Any time you spend more than $4 billion, it's only natural to experience momentary buyer's remorse. (I'm obviously not speaking from personal experience but hey, I can dream!)

But I've been puzzling ever since eBay decided to break the bank to acquire Skype. The company's paying a pretty penny. There's the original price of $2.6 billion in cash and stock as well as the sundry performance incentives that could add another $1.5 billion if Skype hits certain financial performance metrics.

But did eBay get its money's worth? You only know the answer to these questions years later. Yahoo thought it was getting full value when it paid $5 billion to buy Broadcast.com, perhaps the dumbest deal in the history of the computer business.

Anyway, I use both the free and pay versions of Skype. It usually works fine though it's hardly perfect. Sometimes the latency on the line is unbearable. Other times the person on the other hand says I sound like I'm talking from Jupiter. For all the glitches, I still think Skype offers good value for the price.

But play around some time with the latest instant message audio tools offered by Yahoo, Microsoft, Google and America Online some time. Granted, the person on the other end still needs a computer to communicate with you. But is it so beyond the pale to imagine some will figure out a way to communicate between computers and phones five years from now?

The helmet that Robby Gordon threw at Michael Waltrip was temporarily pulled off the online auction site eBay on Wednesday after bidding exceeded $10 million.

The site ended the auction because it was unable to verify the legitimacy of the bids and because Gordon didn't have the proper documentation showing that he planned to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said.

The helmet was re-listed late Wednesday night with the assistance of AuctionCause, a company known for helping in fund-raising efforts with experience in prequalifying bidders.

Gordon listed the helmet on eBay on Tuesday and planned to donate all proceeds to the Harrah's Employee Relief Fund, a charity designed to aid Harrah's employees affected by Hurricane Katrina. Bidding was spirited all day and the helmet was listed at more than $100,000.

By Wednesday morning it had reached $8 million and Gordon's representatives began questioning the validity of the bids. By this time, eBay had also taken notice of the high amount of traffic and decided to end the auction.

"That sort of thing sometimes happens on high-profile listings, its what we call bogus bidding — people just bidding with no intention to pay for it," Durzy said. "People sometimes do that because they think it is funny, and it's not."

Durzy said eBay would probably investigate the bogus bids and either suspend or issue a warning against the potential buyers.

Gordon was directed to AuctionCause by eBay, and the company helped him re-list the helmet at a starting bid of $5,000. The auction now has a letter proving that all proceeds will go to the Harrah's Fund, and bidding now requires proof of the ability to pay for the helmet.

"We hope that everyone that submitted a valid bid will do so again," said John Story, CEO of Robby Gordon Motorsports. "Robby has a genuine interest in helping build the Harrah's Employee Relief Fund, and all of us here want to help in any way we can.

"That's why it is so important to re-establish the auction and guarantee that every dollar pledged actually goes to the relief effort."

Gordon threw the helmet at Waltrip after they were involved in an accident during Sunday's race at New Hampshire International Speedway.

After Waltrip wrecked him, Gordon first tried to hit Waltrip's car with his own. He then climbed from his car, walked through race traffic and tossed his helmet at Waltrip. He also used a derogatory term during a television interview when asked about Waltrip.

Gordon was fined a total of $35,000 and docked 50 driver points by NASCAR for the actions.

``The downside is still the considerable high price of oil,'' said Denny Engelman, senior trader at E-Trade Capital Markets in Chicago. ``It will take some time for the effects of that high to work itself through the economy.''

Shares of EBay Inc., the largest online auctioneer and a member of the retail group, dropped as Bear Stearns & Co. cut its rating on the stock. Nike Inc. advanced after reporting first-quarter profit that exceeded analysts' estimates.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 1.85, or 0.2 percent, to 1236.06 at 9:38 a.m. in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 25.64, or 0.2 percent, to 10,616.30. The Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 1.56, or 0.1 percent, to 2158.79.

The Federal Reserve meets tomorrow to decide on monetary policy. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News predict the central bank will lift the target rate for overnight loans among banks to 3.75 percent.

Crude oil rose from a six-week low on speculation an OPEC pledge to pump at full strength wouldn't be enough to meet demand in the event of another Gulf of Mexico hurricane. Crude for October delivery climbed 2.4 percent to $64.52 a barrel in New York.

Gasoline futures advanced as much as 3.6 percent to $1.85 a gallon. Oil has surged 48 percent in 2005, while gas is up 69 percent.

2005 Performances

Industries most affected by fuel costs are among the worst performers in the S&P 500 this year. Gauges of auto-related and transportation stocks have tumbled 22 percent and 11 percent, respectively, for the steepest declines among two-dozen industry groups. A measure of retailers is down 3.9 percent.

EBay slid 42 cents to $36.68. The company will spend more on investments in 2006 ``as competition is intensifying,'' which may weigh on the shares, wrote Bear Stearns analyst Robert Peck in a report. He reduced the rating on the stock, which slumped 36 percent this year, to ``peerperform'' from ``outperform.''

While energy costs have weighed on stocks amid concern about the economy, more than four-fifths of economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the Fed to lift its overnight lending rate for an 11th straight time tomorrow. A quarter-point increase would leave the target rate at 3.75 percent.

``Things have slowed down, but it's still positive growth,'' said Owen Fitzpatrick, managing director at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York. ``We think they'll raise rates tomorrow, and one more time before year-end.''

Slower Growth

U.S. economic growth slowed to a 3.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported last month, from 3.8 percent in the first three months of the year.

Nike gained $5.69, or 7.3 percent, to $84.15 for the best performance in the S&P 500. The world's biggest athletic-shoe maker said net income for the period ended Aug. 31 climbed to $1.61 a share as new lines of Shox sneakers increased demand in the U.S. and Asia. Analysts, on average, expected earnings of $1.42, according to a Thomson Financial survey.

Internet auction site eBay has cancelled the sale of a human kidney after it attracted bids up to $US800,000 ($1.05 million) in just a single day.

The kidney was being sold by a 54-year-old US citizen from Missoula in Montana who wanted to use the proceeds to support his family.

The internet site does not permit the sale of human organs and the auction was deleted as soon as it came to the notice of eBay management, the company said.

Another eBay seller tried to sell a kidney in 1999. That sale brought in bids of more than $US5.7 million before the company intervened to block the auction

RANGERS have shut down more than 40 eBay sites selling fake club goods.

They complained to the internet trading giants who then pulled the plug on dodgy sellers.

A club source said: "This is just the start.

"Where people are making money from selling counterfeit goods, we will hunt them down and prosecute them."

Rangers' zero-tolerance stance has made them the scourge of fakers across the globe.

Every day a team uses specialist software to track down club branded goods for sale on the internet.

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They then send off for a sample and, if bogus, they contact police and trading standards.

In the past month, 42 eBay sites have been closed down.

Many were selling homemade DVDs of last week's 3-2 victory over Porto at Ibrox.

Sellers' pages based in Australia, America and the UK were taken off the site.

The source added: "This might seem harmless to some but there's no way a buyer can tell whether he's got something from a 16-year-old geek or someone heavily involved in crime.

"We will keep getting these individual sites closed down. If others spring up in their place, we will close them down too. There is nowhere to hide."

Rangers hold 120 trademarks across 40 countries and goods confiscated already this year have been valued at £5million.

Their success is encouraging other clubs to follow suit.

An eBay spokesman said: "We are absolutely delighted to have been working with Rangers to keep counterfeit goods off eBay.

"We are committed to working with brand owners

Some of you might be doing this, right after you click off the Heartland News web site: checking the latest bids on eBay!

eBay has taken the nation and the Heartland by storm. But, is it good for everyone? 

While the Internet powerhouse has helped some folks cash in on extra money, others, like antique dealers, aren't so quick to log on and start bidding. "He bought it for a dollar and sold that table for $530!" So, there is a market on eBay for old-looking things. Don't ever think what's sitting in your house is junk-- it may not be!" says Jim Prater, as he peers at a glass table that even has a crack in it.

Prater knows firsthand about the advantages eBay customers sometimes see. Besides selling his own items on eBay, he also ships items for his postal customers. In fact, eBay sellers make up 75 percent of his Postal Pal clients.

And it's not just small items Prater ships. His staff found a way to ship a rather-large and old couch.

And if he can't find a box or crate to fit, Prater makes his own. "It never ceases to amaze me what comes in that door," he exclaims.

When Heartland News was at Postal Pal, one man shipped a grill for a 1946Plymouth to someone who bought it on eBay. "I got $100 for this and 60 out of this," says Gary Dahmer.  And he only paid a few bucks for each of these--- which Gary Dahmer calls, "Junk to most people, treasure to others!"

After seeing all of these random items selling so quickly, Prater wonders about eBay’s effects on antique dealers. “That's what's hurting these antique dealers, because they don't have the selection you have on eBay,” said Prater.

But not so fast, antique dealer Alan Pigg has found a way to beat the system.  "When I don't have other things, I may just take something off the shelf and sell it on eBay," said Pigg.He also says eBay is merely a tool that supplements his flea market and antique shop. He recommends others in that business do the same.

Still, PIgg admits, "Something like this may sell for ten bucks here, and we don't have to ship it. We don't have to put forth the effort required in eBay format and I'd much rather sell it here than on eBay!” said Pigg.

That antique dealer also says no matter how popular eBay remains, there will always be a market there for the shoppers who want to see, touch and feel an item they're about to purchase, rather than looking at it on a computer screen.

Alan also says if you do want to sell on eBay, unique and old items sell the fastest. He also claims glassware hardly ever sells!

Federal and state authorities are investigating at least 10 eBay auctions, some Oregon-based, found last week that offered thousands of pills containing pseudoephedrine, the critical ingredient in methamphetamine.

Quantities offered far exceeded new state laws on sales of the chemical.

Three auctions continued to take bids Friday. Three others apparently were shut down either by their owners or by eBay.

Ken Magee, assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Oregon, said the auctions "piqued our interest tremendously."

With Oregon and other states passing laws restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine in recent months, buyers and sellers are finding new ways to obtain it.

"Crooks are becoming more savvy," said Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, D.C. "They're realizing, 'Hey, here's a way to go through a keyboard anonymously, make cash and disappear.'"

For at least six months, the DEA has worked with eBay and other online retailers to stop illicit sales of pseudoephedrine, Courtney said. The retailers are trying to develop filters to root out illegal sales while allowing legal ones, he said.

But smoking out criminals in a marketplace featuring tens of millions of listings is difficult, eBay officials said. "It's impossible for us to police that and be 100 percent effective," said Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman.

He said eBay may soon revamp its policy to forbid all sales of pseudoephedrine.

Until then, the company has yanked individual pseudoephedrine auctions if asked by authorities pursuing investigations, Durzy said. He said he did not know how many auctions the company had ended.

A Tennessee-based blogger tracking the topic called pseudoactivist.blogspot.com said eBay has removed at least 40 auctions involving 500 grams of pseudoephedrine after e-mails urging the company to do so.

Oregon rules approved in April restrict cold medicine purchasers to 9 grams of active pseudoephedrine a month, about the amount in three 24-pill boxes of Sudafed.

As of Friday afternoon, eBay listed at least three auctions for boxes of pseudoephedrine containing 1,000 30-milligram tablets located in Portland. The starting bids were $65.

On Thursday one listing advertised "Pseudoephedrine By the Box or by the Bottle."

EBay officials would not provide any information Friday about the sellers or the buyers of the auctions.

Oregon last year became the second state to require that many pseudoephedrine products be kept behind the counter instead of on open shelves.

Last month, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed legislation to require prescriptions for decongestants containing pseudoephedrine.

The new requirement must be in place by next July 1, but officials say they may be able to implement it earlier.

Under the law, doctors can prescribe the product over the phone and consumers can get up to five refills in a six-month period.

The founder of eBay Inc. and his wife, both Tufts University alumni, gave the university a $25 million challenge grant to be used for undergraduate student scholarships.

Pierre Omidyar, founder and chairman of eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY), the San Jose-based online auction company, and his wife, Pam, are making the second largest gift Tufts has received in its history. Tufts is in Medford, Mass.

The gift is a challenge grant to encourage donors to contribute to a $200 million endowment Tufts is trying to raise to make it a need-blind school. A need-blind school accepts students regardless of their ability to pay the tuition and offers financial aid accordingly.

The Omidyars have founded Omidyar Network, an investment group. Pierre Omidyar, a trustee of Tufts, earned a bachelor of science in computer science from the school in 1988. Pam Omidyar, who sits on the college's advisory board, earned a degree in biology from the school in 1989.

Schoolchildren across the southeast Valley are raising money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. But Peggy Wojtal's kindergarten class at Risen Savior Lutheran School in Chandler is doing it with a little technical savvy.

School Director Linda Pauley said Wojtal and class parents wanted to find a unique, meaningful way for kids to help, so they asked each child to create two pieces of art. The first represented what they would like to give the people who lost everything. The second was a happy picture.

Now the original pictures are posted on eBay with the proceeds going to Red Cross hurricane relief efforts. advertisement 
 
"It made me feel like an actual artist," said 5-year-old Emily MacKay. Many of the students expressed concerns for the people impacted by the hurricane and said it felt good to help.

"When people buy our art we'll get money to send so they can buy stuff," said 5-year-old Emily Spears.

Opening bids are $9.99. On Friday, several had increased beyond that and at least one was going for more than $100. The auction ends Tuesday.

"I'm just warm and fuzzy about the whole thing," Pauley said.

She said she will happily accept back any artwork from winning bidders to hang at the school.

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Bob Brauer, CEO of StrikeIron, Inc., about the latest phase of his firm's "Web Services Marketplace" offering.  (Q&A published here.) Since the marketplace will serve as a forum for both subscribers and publishers of various services, Brauer evoked the eBay analogy for what he is providing; though he stresses that pricing of services will be fixed, and not auctioned.

The eBay analogy is popular across many disciplines now; Salesforce.com's Mark Benioff evoked it for his company's services, as noted in this post from ZDNet's Dan Farber. Nevertheless, I find the idea of building an ecosystem, which potentially could foster a new class of service publishers, intriguing.  Some folks are running their own businesses off of eBay, for example. I have a friend that makes a few thousand a year buying and selling used golf equipment within eBay.

How does this all fit into the SOA scheme of things?  I talk a lot in this blog about the JBOWS architecture (Just a Bunch of Web Services) that most companies now have, versus fully functioning SOAs. Will having a frenzy of services bought and sold over the open market just add to the confusion?

Two thoughts: Brauer sees StrikeIron's marketplace playing a role in providing services that companies may not have the time or inclination to build. Why reinvent the wheel by having your staff spend time building service components, when you can quickly subscribe to a component, that's been tested and uptime certified, and pay for it on as-used basis? "We are providing, through our partners and ourselves, a bunch of new Web services that you can hook in through your existing SOA," Brauer said. "For example, things like our live tax rates, or our address verification Web service. Different things where it makes a lot more sense for companies to hook into our Web service, rather than having to rebuild and update and gather the data themselves."

The other thought is that if such a marketplace approach does take off, this may push some software vendors to change their models to component delivery, based on a micropayment business model.  This also makes plenty of room for smaller start-ups.

Amazon and others are reportedly in interested in this marketplace concept as well. This could open up a whole new way of doing business.

A San Leandro man has pleaded guilty to charges that he defrauded eBay users in online auctions for rare Mickey Mantle and Michael Jordan sports cards.

In pleading guilty Monday to one count of mail fraud, Michael Gouveia, 40, admitted that he accepted money from the winning bidders in 2002 and 2003 with no intention of delivering the cards as promised.

Gouveia admitted that he had defrauded eBay users of more than $34,000, including a Michigan resident who sent him $7,199 for a 1951 Mickey Mantle baseball card that was never delivered.

U.S. District Judge James Ware will sentence Gouveia in San Jose on Dec. 19.

Let's cut eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) open. Don't worry -- it's a hearty specimen. As we dig deep into the world's leading auctioneer, we begin to uncover some of the junk that the company's been eating over the years. I'm not talking about that 9-year-old Pez dispenser or some "eBay Live" bumper sticker. I'm talking about the series of seemingly odd acquisitions that the company has consumed since its arrival on the dot-com scene in 1996.

This week's news that eBay was going to be swallowing online communication upstart Skype may have left some investors scratching their heads. Then again, those are probably the same shareholders who were wondering where the company's other purchases fit into the scheme of things.

So let's snap on those surgical gloves, don the goggles, and take a closer look at eBay's brief, yet potent, buying history.

Half.com
In June 2000, eBay acquired Half.com for $374 million in stock. Half.com had been launched just a few months earlier, but eBay was doing the right thing. It smelled a threat and had the clout to extinguish it before it raged out of control.

Half.com was a pretty original upstart that allowed visitors to sell their used CDs, books, movies, and video games on the site. The only catch was that they had to price their wares at least 50% below retail value. Given the product categories, one can argue that this was an even bigger threat to Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) than to eBay -- after all, if folks were hawking used media online, why bother with Amazon? -- but the model itself was more disruptive to eBay's existing business.

To understand why, consider that Half.com was letting its users list for free. It was a breeze to use, too -- just a matter of punching in the UPC, checking off on the product's condition, and setting a low price. Users would then be charged a 15% commission on any sales. In short, Half.com was a seller-friendly consignment service. That didn't sit well with eBay, which had always charged -- and still does charge -- fees for all listings rather than just on sales, to make sure that it got paid on even unsuccessful deals.

At the time eBay made its offer, Half.com claimed to have more than 4 million items available through its virtual consignment shop. That was about the same number of auctions that eBay had going on at any particular time. Half.com had an aggressive affiliate program in place to make sure that it would grow strong virally. But eBay was no dummy. It knew that it could buy its friends -- and its enemies.

PayPal
Two years later, PayPal emerged as enough of a threat to eBay that "Little e" consumed it in a deal valued at $1.4 billion. PayPal was becoming the online payment of choice, and eBay had to do something about it. No, eBay didn't aspire to be a bank. However, it felt as though it would not be getting the most out of its users if they were to scurry off to PayPal.com to seal the deal after buyers and sellers had shaken hands on eBay. Yes, eBay had tried to make the payment system work on its own. It teamed up with Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) for its proprietary Billpoint service, but it was too little, too late: Despite integrating Billpoint into the eBay auction site, folks were still turning to PayPal to complete their transactions.

Like Half.com, PayPal also had an ambitious affiliate marketing program in place. But PayPal's was even more effective than Half.com's, since it would provide new accounts with a $5 bonus as well as reward active accounts with $5 for any new account referrals. The end result was that everyone had a PayPal account. The same rationale that worked for eBay against rival auction sites being put out by Amazon and Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO) applied here.

Bidders went to eBay because that's where the sellers were, and vice versa. The same thing happened with PayPal as it became the legal tender of choice in cyberspace. So shortly after PayPal went public, eBay was there. It was ready to turn another foe into a financial contributor.

Craigslist
Two summers after PayPal -- and what is it with eBay going gonzo with the acquisitive plastic this time of year? -- eBay picked up a 25% stake in Craigslist. Once again, the buy was a result of eBay's predatory sense starting to tingle. Craigslist is a free site where users buy, sell, and swap everything from merchandise to rentals, or even pick up a date. Organized by city, it is a pure grassroots marketplace. When eBay secured its minority stake, Craigslist was attracting 5 million unique visitors a month and generating  more than a billion monthly page views.

With a quarter of the value of eBay's successful marketplace transactions taking place in its eBay Motors division, how could the online auctioneer let Craigslist folks move their tired rides for free? Localized features like free job listings may have been a threat to a company like Monster Worldwide (Nasdaq: MNST), and its extensive real estate listings may have turned heads at a place like Homestore.com (Nasdaq: HOMS), but Craigslist was growing to be a real thorn in eBay's side given the growing popularity of its freebie merchandise listings.

Yes, there is plenty of clutter to be found on Craigslist. It would never be a pure replacement to eBay's proven interface. Then again, if bidders started finding what they were looking for on the free site -- and sellers found willing buyers -- the same dynamics that grew eBay into a titan could start nipping at its ankles.

Unlike its two earlier buyouts, eBay didn't walk away with complete control in a potential adversary. All it gets to do is ride shotgun with Craigslist. That's not necessarily bad. It will be able to learn more about Craigslist and gain competitive insight. Its absorbing role may even give it an education if it should ever decide to enter new realms, such as job listings or dating personals.

Skype
So why would eBay pay as much as $4.1 billion for a company that allows people to chat it up in cyberspace for free? Because Skype is a global sensation. Its software has been downloaded nearly 170 million times. And any two Skype-enabled users can engag e in voice communication with their Internet connections.

All that said, Skype produced just $7 million in revenue last year. On the other hand, it raked in most of that amount when it was mostly a free service. Since then, to reach out to those who are not online with Skype, the company has unleashed a pay service to reach landlines and cell phones at a fraction of the conventional cost.

So what's the deal here? It's not as if eBay were AT&T (NYSE: T) or anything close to a telco remnant. What did it stand to gain in owning a good chunk of voice-based online usage? Will it help close auctions quicker if it provides an interface for buyer and seller to talk over the transaction details? Perhaps. But that's certainly not worth the king's ransom that eBay is footing for Skype. Even if Skype's new e-commerce pursuits have it producing $200 million in revenue next year as expected, eBay has to have a master plan in mind.

And it does. Skype got eBay's interest because it was generating buyout interest elsewhere and because all of the major portals were rolling out their own Skype-like audio features on their instant-messaging platforms. Exchanging goods? Exchanging words? It may seem like a stretch, but eBay couldn't afford to let the other Internet giants grow unchecked.

The path to prominence for eBay was dictated by having the masses at the ready. Buying Skype was about securing eyeballs -- and eardrums -- and making sure that even more online users stayed well within the reach of Meg Whitman's marketing whims.

I did it eBay 
Just 39% of eBay's revenues this past quarter came from its flagship domestic-auction business. The company is diversifying in terms of geography and focus. That points to the reality that these are challenging times for the company. But they're also exciting times. Ever since we singled out eBay in the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter three summers ago, the company's shares have risen by 122%. That's a refreshingly beefy return, compared with the 17% that the S&P 500 has mustered in that same time.

So, yes, as we poke around inside eBay, we see a company that has developed an insatiable, if not incredibly tactful, appetite. And you just never know what it's going to devour next. 

EBay said it will pay $US1.3 billion in cash and $US1.3 billion in stock for explosively growing Skype, which will allow eBay to add free web telephone calls to its online auctions. It will make a further payout of up to $US1.5 billion if certain financial targets are met.

The deal will cut eBay's earnings by about a penny per share until the end of 2006 before beginning to boost eBay's profitability, Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta said. Its shares rose 45 cents, or 1.17 per cent, to $US39.07 on Nasdaq.

EBay is renowned for its internet marketplace linking more than 150 million buyers and sellers, who currently exchange about 5 million emails per day. It hopes that offering free Skype calls within eBay will smooth the way for more deals to go through, and let the company charge merchants for calls that lead to sales.

Skype already leads the booming voice-over-internet (VOIP) market, which is seen as a threat to traditional phone companies and is being aggressively targeted by online powerhouses such as Time Warner Inc's AOL unit Yahoo Inc and Google Inc.

Microsoft Corp, for instance, last month moved to build its presence in the internet telephony market with the purchase of Teleo, while Yahoo bought Dialpad earlier in 2005.

But eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman said that Skype had a considerable head start.

"We think Skype has an enormous lead - 150,000 new users a day - and technology that is generations ahead of where the new entrants are," she said. "And when people are using your brand name as a verb, that is incredibly powerful."

Skype expects revenue of $US60 million this year and more than $US200 million in 2006, but has yet to turn a profit. In two years, Skype has attracted 54 million members to its free and low-cost internet-based voice service and is on track to roughly double in size within a year.

EBay is looking to create a new triad of e-commerce, joining buyers and sellers on eBay, with its PayPal online payment system, and the ability to complete transactions via web phone calls using Skype software, analysts said.

But David Ricci, a portfolio manager with William Blair & Co, said the deal could prove to be a "stretch" for eBay since it appears to fall outside of its core business.

"The motivation for other players is more obvious than it the buying and selling process, Dutta told Reuters by telephone.

Legg Mason telecommunications analyst Blair Levin, formerly the chief of staff to Clinton-era Federal Communications Chairman Reed Hundt, said Skype faces competitive challenges of its own as it moves closer to traditional phone services.

Skype could eventually fall under US regulation governing emergency services that could drive up the costs of adding new subscribers. Also, phone companies are moving fast to add video, data and wireless services to their voice offerings. Skype will have to invest to keep pace, Levin noted.

"While Skye certainly has benefited from first-mover advantage, the competitive dynamic for the kind of service it offers is increasing," Levin said in a note to investors.

Nearly half of Skype's users live in Europe, a quarter are in Asia, and an eighth are in North America, providing eBay with a large audience as it seeks to expand outside of its core North American market.

The deal provides a major payout for Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who also created the controversial file-trading network Kazaa that allows music fans to share music for free. The co-founders plan to stay at Skype.

Opinion: David Coursey thought long and hard about eBay buying Skype before coming to the obvious conclusion: eBay really does have more money than it can use effectively. Oracle's purchase of Siebel Systems is a better deal, though customers will be given many reasons to defect.
 
I have to admit to being initially perplexed when the news about eBay buying Skype reached my desk. For hours, I tried over and again to make sense of the deal, trying to understand what I'd missed. It wasn't until late in the day that it dawned on me: The reason eBay buying Skype doesn't make sense is precisely because it makes no sense. None. Nada. Zilch.

Summed up in a short sentence, eBay has shown itself to be a company of many dollars and little sense. It's hard to imagine the company making back this sort of investment and certainly whatever Skype brought to the table could have been gotten elsewhere for a lot less.

eBay seems to have purchased Skype with the intent of building its VOIP technology into eBay's shopping and auction engine. One analyst told me it was a build-or-buy decision for eBay, which took the "buy" route in acquiring Skype.

eBay wants buyers and sellers to speak to one another. There's also the possibility of live real-time auctions using VOIP. And there's the possibility that Skype will continue to offer a VOIP service independent of eBay's stores and auctions.

The analyst suggested that by purchasing Skype, eBay had somehow missed the bullet of having to support a zillion incompatible VOIP services. That doesn't wash with me, as eBay could have bought some other VOIP company for a lot less money, or merely made an investment in Skype, or just anointed a VOIP provider as its chosen partner with no money changing hands. Actually, I suspect someone would have been happy to pay eBay for the privilege of being its VOIP company.

So, there's no way that adding VOIP to eBay should have cost the between $2.6 and $4.1 billion dollars that Skype is getting. The move can be only explained this way: The company whose auctions are used to set the fair price for so many things doesn't know the value of a dollar. This may actually make sense when you have as many dollars floating around as eBay does. (I can only imagine who Google may yet purchase with its loot).

While I'm aware that Skype has developed a following, until eBay's money truck arrived, I'd always expected a telco to end up acquiring the Skype, but not until competition heated up. Right now, VOIP seems too much in the air to declare winners and losers, but that didn't stop eBay from making Skype a huge winner—and, perhaps, taking them out of the broad market for good.

Skype is a bad purchase for eBay, but since eBay had the money to burn we may never understand precisely how bad.

As for the day's other big deal, Tom Siebel left Oracle to compete with Larry Ellison, had a brief heyday when there was oodles of money floating around, and now is getting his comeuppance from a presumably still-not-amused Mr. Ellison. I can almost hear the gloating as Oracle takes down another loathsome competitor.

The world will now pause, collectively exclaim, "Larry, you're such a stud!" and get on with our business. I hope Larry's ego was properly stroked. Sometimes, I find it almost sad that Larry's egomania and good business decisions so often line up.

Buying Siebel is a good thing for Oracle, especially because Siebel didn't put up a nasty fight. It's also a deal that should have happened a year or two sooner, perhaps thus pre-empting the public execution of PeopleSoft. Had Seibel been purchased first, PeopleSoft would have found itself in waters hostile enough that Oracle could have considered the company effectively vanquished. Or, at least, available later on at a better price.

Instead, it should be fun to watch Oracle try to turn seven different CRM packages from four companies (Oracle, PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, and Siebel) into something like a unified product. Given that the customers of acquired companies had the chance to buy Oracle but refused, it will be fascinating to see what sort of deals Oracle is willing to make to in order to keep them.

Oracle's move to roll up much of the CRM business also presents an incredible opportunity to Salesforce.com, SAP and a host of smaller companies. They will doubtless work hard to take advantage of the inflection point Oracle has created. Given the enormity of the support, migration, and development task facing Oracle, I expect its remaining competitors to do well in grabbing some unhappy Siebel, PeopleSoft, and J.D. Edwards customers. How happy can they possibly be?
 

I hate scary movies. Fellow Fool Tim Beyers saw one last week when he penned a piece on the rumor that Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) was relentlessly pursuing privately held Skype, the popular provider of voice-over-Internet-proto col (VoIP) software and services. Now it's time to review that scary movie: The press release that makes the buyout deal official has been released.

eBay will pay $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock to acquire Skype. The $1.3 billion in cash is half of what eBay had in the bank, so it won't bleed any red onto its debt-free balance sheet. Ah, but there is a "performance-based consideration" (in other words, a bonus) in this deal worth up to $1.5 billion in cash and/or stock. The total price tag could be a whopping $4.1 billion by 2009 -- payable at eBay's discretion.

For its billions, eBay is getting a young company with approximately $7 million in 2004 sales. That sounds bad until you realize that eBay expects its prodigy's sales to increase to $200 million in 2006 -- valuing the up-front deal at 13 times forward sales. No word on how much of that sales forecast is expected to be the result of "synergies" between the eBay and Skype brands.

At first blush, I agreed with Tim Beyers' logic that auctions and phone service go together as well as spinach and ice cream. It's a scary combination, especially when so many high-priced mergers never reach anything near their touted potential.

But I have to say that I've warmed to this deal. Although I find the price out of this world, eBay is acknowledging its core market, Internet transactions, and attempting to provide a platform for communications between its customers and everyone else on the Internet.

This isn't just about eBay and its PayPal subsidiary. It is about a well-known Internet site rolling phone service into its Internet sales and payment package to create a "killer application," set for deployment on some of the Web's prime real estate. This combination could create fundamental changes in the way e-commerce is done. Sure, as a software consultant, I've heard this promise about VoIP technology for years, but I've never seen it delivered. In my opinion, the delivery is finally on its way.

Investors will ask if Skype is really worth $2.6 billion. Since it's rumored that News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) was willing to pay $3 billion for Skype, paying less was probably not an option.

Will eBay make a bundle on this massive investment? The odds aren't exactly in its favor, especially since its competition has begun to plunge into the VoIP world as well. Microsoft recently purchased Teleo, a VoIP company whose services are already integrated into Microsoft Outlook and Internet Explorer. It doesn't share eBay's focus on e-commerce, but it's another choice addition to Microsoft's software portfolio (at an asking price that's been kept under wraps).

Meanwhile, Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has its limited VoIP offering Google Talk in beta testing, Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL unit has its own efforts, and so does Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO). That's quite a crowd, and all of the players are known for their well-padded bank accounts.

Until now, nobody's found a surefire formula for making VoIP a regular part of the Internet experience. Will eBay and Skype provide the necessary synergy to give this scary movie a happy ending? It looks like we'll have to wait for the sequel to find out.

Millions of buyers and sellers on the eBay auction website will soon be able to phone each other over the internet after a £1.4 billion technology deal, the biggest in the company's ten-year history.

The American website, used by more than 150 million people worldwide, yesterday confirmed plans to buy Skype, the market leader among a growing number of companies offering software which allows internet surfers to make voice calls from computer to computer.

Meg Whitman, the chief executive of eBay, said: "Over time, we intend to make voice communications a part of the eBay marketplace - a huge step forward in making transactions faster and easier, as well as bringing even more interactivity and humanity to the eBay Community."

She said the details of how Skype will be built into eBay will be worked out "over the next few weeks" but vowed the deal would "redefine online trade and community".

Launched two years ago, Luxembourg-based Skype has 54 million users worldwide and it is estimated it will double in size in a year.

Its software allows users with broadband internet connections to make voice calls to each other without using traditional fixed phone lines. Internet surfers need only speakers and a microphone or headset to use the technology.

The ability to make phone calls over broadband, known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is an explosive growth area being targeted by a range of big new media players.

Google, the online search engine company, became the latest entrant to the field last month when it unveiled Google Talk, and both Microsoft and Yahoo! plan to offer rival services.

Low-cost internet phone providers like Skype pose a major challenge to the telecommunications industry as the technology which breaks calls into data packets that get routed over the internet is cheaper and more efficient than the traditional phone system.

Executives of both eBay and Skype believe the availability of "click-to-call" services on the website will help convert eBay surfers into buyers. Typical UK eBay users spend nearly two hours a month on the site and view 280 pages, and the auction website hopes the ability to make instant voice calls will reduce the "friction" involved in buying and selling. That ability to communicate instantly will be further enhanced when Skype adds video calling to its software.

Both companies said yesterday that further performance-related payments could take the eventual value of the Skype deal to £2.2 billion by 2008-9.

Not all industry watchers are convinced about eBay's latest acquisition. Mark Main, a technology analyst with Ovum, said he considered the deal "far-fetched" and suggested eBay could have found cheaper ways to improve its internet communication abilities.

"EBay could have developed its own sophisticated messaging and communications platform, or even bought one, for far less money than it is paying for Skype," he said, adding: "If eBay is mainly paying for Skype's user base and brand, that makes this a risky investment."

However, eBay has defied critics over its technology strategy before. In 2002 the company was accused of veering into competition with the banks after it bought PayPal, an electronic payment system, for just under £1 billion.

However, the ability to pay sellers via a click of a button proved popular with web surfers and thrust eBay into a commanding position in the online-payment market.

The UK version of eBay, launched in 1999, is currently attracting nearly 11 million visitors a month. More than £2 billion worth of goods were sold on the UK site last year and the company says British sellers are offering three million items at any one time.

While many eBay visitors buy and sell the odd item, some British surfers now make their professional living from the website. EBay says 10,000 people, including small businesses, use it as their main source of income in the UK.

Technology shares in America rose on news of the eBay announcement. In another landmark technology deal, software company Oracle said it would buy rival Siebel Systems for £3.2 billion.

What is going on at the internet auctioneer QXL Ricardo? In the past year alone, shares in the UK's rival to eBay have registered a twenty-fold rise, giving the group a stock market value of £110m. On a two-year view, its shares have risen nearly fifty-fold. And yet QXL is barely profitable. In fact, it will be lucky to see its turnover top £10m this year.

Although the company's performance has improved from the days when it used to be valued at below £10m, the main reason for this extraordinary performance seems to be due to the workings of the stock market and not the underlying business.

Two rival investment companies now control 53 per cent of QXL. Florissant, backed by Icelandic money, has 27 per cent and last year tried to buy the group with a bid of 1,400p a share. That failed and soon after an Israeli consortium called Izaki Group emerged on the scene and quickly built up a 26 per cent shareholding. This stake-building by the duo greatly boosted QXL's shares. In fact, Izaki is believed to have paid up to 3,000p for some of its stock back in May year.

So far, so good. At 3,000p QXL was worth £50m, a racy valuation but not insanely so. However, since then shares in the group have once more doubled and closed at 6,268p on Friday. Market professionals say this further jump is the product of an attempted bear raid on QXL that went badly wrong. After Izaki finished its stake-building, many traders took out short positions in the stock - they sold shares they did not own, convinced they would be able to buy them back at a lower price some time in the future. Their view was that QXL was overvalued.

However, the bears got it badly wrong and shares in the online auctioneer simply held their ground. When it was time for the raiders to close their positions, they found stock was scarce in the market and soon it was they who were paradoxically driving QXL shares higher as they scrabbled to buy them back. In City dealing room parlance, this is called a bear squeeze.

On 9 June, the online auctioneer pretty much confirmed this had happened. It put out a statement saying its soaraway share price was "due to technical market issues not related to the operations of the company". QXL shares are likely to continue to rise as long as there are still bears looking to buy back stock to close short positions. How long this will go on for and how high it will take QXL's valuation is anybody's guess.

But on a fundamental basis, the company is simply overvalued at present. Even if the group gets back its most profitable division - its Polish unit, the ownership of which is the subject of litigation in the former Eastern Bloc country - QXL's shares will still be far too expensive.

SCREEN TEST

Word has it Personal Screening will soon be making its way from the lightly regulated Ofex market to AIM. The UK's leading supplier of approved self-test medical kits is expected to announce its move within the next month. Personal Screening's innovative kits allow patients to test themselves for an array of disorders from home, including diabetes, high cholesterol, prostate problems and a range of sexually transmitted diseases. They are sold in a wide range of high street outlets and by mail order and generally cost between £10 and £20.

CLEARING UP OPERATION

Finally, yet more bullish news is on the way from United Clearing this week. The group, which provides outsourcing services to the mobile phone industry, has won another contract and the deal is likely to be announced as early as today. United Clearing has secured Globalstar Europe Satellite, the world's most widely used handheld satellite phone provider, as a customer.

The coup will come hot on the heels of similar deals with Orange, Hutchison 3G Ireland and O2 Ireland and should mean that the company's full-year results, expected next month, impress the City. Brokers forecast United Clearing to unveil a pre-tax profit of £1m and tip this to soar to £1.6m in 2006. Although the group's shares have soared by 70 per cent since its float last year, there seems to be plenty more upside in the stock.

Adamind looks like a winner

Adamind, the multimedia messaging software group, which floated in February, will post maiden interims tomorrow and investors can expect to see evidence that it is growing strongly. Led by Shailendra Jain, pictured above, it is the world's leading supplier of adaptation software which ensures multimedia messages and e-mails are compatible between different types of mobile handset.

Therefore, Adamind is benefiting greatly from the ever rising number of mobile phone users who are moving from simply text messaging to sending picture messages and downloading content such as news and music clips. Its figures should boast a doubling in first-half sales, putting it on target to achieve turnover of more than $6.5m (£3.5m) for the full year.

Analysts expect Adamind, which was spun out of Emblaze Systems and enjoys the Dutch electronics giant Philips as a major shareholder, to be profitable at the pre-tax level next year. And there should be little stopping it from further profit growth thereafter. More than 90 mobile phone networks, including the US giant Verizon, use Adamind's software, giving it a 40 per cent share of the global market. All looks to be in place to make the group a big winner from the fast evolving multimedia messaging sector.

Ebay was in the final stages late Sunday of sealing an agreement to buy Skype, the fast-growing provider of voice calls over the internet, for more than $2.6bn, according to a person close to the situation.

The deal, which ends a flurry of takeover approaches from other internet and media com-panies, could cost as much as $4.1bn, if Skype hits certain performance targets between now and 2008.

By integrating Skype with its own software to bring voice calls to its online market, Ebay would be able to ease communications and increase the level of trust between its buyers and sellers, according to the person close to the deal.

That could grease the wheels of the auction and general e-commerce site. While not planning to compete head-on with traditional telecommunications companies, Ebay is also thought to see the acquisition as a way to jump into new markets, including charging fees to companies that use the voice service to generate sales leads over the internet.

However, reports last week about the possible price for the transaction, along with Skype's largely undeveloped business model and the increasing competition in the so-called voice over internet protocol market, have already raised concerns about Ebay overpaying for Skype. Under the terms of the potential deal, Ebay is understood to be preparing to pay $1.3bn, in cash, along with another $1.3bn worth of stock. It would also pay $1.5bn in performance-related benefits as part of an earn-out that would keep Skype's managers at the company until 2008.

The potential deal echoes Ebay's $1.5bn purchase of PayPal, the online payment company.

As a network that links many private buyers and sellers around the world, Ebay already acts as a giant communications company, handling millions of e-mails a day, though it does not have a real-time communications network to let its users contact each other to agree deals or settle disputes.

However, Skype's business is thought to be far less developed than PayPal was at the time it was bought. PayPal had already gone public and was generating around $200m in annual revenue when Ebay bought it, while Skype, which was created in 2002, is estimated to have revenues of €50m-€70m.

The high price for the relatively undeveloped company, which is run from London, reflects the competition from other big internet and media groups, including Yahoo and News Corp, as well as the lofty valuations that internet com-panies have reached since the PayPal deal.

It also reflects the success of Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, Skype's founders, in being among the first to attract a big following for an internet voice service.

More than 50m people have downloaded the company's software, which can be used to make free calls between computers over the internet. Users can also pay to make calls from their computers to a traditional telephone line.

Like Ebay, Skype has talked of integrating its voice service into online commerce and other applications on the internet, making it a feature of many different services.

Yahoo Inc.'s newly acquired Alibaba.com unit will focus on building up several key businesses, but has no near-term plans for acquisitions or a public offering, as it aims to be China's Internet leader, top company executives said on Saturday.

Yahoo agreed last month to pay $1 billion and give its China business unit to Alibaba in exchange for a 40 percent stake in the Chinese Internet commerce specialist.

The new firm will now focus on building key areas, including business-to-business e-commerce, consumer auctions, search, e-mail and instant messaging, Alibaba founder and Chief Executive Officer Jack Ma told Reuters in an interview.

"For the moment we need to invest in our existing businesses," said Ma, a fifth generation resident of Hangzhou, an historic city known for its natural scenery.

"The China Internet market isn't very mature yet, so we need to invest our money in developing it," the former English teacher said on the sidelines of an Internet summit.

Ma said Alibaba's first priority would be to work with its own resources, and a second would be to form partnerships with other players. He dismissed outright acquisitions as a priority for the near term.

Alibaba generated a relatively modest $68 million in cash revenue last year, an amount that Ma said he expects to double in the current year. Its core product, a business-to-business marketplace, handled $4.5 billion in domestic and international transactions.

Its newer online auction TaoBao service, which competes in China with eBay, handled $200 million in the second quarter of 2005.

Ma said his company is profitable, but said that boosting profits is not a key priority just now.

"For the moment, it's more important to invest in the China market and not worry about profits," he said. "For us, it was more important to prove we could be profitable, and not how much money we could make."

BUILDING SHARE

Prior to the Alibaba deal, Yahoo's main China business was the local search site 3721.com, which it bought two years ago for $120 million. Since then, it has competed with local search leader Baidu and other smaller players.

More...

eBay shares fell 4 percent yesterday, after a report on the alleged negotiations with Internet-telephony company Skype has been published in The Wall Street Journal.

eBay's stock price fell $1.53 close to $38.93 per share after The Wall Street Journal mentioned an estimated price of $2 to $3 billion for the acquisition.

eBay and Skype made no further comment on the matter
other than calling all the emerged information rumors and speculations.

As Skype has 53 million registered users and according to its representatives, more than 2 million people use Skype at any given moment, some analysts say this prospect doesn't hold up.

"I would be shocked and dismayed if eBay made this move to get into the telephone business," said Maribel Lopez, a telecommunication analyst to Forrester Research. "A bunch of companies [including Google, Yahoo! and MSN] already offer voice as part of instant-messaging."

"Even if having integrated voice communication between buyers and sellers is a good thing, I'm not certain that eBay would need to acquire the capability," stated David Edwards, analyst for American Technology Research.

Rumors abound that eBay, the world`s biggest and most successful online auction house, will buy out Skype Technologies, an Internet-based telecommunications group.

Both companies have steadfastly declined to comment on the speculation, even as major newspapers went ahead and published the report. Investors, however, were sufficiently spooked by the speculation that eBay could offer anywhere between $2 billion and $5 billion for the Luxembourg-based company that only started business two years ago, they were quick to sell off shares in eBay. While eBay has established itself as the grande dame of online-based businesses that has revolutionized the way consumers buy and sell used as well as new goods, many investors believed that acquiring Skype would go far beyond the core operations of eBay. As a result, eBay`s share price tumbled nearly 4 percent to close just above $39 Thursday.

Of course, rumors of a buyout are nothing new for Skype. The company became fodder for similar talks with Google only a month ago, which the company has flatly denied. Still, it is a testament both to Skype`s undeniable top position in the Voice over Internet Protocol market on the one hand, and growing fears among analysts that other bigger companies want to get into the VoIP business now too, which could hurt Skype`s prospects in the long run.

Over the past two weeks alone, both Google and Yahoo! have announced plans to expand their own VoIP platforms, while Microsoft and America Online too have increased their commitment to improving their Internet voice connectivity. In fact, both Microsoft and Yahoo! bought out Skype`s competitors in recent months in an effort to bolster their VoIP business.

There is no doubt, however, that for now, Skype continues to dominate that particular market, with its 52 million subscribers who have downloaded Skype software for free, which allows them to talk to one another over the phone at no cost. Meanwhile, Skype has scored 2 million paying subscribers who are paying customers, which allows them to use Skype to initiate a call but then requires payment to connect to a landline phone. By using broadband access, however, Skype calls can be made for a fraction of the price charged by conventional telecommunications companies, which makes Skype particularly attractive to frequent international callers.

Nevertheless, as competition in the VoIP market heats up and the biggest companies with more cash get serious about providing a similar service, it may prove increasingly difficult for Skype to stay ahead of the game. As a result, it would make sense for Skype to seek out a partner, especially an established one.

The problem is, however, that if it were to merge with eBay, Skype might gain more from the marriage rather than eBay, according to some analysts.

Scott Kessler, an analyst with credit raters Standard & Poor`s, stated that 'we do not think Skype would be very strategic to eBay, notwithstanding its franchise and cache. We also think similar acquisitions made in recent months by Microsoft and Yahoo were considerably less expensive. We would view this deal as a negative, based on relevance and possible price, and the implication that eBay`s business model could become less appealing.'

On the other hand, some analysts are optimistic about a potential Skype buyout by eBay.

'Due to the immediate response nature of (instant messaging) or VoIP chat technology, we believe eBay could potentially use a VoIP service to roll out instant messenger/chat functionality to enhance buyer/seller communication,' said a J.P Morgan advisory note to its clients. 'We believe faster communication could help increase auction success rate,' the New York investment bank added.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

JK ROWLING called on her millions of fans yesterday to lobby the internet auction site eBay to stop selling copies of Harry Potter books and posters bearing forged signatures.

In a quietly scathing attack on one of the web's biggest success stories, which recorded £133.5 million first-quarter profits of this year, Ms Rowling said eBay appeared "unable" to prevent sellers conning fans.

Writing on her own website, the author advised people looking for rare or signed editions to avoid eBay and other similar auction houses. "I would be delighted if the online community of Harry Porter fans canvassed eBay directly, asking that they might be protected against this exploitation," she wrote. "You might succeed where I have so far failed."

A scan of eBay yesterday showed a string of "signed" Potter books on sale, including copies of the latest, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, allegedly signed in Edinburgh.

A UK spokesman for eBay insisted yesterday that the site was working with Ms Rowling's representatives against forgeries. The company relied on its 157 million users to help police the site and report suspicions about items - which would then be removed, she said. But a lawyer for Ms Rowling's UK agents said the sale of fakes had been going on for years.

In addition, any e-books or digital audio books offered on the site were pirated, said Neil Blair. Only this week, for the first time, has Ms Rowling authorised the sale of downloadable audio books, through iTunes.

"We have approached eBay before," said Mr Blair, a lawyer with the Christopher Little Literary Agency. "It has been an issue for some time."

He noted that eBay had stepped in to block the auction of Live 8 tickets after an appeal by Bob Geldof. "It appears from the Live 8 experience they can do something about it, because they obviously stopped Live 8 tickets being sold. As JK Rowling's representatives, we would very much appreciate it if they took steps to prevent the activities she has referred to."

Ms Rowling wrote on her site: "A recent perusal of the eBay stocks of 'signed' Harry Potter merchandise was quite alarming for the person who allegedly signed these stacks of books, posters, and even, in one case, an unauthorised biography that I would never, and have never, put my signature to.

"As far as I could tell on the day I dropped in, only one of the signatures on offer appeared genuine." She said buyers should not be taken in by a "certificate of authenticity".

Yesterday a leading rare book dealer, Jason Cullen, who has collected Harry Potter books since 1998, agreed that the vast majority of signed Potter books listed on eBay were fake. He singled out one, a signed "deluxe" edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, complete with a "certificate of authenticity", as an "obvious fake".

Ms Rowling is known to have signed copies of The Half-Blood Prince on only one occasion: the official launch with a group of child "reporters" at Edinburgh Castle in July. They remain incredibly rare.

"The most difficult thing to get at the moment is the new book. I have not seen a genuine signed Half-Blood Prince," said Mr Cullen, of Cheviot Books in Leeds. "If I could get my hands on one, I would pay £2,000 to £2,500. You see them going through eBay all the time, people auctioning them for £20 or £30. Anybody who is anybody knows that is not right. eBay is a great marketplace, but it needs patrolling a lot more."

Yesterday one seller, asked how they could prove the signature on a copy of The Half-Blood Prince was genuine, wrote: "Well ... i got it signed by her on the opening night as i have stated and of course i wouldnt be able to get her to write me a COA as she was extremely busy thanks happy bidding."

The eBay spokesman said consumers should report "suspicious listings" to the rights owner, Ms Rowling, or her representatives, who could confirm it as a fake to eBay.

"The Live 8 situation was very different to this one and therefore they aren't comparable," the spokesman added.

Shares of eBay fell 3.8 per cent after published reports said the web auction leader was in talks to buy internet telephony provider Skype, a prospect some analysts found illogical.

eBay's stock price fell $US1.53 to close at $US38.93 on Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market after the Wall Street Journal reported that a price of $US2 billion to $US3 billion was being discussed in acquisition talks.

eBay and Skype both refused to comment on what they called rumors and speculation.

Skype's free software lets people talk free over the internet using computers and microphones. Calls to landline telephones are also possible at costs that, along with other low-cost Voice over Internet Protocol providers, are creating upheaval in the telecommunications industry.

Skype has 53 million registered users and the company says more than 2 million people use Skype at any given moment. Since it was introduced in 2003, the company's free software has been downloaded more than 151 million times.

Skype co-founder and chief executive Niklas Zennstrom declined to comment on the report.

"There are different rumours every day," Zennstrom said. "We don't comment on rumors. When we make deals, we announce them."

eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said the company also did not comment on rumours or speculation. ebay had said in April it may forge partnerships with mobile-phone and VoIP providers

Scott Devitt, an analyst with Legg Mason, said in a research note that eBay's expertise in the online world, coupled with its own well-known brand name, could add Skype to its portfolio in a bid to gather new customers and explore new markets.

Earlier this year, the industry was abuzz after a British newspaper reported that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. had explored a $US3 billion offer for Skype.

Under new Skype services announced on Thursday, companies that want to provide on-demand news services, weather or traffic updates or even language lessons could make the content available to Skype users who simply dial them for the services.

EBay, the online auction company, is in talks to acquire Skype in a deal that could value the internet telephone service at as much as $5bn.

Speculation that the Californian giant might snap up the until-recently relatively obscure Luxembourg-registered company sent eBay's shares down more than 4 per cent on Wall Street yesterday.

Talks are ongoing, according to sources close to the company, but could fall through as Skype decides whether to proceed alone or opt for a sale. Analysts said yesterday the Skype service could prove useful for buyers and sellers on eBay, but also questioned whether it was a sign that eBay was struggling to sustain its historical growth levels.

Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Hoefer Arnett, said: "I don't see a lot of point to eBay buying Skype ... If eBay were to make this sort of move it would basically be admitting that 'our core market is decelerating'."

Skype was set up two years ago by two Swedes, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis, but has generated considerable hype recently on the back of rapid growth. Its software, which allows consumers to make free telephone calls by using a headset and an internet connection rather than a normal telephone line, has 52 million users worldwide.

Although the privately owned company has not yet broken into profit, it has already attracted a string of possible acquirers because ofthe market's general assessments of the potential for voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) technology.

Speculation about which companies would like to buy the company has included Microsoft, Yahoo! and News Corporation. Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp, said at the company's results last month: "We've had conversations with them. They have made it perfectly clear, the founders, that they do not want to sell and we respect that. We'd be very happy to work with them in some way."

An alternative to an acquisition could be a joint venture and the company is also understood to be considering a flotation.

Niklas Zennström, Skype's London-based chief executive, said in an interview with The Independent last week: "We do not make comments on rumours. Once we have done something ... I can't comment. The last time we raised money, in January last year, we said then we shouldn't need any more before we break even. That's still the case. But we can still raise money to grow the company one way or another. We have options."

The Wall Street Journal reported that eBay might offer $2bn to $3bn, while the New York Post said Skype could reach $5bn.

There have been a flurry of moves into the VoIP sector recently. Google has launched its Google Talk service, while Microsoft bought Teleo last week. Yahoo! has bought Dialpad to offer a similar service.

Less than nine months after its creation by Food Network's Iron Chef Cat Cora, Chefs for Humanity continues to make a great impact, providing food and humanitarian aid for people impacted by hunger and tragedy.  Survivors of Hurricane Katrina now will receive aid raised by the organization.

Chefs for Humanity's Sept. 12-21 fundraising event, an eBay auction of
autographed chefs' jackets will benefit UNICEF, earmarked for Hurricane
Katrina relief.  And for the first time in UNICEF's six decades of providing
humanitarian aid to children around the world, the international relief
organization has been requested to assist with an emergency response in the United States.

"You see the devastation on TV.  You see the children crying, hungry, with
so little hope," said Cora, who founded Chefs for Humanity immediately
following the massive tsunami that hit southeast Asia and Africa in December 2004.  "And you wonder how you can help, what you can do.  I founded this organization for times just like this -- so people can have an avenue to help those in need.  This is just one opportunity.

 "Hurricane Katrina has touched my life personally, as I have family in
Jackson, Miss., and I have friends from some of the most devastated areas.  We can help rebuild this beautiful section of the country and the hundreds of thousands of lives torn apart by Katrina.  And this eBay auction is just one of the first steps."

Chefs for Humanity's "Jackets off our Backs" eBay auction features nearly
two dozen world-famous chefs, including 10 celebrity chefs from the Food
Network.  Auction participants include: Food Network's Mario Batali, Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, Tyler Florence, Gale Gand, Emeril Lagasse, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto, Sara Moulton, Rachael Ray, and Ming Tsai.

For a complete list of participating chefs and to bid on jackets, visit
chefsforhumanity.org .

About Chefs for Humanity
Chefs for Humanity, a 501(c)3 organization, is dedicated to changing lives
impacted by hunger and tragedy.  Founded in 2004 by renowned chefs Cat Cora and Patrick McDonnell, Chefs for Humanity's coalition of world-famous culinary professionals responds when disaster aid and hunger relief are needed around the world.  The organization mobilizes new audiences and resources to raise funds for worldwide humanitarian efforts and seeks to develop health and nutrition education programs to permanently improve the lives of those affected by hunger, malnutrition and poverty.  For more information, visit chefsforhumanity.org .

About UNICEF
Founded in 1946, UNICEF helps save, protect and improve the lives of
children around the world through immunization, education, health care,
nutrition, clean water and sanitation.  UNICEF is non-partisan and its
cooperation is free of discrimination.  In everything it does, the most
disadvantaged children and the countries in greatest need have priority.  For more information or to make a donation, please visit unicefusa.org
or call 1 (800) 4 UNICEF.

StoreSense enables customers to design eCommerce Web pages, take orders, calculate shipping charges, process credit cards, track inventory, and start and manage eBay auctions. StoreSense users can sell products and services from their own Web sites while also marketing to eBay's growing audience of potential buyers.

The StoreSense packages are competitively priced and supported by Register.com's customer support staff. The plans are best suited for small business owners who normally do not sell their products and services online because of limited time and resources.

"StoreSense makes managing our online store an enjoyable and efficient task," says Gary King of G Rides. "That, coming from guy who is not incredibly computer savvy, is saying a lot. Adding a new product, picture or description, and making changes to prices or any other attribute are all made simple."

The chance to make a quick buck from Hurricane Katrina has not escaped some, with items on eBay including a "rain-soaked newspaper" delivered on the day the storm hit the American south, jars of rainwater and a message in a bottle that supposedly led to the rescue of several families.
Among other items on sale on eBay yesterday was a scribbling that a Texan "artist" claims he drew after waking from a dream 10 days before the storm, which uncannily resembles satellite pictures of Katrina. One man, claiming to be a survivor of the catastrophe, is offering the rights to his story, starting at $12,500 (£6,800).

Various T-shirts, bumper stickers and badges are on offer, either proclaiming "I survived Hurricane Katrina" or making jokes. One reads "I went to New Orleans and all I looted was this lousy T-shirt". Another says "Disaster Relief: Get Rid of Bush".
The appearance of items on eBay aimed at ghoulish souvenir hunters has become common after disasters. Soon after the September 11 attacks, pieces of the World Trade Centre were being offered for sale. People also attempted to sell debris from the space shuttle Columbia.

The message in a bottle allegedly read "Help ... Help ... Mother-2 Children no water ... no food" and then gave an address. The seller claims to have been given the item at a reunion centre in Dallas.

A spokesman for eBay said it judged items on a case by case basis. "We have clearly defined policies on what is not allowed," he said. He would not discuss the Katrina items, but said in the case of 9/11, a newspaper from September 12 would be allowed, but pieces of debris would not.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman has made it her mission to tame the e-commerce beasd in booming China

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.

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Yahoo! Inc. and eBay Inc. will
help 4D Inc. celebrate its 21st birthday by sending corporate representatives to lead seminars at the annual 4D Summit developer's conference.

It will be held in 4D's beautiful backyard -- San Francisco -- Oct. 11-14. The 4D Summit is the nerve center for the 4D developer community, which
consists of more than 10,000 third party solution providers whose  businesses revolve around customizing 4D database software to resell to their clients in niche industries.  For nearly 15 years, the 4D community has used the Summit as a sort of Town Square for its developers to learn, network and form new alliances. "It's very encouraging to hear and see the enthusiasm build toward the Summit," said Brendan Coveney, president and CEO. "This year, they are excited to learn ways to harness the strength of 4th Dimension 2004 and take their solutions to the next level."

In honor of 4D's spring release of the eBay selling tool MarketBlast, a
unique set of seminars this year will focus on how 4D developers can cater to small and medium-sized businesses in the ever-expanding area of e-commerce. Seminars in that area will be led by Adam Trachtenberg of eBay Inc. and Dan Theurer, the technical evangelist of Yahoo! Inc.

The three day conference will also include sessions on:  RFID, Web
Services, XML, harnessing Open Source, Apple's Spotlight among many others.

In addition 4D's third party community will be there in force and are
promising some exciting new announcments. Attendees will learn many time-saving techniques, get sneak previews of future 4D products, and meet other developers from more than 20 nations. The 4D Summit will be held at the Westin St. Francis Hotel, 335 Powell Street, facing the heart of San Francisco's historic Union Square.

Conference registration costs $875 for 4D Partners and $975 for
nonpartners. Registration can be done online at 4d.com/summit or by
calling 1-800-785-3303.

About 4D Inc.

4D, Inc., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., is a leading maker of
software solutions that simplify the process of developing and deploying
database applications. 4D, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of 4D, SA, which has distribution channels in more than 50 countries.  For more information, 4D, Inc., can be reached at 408-557-4600, or on the Internet at 4D.com . For press inquiries, contact Kevin Ferguson, 4D, Inc.,
Marketing Specialist, at 408-557-4674, or via email at kferguson@4d.com.

NOTE:  Brands and products referenced herein are the trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective holders.

The StoreSense ecommerce packages are ideally suited to small business owners who have traditionally shied away from selling online because of time and resource limitations.

"StoreSense makes managing our on-line store an enjoyable and efficient task," said Gary King of G Rides, Inc. "That coming from guy who is not incredibly computer savvy is saying a lot. Adding a new product, picture, description, making changes to prices or any other attribute are all made simple. Thank you for making what is perceived to be a daunting undertaking a relative pleasure."

Monica Hodges, general manager of retail for Register.com explained the benefit to Register.com customers, "We searched for a way to help our hosting customers easily build and run sophisticated e-storefronts, and by coupling the StoreSense product line with our exemplary customer support we got everything our customers needed plus a way to connect their businesses to the phenomenal eBay marketplace. EBay has transformed the way people sell online, and giving our customers easy access to eBay's audience clearly improves their chances for success.''

For more information about StoreSense packages available from Register.com, or to sign up for a 30-day free trial of the StoreSense Starter Edition, please call toll free (877) 897-8769.

Schools in the Capital are considering bringing in a new system to catch students who cheat by copying other people's work.

The computer-based scheme is being rolled out to every department in Edinburgh University following a successful pilot.

And now city education leader Ewan Aitken says the scheme is something that should be looked at to prevent cheating in the Capital's schools.

The ease of downloading essays from the internet or buying them from sites such as eBay has led to a rise in the number of cases of plagiarism at Scottish colleges and universities.

Now Edinburgh and Napier Universities are cracking down on cheats by introducing a computer package designed to weed out suspect work.

The scheme is to be taken up at departments across the universities at the end of September following the success of a pilot project last year.

And the system has led to calls for it should be taken up by schools across the Capital in a bid to stamp out cheating.

Councillor Aitken said city schools could benefit from using the scheme. "It is something we would be interested in piloting and finding out what the range of work involved would be," he added.

"Nobody has identified a problem to me about cheating in schools, but in some ways, it is better to put a defence in place before it happens.

"I do not want to suggest children are plagiarising, but the potential is there, so let's find a way of stopping that before it starts."

It is estimated that ten per cent of students in the UK have lifted chunks of text from books, the internet or other essays and tried to pass it off as their own work.

Plagiarism - when a person copies another person's work and presents it as their own - is viewed as a serious offence.

Cheats face disciplinary action and could even be kicked off their course if they are caught.

Submitted work will now be passed through the computer package which can quickly pinpoint anything which has been cut and pasted or used before.

Every student will be told that their essays may be subjected to a random check in a bid to make them think twice about plagiarism.

University chiefs say preventing cheating from happening in the first place is better than dealing with it afterwards.

The scheme is not compulsory, meaning departments can choose whether or not they use it.

Not every single essay will be checked, but a number will be chosen at random and run through the computer programme.

Essays will be compared to work submitted by other students in the past, and run through the internet in a bid to spot any similarities.

They will be using technology designed by the Joint Information Systems Committee service, which is already used at other universities and colleges.

Pippa Ward, of Edinburgh University's academic affairs section, said the days of simply copying an essay from someone else and submitting it are gone.

"It is a growing problem everywhere because of the level of information around now compared to ten years ago," she said. "We are really keen to crack down on it."

Mike Haggerty, head of communications at the Scottish Qualifications Authority, said it already used a similar computer system to check pupils' work.

Having a father as a billionaire can be quite a perk. Imagine the endless shopping sprees, extensive travel opportunities and elaborate parties.

The rest, including the world's three richest women - Helen and Alice Walton, the wife and daughter of Wal-Mart Stores' founder, and Liliane Bettencourt, daughter of the L'Oreal founder - inherited all or most of their wealth from their fathers or husbands.

Forbes has selected nine billionaire daughters to watch, all of whom are under age 50. They include Delphine Arnault, the youngest and only female board member of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, her father Bernard Arnault's luxury goods empire; Dylan Lauren, the daughter of fashion billionaire Ralph Lauren, who co-founded and helps run four candy stores in three states; and Pansy Ho, daughter of casino tycoon Stanley Ho, who recently unveiled a partnership with Las-Vegas based MGM Mirage to build a Macau casino.

Tax collectors have declared war on amateur traders who are failing to declare their income, accountants warned last week.
Because many people start trading as a bit of fun or as part of a hobby they are unaware that tax is due. But pleading ignorance is no defence.

Last year nearly £1.5 billion exchanged hands at car-boot sales, according to Prudential, the insurer. Around 10.5m Brits say they have attended one to sell items, making an average of £75 each time; one in 20 sellers makes more than £200.

As for Ebay, more than 50,000 Britons now regularly buy and sell goods on auction websites, boosting their annual incomes by about £3,000 a year, according to the Centre for Economic and Business Research.

Their popularity has not gone unnoticed by Revenue & Customs. Jacqui Fleming at Chiltern, an accountant, said: “Many innocent individuals may not realise that what they thought was a hobby is actually deemed to be a trade, and that potentially there will be tax, interest and penalties to pay.”

The Revenue has adopted an uncompromising approach towards tax avoidance, because it is under political pressure to pull in as much tax as possible. In 2003, it set itself tough targets to recover £1.6 billion in unpaid tax and national insurance over three years and received £66m in extra funding from the government to help it in its fight.

Chas Roy-Chowdhury at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants said: “The government is short of money for its programme of public spending, so the Revenue is under pressure to pull in as much tax as possible. It is definitely getting tougher.”

Millions of people are involved in the informal economy, making a “bit on the side” to subsidise their income — and if you are one of them the Revenue has you in its sights. You could face hefty penalties and interest charges, as well as a bill for unpaid tax. 
 

More...
 

It's said that there are almost 400,000 people in the US who earn their living solely by trading on Ebay, the electronic equivalent of the car-boot sale.

The UK figure might be significantly less, but you can see its effect in your local press, where that staple of the classified section, For Sale and Wanted, has been decimated.

My own local free paper last week had less than a page of classified lineage selling unwanted freezers, baby chairs and garden sheds. As for private sales of cars - I couldn't find a single one. Since classified has long been the most lucrative revenue earner for any paper, but especially the locals, it isn't hard to figure out the damage this is causing.

That will explain why major local paper publishers like Trinity Mirror, Northcliffe and Johnston are all chasing specialist websites as fast as they can. Trinity Mirror last week bid for HotGroup, a jobs website, following two other purchases in this area in three months. Others up for grabs include the likes of Auto Trader and Exchange and Mart, and are bound to represent significant prizes for local newspaper groups.

Despite all the advantages of the conveniences of online selling to media owner and consumer, it's hard not to mourn the ending of local classified ads, which amounted to a sort of legalised snooping. There, you could see what your neighbours were up to, whether they were expecting a baby or upgrading their car and home appliances.

From Star Wars gear to turkey beards, you can find it for sale on eBay.

Tadhg Bird of Casper sells simple "chance cubes" via the Internet auction colossus. The cubes -- similar to dice with three side painted red and three side blue -- are a detail most people probably wouldn't recall from the first installment of the Star Wars epic.

Bird makes the cubes of polymer clay, bakes them, paints them and sells them for a "Buy It Now" price of five bucks apiece. The original idea was to save up the proceeds and purchase a suit of Star Wars storm trooper armor. "My wife really likes that," he says. "She thinks it's hot."

Bird has ideas for other inexpensive stuff. And he says Star Wars creator George Lucas is tolerant of such fan activities.

"There's a lot of fan-made things out there" and no officially licensed chance cubic, he says. "And it's such a rare, nerdy thing, only hardcore Star Wars fans recognize it immediately."

Matt Hoobler of Cheyenne has carved out a niche of another sort. He roams the backroads of Wyoming looking for old International Harvester Scouts. He'll title those that run, salvage what he can from those that don't, and sell the whole lot on eBay.

Hoobler has tried other forums for selling, but eBay is by far the best. A Scout he advertised in a non-eBay forum got 72 viewings; in seven days on eBay, the same vehicle was seen nearly 3,000 times.

For Hoobler, eBay supplements his income as a state employee. Recently, he sold a Scout gas tank and associated straps so he could buy a pair of hunting boots. He also has built a shop and remodeled his basement with eBay profits.

But there are downsides as well, chief of which is people who bid but don't pay.

Since transactions are completed without the buyer ever handling an item, Hoobler, who has been an eBay member since 1996, has learned the importance of comprehensive descriptions right down to the last ding and dent.

"You name it, I list it," he says. "And I think folks appreciate that."

Carla Edwards of Casper, who sells antiques and collectibles on eBay, once sold a turkey beard.

"I was sitting with my husband and we were discussing who bought more frivolous things on the Internet, men or women, because you can buy anything," she says. "I was looking around the room and I saw one of his mounts and I said, 'Well, I can sell a turkey beard.' "

She did, for about $30.

Edwards say there's lots of hype about making oodles of money on eBay, but since starting in 1997, she has seen many sellers come and go.

"The general rule of thumb is you make your money on the buy," she says. A seller must know what an item is really worth and what it will bring on the wholesale market.

Edwards, who is retired, loves to do research and has a strong background in marketing and photography. Because of the time she takes with her presentations, Edwards says her collectibles and antiques typically sell for 30 percent more than comparable items listed on eBay.

Despite eBay and Paypal fees that can take a 20 percent bite out of her profits, Edwards says eBay is hard to beat.

"There's nothing anymore that's rare or unusual," she says. "There are 50 billion page hits every month of eBay, and there's basically nothing you cannot find on the Internet."

Hughes Products in Saratoga has been selling hardwood floor medallion inlays on eBay since the first of the year. Arlen Hughes likes the market presence; about half his business now results from eBay sales.

"The downfall is that you pay through the gill for it," he says.

When an item is listed, sellers pay an insertion fee that ranges in cost up to $4.80. A final value fee also is charged which is determined by the final sales price of an item. For an article that sells for between $22.01 and $1,000, for example, the fee would be 5.25 percent of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 2.75 percent of the remaining closing value balance between $25.01 to $1,000.00.

A variety of fees for optional eBay services also might be assessed. In addition, Paypal charges for online payments if that service is used.

eBay is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. In 2004, eBay reported total revenues of $3.27 billion, with a gross profit of $2.65 billion.

Business editor Tom Mast can be reached at tom.mast@casperstartribune.net or call 307-266-0574.

Learn how to sell on eBay

By TOM MAST

It may not have granite kitchen countertops, 18-foot vaulted ceilings, a three-car garage or a pool.

But in rapidly growing Pinal County, where bigger is better and home building is hectic, the most appreciated new building may be a nearly 100-year-old A-frame chapel being put together piece by piece in the Copper Basin subdivision along Hunt Highway south of Bella Vista Road.

"It ties the past to the present," said lead Pastor David Hinman of 1-year-old Lifepoint Christian Fellowship. "It also helps bring a community feel to Copper Basin, like in the past when everything took place in a community." Its simple appearance belies an unusual tale of renewal via the Internet.

The chapel's arrival began two years ago when Copper Basin developer Harold Christ of Pyramid Community Developers at first couldn't believe his ears. Surfing eBay, his business partners Mark and Lori Stapp had just won an auction to buy a chapel at Ituna, Saskatchewan, Canada, for $9,000.

"I got a call the next day . . . we bought a church," a bemused Christ said.

The old chapel will be used for small weddings and services, and for special events for his 300-member non-denominational church, which is a sister church of Word of Grace church in Mesa, Hinman said.

It will sit across the street from the subdivision's YMCA and elementary school, and next to a planned fire station and LifePoint's new worship hall.

The chapel will be a center point of the community and offer relief from the sandy haze of stuccoed houses and buildings lying on the desert floor.

Chris Mooney, a church member, said the chapel might be the only one of its kind in Pinal County.

"I haven't seen traditional chapels like this; it's certainly unique for the Valley," Mooney said.

The Anglican Church chapel was built in 1910 by a railroad company but had been closed for about 15 years. As part of the deal, a small organ from 1911, pews, sacraments, a wood-burning stove, and other religious items of the period were included from the white church. A new steeple will be built.

Workers were sent from Wisconsin two summers ago to begin dismantling the chapel for relocation. Marked pieces were loaded on flatbed trucks and sent south, where workers have begun reassembly. "There is so much in Arizona that's new and so little that has the history and roots that you have back East," Christ said.

Workers are moving fast because of the hotter climate's effect on wood that had been in colder Canada and expect to have it finished by the end of the year, Hinman said.

Dublin five days before the big match and the place is already buzzing. An early-morning DJ is giving away pairs of match tickets to callers doing Brian Kerr impressions.

You know they’re fetching $1,000 on Ebay,” he tells one winner. But don’t you dare.”

The word goes round that the team are already in town. All except for the main man. Roy Keane has already boarded the team bus and gone off to training happy as Larry, so we must be talking about the other main man. Damien Duff. One thing they have in common is how they jealously guard their privacy. Duff has missed a promotional shoot for Adidas that morning and not even his advisers in Dublin seem to know where he is. Then he strides across the lobby of the team hotel, unconcerned about all the fuss, except to apologise for being late.

“I got a knock in training at Chelsea yesterday and I’ve been getting some treatment, but I’ll be okay.”

He looks great, tanned and relaxed after a break in France with his girlfriend; he insists on her anonymity, but he is happy to talk about his own life in London, the incredible unfolding story of Chelsea and being back here in the goldfish bowl of Dublin football.

“Dublin is mad really,” he says. “Everybody knows who you are, everybody follows football. It’s a bit more crazy here. But that’s what goes with the job.”

Everywhere he goes he obliges fans with pictures and autographs and absorbs the attention, happy to tolerate it as long as it involves him alone; attempts to suck in his girlfriend, as a photographer found out recently when he tried to snap them in a Dublin department store, bring out the fighter in him.

“I’ve come home for a couple of days to do a bit of shopping. It’s not her scene either to get photographed walking down the street or eating her dinner or what have you. So I wasn’t pleased at the time. I think I showed it and rightly so.”

What did you do? “I just chased after him. It’s gone now, but I know who he is.”

It seems incredible now that people questioned whether Duff would settle in London after he moved there from Blackburn two years ago. His life in Lancashire was portrayed as that of a semi-recluse, lived in a small house in the Ribble, where he slept or watched television until club duties called. London, not to put too fine a point on it, might either turn his head, or make him impossibly homesick. Instead it has given him just what he wanted.

“You can kind of get lost in London. A lot of people wouldn’t even know who you are, wouldn’t even watch football. I love it. I live about 45 minutes from the city. I love going in, going to the shows, having a night out with the lads, doing whatever you want. It’s a great city.”

Preconceptions still seem to follow him, however. Several of the Chelsea stars — Duff and Frank Lampard included — have moved into mansions in a village near Chelsea’s new training ground in Cobham, Surrey. In Surrey’s stockbroker belt, they were regarded by some as lowering the tone. A few residents decided it just wouldn’t do and complained to the newspapers, who gleefully lapped it up.

“Some cranky f***** in an office got hold of a reporter,” Duff says, still clearly annoyed at the intrusion. “He was speaking crap in my point of view, making out that we were driving round the place like lunatics, holding parties and building these horrible new houses which is just a load of . . . just one reason not to read papers. Chelsea moving there has brought up the value of people’s homes, but people don’t look at it like that. Obviously I’ve got a nice house and a nice car. I get paid an awful lot of money to play football and if I wasn’t being paid an awful lot of money I’d still be playing football. It’s the only thing I love and the only thing that I’m good at.”

Rather than fill his house with birds and booze, Duff’s hospitality is extended mostly towards his parents and four siblings when they come over regularly to visit him. He readily admits that he spends a lot of time resting and recuperating, but his reputation as a modern-day Rip Van Winkel is way wide of the mark.

“People do an interview and they ask you about sleep. I’m the only one that gets mentioned in relation to the Irish squad but I could name three or four lads who are 10 times worse than me. We’re playing massive football games so you’re going to need your rest. Some idiot when I said this early doors made out that I would sleep all day but it’s only a simple thing. I like to get my rest, that’s all. I can be a bit of a couch potato, watching a lot of crap on television, watching a lot of football and DVDs.”

The rest of the story...

EBay announces plans to build a new $200 million headquarters in China. Meanwhile, TWay continues to pass lower rates along to its customers

Tampa, Fla. (PRWEB) September 3, 2005 -- While EBay was announcing plans to spend $100 million this year in China, officials at TWay.com said today it would continue its strategy of investing in its own customers through a policy of no listing fees and a generally low pricing structure.

EBay recently announced that it planned a $100 million investment in the People’s Republic of China this year, an investment that includes the beginning of work on a new $200 million China headquarters building. Last month, EBay announced plans to establish its PayPal service in China, as well.

TWay officials said it believes in a business culture which makes its customers the beneficiaries of low pricing structures and cutting-edge customer service.

“EBay obviously visualizes a future in which it expands around the world and just becomes bigger and bigger,” said Dean Burnetti, TWay’s president. “While we wish them well, it’s hard to imagine how such ambitious plans will help to improve EBay’s reputation for bloated pricing structures and mediocre customer service.”

TWay.com (TWay.com) never charges a listing fee, Burnetti said, and TWay’s overall pricing structure is considerably less expensive that that offered by EBay.

“EBay pioneered on-line auction sales,” Burnetti said, “but its Achilles Heel is its high cost as well as customer service policies which draw constant criticism. Tway does better on both of those fronts.”

TWay.com has attracted attention because of the lack of listing fees as well as its slimmer overall commission rates – rates that are significantly lower than those found on EBay. It also places a high priority on customer satisfaction, Burnetti said.

“We won’t be moving into China anytime soon,” Burnetti said. “But if we do, we’re confident our Chinese customers will enjoy our lack of listing fees.”

ABOUT TWAY.COM: TWay.com moves online buying and selling to the next level with unparalleled flexibility, options and service. It also offers marketing partnership opportunities to savvy entrepreneurs. To learn more, visit the website at TWay.com.

BRADFORD, PA, United States (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania book dealer hopes to get at least $25,000 on eBay for a rare first edition of 'The Great Gatsby.'

As of Friday afternoon, no one had met Thomas Baldwin`s reserve price.

Baldwin is selling the book for an unidentified Delaware man, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Baldwin, owner of Baldwin`s Book Barn in Bradford Township, said admits that the book is not in pristine condition. In fact, he said that at first he was not particularly interested in it.

But then he realized that it is a first edition with the original dust jacket, identifiable by typographical errors that were corrected after the initial press run of 24,000 copies in 1925. One major error is a spelling of Jay Gatsby`s first name with a lower-case J, which was corrected by hand on the first dust jackets.

Copyright 2005 by United Press International

"This is devastation that goes beyond what we've ever seen in this country and, in light of that, requires the help of as many people as possible," said Kenny Byrne, president and CEO of iSold It on eBay of Washington. "Through our stores, people that may not have disposable income to donate can still make a contribution by donating items that we can sell on eBay and convert into needed money for the Red Cross and World Concern."

WHO: 
iSold It on eBay of Washington
isolditwa.com

WHAT: 
Has launched a program that enables members of the community to drop-off items with an expected eBay selling price of $30 or more at any one of the company's four locations in Western Washington and designate that the proceeds of their sale be directed to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Larger items and collections can have pickups arranged.

iSold It on eBay will manage all aspects of the selling process online and direct proceeds from all sales to either The American Red Cross or World Concern (worldconcern.org), a Seattle-based organization that's assisting hurricane victims with food, medical care and personal care items.

WHEN: 
Effective immediately, items can be dropped off at any one of the iSold It on eBay locations in Western Washington.

WHERE: 
iSold It on eBay stores in Western Washington are located in:

Seattle/Queen Anne at 3000 15th Avenue W., 206-284-9461 Federal Way at 31653 Pacific Hwy S, Suite #D, 253-839-0305 Kent at 25844 10th Avenue SE, 253-850-5275 Puyallup at 4102 Meridian St S., Suite E-5, 253-770-9911

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Dan Branley 206-914-1231
dbranley@launchcmus.com

A new Australian company is taking the hassle and confusion out of selling online, by making eBay auctions accessible to anyone - even people without computers.

Going Gone, based at Surry Hills in Sydney, will physically take a customer's goods and list them on eBay, providing access to a global market for those without technical skills or facilities.

"It's ideal for people who are too busy, don't have a digital camera or computer, or that don't know how to use eBay," said company founder Michael Berkovits, who owns and runs the IT services business Silverdata, from the same premises.

Berkovits explained how the process works: Customers can drop items off, or have them collected from their home. Going Gone photographs them, writes an advertisement, lists a seven-day auction on eBay and fields all customer queries via phone or e-mail. Once the auction is over, Going Gone collects payment, packages up the item, delivers it to the buyer and sends the seller a cheque. The seller never puts up any money, and if the item doesn't sell, it gets returned.

Most of this is done through an automated system that was developed in-house and also uses a complete tracking service called "sellerthon", that helps track key words and other marketing information.

Going Gone charges a commission fee of around 25 per cent on each sale.

eBay is easy to buy from but not so easy to sell over, according to Berkovits, who modelled his site on similar American businesses such as auctionbytes.com, and I-soldit.com, but changed the back end to suit the Australian market.

"This concept is massive across America - there are big chain franchises all over the country, not to mention the drop-off stores," said Berkovits.

He said that if the business was successful in Sydney over the next 6-12 months it might be expanded as a franchise system.

Berkovits said that although the business was only two weeks old, the response had been huge.

"We expect this to appeal to retail businesses with excess stock as well," he said. "We have already had five approach us, and that's before we've even launched an advertising campaign."

Berkovits said logistics and storage prevent him being able to sell cars or large furniture at this stage, but he's aiming to do so "about six months down the track." He said he had no plans to launch his own auction facility, however, as eBay already had a massive subscriber base.

He said Going Gone cost "around $50,000 to $100,000" to set up. It is a registered company and has insurance to cover any goods held on its premises.

Quickdrop, based in Gosford offers a similar service, but only listed two items for sale at the time of writing.

City of Industry, CA --(FinancialNewsUSA.com)-- 08/31/2005 - Internet Software and services industry news provided by Financial News USA (OTC: FNWU) EBay Inc., the online marketplace company, Tuesday completed its acquisition of Shopping.com Ltd., a comparison shopping Web site. EBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) of San Jose, announced June 1 plans to acquire Shopping.com (NASDAQ: SHOP), of Brisbane, for $634 million in cash. Shopping.com provides a searchable database of products and operates a separate unit called Epinions.com, at which consumers register their opinions of products and merchants. China Direct Trading Corporation (OTCBB: CHDT) and its wholly-owned subsidiaries will move into three-times their current space for the same cost as existing space on October 1.

The company will move to nearby Cooper City, Fl. and has a location with 2,200 sq. feet, of which 1,500 square feet will be showroom, giving the company the ability to close storage rentals and put goods on display made for customers throughout the world over the past 21 years. E-LOAN® (Nasdaq: EELN), an online consumer direct lender, today announced its Labor Day Employee Discount Sale.

The promotion provides consumers with a Radically Simple way to enjoy the same discounts that E-LOAN employees receive if they obtain their mortgage loans or auto loans through E-LOAN. About Financial News USA Financial News USA is a Next Generation Financial Communications firm focused on the distribution of market moving news. Financial News USA has developed leading edge e-publishing tools including programming proprietary RSS feeds and enabling open source press release publishing across its network. Financial News USA has been aggressively expanding its news distribution network by targeting direct feeds to financial news and data providers such as FinancialContent, Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), among others. Financial News USA offers a free news feed available online (financialnewsusa.com) to websites and financial services looking for content and for individual investors looking to stay informed on the financial markets. Financial News USA and its affiliates charge each client cash for news distribution and may take an equity position in the companies mentioned herein, please visit the disclaimer at financialnewsusa.com

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