NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Online auctioneer eBay Inc. (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday it had completed its purchase of Shopping.com (SHOP.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and expects the acquisition will be dilutive to 2005 net earnings per share.

eBay said the purchase for about $634 million, or $21 a share, in cash would be dilutive due to incremental charges for stock-based compensation and amortization of acquired intangible assets. Excluding certain items, the company said the acquisition would be immaterial to earnings.

eBay in June said it agreed to buy Shopping.com, which provides online comparison shopping and consumer reviews, to strengthen its ability to bring consumers online comparison shopping, a service dabbled in by Internet search engine Google Inc. (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research)

The Belfast Telegraph and Sinn Fein are leading a campaign belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=659170 to KO eBay auctions of DVD bare-knuckle gypsy-on-gypsy fight action. The newspaper has already provoked eBay.co.uk to pull two auctions for such material, although there is plenty of raw footage still available to eager punters, such as this sale (Gypsy Fight) (soon to be counted out, we have no doubt), which declares: This is Real Bare Knuckle Gypsy Fights on DVD! Over two hours of Gypsys punching the hell out of each other and shouting stuff that you wont be able to understand!

Filmed in England, Ireland and Scotland in country lanes, warehouses and front gardens! This is real footage all caught on camcorder, so dont expect hollywood quality. Just like the film Snatch, only this is for real! A 100% Genuine Gypsy production comes on a disc like the one pictured below. No sleave, bare disc of Bare Knuckle Fights! After getting the Belfast Telegraph tip about two similar promotions, an eBay spokesperson told the paper: "These items contravene eBay listings policy and our customer service teams ended the auctions as soon as the Belfast Telegraph alerted us to them." For its part, Sinn Fein has condemned the DVDs as "racist incitement to hatred".

The organisation's spokesperson on human rights (yes, you read that right), Catriona Ruane, said "members of the Travelling community were not the only people to be exploited in this way", citing the example of the scandalous US Bumfights bumfights.com/, where you can see "real bums trade blows on the streets, chick fights, bum stunts, sick pranks, crime caught on tape, crackheads, street fights, supermodel Angela Taylor, and hands down the rawest, most core ruckus ever filmed". What, no "supermodel Naomi Campbell battering her PA theregister.co.uk/2005/03/31/pda_beating _claim/theregister.co.uk/2005/03/31/pda_beating _claim/ with a PDA"?

That's a real shame, although not according to Ruane who rather marvellously continues: "We [Sinn Fein] are against the exploitation of violence in any way." There is, nonetheless, a legitimate legal point to be made here. A Traveller's support group in Belfast said it "did not condone the sale and was concerned that eBay could effectively be profiting from an illegal event". Which is true, 'cos bare-knuckle boxing is illegal in the UK, unless you're John "Slugger" Prescott, in which case you can punch away with impunity and the TV can run the footage to its heart's content. Stateside, meanwhile, the ne'er-do-wells behind Bumfights earned signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050210/ne ws_2m10bumfight.html themselves some jailtime back in February after failing to do 280 hours of community service work after they pleaded guilty in June 2003 to misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to stage an illegal fight.

David Hung Truong, 36, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of wire fraud as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines when he's sentenced Jan. 5, 2006.

As part of the plea agreement, Truong admitted opening several bank accounts that received payments for the cars listed on eBay. Prosecutors said the scheme, which operated from October 2003 to January 2004, defrauded victims of more than $40,000.

We found this gem featured over at StrangeeBay.com. These eBay pulse items are getting weirder and weirder...

How About A Snoopy Pancake ?

Click Here!

As the summer sadly winds down, we here at ECommerce Guide would like to bring some cheer to our readers this week. The weekend is here, and a three-day weekend comes up next. What a better way to celebrate than downing a few cold ones with your friends?

Beer has been all over the headlines this week. Looting broke out in South Africa after a beer transport train carrying 180,000 crates of beer derailed. A beer drinking survey in Germany has German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder leading his political opponent. The "Vote With Your Throat" shows the chancellor with a 117 pint lead over opposition leader Angela Merkel. And the college town of Muncie, Indiana - home to Ball State University - is in mourning over a decision by local liquor stores to stop selling kegs this year.

So let's get this party started eBay style!

Before the golden lager is even poured, you of course need a glass. Check out this set of authentic German beer glasses we found. Seller lindseysgumma has a lot of three German Beer Glasses: a Schwaben Brau Pils 0.3 l rastal 9" tall, Wacfteiner Premium verum 0.2 rastal 8" tall, and Bitburger Pils 0.4 l rastal 9 1/2" tall. No cracks or chips - all in great shape. Perfect!
If that's not enough for you, look no further. Seller loebeske has a set of six Corsendonk beer glasses - with a huge vinyl beer glass sign as a bonus!

Are your friends tired of you complaining you can't find a girlfriend to party with? Boy, do we have the girl for you! Get your one-of-a-kind Keystone Light "super sexy girl stand up."

She'll be the cheapest date you've ever had and leave your buddies talking about her for days. She might even be able to get you into that trendy SoHo club you've been excluded from since your college days. For only $10.99, she can be yours.

So you grab a few bottle of your favorite brew, hand them to your buddies and they look at you like you're nuts. What's wrong? Well, Sammy Adams, you forgot you pop the tops. You lost your bottle opener again, didn't you? Make sure this doesn't happen anymore by buying a few extra bottle openers on eBay!

Go "old school" with a vintage 7" Corona bottle opener made of wood. Or, how about a nice set of cast iron openers from Australia for next to nothing?

Finally, what would a summer party be without the ultimate accessory? That's right, we're talking about the classic beer guzzler helmet. As if one can of cold brew wasn't enough, enjoy double-fisting that tasty can-fresh taste of Grolsch or Meister Brau for less than $20. Mmm mmm, good!

eBay News This Week
What better way to stretch out that summer vacation than with a cruise? Between now and September 30, 2005, eBay Stores is offering the chance to win a 5-day Carribean Cruise for two for entering the Shop eBay Stores Sweepstakes. Detail can be found at ebay.com/shopebaystores/

Those of you living in the Pacific Northwest have something exciting to look forward to in the coming weeks. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, beginning next week, the U.S. Postal Service is hosting "eBay Days" at four Seattle locations. "The free events, a series of hour-long presentations that anyone can attend, will teach the public about how to become an eBay entrepreneur and how to use (guess who?) the Postal Service to do so," says the report.

There are also reports that eBay and the USPS are teaming up in Denver and other areas of the country as part of their newfound love affair announced at eBay Live! in June. Who knew you could have so much fun at the post office?

Jennifer Aniston has been left terrified after a man broke into her Californian home.

David Hesterby was allegedly discovered walking through the living room of the actress' luxurious mansion, in Malibu, by shocked staff who confronted him before contacting police.

Officers raced to the property to find the 48-year-old man fleeing the house and after a brief chase along Malibu beach he was arrested and charged with trespassing.

Luckily, the former 'Friends' beauty was not at home at the time of the break-in - she is currently in Chicago shooting new movie 'The Break Up' - but was reportedly left distraught after hearing of the incident over the phone.

Lat week, Aniston was forced to hire a team of security guards after discovering her underwear had been stolen from the set of her new movie and sold on eBay.

The sexy star was horrified after finding a pervert had broken into her trailer and made off with her bras and knickers.

The items later appeared on the popular internet auction site.

Aniston's private movie quarters are now being guarded round-the-clock and it is alleged she is now considering beefing up security at her home after the break-in.

LONDON, England (UPI) -- A swan dress worn by eccentric Icelandic singer Bjork will be in the lineup in an Internet charity auction benefiting Oxfam.

The memorable creation, which Bjork wore to cause a stir at the 2001 Oscars ceremony, is one of many celebrity garments being auctioned off on the charity section of eBay.

Bjork donated the dress in response to a request for an item of clothing "with a story behind it."

Famous names such as designers John Galliano and Alexander McQueen and singer/songwriter Patti Smith also donated items which were then worn in a fashion shoot by Naomi Campbell and Erin OConnor, and Kylie Minogues dancers.

With his 12-year-old son navigating, Mark Stilwell has made about a dozen cross-country trips in the past few years picking up cars he purchased on Internet auction site eBay.
 
  Martha Fligor, 69, rides in her 1998 Indianapolis 500 Corvette pace car that she bought sight unseen on eBay Motors for $36,500.  
By J. Kyle Keener for USA TODAY

He turns the journeys into learning adventures for Eric and his 13-year-old brother, Shane, stopping at roadside stands, county fairs, even Niagara Falls.

Stilwell, 44, of Livonia, Mich., has hit 46 states in his car-buying journeys, with only New Mexico and Mississippi in the continental USA left to go.

Like Stilwell, more people are turning to eBay to buy cars. They are hankering for a road trip or searching for a hard-to-find model or hunting for a potential great deal.

Buying a used car long-distance may seem crazy, considering the things that can go wrong even if you've bought one from your next-door neighbor. But eBay says its formula — letting people bid up to the price they want to pay, allowing space for buyers and sellers to air their grievances when a transaction goes wrong, and offering limited guarantees in case vehicles are truly lemons — attracts buyers. Buyers can read feedback on sellers, and a seller who draws too many complaints can be kicked off the site.

Fans say the site is better than searching through classified ads, because sellers can post dozens of pictures of the vehicle. And to preserve their reputations, sellers usually spell out every nick, scratch and rattle in extreme detail.

EBay Motors has sold more than 1 million cars since 2000, when the company realized so many people were selling vehicles through eBay that it set up a separate auction site. Although eBay won't say how many cars it expects to sell this year, it says a car is sold through eBay Motors every minute. Nearly 75% are sold to long-distance buyers.

Stilwell started buying late-1960s muscle cars in 2002 and got hooked. He bought two cars from the same dealer in California, a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner and a 1969 Plymouth Satellite. His travels then took him to Maryland, Idaho, Washington, New York, Florida, Texas, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Last week, he headed to Illinois for yet another car. He says he's driven them all home except in a couple of cases in which he bought two from the same dealer and towed one.

The collector stores some at a warehouse he owns for his resale business. The rest are on property he says is private enough to keep neighbors from complaining.

EBay Motors charges $40 for a basic listing and another $40 if a car gets bids. Once bidding is done, completing the transaction, including financing and title exchange, is up to the buyer and seller.

"Our process really allows a customer to get more comfortable with a car," says Drew Lieberman, senior director of eBay Motors. "In some ways, there's less pressure than buying a used car the traditional way."

History: In 1998, Simon Rothman, a business development strategist at eBay, went looking for a die-cast model of a Ferrari and discovered real ones were for sale on the site. In 2000, the company launched eBay Motors, and Rothman is its vice president.
Revenue: $93 million in 2004 from car and truck sales.

Transactions: $3.9 billion worth of vehicles traded hands on eBay motors in 2004.

Visits: 10 million unique visitors to eBay Motors each month.

Top five late-model cars sold on eBay this month:

 Ford Mustang
 Chevrolet Corvette
 Chevrolet Camaro
 Dodge Ram
 BMW 3 Series

Top five classic cars sold on eBay this month:

 Ford Mustang
 Chevrolet Camaro
 Chevrolet Corvette
 Chevrolet Chevelle
 Volkswagen Beetle

Milestone: 1 million vehicles were sold on eBay as of April 24, 2004. The millionth car — a 2003 Honda Odyssey sold in Virginia to a North Carolina man — was paid for by eBay.
 
For Martha Fligor, 69, of Dayton, Ohio, eBay Motors helped fulfill a longtime dream: owning a Chevrolet Corvette that had been an Indianapolis 500 pace car. Fligor's grandson, Bruce Bryan, who shares her passion for Corvettes and owns the car with her, spotted a purple and yellow 1998 Corvette pace car on eBay in December 2002. The car was in Massachusetts, but it didn't matter. Fligor hit the "buy it now" button and purchased it for $36,500. EBay says a Corvette is sold on the site every 47 minutes.

'People told me I was crazy'

Fligor, who had the car shipped to her house, sounds like a giddy teenager talking about it. "People told me I was crazy to do this, buy a car sight unseen," she says. "But it was such a great adventure. I had a lot of confidence in the place that I bought it from. ... I saw some Ferraris in the background (of the photos) and that made me think they were good people to deal with."

Jeff Bryan, editor at Edmunds.com, an Internet site that guides car buyers, says consumers are attracted by the no-pressure environment on eBay Motors. It's an "easy and casual way of just browsing for cars," says Bryan, who has purchased three cars on eBay. "You can take two hours to look at the photos if you want."

Not everybody is enamored of the eBay car-buying process. Only 14% of buyers surveyed by CNW Marketing Research this year say they'll use eBay Motors again, down from 22% last year. Comparatively, 40% of AutoTrader.com's users say they'll come back, up from 38%. AutoTrader, another venue for used cars, operates more like the classified section of a newspaper.

Art Spinella, president of CNW, says buyers have high expectations of eBay Motors because of the reputation of its parent group. "People expect other sites, like AutoTrader, to be more like buying a car from the classified section. Everybody expects in a classified that the seller is exaggerating. But they believe in an auction that a seller has a better idea of what the problems might be, and they're not really looking to get taken advantage of."

An unhappy camper

Steve Homer, 40, of Concord, N.H., probably won't use eBay to buy another car. In the market for a pickup without rust problems, he found the selection on eBay "much better than the want ads. And each had several pictures, if not dozens."

The low bidder on a 1998 Nissan Frontier, he purchased a $180 one-way ticket to Cleveland and flew out to pick up the truck at the end of July. During the test drive, the engine sounded a little louder than he expected, but for $3,075, Homer says, it wasn't worth complaining about. Similar trucks go for about $3,700.

Fifty miles into his 700-mile trip home, the check-engine light came on. Annoying, Homer says, but not a big enough problem to turn around. A few hundred miles later, he turned down the radio to make a phone call, and the radio never turned back on. And then — although Homer admits this isn't the truck's fault — he couldn't find a hotel room as easily as he hoped.

"I drove past 3 in the morning," he says, sounding defeated.

"The battery's since died, and I don't even know if I'm going to keep this truck now," he says. Including the pricey hotel room he eventually found and the repairs, Homer says he's spent about $4,200 on the truck and the trip.

Despite his trouble, Homer says, "I think eBay has got it set up about as well as such a thing can be done. It's an inherently risky transaction, even if you do it the old-fashioned way."

The search for a bargain is what attracts many buyers to eBay. And that's what turned Ed Koon, a Clearwater, Fla., dealer, off from the site. Koon started selling cars on eBay in 1999, before eBay Motors, and at that time thought "the site was the best thing to happen to the car business."

Now, he says, "It's nothing but a doggone garbage dump."

"Everybody wants everything so cheap," he says. "... And then you hear complaints that it didn't work right. Well, what did you expect? You bought it for half of the book value."

A different business

Micah Watts, a dealer in Duluth, Ga., says his business would be completely different if he didn't have eBay. Before he started using eBay Motors, it could take Gwinnett Place Ford nine or 10 months to sell a high-end Ford Mustang.

Now, Watts says, the dealership is selling about 15 high-end cars a month, and turning a profit on them all.

"We do well with them, we really do," he says. "We do well with them because it's niche stuff. When you've got a product that everybody else down the street doesn't have, it works."

Edmunds.com's Bryan says buyers going to eBay strictly for a bargain are likely to be disappointed in some way. Either they won't find a car for the price they're looking for, or when they find that vehicle, it won't perform as smoothly as they hoped.

Also, finding a good bargain isn't going to be easy: Buyers are competing against a nation of shoppers also bidding on cars.

"If it's really going to give you an ulcer, then just don't bother," Bryan says. "Go to a dealership and do it the traditional way."

There are safeguards built into eBay that consumers should take advantage of, Bryan says. The first is the feedback scoring tool, where anyone can see what buyers and sellers have to say about their experience with the person listing or bidding on an item.

Many eBayers protect their feedback score, which goes down every time someone gives negative feedback, by doing whatever they can to make the other person in a transaction happy. If that means refunding money to someone who's not happy with a dent on the side of a car, the seller will likely work something out.

"Anything less than 100% positive feedback, I would look at the comments to see what happened," Bryan says.

What to look for

Bryan also suggests looking for descriptions that detail seemingly every nick and possible problem with a vehicle, because unless the car is brand new, it's going to have some issues. And he suggests taking advantage of services which, for a couple hundred dollars, will send an inspector to comb over the vehicle and report back.

That's what Da-Wyone Haynes, 36, of Louisville, did when he bought a Buick Rendezvous in Clearwater earlier this month. The Rendezvous' seller, who has more than 650 sales on eBay, had a 99.3% positive feedback score.

Haynes checked the SUV's history on Carfax, which runs the vehicle identification number through a national registry and can detect whether a car has been in a serious accident. Before bidding, Haynes paid about $100 to have an inspector check out the SUV.

He then flew to Florida to pick it up, squeezing in a trip to visit his father. "It went well," Haynes said, after driving the Rendezvous around over the weekend. "It's on par with what I expected it would be."

Even though Stilwell has had some disappointments, he plans to continue buying used cars on eBay and traveling with his sons to pick them up.

He says it's almost as much about bonding with his boys in a way he never got to with his own dad, who worked 70- to 80-hour weeks at a Chrysler plant in Michigan and never traveled.

"That's part of the reason I pick all these long-distance ones," says Stilwell. "The travel is half the fun. I'm just trying to show my boys what I didn't have as a child."

Former Cingular Employee Reportedly Involved

The U.S. Postal Service is trying hard -- real hard -- to get and keep eBay's business.

Beginning next week, the U.S. Postal Service is hosting "eBay Days" at four Seattle locations.

The free events, a series of hour-long presentations that anyone can attend, will teach the public about how to become an eBay entrepreneur and how to use (guess who?) the Postal Service to do so.

"We will be teaching customers how to be online retailers," said Mariea Taylor, the customer relations coordinator for the Postal Service's Seattle district. "As part of the big picture, this is one of the avenues we're taking to generate revenue and to get customers to come here rather than FedEx or UPS."

Attendees will get a free CD-ROM with more detailed instructions and will be able to ask questions, Taylor said.

The Postal Service began its partnership with eBay in 2003, three years after private carrier UPS began a similar relationship with eBay.

By last year, the Postal Service and eBay had launched an integrated mailing system which allows eBay users to calculate postage, print postage labels, pay for insurance, and request carrier pickup from their "My eBay" Web page.

The Postal Service said that its services are already used by 75 percent of the 125 million-plus registered eBay users.

Nationally, more than 724,000 people report that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income, according to a recent survey from ACNielsen International Research.

But the Postal Service saw the volume of first-class mail drop to 97.93 billion in 2004, down from 99.01 in 2003. Priority mail volume dropped to 848.6 million pieces, down from 859.6 million pieces in 2003.

Though a postal spokesman declined to specify how much business eBay generates for the Postal Service, the Postal Service has added a number of services in the past few years to attract high-volume shippers such as eBay vendors.

"For customers who don't have time to go to the post office, we have carrier pickup," Taylor said.

After weighing their package, customers can go online to usps.com to calculate postage, print a paid shipping label, and then schedule a free pickup to avoid waiting at the post office.

For merchants attempting to notify customers of a new offer or sale, there is NetPost Print & Mail Service, where visitors to the Postal Service Web site can forward booklets or flyers and create custom postcards, letters and newsletters that are sent directly to the addresses they specify.

The Postal Service also introduced two new, flat-rate boxes for priority mail shipments based on feedback from eBay customers, according to Jim Griffith, eBay's "dean of education."

Some locations also have automated postal centers from which customers can ship packages and buy stamps.

But that's not enough for eBay merchant Vernon White, a Burien artist who has sold his abstract expressionist work on eBay for three years under the name Vblast.

A steady UPS user for the past three years, White dislikes that the Postal Service does not offer tracking on ground shipments, though it does have delivery and signature confirmation.

"A lot of eBay sellers like the Postal Service because it's usually cheaper than the others," said White, referring to comments he's seen on eBay discussion boards. "But I use it very seldom, except on international shipments, when it is considerably cheaper."

Meanwhile, Atlanta-based UPS is continuing its efforts to lure the lucrative eBay business. UPS customers can also calculate costs and print labels directly from the eBay site.

IF YOU GO

EBay Days are from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in postal facility lobbies, except for a more extensive event Sept. 14 at Seattle Pacific University.

Britain may no longer be a nation of shopkeepers but it seems we are still a nation of buyers and sellers. According to the latest research by web traffic analysts Nielsen/Netratings, over half of the UK's online population visits the eBay online marketplace at least once a month.
According to the Nielsen research, almost 11 million individual people visited the eBay site in July 2005, which represents a steep a 30 per cent rise from July 2004. Part of the rise can be attributed to the TV campaign that has been running on British television, but the growth has been on an upward curve for some time.

At the beginning of this year eBay UK announced its 10 millionth registered user, which represented a doubling of users in a year.

Although the Web is seen as mostly the preserve of the under 35s, eBay is proving to be most popular with older visitors. According to Nielsen, those aged 35 and over make up 58 per cent of eBay UK's traffic. Around 20 per cent of these are judged to be 'heavy users', who visit the site for two hours or more per month.

Interestingly, while women make up around 48 per cent of the UK's online population they accounted for just 43 per cent of the visitors to eBay. So, it seems it is the men who go looking for online bargains - perhaps it is the competitive nature of the auction process that makes it appealing for men. The car and fashion sections were the most popular sections of eBay's site.

Orbit Drop is also in the process of preparing its corporate financial statements through June 2005. Orbit Drop has hired a new CPA who is working around the clock preparing financials that meet both Pink Sheets and SEC requirements. Alan Weinstein, CEO of Orbit Drop, Inc., commented, "We apologize for the delay. While we are experiencing growing pains, we continue to look forward to our Grand Openings in Tennessee, Oregon and California. We are completely committed to our shareholders and franchisees. We are doing positive things to promote the continuing success of Orbit Drop." Mr. Weinstein plans to conduct a shareholder and investor conference call as soon as the financial statements are completed. He will be discussing Orbit Drop's future plans along with the current financial standing of the company.

The franchising division of Orbit Drop, Inc. has been working diligently in developing and establishing relationships with potential prospects. "We have been approved to grant the Orbit Drop retail eBay drop-off franchise opportunity in 48 of the 50 states including the recent approval in the state of New York," said Dain Turner, VP of Franchising. "Questions about the franchise opportunity should be directed to franchise@orbitdrop.com."

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- A Canadian novelist is auctioning off what he calls the "deed" to the White House on eBay where the highest bid reached $15,000 Wednesday.

David Jenneson said he found out there was no deed to the White House -- it may have never existed -- while researching for his latest book, Night of the Realtors.

Jennesen says he filed a "legal" quitclaim to the deed in Canada and now has the only "deed" to the White House in existence.

He claimed the White House has not been able to find a copy of the deed to the property. He says that means the highest bidder for Jenneson`s document will be the legal owner according to Washington law.

The White House hasn`t responded to the auction.

He said the winner will also get a signed copy of his book.

No word on whether he`s researching any other U.S. government property.

About a fifth are considered heavy users, browsing on the online auction site for two hours or more per month.

The site seems to appeal most of all to those 35 and over, the figures showed. They make up 58% of the site's traffic.

The results show that eBay's popularity continues to rise, beating Google in the growth of visitors to the site.

Internet research company Nielsen//NetRatings said that almost 3.1 billion eBay web pages were viewed in July 05 – a 44 per cent increase on the same time last year.

More than 40 per cent of the internet population visited eBay in July 05 – up 33 per cent on the same time last year.

Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings said: “We all know that eBay has been a huge success - but why? For many people eBay represents, more than any other brand, the greatest attributes about the internet – empowering and bringing people with complementary interests together. The potential of the web to provide a virtual marketplace matching individual supply and demand has been realised brilliantly by eBay particularly when you consider that the site is visited each month by almost half of the entire UK internet population.”

The research shows that eBay visitors average one hour 54 minutes on the site and view 280 pages per month.

Heavy eBay users are most likely to be on between 5pm and 6pm, medium users between 8pm and 9pm, and light users between 6pm and 7pm

Burmaster said: “The majority of total time spent on eBay in the UK is accounted for by a minority of users. However, with 43 per cent of people staying for less than 15 minutes per month the most likely visitor is someone having a cursory look through the site.”

HM Revenue and customs is planning a crackdown on Ebay traders who use the site as a primary source of imcome.

Traders on websites, such as Ebay, who have large amounts of feedback are often thought to be gaining their primary income from the activity of selling online. HMRC are about to launch investigations into these traders, to identify who is Ebay tradnig for a living and not paying tax on their earnings.

The campaign follows Ebay's push to encourage potential traders by tipping the top toys for christmas. The site recommended that sellers purchase Xbox 360 consoles, the Star Wars Electronic Lightsaber, The Da Vinci Code board game or the Tamagotchi Connexion, among others that it predicts will be atop most children's Christmas wishlists.

"Sellers on eBay are being encouraged to stock up on top-selling items, such as the latest computerised gadget from Japan, BowLingual, the dog translator, Playstations and iPods, with the suggestion that they can make a substantial profit over the Christmas selling period," said Watt.

"eBay traders who are unregistered with the UK tax authorities, and who have not declared their eBay income, or are in any doubt about whether they should have paid tax in the past should take professional advice immediately, particularly as voluntary disclosure will help to reduce penalties that HMRC are likely to levy."

According to the Mercury News, Cook bought the shares for 39cents each on July 25 and immediately flogged them on the open market for $41.10.

Cook, 52, apparently also receives a $50,000 annual retainer from eBay, to keep him interested in the company.

We wonder why eBay bothers with giving him this cash. According to Thomson Financial, a research firm that provides insider transaction data to the Mercury News, it appears that since 1999 Cook has managed to gain $64.6 million from eBay inside deals in the company stock. When you get paid those sorts of bananas, you tend to be very interested in the company.

Under terms of the deal, Fandango, which sells tickets online and by phone, will also provide movie synopses, reviews and show times. The alliance is expected to open other marketing opportunities for the two companies.

For example, EBay users looking for DVDs of family movies may also be informed of tickets available up to 45 days in advance for the next "Harry Potter" movie. On the other hand, moviegoers searching Fandango for the upcoming "King Kong" movie would get a link to EBay to place bids for Kong-related memorabilia.

Fandango, based in Los Angeles, sells tickets for nearly 70 percent of U.S. theaters, including 4 out of the 5 largest chains. EBay is headquartered in San Jose, Calif.

Christina Ficara - All Headline News Staff Reporter

Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - EBay is offereing fans of HBO's "Sex and the City" a chance to bid on a faux painting of "Charlotte's" private parts, made famous in the sitcom's first season. The painting was part of the fifth episode, the one in which "Charlotte" (played by Kristin Davis) agrees to have her private parts immortalized by a famous artist.

Since its debut, the picture has been in the basement of Heidi Stenzel, 20, a Long Island, N.Y., college student whose dad worked as the show's construction coordinator.

On Thursday, Stenzel put the picture on eBay, item number 7344280026.

According to the NYPost, there's only been one bid — for 99 cents — but 18 people, from as far off as England, are believed to be following the auction.

For all its reputation as the city of tomorrow, a place that will marry capitalism and cool as effortlessly as New York City or London, the city of Shanghai, truth be told, is not a particularly pleasant place during the summer. It's a steambath, and when the occasional typhoon blows through, it will rain for three days nonstop. Many of the streets simply reek as garbage rots in the oppressive heat. Most people, if they have a choice, try to avoid Shanghai this time of year.

Meg Whitman would not be among those people—at least not this summer. If the CEO of eBay, the world's most successful e-commerce company, had to write an essay titled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation,'' it might begin, "I didn't have one. I went to Shanghai instead, trying to figure out the China market, because my company's future may depend on it."

In February, Whitman said that for eBay, "market leadership in China will be a defining characteristic of leadership globally." Lots of big-time CEOs say things like that these days. Few follow it up by summering in Shanghai. The company cast Whitman's stint in China as business as usual. "She goes there quite a bit [but] it's not too extraordinary," says Matt Bannick, president of eBay's international division. "You know, Meg travels a lot." Whitman, in an e-mail interview with Time, says, "China is unique. It is growing rapidly, and it has a tremendous amount of potential, which is why we have made it a priority for the company."

Yet her Shanghai sojourn is not business as usual to anyone who is anyone in the booming e-commerce market in China. That includes the CEO of the local company giving eBay fits there, Jack Ma of Alibaba-Taobao. On Aug. 8, the Alibaba-eBay competition ceased being a David vs. Goliath battle. Ma announced he was selling a 40% stake in his company to Yahoo! for $1 billion.

"We welcome her and the eBay team to China, and with this Yahoo! deal, we decided to give them a nice big welcome gift," Ma says puckishly. The move instantly transformed the pivotal fight for the e-commerce market in China into a high-profile showdown between two of the most successful companies of the Internet age. "The competition [for the China market] will be fierce, no doubt about it," says Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang, who has been friends with Ma for years.

Ma says he and Yang started talking seriously about a deal in May. The key to it, Ma says, is that it gives Alibaba a strong position in four growth segments: business to business, consumer sales, online payments and now, with Yahoo!, search. "When we started Taobao, even our own chief technology officer said, 'Jack, you are crazy. Don't forget eBay.' But we passed eBay in China in just two years." Whitman, for her part, could not have been surprised by Yahoo!'s entrance into China. "Given how quickly the Internet and e-commerce market is exploding in China, you would expect to see a number of players staking claims, which is exactly the case," she told Time.

On Aug. 5, a search-engine outfit called Baidu, a.k.a. China's Google, launched an IPO in the U.S. The stock was initially priced at $27—and closed at $122.54 after its first day of trading, a move that evoked nothing if not the infamous dotcom bubble of the 1990s. Except that no one believes China's Internet boom is a bubble, given that there is so much potential growth.

The critical importance of eBay's international growth, and of China's piece of that growth, couldn't be clearer. In just a decade, eBay has gone from America's online flea market—purveyor of old 45s, Happy Days lunch boxes and Pez dispensers—to a global powerhouse, with footprints in no fewer than 32 countries. In fact, in the first quarter of 2005, the number of registered eBay users abroad exceeded that at home. According to John Yunker, president of Byte Level Research, "by 2006, and perhaps even by the last quarter of this year, non-U.S. revenue will surpass U.S. revenue." That's because eBay's revenue growth is slowing in the U.S. as the market matures (last year domestic revenues grew 34% to $1.89 billion) and because its international growth has been extraordinary. eBay's gross-merchandise volume (GMV)—the total dollar value of the deals done on a given website—in Britain, France and Italy all increased 100% or more last year. Consider that in 2000, eBay's international revenue totaled $29 million. By 2004, that figure was $1 billion.

For some time, it was simply a given that eBay would take China by storm as the online marketplace exploded, that it would be, as Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck puts it, a "layup." In 1999, Shao Yibo, a Harvard Business School graduate, started EachNet, an e-commerce company, in China. Shao's site openly aped eBay in style and content, effectively screaming "buy me" at the San Jose, California, giant. In 2002 eBay complied, paying $30 million for a third of the company and taking the rest for an additional $150 million the following year. This, arguably, was a hefty price for a start-up in a market in its infancy, but that was hardly the point. China is on its way to having 200 million Internet users. E-commerce is surging, and dotcom companies in general are back in favor. Wildly so.

But eBay's dominance of the next great e-commerce market has turned out to be anything but a layup. Even before the massive capital infusion from Yahoo!, Alibaba-Taobao was making life unexpectedly difficult for Whitman & Co. Ma, 40, is an English teacher turned Internet pioneer in China, where he started a company that provided basic information about Chinese industrial companies on the Web back in the mid-1990s. In 1999, he launched Alibaba, a business-to-business site that became profitable in 2002 and last year did about $70 million in sales. In 2003, he started Taobao—"searching for treasure" in Mandarin—and he plainly reveled in playing David to Whitman's Goliath. He gleefully tells of being shut out of eBay Live, the company's annual gathering of members of its e-commerce "community,'' because many sellers use Alibaba as a supplier. "We were going to eBay Live to make love, not war, and they canceled us," he says. "Can you believe that?"

Believe it. According to Alexa.com, a market-research site that tracks e-commerce, Taobao has surged in front of eBay by a variety of measurements. As of Aug. 1, Taobao was reaching 15,800 out of every 1 million Internet users, compared with just under 10,000 for eBay China. The number of page views per user—a measure of interest in the site—was 10.7 for Taobao vs. 7.4 for eBay. Most analysts agree that GMV is also a reasonable standard of performance. In the first quarter of this year, Taobao announced $120 million GMV vs. $90 million for eBay. In the second quarter, Taobao claimed $200 million, while eBay withheld its China data, claiming its competitors were distorting the numbers. "We didn't distort anything," says Porter Erisman, Taobao's vice president for corporate marketing. "We just beat them."

For eBay, it's clear the game has only just begun. The company is sinking an additional $100 million into China this year—much of which is going to marketing. eBay ads are ubiquitous on buses in Shanghai and other metro areas, as are its television commercials and online ads as well as other, quirkier promotions. At many popular karaoke bars in Shanghai, for example, customers get an hour of singing and drinking for free if they register as eBay users. The brash Ma mocks these efforts, claiming he canceled his marketing budget in the first half of this year when he discovered how much eBay was spending, figuring that "their ads were just expanding the e-commerce pie for everybody."

That could turn out to be wishful thinking. The same Alexa.com data that put Taobao in front also show a distinct narrowing of the gap. The reach-per-million-users data, for example, have Taobao's users down 6% over the past three months, while eBay's are up 32%—arguably a sign that what Taobao's Erisman sarcastically calls the "shock and awe" marketing campaign is having an effect. Meanwhile, eBay has rolled out its standard support system for big-time sellers in China. Education sessions are available once or twice a month at "eBay University," and what seller Wu Lin, who runs a full-time business selling clothing on the site, calls "excellent customer service" helps maintain customer loyalty. "If I have a question, they answer it," she says. eBay has finally introduced its secure online-payment system—PayPal. Alibaba-Taobao started its version, Alipay, earlier this year—something that has benefited it significantly in all overseas markets. Wu says she has "looked at Taobao, but I see no reason to leave eBay at this point."

Whitman knows Taobao doesn't charge sellers to list items on its site, but that won't be the case next year, as Ma acknowledges. eBay believes that will be a game changer, even if the alliance with Yahoo! makes Taobao's pockets that much deeper. But a link with Yahoo! gives Ma the capital and technology he needs to battle eBay on its terms. "Meg made a big mistake coming here," he says with a smile. "I respect her for doing so, but the chief commander shouldn't be at the front line with the troops. It just causes confusion and panic."

Nice try, Jack. Whitman is in China because she knows the cost of failure could be astronomical. In 1999, technical problems delayed eBay's roll-out in Japan. That allowed Yahoo! to get a jump on the online shopping business in what has become the second largest e-commerce market in the world—a lead it has never relinquished. eBay pulled out of the market entirely in 2002, a move Whitman has rued ever since. She is not about to let the Japan debacle be repeated anywhere else, especially China; nor is it probable that she wants to spend another summer in stifling Shanghai.