserve, which means the bidder with the highest offer at the end of the auction gets the car, even if the final offer is low. But most sellers set a reserve, or minimum price, that is unknown to buyers, so if the auction doesn't catch fire, there's no sale. And then there's a hybrid option in which there's an auction as well as a "buy it now" price.

Whoa, I thought one day, making my daily online rounds and spying "my" car, a 2001 Saab in purportedly flawless condition, 40,000 miles -- not fantastic, but not bad -- and at only $13,000, with two days to go in the auction. Okay, so the car was in Pennsylvania. I could figure something out, I reasoned.

I jumped. Count me in, up to $13,500, I wagered. I waited. For a couple of hours, no higher bids appeared. Could it be this easy?

Yeah, right, as my 3-year-old friend would say. Not a chance. When I returned to my keyboard a few hours later, my bid had been buried by offers that climbed thousands of dollars higher, the victim of an essentially efficient market.

Sure, you may get those vintage jelly-jar glasses for a steal in another wing of the eBay colossus, but it isn't going to happen with a purchase that has as large a buying audience -- and so much money at stake -- as a car. There are thousands of people trolling the same listings, looking for the same bargain. That means the drop-dead bargain doesn't exist. Look at it this way: Why on earth would a retailer accept a substantially lower price online for a car that he could get from a customer who had walked into his showroom?

All the same, that car ended up selling for a good price -- as it turned out, the lowest price I saw for a comparable vehicle, probably $2,500 to $3,000 less than it would have sold for at a Washington area dealership.

Sure, I knew, in my brain if not my heart, that finding a fantastic deal was highly unlikely. Still, I tried two other eBay auctions, with the same distinct lack of success. It took a lot of mental energy, as auctions stretched over days, and most of the final selling prices seemed to eerily resemble the prices I had seen advertised in showrooms.

And then I found Lenny. Or, rather, I saw a car listed that looked like "mine." This one had a "buy it now" price, which was considerably less than others of its type and was only a couple of thousand dollars more than the latest bid. The auction had a long way to go, and the bids would probably eventually reach the same level as the "buy it now" price.

In other words, I could save a lot of time and effort by acting now, as they say on TV. It would be like losing the crowd by riding the elevator all the way to the top, rather than taking the stairs with everyone else, step by step, and hoping to win the race.

But I'd never seen the car in person, much less driven it. And there was the fact that it was in New Jersey, and I was in Washington. Come to think of it, the whole notion of spending many thousands of dollars on a car, sight unseen, tires unkicked, was pretty outlandish. So I picked up the phone and called Lenny.

The dealership's phone number was at the bottom of the listing. Actually, it wasn't a retail dealership, but a wholesale operation, as the guy who answered -- that would be Lenny -- explained. Wholesalers buy cars at to-the-trade auctions and then resell them to retailers. Some also "flip" cars to individual buyers.

It made sense to me. And these guys didn't tack on the fees I had seen nearly everywhere else, both in online auctions and at dealerships: $150, $200, even $300 for "documentation" costs. Nuisance fees, it seemed to me, like paying them to sell you their car. I liked that Lenny didn't do that.

And this place, I found after making a few more clicks, sold some fancy used cars. BMWs, Jaguars. It shouldn't have made a difference -- after all, anyone can buy whatever they want from auction -- but for some reason, it gave me confidence that I wasn't about to do something really stupid.

I got a history report on the car by clicking on its vehicle identification number on the listing. For less than $10, CarFax, an independent firm, coughed up the details on the car's life, including whether it had sustained major damage, been stolen or whether its odometer appeared to have been rolled back. Everything came up roses.

What the heck. It was time. You take your chances. I sealed the deal.

After weeks of searching and dozens of cars perused, I would "buy it now." After competing with thousands of other bidders in the world's largest virtual bazaar -- and losing -- I got my quarry pretty much the old-fashioned way, by knowing a good deal when I saw it and by trying hard not to be distracted by games or gimmicks.

A few days later, I hitched a ride with a friend who was heading north. Little more than a couple of hours later, we arrived at our place.

There were cars everywhere on a piece of pavement that served as a showroom, and a makeshift office that -- let's just say -- apparently had not been tidied up in recent millennia. At the desk sat Lenny, disheveled but helpful, seeming at 2 p.m. as though he had just rolled out of bed. Across the lot was a considerably fancier work in progress, a bona fide showroom, with car logos and everything. These guys were moving on up.

And there was my car, looking as though it had just left the factory. About 10 minutes later, I was rolling merrily down the highway.

After a lot of work, it seemed easy. And I was lucky, no doubt about it. Nearly a year later, the car has heroically withstood a battery of endurance tests, and I got it for a lot less -- I'd guess $1,300 to $2,500 less, although it's impossible to know for sure -- than I could have haggled for from a local dealership.

Plus, my 2001 Saab 9-3 convertible, for which I wound up paying $19,700, is a lot of fun. Much more so than my eBay sandals.

Delmar Janovec, Net2Auction president, noted, "Management has begun discussions with a few potential acquisition targets, and we plan to aggressively investigate any potential acquisition opportunities that may be presented to us. With rapid organic expansion, as well as acquisition initiatives, we are working to capture a significant portion of the marketplace."

"By acquiring other companies in our industry, we could achieve several objectives in a few acquisition transactions -- we could move competition out of our way, we could further expand our eBay drop-off locations on a national basis, and we could increase our top-line revenue and profitability."

"There are literally tens of millions of Americans that have unused items to be sold on eBay, but choose not to do so themselves because they don't have the time, energy, or know-how. Management believes that we are facing what could be one of the greatest growth opportunities of this decade," Janovec concluded.

Net2Auction's acquisition initiatives followed announcement of its expansion objectives with plans to deploy its eBay drop-off services nationwide, planning for 75 eBay drop-off locations by year end. The company originally set its goal of 50 eBay drop-off locations, but given the company's progress to date, Net2Auction has revised its national expansion plans to include 75 eBay drop-off locations by the end of 2005.

Shareholders of Internet price-comparison company Shopping.com Ltd. approved today a proposed $620 million takeover by online auction house eBay Inc.

Shopping.com expects the deal to close around Aug. 30, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Shopping.com didn't disclose the vote tally at the special shareholder meeting called to consider the eBay deal.

Last month, eBay, of San Jose, Calif., agreed to pay $21 a share for Shopping.com, an Israeli operator of a Web site which allows consumers to compare product prices across the Internet.

Another shopping comparison company, Shopzilla, was acquired by E.W. Scripps Co. last month for $525 million.

Separately, Shopping.com also said in the SEC filing that shareholders approved a $1 million bonus for Chief Executive Lorrie Norrington. The bonus will be paid immediately before the consummation of the merger, Shopping.com said.

A New Jersey maritime buff pulled the plug on his eBay auction for a Staten Island Ferry life ring after city officials raised questions about the transaction.

City lawyers are looking into how Forked River, N.J.-based Bay Heads came into possession of the 30-inch-diameter flotation device from the 40-year-old ferryboat John F. Kennedy, which is still in service.

Bay Heads president Elmer Dean told the Advance he personally purchased the life saver from a retired ferry employee about a year ago.

Still, Dean, who sells maritime equipment and other sundries through eBay, said he voluntarily suspended the auction once he learned of the city's concerns, and says he would like to avoid any kerfuffle.

"I purchased it," he said, "but I can't say whether it's really rightfully mine or not."

Dean would not identify the ferry worker from whom he purchased the life ring last year, but said he had no reason to doubt that it was obtained legally even though it apparently once was city property.

Dean claims the ring was used to rescue a woman who leaped from a ferryboat sometime between 1965 and 1968, and that an officer immediately gave the ring to the now-retired worker for his role in the rescue.

"Great story and great piece of history!!" bragged the auction listing, penned by Dean.

Dean conceded he had no proof that it was used in a rescue, but he noted that the ferry worker had shown him a service pin he received for his role.

The Kennedy entered service in 1965. Advance archives show no such rescues that jibe with the one Dean described, though not all water rescues are reported.

Dean said that he welcomed city inquiries to determine both the ring's authenticity and that it was legitimately obtained.

If found to be suspect, "I would return it," Dean said, "and I would like to put it in a museum if it was used in a rescue."

City Department of Transportation spokeswoman Kay Sarlin said her agency was "Not alleging any wrongdoing on Mr. Dean's part," but added, "Whenever someone puts city property up for sale on eBay, we're going to investigate, and we're currently looking into the circumstances of how this item was obtained."

In fact, a sports utility vehicle sells on eBay every 21 minutes. Surprisingly, most buyers are willing to cross state lines to get the car of their dreams, but buying a vehicle without seeing it or driving it first can be tricky. So be careful!

The first thing you should do is narrow your search. It's easier to find what you want if know the make and model of the car you're looking for. There are some other things you should be cautious about as well:

• Don't jump right in: watch the auctions for a while before bidding.
  
• Research the seller: check feedback from other buyers, and don't be afraid to call the seller directly if you have questions.
  
• Look for no-reserve auctions: that means find the seller who doesn't set a minimum winning bid amount.
  
• Make sure you have an out: bid only on auctions where sellers allow you to cancel after you inspect the car.

The Internet offers a lot of tools that can help. At CARFAX, for $19.99, you can get a car's history. Free services like true market value can give you a quick realistic idea on how much you should be paying.

Don't get caught up in a bidding war or you could end up paying too much. Remember, you have to pick up the vehicle or have it shipped if you win the auction, so include gas, hotels, food, lost work time and plane tickets in the cost of your bid.

For 724,000 professional sellers, eBay is now their prime or secondary source of income. This compares with a similar survey in 2003 that found 430,000 used eBay to supplement their income - a rise of 68 per cent.

During the first six months this year, eBay members in the US sold around $10.6 billion worth of goods and services.

eBay, it would seem is becoming part of the American dream. According to the survey, 58 per cent of Americans say they have dreamed of starting a business and becoming their own boss. Unsurprisingly, two thirds of those surveyed said they wanted to set up their own business to make extra money while almost as many wanted the independence that being your own boss brings.

E-commerce giant eBay has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide a patent issue currently pitting the computer technology and pharmaceuticals industries against one another in Congress.
The petition, disclosed Wednesday in an eBay regulatory filing, asks the Supreme Court to hear an appeal on whether eBay and other companies held liable for patent infringement should be routinely subject to injunctions while such cases are on appeal.
eBay and its Half.com subsidiary urged the Supreme Court to consider the matter, saying the stakes go beyond the interest of patent infringement defendants.

Who does the patent system protect--unsung inventors or opportunist litigants? "This case presents an important question of federal patent law with significant implications for the nation's economy," eBay wrote in its Monday request to the Supreme Court. "A permanent injunction in the context of patent law is a potent remedy. The enjoined defendant is faced with tough choices: redesign its product or the product's functionality to eliminate reliance on the patent, negotiate a license on possibly onerous terms, or cease production or use altogether."

The issue of patent infringement injunctions is before the U.S. Congress as it seeks to draft patent reform legislation. Computer technology companies like eBay, which have to contend with the possibility that they might be infringing myriad patents in the course of their business, want Congress to clarify existing rules they say give district court judges discretion in deciding whether to issue injunctions while patent cases wend their way through the appeals process.

The pharmaceuticals industry, by contrast, wants the legislation to reflect recent federal circuit court decisions--particularly the one eBay is appealing--which say injunctions against patent infringers should be standard during appeal except in extraordinary circumstances. Pharmaceuticals and biotech companies tend to face fewer patents in the course of developing a particular product.

eBay's patent woes stem from its May 2003 loss at the district court level in a patent infringement case brought by MercExchange. eBay lost crucial points of its appeal on the federal circuit level, which reversed the district court's decision not to issue an injunction against eBay.

The federal circuit did, however, grant eBay a stay of that decision while the company petitioned the Supreme Court.

Citing Sec. 283 of the Patent Act, eBay said in its petition that Congress had explicitly let district courts grant injunctions on a case-by-case basis.

"The Federal Circuit has decided to ignore this rule," eBay wrote.

One patent expert said eBay's petition had the potential to turn the tables on warring high-tech parties on Capitol Hill.

"The hardware and software industries have been at loggerheads with the pharmaceutical industry over including a provision in draft patent reform legislation that would limit injunctive relief," said Joshua Sarnoff, assistant director of the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic at American University's Washington College of Law.

"If the Supreme Court grants certiorari to review the case, it is likely to reverse the Federal Circuit's interpretation and reassert that district courts may refuse to issue injunctions based on general equitable considerations. This would flip the legislative calculus, as the pharmaceutical industry would then seek to reverse the Supreme Court's decision by codifying a requirement to issue injunctions in all but exceptional circumstances," Sarnoff said.

San Jose, California-based eBay, best known for its online auctions, gets ample revenue from sales of used cars.

Its eBay Motors division drives $14.3 billion in annualized gross merchandise sales, which refers to the total value of goods sold on eBay, the company said earlier this month.

Shares of eBay closed up $1.57, or nearly 4 percent, to $41.99 on the Nasdaq.

A Jedi never dies; his stuff just goes on eBay -- or something like that.
"Star Wars" fans still mourning the final installment of George Lucas' science fiction epic, will have a chance to own two lightsabers used in the original trilogy. The film weapons are only two of thousands of Hollywood memorabilia items going under the online hammer as part of the Profiles in History auction on eBay on Friday, July 29.

Direct from the collection of "Star Wars" producer Gary Kurtz, the lightsabers, wielded by Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, are expected to fetch at least $60,000 apiece.

Fans will also have a chance to create their own macabre "Star Wars" body parts graveyard, crowned by Luke's severed hand ($25,000) from "Empire Strikes Back," C-3PO's eyes, Chewbacca's teeth and Yoda's feet. Other items from the collection include Luke's X-Wing flight suit, an original "Star Wars" script page with Lucas' alterations, Yoda's cane and Boba Fett lithographs -- featuring the bounty hunter, not printed by him.

Props from other films for sale include Harrison Ford's leather jacket from "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," Tom Hanks' costume from "Saving Private Ryan," a Robby the Robot replica from "Forbidden Planet," Kirk Douglas' gladiator armor from "Spartacus" and Sean Connery's stunt machine gun from "The Untouchables."

The small screen is also represented in the auction including the "million dollar cello" from the "I Love Lucy" pilot, the Gavin MacLeod captain's uniform from "The Love Boat" and the soul-holder crystal amulet from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

To participate in the auction or view the complete list of items up for sale, visit ebayliveauctions.com.

Two popular sunscreens that Americans could buy only online or out of the country have been pulled off the virtual shelves of Internet shopping site ebay.com.

Losing Ombrelle and Anthelios has frustrated some Canadian eBay vendors, who were benefiting from the U.S. ban on the advanced sunscreens. The products, both manufactured by L'Oreal, await Food and Drug Administration approval of their active ingredient, Mexoryl.

Toronto resident Vince Allen began receiving e-mails last week informing him that his bottles of Ombrelle were being pulled off the market. Since he started selling the product two weeks ago, Allen says he has made about $1,000 marketing to U.S. shoppers.

"I needed money for a vacation," says Allen, who is now preparing for a trip to England. "What eBay is doing is outrageous. This isn't heroin or weed. This is sunscreen."

If Allen wishes to continue selling Ombrelle, he must use the Canadian eBay.ca or other international versions of eBay that aren't subject to U.S. drug laws.

EBay spokesman Hani Durzy says the Food and Drug Administration told the company recently that offering Mexoryl violates the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

"We follow the FDA's lead," Durzy says. "If they say this (Mexoryl) is not allowed to be distributed, we listen to them."

Some dermatologists call Mexoryl the best ingredient to prevent damage from ultraviolet-A rays, which penetrate deep and cause premature aging. Both the UVA and the shorter-length UVB rays have been linked to cancer.

Legal U.S. sunscreens are more focused on blocking sunburn-causing UVB-rays, says Dr. Clay Cockerell, president of the American Academy of Dermatologists. The allowable drugs for UVA protection, such as zinc oxide and Parsol 1789, don't block nearly as well as Mexoryl does, he says.

Jennie James, vice president for media relations at L'Oreal, says the company is working closely with the FDA to get Mexoryl in the United States legally. Laura Alvey, an FDA spokeswoman, says confidentiality agreements prevent the agency from discussing why the drug hasn't been approved or when it will be.

It's no surprise people have been rushing to shove copies of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas online since retailers started pulling the game, just don't go looking for cheap auctions in the videogame section. eBay has been actively pulling down auctions and informing sellers to re-categorize their auction into the 'Mature Audiences' section off the site.
In the quest for ultimate truth, I signed onto my own eBay account and sought out the details from a few friendly customer service representatives. Unfortunately, eBay doesn't seem to know exactly what's going on, either. One rep. wasn't even aware of the company's policies, while another pointed us in the direction of eBay's item policies, which provided little help in determining San Andreas' fate.

One member of the Gaming Age Forums had their auctions pulled down, and eBay said that because of the newly appointed Adults-Only rating, San Andreas must be listed on the website's 'Mature Audiences' section, lumping the videogame with - in eBay's words - "'Girls Gone Wild' style videos, Anime (Japanese animation) with adult subject material, most bondage related items, adult toys, and most adult magazines." Apparently virtual humping mini-games are now on par with softcore pornography. Good to know.

Apparently virtual humping mini-games are now on par with softcore pornography.
 
That's not all, though! In accordance with eBay policy (which apparently also gives the thumbs up to people actively selling copious amounts of bootleg games, music and DVDs, but not legitimate items), San Andreas falls under the 'Mature Audiences' category because it one or more of the following:

Items that depict frontal nudity (with very limited exceptions)
Images or representation of intercourse or other sexual activity involving humans or human-like creatures (such as in Anime or Hentai)
Anything which requires the person purchasing the item to be 18 years of age or older
Any materials where the sole purpose is to arouse or titillate the senses in a sexual manner.

Any items which are designed for sexual use (such as vibrators or bondage gear)
Items that portray sexual characteristics
You can, however, sell copies of Playboy, Penthouse and other adult magazines as long as their publishing date is prior to 1980. So, in other words, once San Andreas becomes associated with the same nostalgia of an Atari 2600 game, then it becomes fair game again. Yeah, we don't get it either.

One of Jennifer Aniston's former flings is auctioning off letters, notes, pictures and other memorabilia from the Friends star on eBay.
 
Michael Baroni, a California lawyer who claims he had a summer romance in 1984 with Aniston, is selling keepsakes such as a makeshift birthday card she wrote on a piece of toilet paper and a childhood picture of the pair.

According to Baroni, their summer lovin'- he was 16, she was 15- turned into a longtime friendship until they lost contact in 1991, when Aniston's showbiz career began to soar.

Aniston's representative, Stephen Huvane, didn't immediately return a call today from the Associated Press for comment.

"She was very fun and lively, a loving kind of person," Baroni said during a phone interview Friday. "I think the materials show an innocent look into someone I think is very endearing."

Baroni's auction begins July 29 on eBay with a$100,000 reserve. If the reserve is not met, the package of memorabilia will be withdrawn. Baroni wouldn't comment on why he was auctioning off the items beyond citing "financial reasons."

The multi-billion dollar industry eBay has swept the world over the past decade with more than 150-million registered users.

The company is entering its tenth year and is expecting to trade goods worth billions of dollars this year.

If you make a sell online do you have to report the income?  And what about sales tax?  Those are just some of the questions the popular online auction site raises.

Anyone can sell, all you have to do is be registered with the site. No business license is needed.

Jason Yotsuda does more than just report on the traffic.

He's auctioned off thousands of items on the site.

And he reports his income to authorities.

"So, if they wanted to they could trace it all the way back to how much you sold. Who paid for it? How much," says Yotsuda.

EBay has given rise to scores of companies piggybacking off the auction site's success.

Matthew Lucas started off as an individual seller and quickly found a business niche.

But alignment with eBay doesn't insure success.

"A watch, for example, and we put it next to a common item, let's say a baseball helmet or so. What was happening was the higher end item was literally being taken down," says Lucas.

What Lucas has done over the past few years is redefine his company to match customer demand.

Now his store specializes in luxury and fine items like purses and watches.

But how have online auction stores affected individual sellers?

"I can't really say if it's changed it for better of for worse," says Lucas from his store in the Punahou area. "But back in the day, I do remember, like many people, they started out of their basement or garage."

Yotsuda thinks the stores have helped timid sellers cash in online.

An eBay survey last year found that more than 400-thousand online sellers made a significant portion or all of their revenue from selling on eBay.

Rodney Skinner, 39, and Andrew Van Hoosen, 41, have been indicted on first-degree aggravated theft, money laundering, conspiracy, and computer crime charges, the Corvallis police department said in a statement.

The duo sold as much as $100,000 of the equipment on eBay over a several-month period, prosecutors said. A search of their residences uncovered over $200,000 worth of other stolen HP property, the Benton County sheriff said.

Although the pair have been charged, neither is in jail, nor was either required to post bail. They're to be arraigned August 11.

HP's inkjet technology was developed at the Corvallis location, which currently boasts some 3,500 employees.

The world's biggest auctioneer, which trades everything from Pez candy dispensers to forklifts, turns 10 this year.

EBay has more than 150 million registered users throughout the globe who look set to trade goods worth about $40 million this year.

But companies like Bonfire Media are also enjoying success.

The Silicon Valley-based software developer has launched a program whereby eBay users can access the site via their mobile telephone.

Company cofounder Alex Poon said essentially Bonfire had created eBay for users' cell phones.

"No longer tied to their PCs, our users can now search on eBay, look at pictures of items for sale, bid on items, and check My eBay at a moment's notice, whether they are waiting in line at the post office, at a baseball game, or walking to work," he said.

"Pocket Auctions for eBay also alerts the user through their phone when they've been outbid or when an auction has ended, enabling users to respond immediately to real time events."

Bonfire co-founder Rich Chen said: "By making eBay mobile, we are enabling users to integrate eBay into the flow of their daily lives and use eBay in new, creative ways."

Auctiondrop is also trading on eBay's success -- if you want to sell something without the hassle of logging on, the company will do all the selling for you.

Auctiondrop CEO George Northup told CNN that his company sold nearly 40,000 items and handed out more than $2 million to sellers last year, taking a third of all sales as commission.

"Essentially (the item to be sold) will come here to our location in Fremont. We authenticate it. List it and photograph it. And run the auction. Collect the money and send you the proceeds," he told CNN.

"We think it's a great value. It costs roughly 33% of the proceeds."

He said eBay's commitment to focus on its core business meant the door was open for companies like Auctiondrop to tap into other markets.

"The philosophy of eBay has been to specialize in being the marketplace itself. So I think all indications are that they'll focus on their core specialty."

EBay senior vice president Michael Dearing told CNN there was a strong symbiosis at play, with eBay giving companies like Auctiondrop a vast market place, while Auctiondrop brings more buyers to the eBay fold.

"These businesses exist because there's demand for their services. And to the extent that the free market is working that way," he said.

"Creating opportunities not just for eBay employees and not just for sellers, but for people in the middle, is a great thing and we want to celebrate it."

For the quarter ended June 30, eBay posted a profit of $291.6 million on revenue of $1.1 billion, compared with a profit of $190.4 million on revenue of $773.4 million a year ago. That translates into 53% profit growth and a 40% rise in revenue.

Even though eBay has remained highly profitable, the combination of a below-expectations earnings report in January, complaints about rising merchant fees, and a perception that it's not doing enough to prevent fraudulent sellers from duping unsuspecting buyers has conspired to push the value of eBay stock down 40% this year.

The success of eBay's quarter was evident everywhere. International marketplace revenue was up more than 50%, to $418.8 million, fueled by the company's growth in markets such as China, France, and Italy. Payment revenue via its PayPal unit also rose more than 50%, to $243.9 million.

EBay users are proving that they can sell just about anything on eBay. More than $14 billion worth of autos, $3.3 billion worth of clothing and accessories, $3.2 billion worth of consumer electronics, $2.9 billion worth of computers, $2.5 billion worth of home and garden items, $1.6 billion worth of toys, and $1.3 billion worth of photo equipment were sold during the quarter.

Goods snapped up from travelers by airport security screeners in Pittsburgh are being sold south of the state border.
Cigarette lighters, nail clippers, scissors, pocketknives and other forbidden items are collected at Pittsburgh International Airport, hauled to a Jessup, Md., warehouse, repackaged in 50-pound boxes, then sold for $1 a pound.

Since October, nearly a ton of the stuff has been shipped across the Mason-Dixon line. The money goes mostly to running the program with the meager profits trickling into Maryland's general fund, said Dave Humphrey, spokesman for Maryland's Department of General Services.

It's all part of the post-9/11 world. Travelers at airports around the country surrender the items, and security officials decide where it all goes -- either to a state surplus department such as the one in Maryland or to a U.S. Transportation Security Administration contractor in Virginia, said TSA regional spokeswoman Ann Davis.

Davis said she did not know why Maryland, rather than the state surplus office in Harrisburg, was tabbed to get items from Pittsburgh.

"We might have just dropped the ball and (TSA in Pittsburgh) took their business elsewhere," said Ken Hess, director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Supplies and Surplus Operations.

Maryland also picks up items from Baltimore/Washington International Airport and Long Island Macarthur Airport in New York. Pickups are made at airports every three or four months.

Eight Northeastern airports, including Philadelphia's, ship their goods to the state surplus office in Harrisburg. That office, like others in Kentucky and Alabama, pedals the items on eBay. Twenty pounds of lighters, 100 pocketknives and 30 Leatherman tools now are up for bid. The tools fetched a bid of $157.50.

Business in Harrisburg is booming. The surplus office there has generated $102,000 in eBay sales so far this year, including more than $23,000 last month. The office recorded $1,290 in eBay sales in its first month in July 2004.

"With this one-of-a-kind program, we're seeing more and more growth each year," said Pennsylvania Department of General Services spokesman Frank Kane. "We started selling on eBay to gain more of an audience and to maximize our profit."

Before 9/11, state surplus offices largely served as clearinghouses for old office equipment and other items that were either sold or offered to charity. When the federal government tightened security measures in the wake of the terrorist attacks and items began piling up at airports, state surplus agencies were called upon to help.

TSA screeners nationwide have collected 18 million items since February 2000, according to TSA records. About 80 percent of the goods are pocketknives, scissors and other sharp objects, along with mace and similar self-defense sprays.

Officials reason that shipping the goods to surplus offices is the best option for security screeners and travelers alike.

"It's far more convenient to leave a $10 Zippo (lighter) at a checkpoint than it is to run to your car and then come back in, possibly missing a flight," Kane said.

But some travelers aren't so sure there isn't a better way.

"I just make sure that I don't have anything that could ever be taken. I guess I travel so much that I'm aware of what they can and cannot take," Ken Mular, 42, of Atlanta, said during a stop at Pittsburgh International. The auditor said he makes 75 to 100 plane trips a year.

"I saw in one airport that they were offering a service where you could leave an addressed envelope with security and have items mailed back to you," Mular said. "It would be fair if they could do that everywhere."

Several items of great Israeli historical interest have been trading on the online auction site eBay. The original eye patch worn by former defense minister and chief of staff Moshe Dayan has been offered for the sum of $75,000, while a hanukkiyah (multibranched candelabra) belonging to prime minister David Ben-Gurion and made from bullet cartridges is on sale for $12,500.

These particular items are being offered by Pasarel Israeli Art and Treasures of Natanya. Moti Sander, a partner at Pasarel, said that his company specializes in Judaica and jewelry, and that he had received Dayan's eye patch from the minister's personal bodyguard, who said that he had gotten it, together with a Smith & Wesson 38 revolver, minutes after the famed warrior died in 1981.

Though Dayan's pistol appears on the eBay site, this is not for sale as the Web site forbids the trading of any arms. It is, however, for sale through Pasarel.
 
Ben-Gurion's hannukiyah was made for the prime minister in 1948 by workers of the Ayalon Institute, which manufactured bullets, and there is a personal inscription to the statesman on it. Sander said that he found the item in the Jaffa flea market, and that he had it authenticated by the very man who made it - now a resident in a retirement home in Tel Aviv.
 

Jennifer Aniston's teenage love letters are being auctioned on eBay, A man called Michael - who claims to have enjoyed a summer romance with the 'Friends' beauty when she was just 15 - is trying to sell a selection of "precious high school romance memorabilia" on the internet auction site.

He has set a reserve bid of a staggering $100,000 in exchange for what he describes as "an intimate and endearing look into Jennifer's heart."

Fans can bid for a love note apparently written by Jennifer in red pen, a piece of paper that the actress wrote her name and phone number on "in her own lipstick" when she first met Michael, and a 17th birthday card she made him out of toilet paper.

The eBay entry explains: "She felt badly about not buying him a birthday card, so she promptly ran to his bathroom to create one!"

Michael claims he first met Jennifer in 1984 at a Park Avenue Penthouse party while she was studying at New York's High School of Performing Arts - better known as the school in 'Fame'.

He says they kept in contact until 1991, but lost touch when Jennifer's acting career took off.

Jennifer recently split from husband Brad Pitt and was recently linked to actor Vince Vaughn after they were spotted getting close on the set of their new film, 'The Break-Up'.

eBay terminated the auction and reported the incident to police, a police spokesman in the west German town of Viersen said.

The long-term unemployed man, who confessed to making the offer, now faces charges for breach of Germany's law regulating transplants.

However, police said that the man did not know that offering his own organs was a punishable offence and that he decided to take the action in a bid to ensure his family's finances.

The police described the incident as a tragic case.

I've written plenty of columns about eBay (Quote, Chart) over the past five years, and I'm relieved to say that early on I saw the online auction giant would emerge as one of the few big winners in the Internet space.

Otherwise, I wouldn't provide links to these old eBay columns here, here and here.

But I must confess that what eBay has achieved to date, and the breadth and scope of the company's vision, has dwarfed my limited imagination. Sure, it was obvious even back in the embryonic days of ecommerce that eBay's rapid ascendance would render unassailable its position as the top Internet auction site. What wasn't as clear -- to me, anyway -- was how effectively eBay would be able to leverage its auction business into international markets and non-auction revenue streams.

Bears on Wall Street have been growling about eBay since the auction company missed analysts' estimates for the fourth quarter of 2004, and shares fell from $59.21 last Dec. 31 to as low as $30.78 in late April.

Based on its second-quarter earnings released Wednesday, however, eBay skeptics may have to reconsider whether the company has passed its peak.

EBay shocked the street by reporting 53 percent growth in Q2 earnings. The company earned $291.6 million, or 21 cents per share, for the three monthsended in June. That's up from $190.4 million, or 14 cents per share, in Q2 2004. Analysts had forecast earnings of 18 cents per share.

EBay CEO Meg Whitman told analysts in a conference call that the company "saw strong growth across every part of the business around the world." But two aspects of the company's business deserve special mention. One is international marketplace net revenue, which soared 51 percent to $418.8 million on the back of strong sales in Germany, which now is the company's No. 2 market.

What's interesting here is that eBay's global revenues are set to surpass U.S. revenues for the first time. The company's U.S. operations generated $423.6 million in Q2, an increase of 27 percent over the year-ago quarter, but less than $5 million more than international revenue. In Q3 we should see eBay's international sales eclipse U.S. revenue for good.

The second item of interest in eBay's Q2 report involves the growth of its online payment service, which comprises the balance of the company's $1.086 billion in Q2 revenue. EBay bought online payments company PayPal in October 2002, and the acquisition is (no pun intended) paying off spendidly.

Revenues from PayPal's transaction fees in Q2 were $243.9 million, a gain of 51 percent from the year-ago quarter and 145 percent from Q2 2003. And the number of registered PayPal users shot up to 79 million from 50 million a year ago.

If transaction revenue continues to grow this quickly, it may only be a couple of years before eBay's U.S. auction business becomes the company's third-best revenue generator.

Another interesting aspect of eBay's revenue model is it's somewhat evenly spread out among a number of categories, with one glaring standout. Among the categories delivering more than $1 billion in gross market value are:

A New Zealand teenager sells a small, red paper clip on an Internet auction site for $173 during "a boring day of work."

Buyer Keith Brock, of Auckland, grabs the clip from auction site TradeMe with the winning bid yesterday. The transaction proves to be harmless fun, as Brock and 19 year-old Rhys White donate the $173 to the Auckland SPCA.

Both men traveled into town to have a celebratory drink, with the bubble-wrapped, red paper clip safely tucked away in Brock's glove compartment.

Brock, who works in industrial automation is a TradeMe veteran, with his three-bedroon home up for sale on the site, currently going for over $650,000.

White put the paper clip for sale with the message, "hope this paper clip goes to a good home or office. Has served me well. He even included detailed technical specs: "30mm high and 10mm wide."

It wasn't long before the paper clip started receiving numerous enquiries. One person asked if the paper clip would attract women if it were hung from a car's rear view mirror.

White says he may now consider selling a broken rubber band.

eBay's second-quarter profit has eclipsed analyst expectations as the online auction leader brushed aside worries that it may be losing its competitive edge.

The San Jose-based company said on Wednesday that it earned $US291.6 million ($A384 million), or 21 US cents per share, for the three months ended in June, a 53 per cent increase from $US190.4 million, or 14 US cents per share at the same time last year.

eBay said it would have earned 22 US cents per share if not for accounting charges unrelated to its ongoing operations. That topped the mean analyst estimate of 18 US cents per share, according to Thomson Financial.

Revenue for the period totalled $US1.09 billion, a 40 per cent increase from last year's $US773.4 million. The volume exceeded the mean analyst estimate of $US1.04 billion, which reflected the midrange of the guidance eBay provided in April. All the company's other key measures, including active users and the amount of merchandise bought on its site, increased by hefty amounts from last year.

eBay released the results after the stock market closed on Wednesday. The company's shares declined 50 cents to finish at $US34.87 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then rose $US4.97, or 14.3 per cent, in extended trading.

"There has been a lot debate about eBay - it certainly has been the most controversial of the large internet stocks," said American Technology Research analyst David Edwards. "Obviously, some pressure has been lifted with this report."

Reflecting management's optimism, eBay raised its outlook for the rest of the year. The company forecast 2005 revenue of $US4.3 billion to $US4.4 billion, including $US1.05 billion in the current quarter. Excluding accounting items unrelated to it ongoing business, eBay expects 2005 earnings of 82 US cents or 83 US cents per share, above the current analyst estimate of 79 US cents.

eBay's pleasant surprise came the day after another internet bellwether, Yahoo! disappointed Wall Street by reporting a profit that merely matched analyst expectations.

"Our (second-quarter) results underscore the power of our community of users and the potential of what we can achieve together," eBay chief executive Meg Whitman told analysts during a Wednesday conference call.

The performance provides eBay with a much-needed lift during what has been a tough year. An investor favourite almost as soon as it went public in 1998, eBay has been under fire for the past six months.

The backlash began in January when the company reported quarterly results that fell below analyst expectations. Since then, eBay has faced harsh criticism for raising its merchant fees and for not being more vigilant about weeding out the mischief makers and scam artists who make bogus bids or attempt to sell merchandise and never deliver the goods.

The backlash has contributed to a 40 per cent decline in eBay's stock so far this year, wiping out $US30 billion in shareholder wealth.

Meanwhile, online auction rivals like uBid.com and Overstock.com have been trying to capitalise on the criticism to lure away merchants and buyers. The poaching hasn't had a significant impact yet on eBay, which dominated online auctions with 51.1 million unique US users in June, up from 45.4 million unique users a year ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

eBay management has been aggressively reaching out to many of its disgruntled sellers to address their concerns even as management assured investors the recent criticisms are overblown.

Ms Whitman seized on an opportunity to rebuff the critics, pointing out that the number of US stores selling on eBay had grown by 12 per cent to 173,000 since the higher fees took effect in mid-February.

Overall, ebay's community had 157 million registered users, up 10 million from March. Its online payment service, PayPal, also is becoming more pervasive, with 78.9 million account holders who exchanged $US6.5 billion during the quarter. Most payments occurred within eBay, where a total of $US10.9 billion in sales were made during the quarter, a 36 per cent increase from last year.

Like the eBay auctions, PayPal also is a prime fraud target. The company hopes to combat the problem with a tougher anti-fraud system that it plans to begin testing in Germany later this summer.

Piper Jaffray analyst Safa Rashtchy described eBay's quarter as encouraging, but wondered how much of the earnings gains were being generated from the company's higher fees. "If they are just generating more revenue per seller, that is not as good as attracting new sellers," he said.

The higher fees generated very little of the company's revenue growth, according to chief financial officer Rajiv Dutta. "This is largely a (sales) volume story," he told analysts during the conference call.

Ms Whitman and Mr Dutta predicted eBay would be able to stimulate even more sales later this year, with the addition of an online price comparison site, Shopping.com, and upgraded search technology to make it easier to find merchandise listed in auctions.

Renewed strength in core U.S. and German units buoyed the online marketplace -- and lots of investors. Some analysts remain wary