Nielsen//NetRatings, which tracks traffic to more than 100 retail Web sites, said eBay had 11.7 million unique visitors and Amazon 5.6 million on "Cyber Monday," when Internet shopping gets a boost as Americans return to work in force after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and "Black Friday," the traditional start to the shopping season in stores.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was third with 3.1 million, Target Inc. fourth with 2.2 million, Overstock.com Inc. fifth at 1.93 million and Dell Inc. sixth with 1.88 million.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether to bar eBay from using a patented technology that helps to generate almost a third of the value of the goods it sells.
 
MercExchange, a patent-holding company, previously won an injunction from a lower court that could force eBay to stop using its  “Buy-It-Now” fixed-price feature. The e-tail giant is continuing to use the system pending outcome of its appeal.

The feature, which allows buyers to avoid bidding for items, accounts for about 32 percent of the value of goods sold on eBay—$3.4 billion in the third quarter alone.

The Supreme Court said it would examine whether a court must stop a company from using a technology once it is determined that it infringes on a valid patent. The alternative would be to have injunctions issued on a case-by-case basis.

“eBay is gratified that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this important case,” said eBay spokesperson Hani Durzy.
 
eBay shares closed down $1.34 to $45.37.

The Battle to ‘Buy-It-Now’

The patent case has seen many twists in the four years since Great Falls, Virginia-based MercExchange sued the auction giant.

In May 2003, a jury found that eBay had infringed on one of MercExchange’s patents and that eBay’s Half.com had willfully infringed on two patents. San Jose, California-based eBay was fined $35 million but the fine was later reduced to $29.5 million. That fine was again cut earlier this year, when one of the patents was invalidated.

eBay has also asked the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office to re-examine the remaining patent. The Patent Office has indicated it is likely to invalidate the patent, according to eBay.

However, MercExchange strongly disagrees. “The patents are holding; there’s nothing invalid,” said MercExchange spokesperson Michael Caputo. “eBay is bending the spin to say they’re invalidated. The USPTO review is going very well.”

“Today's ruling does nothing that affects the validity or infringement of the patents in suit,” said MercExchange attorney Scott Robertson of Hunton & Williams, in a statement. “By admitting to the infringement in their Supreme Court petition, eBay abandoned any pretense of innocence.”

“The bottom line is whether we will be able to obtain a permanent injunction on eBay's ‘Buy-It-Now’ operations or whether the court will force a compulsory license,” said Mr. Robertson.

Said eBay’s Mr. Durzy, “We have believed all along that MercExchange—which does not practice its own patents and only exists to sue others—should not be entitled to an injunction.”
 
 

The department will be selling a car seized in a criminal case on eBay beginning today. Proceeds from the sale will go to equipment for the department’s Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and School Resource Officers.

The car, a 1991 Corvette, was seized two years ago from a suspect in a counterfeiting case. The suspect had owned the car only for a few months, Chief Dan Givens said, and the car is reported in good condition.

“It was not used to haul drugs,” Givens said. “It has a leather interior and is in excellent shape.”

The car has had some custom work, Givens said. It is well equipped and gets over 30 miles per gallon.

A full description and several photograph will be available on the Web site for interested bidders. Bidding will began today and is scheduled to continue for 10 days. The starting bid is set at $7,500.

“This is a nice car, and I would encourage anyone who is looking for a Corvette to go to eBay and put in a bid,” Givens said.

Law enforcement may sell certain things they have seized in drug cases as well as some money-related cases.

For more information, go to ebay.com and search for the car under cityofarkanasascity.

A Michigan real estate developer has offered to pay more than $1700 for a square-inch piece of land in Owen County, Indiana on eBay.

County officials decided to sell the land on eBay to collect $1200 in back taxes.

Andy Gutman, with NAI Farbman near Detroit, had the highest of nine bids and won the postage stamp-sized property.

Owen County attorney Richard Lorenz says he'll make final arrangements on Monday to transfer the deed for the land.

Amazon and reported on their top-selling holiday products on Friday, including popular tech toys and gadgets.

Shares of were up a penny to $46.65 in recent trading, while shares of Amazon.com were down $0.36 to $47.88.

The Xbox 360 UK and European launch is only one week away, and with news of a holiday shortage of the console, it's clear that some people are more determined than others to get Microsoft's white box under their tree this Christmas.
A quick trawl of auction site Ebay and it's clear that pandemonium is breaking out on Xbox 360 prices, tipped to be this year's big Christmas gift. While some of these auctions are fraudulent (one auction started at $100,000) others are completely genuine and going for average prices exceeding twice the console's retail value.

A look at auctions this morning revealed a large majority of console prices exceeding 700 quid, with a few auctions over 1000 quid. Equally as impressive as the prices are the sheer number of consoles for sale on auction sites. There are currently thousands of Xbox 360 auctions online, many not selling due to high reserves or starting prices.

There is obviously a huge demand for the Xbox 360 this winter, and with the astronomical prices people are willing to pay to get one, it may well be worth considering parting with your sexy white box for a few months... Who are we kidding!? We could never part with ours.

An eBay-style exchange for buying and selling software tools has become the latest weapon in the increasingly competitive customer relationship management sector.

Established by hosted CRM vendor Salesforce.com, the service allows applications to be bought by customers who then add them to their existing service.
Called AppExchange, it is designed to enable Salesforce.com users to share features they have developed for the online CRM service.

Salesforce.com will offer the trading service free of charge.

The move comes at a time when there is renewed interest in hosted and online business software.

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced earlier this month that his company was working on a range of products designed to be used on the internet.

"It's a dramatic change," Gates says. "It is not just about Microsoft, it's about partners and competitors. The whole space is being transformed."

Microsoft is working on online versions of products such as Office that will remove the need for users to install the software on individual machines, Gates says.

Salesforce.com's AppExchange service will include everything from email marketing tools to expense tracking software.

Two early examples are an online customer chat application called LivePerson and a remote information access tool called Xora.

Each application on the service has a detailed description and even a rating provided by other users.

Prospective customers can test the application and then add it to their existing hosted Salesforce.com service with a single mouse click.

Salesforce.com director Doug Farber says the response of software developers has been "very strong" and he expects the number of applications available on the service to grow quickly.

"We are talking to developers around the world, including Australia, who are very excited about the service and are working on a range of applications. Their enthusiasm and skill will ensure we have applications that we could only have dreamed about," he says.

Farber cites the example of a US developer who created a Salesforce.com add-on using the popular Google Maps service.

The application allows a company to track sales and marketing activities geographically.

Rather than looking at lists of leads and sales the information is automatically superimposed on a map of the area.

As well as providing an avenue to secure more users of its CRM service, AppExchange gives Salesforce.com the ability to move more widely into the growing area of on-demand computing.

"Our customers have been asking us for a while about what we are going to do next," Farber says.

"So we opened our Kimono a bit more and gave people the opportunity to build what they want, running on our platform."

Farber likens the AppExchange model to democratisation of the software industry.

"Rather than having the old Soviet model like Microsoft, with centralised command and control, we are giving control to the users," he says.

"We are providing an open interface and a platform to run with."

Salesforce.com is evolving from a provider of CRM services to supplying a complete on-demand platform, Faber says.

The strong growth in the hosted application sector will continue, he says.

"It makes sense for so many users," he says.

"It provides flexibility and cost savings as well as giving access to the latest technology."

VeriSign, however, said the sale of the business would reduce its estimate for fourth-quarter revenue to $387 million to $393 million from an earlier $395 million to $400 million. VeriSign, a top supplier of online security software, also expected its fourth-quarter earnings per share to drop 1 cent to a new range of 25 cents to 26 cents per share.

The acquisition is expected to let PayPal, already the largest online payments company, expand into handling payments on Web sites other than eBay's, which now accounts for about two-thirds of PayPal's transactions.

PayPal said the outlook for the newly acquired business was already taken into account for eBay's fourth-quarter 2005 and full-year 2006 estimates

It has been a while since we checked into the celeb car market on eBay. Currently on the block is this elegant 1999 Bentley Azure convertible.

This car has only 2,200 miles on it and, according to the auction, belongs to a professional NBA super star. They aren’t saying the name but his initials G.P.  are engraved in the headrests. The car was bought new from British Motors in San Fransico and has Lowenhart chrome wheels, updated custom stereo system, bentley logos stiched in the headrest, two tone steering wheel and two tone door panels.

The current bid, last time I checked is $75,300. I’ll admit that my knowledge of basketball lately is spotty, who do we think the mysterious G.P. might be?

THE ultimate Christmas insult used to be seeing your gift rewrapped and back under the tree the following year. These days you are more likely to see it turn up on an online auction site.

With Australians expected to spend between $600 and $1000 each on Christmas presents for friends and relatives this year, many people are resorting to selling items on auction websites such as eBay to raise money for the festive season.

"By the time you add up gifts for friends, family and the kids and food, Christmas costs a lot of money and selling things on eBay gives me the opportunity to raise more money to cover that," four-year eBay veteran Shauna Wood said.

"With the extra money coming in, I can splurge on nice gifts for my friends and family.

"And the great thing is you can sell off all the crappy gifts from last year."

A survey by MasterCard and Galaxy Research has found that Christmas is expected to cost Australian shoppers about $14.8billion this year, up from $8.75billion last year.

And many consumers end up carrying a financial hangover from the silly season well into the new year.

With just a month until the big day, more than 70,000 Australians are trying to avoid the suffering by making extra cash online. eBay says the average Australian is sitting on $1820 worth of unwanted items that could be sold online.

Research by AC Nielsen found eBay was the main source of income for about 2500 Australians and a further 7000 have considered quitting their day job to buy and sell online full-time.

Mrs Wood, who stumbled across the website while hunting for coins to add to her husband's collection, said the money she raised by selling goods online helped cover the expense of gifts, food, parties and school holiday activities for her four children.

"The first thing I sold was my husband's slouch hat," said the 34-year-old from Mount Gambier, in South Australia.

"I didn't even have a digital camera when I started, I just had to describe it really well.

"It went for much more than I expected - I thought I'd get about $10 but I ended up getting $50, and everything has snowballed from there.

"Now we have a storage room especially for our eBay business."

On Australia's eBay site, which was launched in October 1999, a laptop is sold every 12minutes, a baby item every 48seconds, a DVD every 40seconds, a toy every 26seconds and a piece of women's clothing every 16seconds.

The most expensive items sold on eBay in Australia so far were a place in the celebrity race at this year's Formula 1 Grand Prix and Ian Thorpe's Sydney 2000 Olympics speed swimsuit. The items sold for $100,000 each.

So you didn't wait three cold days outside an electronics store to be one of the first to fork over $300 for Microsoft's new Xbox 360?
Never fear. eBay is here.
 
This year's hottest holiday commodity can be found at the online auction site, for those willing to pay triple and quadruple the price.

It's nothing new. Since its inception a decade ago, eBay has become the sure cure for the sold-out blues.

Here you can find everything from those 50-yard-line Rose Bowl tickets to front-row seats to Cher's seemingly endless Farewell Tour.

Typically, the online auction exerts downward pressure on prices because of the increased competition, but occasionally - when supplies are tight - it becomes a venue for wild profiteering.

"Yes, there are opportunities to make money. But there are also opportunities to lose money," says David Stewart, professor of marketing and consumer psychology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "If the supply on eBay exceeds the demand, you may find yourself with an Xbox when you didn't want an Xbox."

At this point, that's not likely. Demand for the new computer gaming console still far exceeds supply, with Houston's Best Buy, for instance, receiving only 145 units before Thanksgiving and no word on whether another shipment will be in before Christmas.

Limiting supplies is a trick that some companies employ to stir up fervor over a particular product, as was the case with the Cabbage Patch and Tickle-Me-Elmo dolls.

And for those speculators willing to endure long waits at stores to snatch up such goods, the Internet has increased access to buyers. But it has also led to an increase in the number of speculators.

In fact, marketing experts say eBay has actually caused a decline in the value of things such as collectibles - whether they be Barbie dolls, Elvis paraphernalia, or Pez dispensers - because the middle man has been cut out of the process.

Last year's must-have UGG boots, for instance, are currently being sold on eBay below the retail price.

While the Internet has greased the wheels of competition, it has also actively involved consumers in the marketing process.

"Consumers are becoming part of the system, taking over functions that marketers used to do," says Michael Solomon, a professor of consumer behavior at Auburn University in Alabama. "They are not just on the receiving end of things anymore."

For instance, renegade websites are popping up that prepublish stores' sale circulars so shoppers don't have to pay full price. Other websites provide consumers with online coupon codes and rebates.

In the case of eBay, says Dr. Solomon, consumers are taking the place of wholesalers. And this year's item is the Xbox 360.

Melinda Kinley, a Houston mother of two, had never heard of the new gaming system until a few days ago when she asked her teenage son, Spencer, what he would like for Christmas.

When he mentioned the Xbox 360, she filed it away for future reference. "I didn't think anything of it until I saw that long line on TV," says this doting mom, who has been known to stand in line for the hottest holiday item. Power Rangers and Pokémons come to mind.

She says she will probably "work real hard" to find her son the new Xbox, but shelling out any more than its retail price is not one of them. "I refuse to give in to that kind of stuff. It's not right."

Internet auctions of Microsoft's new console are already heating up, prompted undoubtedly by some retail stores telling customers they don't expect to get any more Xbox 360s in stock before January. While Microsoft (Research) is, in fact, expected to send at least one more shipment to retailers before the holiday, that's not stopping consumer panic.

Auctions on eBay for the machine are escalating fast. Early Tuesday morning, core systems were selling for as little as $650, a notable markup from their $299 retail price, but not outrageous by eBay standards. Premium systems (with a wireless controller, hard drive and cables for high definition TVs) were selling for closer to $1,000, a $600 markup from their $399 in-store price.

By mid-morning, though, one premium system sold for $3,050, with well over a dozen following suit, coming in between $3,000 and $4,000. By mid-afternoon, one buyer was so eager to own one of the new systems paid $5,100 for a hard-drive enabled machine and a copy of "Need for Speed: Most Wanted" - and the eager beaver will have to wait another two weeks before the console is shipped, according to the seller.

The bidding's only likely to escalate as shortages (and the inevitable media hype surrounding them) continue. The weeks leading up to Christmas could see some jaw-dropping prices.

Peripherals for the 360 seem to be getting people's attention as well. A rare faceplate for the system, handed out in May at E3 (the gaming industry's annual trade show) is up to $280 with more than a day of bidding left.

Auction sites could be a good place for bargain shopping for games, though. Some launch titles, such as "Kameo: Elements of Power" and "Madden NFL 06" are selling on eBay for as much as $10-$20 below retail price.

Forget day trading - the best way to make a buck this holiday season may be to flip your Xbox 360.
Some people fortunate enough to get their hands on Microsoft Corp.'s new videogame console when it was released Tuesday immediately resold them on eBay, occasionally fetching thousands of dollars for packages that sometimes also included games and other add-ins.

The online auction site said about 1,800 Xbox 360s were sold there between midnight and noon Pacific time Tuesday. Retailers across the country had opened their doors at midnight so gaming enthusiasts - and, apparently, entrepreneurial eBay users - could get their hands on the console immediately after it came out.

Internet retailer Amazon.com Inc. and the Web sites for Circuit City Stores Inc., Best Buy Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. all listed the consoles as being sold out Tuesday. Best Buy spokesman Jay Musolf said the company also sold out of the consoles at most of its brick-and-mortar stores Tuesday.

EBay said the average price for consoles, including those sold with games and other add-ons, was $660. However, the company said some console packages were selling for as much as $2,500, with bidding and sales prices varying widely.

The North American retail price for the consoles is $399.99, while a slimmed-down version without a detachable hard drive and wireless controller sells in stores for $299.99. Some retailers were offering packages including games and other add-ons for hundreds of dollars more, however.

Hani Durzy, a spokesman for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc., said the company couldn't compare the amount of Xbox 360s being sold, and the premium users were willing to pay, to previous videogame console releases. That's because the company only recently began using technology to track sales in such a detailed way.

But in general, he said he wasn't surprised by the frenzy, calling it "par for the course" whenever a hot new electronics item is released in limited numbers.

"What you see on eBay is a classic reflection of supply and demand," he said.

Microsoft has said it plans to sell 3 million of the new Xbox 360 consoles worldwide within 90 days of its launch.

The Redmond company has said it is producing Xboxes as fast as it can, and that there aren't any production problems. Some retailers have said they expect to be able to restock their shelves weekly between now and the holidays, although most won't divulge how many consoles they will get each week for competitive reasons.

Still, Microsoft has conceded that an ambitious plan to launch the console worldwide within a few weeks - rather than staggering releases over months and months, as is typical - will mean fewer consoles initially in North America.

The Xbox 360 bundles available yesterday on Circuit City were gone pretty quickly and the site was hit very hard. I am not sure how many they had, but clearly based on the overloading of the site, consumer interest must have been huge.

The official launch is only two days away. Some retail stores like Wal-Mart and GameStop open at midnight.

If the numbers of available Xbox 360 in stores in this story on GameShout are true, than people should not bother to leave the house and stand in line. EBGames and GameStop stores have zero Xbox 360 packages available for walk-in customers. Circuit City and Best Buy are supposed to have about 30-50 systems each store. Wal-Mart stores depending on their size have supposedly only 3-10 Xbox 360 units available. Those numbers are so bad, that I can hardly believe them. I guess we will only know for sure if the supply situation of Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles is really that bad on Tuesday.

If something is in short supply, eBay is the place where the prices are newly defined for those products. Couple weeks ago only Xbox 360 email addresses have been traded, now the number of listed Xbox 360 systems and bundles is huge. Looks like people are still hesitant to bid heavily though. Prices are around $600 for a premium Xbox 360

"Once we began to get all of these offers, we thought that to be fair we ought to sell it off to the highest bidder," he said. "We‘ll have it up on eBay for seven days."

Since then, Lorenz, county Auditor Angie Lawson and First National Bank in Cloverdale say they have fielded interest calls from CNN, NBC‘s "Today" show, television and radio stations from around the world and potential bidders.

Linda Greenwell, Lorenz‘s secretary, said she can hardly get any work done.

"We‘ve had calls from around the world — Israel , France, Germany, England, Australia," she said.

The refurbished mechanical Disney star was one of several items being sold to benefit Variety -- The Children's Charity of Southern California.

Fifteen bidders had pushed the price of the classic two-door "bug" over $2,000 within hours of the 10-day auction's start.

The final "Herbie" bid will be taken just before 5 p.m. PST on Nov. 28.

Variety -- The Children's Charity has 49 chapters in 13 countries devoted to helping children in need.

Internet search leader Google has officially unveiled a new service that could shake up the world of online and newspaper advertising, as well as challenging online auction powerhouse eBay.

Google Base now allows users to post any kind of information they want for free and to provide labels to describe it so others can easily find it.

The first glimpses of the service came last month, but the roll out late on Tuesday of Google Base in "beta" or trial now allows anyone with Internet access to upload information that will be searchable by Google.

Analysts view the service as having the potential to grow into a huge forum for classified ads. But Google executive Marc Leibowitz said Google merely wants to serve people who have information to share that is not already on a website and being crawled by a search engine to open it up to the public.

'Google Base is a way to let anyone upload information about anything'
Experts point out that the new service's potential to challenge classified listings or auction leaders depends on its gaining critical mass.

"Google Base is a way for Google to let anyone upload information to Google about anything. That's the master plan. Exactly how that master plan will unfold isn't clear," said Danny Sullivan, editor of the influential website searchenginewatch.com.

"Maybe it really will turn into a great place for those with classified listings that will lead to a dedicated spin-off service. The overall goal seems to be put this tool out there and see what people make of it," he said. - Sapa-dpa

The decade-old U.S. online auction giant, whose 168 million global users buy and sell everything from classic cars to farm gear, picked the Web-crazed country because it yields over three-quarters of eBay's Asian revenue and sits between two other crucial regional markets: China and Japan.

"We feel we are at just the beginning of what could be an enormous business for us," Chief Executive Meg Whitman told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the port city of Pusan.

Asia provides about a third of eBay's non-U.S. users and a third of its international gross merchandise value, or the value of goods bought and sold outside the United States, executives said. "We expect that to continue to grow," Whitman added.

Ten years after the auction site was founded by a Silicon Valley programmer, growth at eBay continues to rocket as it expands beyond auctions into shopping, property rental and, with its $4 billion purchase of Skype, Web-based phone calling.

The California-based firm has set its sights on expanding in Asia, where it already has 30 million users. eBay racked up $1.1 billion in revenue in the third quarter, of which nearly half came from Asia.

The firm launched its PayPal online payments system in China in July, and is spending $100 million there in its largest investment in a single country in 2005.

Though it has signed up about 15 million users in the world's seventh-largest economy -- 1 million more than in South Korea -- the Chinese business still pales against that of Korea, which generates 77 percent of eBay's Asian revenue, executives told Reuters.

And competition is getting tougher.

Both Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. have invested in or bought Internet firms in China, some of them auction sites.

Over 30 percent of South Koreans have an eBay Auction Co. account, executives have said, and e-commerce there is expected to double to 19 trillion won by 2010.

Whitman declined to forecast growth for Asian markets. But executives have said transaction volume was expected to jump more than 30 percent in China this year.

"The geographical location is just perfect for us," Whitman said.

The November/December 2005 Selling Power cover story, "Meg Whitman: The 40 Billion eBay sales story," tackles what makes this Internet phenomenon tick.
A look at eBay's President and CEO Meg Whitman examines the moving force behind eBay. With $950 in deals made every second, eBay's predicted sales in 2005 are predicted to be $4 billion. Selling Power answers the questions: how did this giant come into being, what made it such a huge success and where is it headed?
 
From the world of eBay comes this nugget of truth: "When it comes to timing, it's better to introduce a new product a little too early rather than a little too late. Once your competition has amassed market share, you're toast."

The growth of eBay has defied the status quo. "In 10 years, eBay has become its own industry, creating thousands of entrepreneurs along the way. That wasn't taken from an existing market -- it represents sales that didn't exist at all until eBay created the format for them."

Whitman has tapped into two truisms: "Two things in this world are true: People want what they don't have. People have what they don't want. Well, actually, there's a third thing: If you can find a way to connect those who have with those who want, you can get very rich in the process." And that's exactly what eBay has done.

That's only the beginning of success tips for effective sales management in the November/December issue of Selling Power. This issue offers readers a broad range of articles that will motivate, inform and inspire.

In "The 50 Best Companies to Sell For," Selling Power's research team identifies companies with the most to offer salespeople. "For the fifth year, the corporate research team at Selling Power has identified and ranked the best companies to sell for among the largest sales forces in the United States." The data focus on three categories: compensation, training, and career mobility. The Best Manufacturing Company to Sell For is Hoffmann- LaRoche and the Best Service Company to Sell For is Marriott Vacation Club International.

The November/December issue is a "must read" for sales managers and others who want to increase their productivity and influence.

EBay has rolled out RSS-based content syndication capabilities to all eBay Stores, letting buyers subscribe to feeds from specific stores and that way receive new information about items for sale, the California company announced this week.

Owners interested in activating this RSS capability on their eBay store can find more information on how to do it here.

The RSS (Real Simple Syndication) button will appear on the lower left hand corner of the store, where buyers can click on it and add the feed to the RSS reader of their choice, according to the announcement, penned by Arturo Zacarias, eBay's senior product manager, platform and new technologies, and posted Thursday in the general announcement section of the company's Web site.

Also featured in that announcements section is a new service called eBay Marketplace Research, designed to help buyers and sellers track transaction trends on eBay, so that they can make more informed decisions.

Specifically, Marketplace Research can provide buyers and sellers with average item prices, show top keyword searches by category or related keywords, create charts illustrating transaction trends and deliver data on completed sales over the past 90 days, according to the announcement, posted by John Bodine, an eBay product marketing manager.

It can cost your eBay profits dearly if your package gets damaged even if you paid for insurance.  We have had both UPS and FedEx decline insurance claims because they argue we did not pack the item sufficiently. This usually occurs on the larger – heavier items. 

It is impossible to ship some items. If the item weighs over 150 pounds neither UPS nor FedEx Ground will ship it.  There is also a size limitation.  UPS will not ship a package if it is over 108 inches in length.  They also have a cubic measurement limit.  Measure the length of the package and add the girth of the package.  If the sum of these measurements exceeds 165 inches they will not deliver it.  They will also charge you an oversize fee.

If a package weighs over 70 pounds they require special labeling.  Some packages even though they are light in weight, could be hit with a special size service charge.  These shipments are called “dimensional”.

We were shipping some picnic baskets in a box that was just one inch to long or wide.  The extra inch made the package dimensional.  Even though we thought we were making out, we lost money on every shipment.  Check your bills.

Also consider the dimensions of the box when you purchase them.  For instance, a 24 X 18 X 10 box is not dimensional.  There is no surcharge.  Keep these boxes separate from the large dimensional boxes so you don’t accidentally use the wrong box.

There is no guarantee that your heavy package will make it to the customers house in one piece.  There are a couple things you can do help the odds.  First you can wrap the manufacturer’s box in the large bubble wrap.  I tape the bubble wrap around the box. 

The box should have at least three inches space on each side between the inner manufacturer’s box and your shipping box.  I have found that a layer or two of bubble wrap on the bottom of the box will help just in case the packing peanuts shift and the item moves to the bottom of the outside box. 

Then load some packing peanuts into the box.  Place the manufactures box (with the large bubble wrap wrapped around it) into the shipping box.  We have used this technique in conjunction with sheets of Styrofoam.  You can buy sheet of insulation at Home Depot that will work. 

Then load the rest of the box with packing peanuts.  You may want to place Styrofoam around the inside box along with the large bubble wrap.  This will depend on the vulnerability of your item. 

If the box loses integrity the peanuts may leak out making your item vulnerable.  You may want to tape the seams of the box.  Your goal is to get that package to its destination without being damaged. 

Many things can happen to your package.  It could be dropped off the truck.  It could fall off a conveyer belt.  It could be placed on the bottom of a pile.  Take the extra time to ensure a safe shipment.

FedEx and UPS do not pay every claim.  We believe they pay claims at the beginning each quarter but start denying them after you reach a certain threshold.  You can fight their denial but you may lose.  They almost always pay on the low dollar claims.

Matthew in Ohio told Best Syndication "I'm in the Quality Assurance Dept. at FedEx Ground in Toledo, Ohio. On a nightly basis, I write up, repackage, DPM (damaged pkg. maintenance) 15+ packages. Most are indeed due to improper packaging. It literally pains me to, in my report, give the reason for the damage. Especially "care packages" sent to family members in college, etc. Christmas gifts are particularly suspect.
As a policy we have discontinued shipping FedEx and UPS next day.  It is just too costly on items weighing over 50 pounds. The above article concerns itself exclusively with Ground shipments. 

Scotch® Tape, twine, and Duct® Tape are all too often to blame for the closure failing. Duct® Tape is an absolute no-no for use in closing cardboard."
Patricia Harris, FedEx Account Executive told Best Syndication: "For domestic shipping use length x width x depth divided by 194. This is the dimensional weight. If this number is greater than the weight, this is the weight that will be used. For intl the divisor is 166.

The reason for this is that space is crucial on an aircraft…and limited. A plane full of pillows would not be worth our while to fly. Therefore if a package is lighter than average, it will be charged for the space it occupies."  Her comment concerns FedEx and not FedEx Ground.  Patricia recommends shippers acquire a service guide and follow its instructions for dimensional charges.

There are Plymouth Rock commemorative plates. Plymouth Rock salt and pepper shakers. A Plymouth Rock woolen rug. Even a 49-year-old volume of ''The Bobbsey Twins at Plymouth Rock."

The eBay website abounds with kitschy knickknacks celebrating the hunk of granite at the edge of Plymouth Harbor, where the Mayflower Pilgrims supposedly landed in 1620. But soon, in an auction scheduled to last from this Thursday to Thanksgiving, buyers on the giant Internet auction site will be able to buy an actual piece of the Rock -- or so a seller from Cape Cod said.

The seller, who insisted on anonymity for fear of overzealous buyers showing up on his Orleans doorstep, said that the rock is not very big. It's a glorified chip, really, smaller than a deck of cards. But he insisted that it is genuine, a curiosity passed down to him by the late lawyer for an early-20th-century geologist who said he had gotten it from a director of the Pilgrim Society.

That society donated Plymouth Rock and the land it sits on to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1920.

The rock comes in a small gray box, the seller said, with the business card of that Pilgrim Society director, with an ink inscription: ''A bit of Plymouth Rock taken from the original about 1858."

The seller said that the rock has been sitting in his desk for 30 years, and that he recently decided to get rid of it, with some of the other collectibles he has accumulated over the years. He said he hopes that a person who can appreciate it -- perhaps someone associated with a museum -- will see it and snap it up.

Actually, he needs two people who can appreciate it. ''It takes two to make an auction," he said.

The seller said that he isn't setting a price for the object, and that he has no idea how much it might bring.

''It could bring $25, it could bring $2,500," he said. ''Who knows? You have nothing to go by."

Peggy Baker, the executive director of the Pilgrim Society and the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, said she, too, could not estimate its value. Even though a piece of Plymouth Rock about the size of a large marble went for several hundred dollars in a charity auction for the museum a few years ago, she said that ''hundreds, if not thousands" of fragments of the rock have made their way far from the Massachusetts coast.

She also said that the seller's rock is impossible to authenticate, beyond verifying that, like Plymouth Rock, it is made of Dedham granite, which she said is unusual for the Plymouth area.

''It's like anything that's a memento," she said. ''They're worth what somebody's willing to pay for them."

No one is entirely sure if Plymouth Rock is exactly where the Pilgrims landed. The Pilgrims never mentioned the rock in their writings, Baker said. It wasn't until more than a century later that a First Church of Plymouth elder, Thomas Faunce, proclaimed the rock's significance to townspeople in 1741, said Baker.

Faunce, who was 90 when he made the claim, had some credibility, though, because he knew some of the original pilgrims as a boy, Baker said.

In any case, the current rock is much smaller than it used to be. In 1774, when the local Sons of Liberty tried to drag it from the shore to the liberty pole in the town square, it split in half.

Over time, bits broke off, souvenir hunters took pieces, the Smithsonian Institution and the Pilgrim Hall museum got large hunks, and even a few towns in the Western United States asked for pieces to embed in the cornerstones of their town halls, Baker said.

Many families in the Plymouth area have their own fragments of the rock, too, including Baker and her husband, who keep a fragment the size of a fist in a curiosity cabinet, next to a Waterford crystal vase and an ancient Roman coin.

''Every once in a while you go and look at it, and you stop and smile," she said.

David Hillier, an antiques dealer from West Townsend who specializes in American objects dating from the 16th to middle 18th centuries, believes the piece about to be sold on eBay is not worth much.

''It's akin to me cutting some hair off the top of my head -- what little is left -- and saying 'This is Abraham Lincoln's hair,' " Hillier said.

''I would think anybody with a methodical approach to buying [antiquities] is not going to put any money on it," Hillier said.

''But then again," he added, ''crazy stuff is sold on eBay for an awful lot of money." 

The move could help eBay protect its dominance of online auctioneering from an encroachment by Yahoo or Google.

"We hope to encourage new ideas and accelerate the growth of our developer and affiliate communities," said Greg Isaacs, director of the eBay developers program.

Google has been encouraging software developers to create online programs using Google applications like Google Maps to entrench its applications as a dominant standard. Yahoo, and more recently Microsoft with its Windows Live and Office Live initiatives, are adopting a similar strategy, an approach known as Web services or Web 2.0.

Yahoo already maintains a marketplace that it has been enhancing. As Google and Microsoft show increased interest in creating online marketplaces, eBay needs to ensure that it stays at the center of e-commerce. Google, for instance, has been filing patent applications for a system that would let individuals quickly create an online classified ad for a product or service.

One way to forestall any potential threat is to encourage third-party developers to create more programs that make it easier for buyers and sellers to use eBay. Removing the fees to use eBay's application programming interface may increase the number of eBay developers from the current 21,000. The number of third-party developers doubled in the last year, the company said.

More developers mean more applications and a greater number of Web sites that would channel additional buyers and sellers through eBay, where about $40 billion in merchandise already changes hands in a year.

The company wants to encourage creation of software like a product created by Terapeak that automates a seller's listings. Other applications include ezTradein, which prices merchandise traded for new merchandise, or Configurator, which helps a buyer pick options on custom-made products.

EBay estimates that 724,000 merchants use the site as a primary or secondary sales channel and that a third of the items sold on eBay are listed at a fixed price.

The fees have not been a significant source of revenue for the company. EBay expects revenue of more than $4 billion this year. The fees ranged from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands, Mr. Isaacs said. While most of the developers are small, major companies like SAP, Verizon and EarthLink also make use of eBay's Web services.

The company said it would still charge for use of its database of transaction histories, which can be mined by software to help buyers and sellers price goods or time auctions and otherwise use the service more effectively.

The company boasts 4.4 million daily transactions and 168 million registered users worldwide. About 22 percent of eBay listings are placed there by third-party programs using eBay application programming interfaces.

Developers make their money by getting a small percentage of each transaction channeled through their application to eBay.

"The knock on a lot of Web 2.0 is, 'Where is the revenue model?' " Mr. Isaacs said. "We think we have that figured out."

Mr. Isaacs said some affiliates made as much as $1 million a month.

For more information on “Spend the Day with Chamillionaire” log onto eBay.com.

EBay Marketplace Research, as the new subscription service is known, gives buyers and sellers a view into millions of eBay listing, bidding, and pricing trends, in effect creating a constantly updated barometer of consumer shopping habits.

The paid service gives subscribers access to data, charts and graphs, that show the prices eBay's 168 million users have paid in any auction over the past several months, which gives consumers a powerful way to find baseline product prices.

"It does help you to get some idea of the true value of what you are selling," said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with brokerage Hoefer & Arnett in Boulder, Colorado.

"With research, the informed buyer is going to be able to say, 'The item is worth about this,'" agreed Hal Varian, an economist at the University of California's Haas School of Business.

Marketplace Research comes in three subscription levels, starting with a two-day pass for $2.99, a basic monthly service

for $9.99 and a professional package priced at $24.99 a month. The first two services show pricing data going back 60 days while the professional subscription -- aimed at power sellers -- has a 90-day pricing history and international market data.

Sellers can follow trends as they play out online, allowing them to adapt their sales strategies immediately.

Pyykkonen said the service will help eBay's core base of existing auctioneers. "Ebay needs to do everything they can to help the seller community" by bringing more sellers online and converting them into veteran "power sellers," Pyykkonen said.

Gartner Inc. analyst Allen Weiner said competition in the online auction market is heating up, both from start-ups and other major Internet players who are pushing their way into the classified advertising market, including Google Inc..

EBay is looking for ways to make it easier for new users to take part, Weiner said. "Part of the big mystery of online auctions is their inefficiency," he said. "By offering pricing history, eBay is making people's time online more efficient.

"A lot of people are very inexperienced and really have no idea about how to set prices," Weiner said.

Over on eBay US, 'Foodbankny' has 17 lunchboxes designed by mostly American stars, which are being auctioned in aid of childrens lunch programmes in New York and South Africa.

You can put your lunch treats in boxes designed by Joaquin Phoenix (his box looks like he put slightly less effort into it than one would need to pronounce his name) or a beautiful, feminine, albeit slightly putrid-orange design by The King's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley.

But the rose among the thorns is without a doubt Microsoft's Bill Gates, who looks like he passed the task onto one of his very talented software designers. Check ‘em out here.

Her Web site is housewithbride.com; her eBay ad is listed under "House With Bride." She has received about 60 responses.

"I have to say that the e-mails that I have got have been very kind and very nice," Hale said.

The deadline for bidding is Valentine's Day 2006.

Selling on Ebay offers a fast pace sales opportunity for anyone that wants to sell online.  Turning Ebay selling from a hobby into a full time business is a big task.  One aspect of the work that must be completed in an Ebay business is the customer service.  Most of the customer service is handled through the email.

It is always important when selling regularly to make sure your terms of sale and after the sale is listed on all the auction pages.  By spelling out the way that you will handle returns, damages, and defective items you will avoid a lot of personal involvement and maintain a professional atmosphere with your customer.  Doing this is part of the building block for a stable and steady customer service department that will be manageable. 

Internet auction house eBay Inc. will build a data center in Phoenix and hopes to have it open next year.

Officials with the San Jose-based online giant did not detail a site or the number of employees it will hire in the state. But the center will house engineering and technology professionals and be the seventh such location in the nation.

The eBay decision comes on the heels of an announcement by Google Inc. three weeks ago that it will open a facility in metro Phoenix, bringing 600 engineering, software development and technical support positions. And chip-maker Intel, Inc. announced plans over the summer to build a third computer chip plant in Chandler and hire 1,000 additional workers.

A handful of eBay workers are already set up in a small Phoenix office, working on the auction site and its PayPal online payment division.

Spokesman Hani Durzy said eBay chose the Phoenix area because the growing company needs backup locations far from earthquake zones and sites hit by other natural disasters. With so many businesses and individuals buying and selling goods on eBay, "it's important for us to stay up all the time," he said.

The Phoenix metro area attracted the company because of its easy airline connections with California and its population, education level and ready workforce.

The eBay news is "super" to Ron Schott, interim president of the Arizona Technology Council.

"That's great. We welcome them with open arms," he said Friday. "The word is getting out that this is a business-friendly state."

The company has posted a range of jobs on its Web site for "eBay Phoenix" and "PayPal Phoenix." They include senior manager of data services, senior network engineer, senior software engineer, auctions engineering manager and batch operations engineers. Most call for four-year college degrees and four or more years of experience.

Several of the job postings outline jobs developing products and say selected candidates "will work on a large variety of important projects ... and help shape the future of global economics."

Schott said the senior nature of some positions indicates there is more employment to come.

"If you have these positions, you're going to have lots of folks under them," he said.

The online auctioneer is also expanding outside its base. Last month eBay completed acquisitions of Skype Technologies SA, an Internet communications company known for its free long-distance phone calls over the Web, and comparison-shopping Web site Shopping.com.

A 200-year-old skull of a Native Hawaiian woman that was put up for auction on eBay last year has been returned to Maui.

Melanie Chinen, who heads the state Historic Preservation Division, said her office will work with the Maui Island Burial Council on the reburial of the remains and record the location of the burial site "to ensure its protection in perpetuity."

Jerry David Hasson of Huntington Beach, Calif., was sentenced to 600 hours of community service and 13 months of home detention for attempting to sell the skull for $12,500 on eBay in 2004, the Honolulu Advertiser reported.

He was also ordered to pay a $15,000 criminal fine, and $9,945.30 in restitution to cover the cost of the investigation and return of the remains.

Hasson told federal investigators he found an entire skeleton under sand at an archaeological site in 1969 while employed as a lifeguard at the Ka'anapali Beach Hotel.

Jessica Ogden said she had notified both eBay, the online auction site, and the Metropolitan Police that her stolen clothes were being openly sold, but said neither took action.

Among them was a cashmere cardigan, which would normally retail for more than $600, being sold for about $55, while a merino wool gilet, normally $48), was sold for $76.

Ogden contacted the 16 people who had bought the hand-knitted items, telling them they were stolen, the London Independent said. But, only one replied, making no attempt to return the garment.

The clothes were in a consignment of two boxes being delivered to Selfridges by the courier company TNT during the summer from Ogden's studio in Kentish Town in north London.

Becoming the owner of a pro franchise is just a mouse click away.

The Ohio Valley Greyhounds of the United Indoor Football Association are up for bids on eBay, its owners eager to unload the Wheeling, W. Va. team.

The starting bid was $100,000, and as of Wednesday night there were five bids and it was up to $100,500. The auction closes Nov. 11. Included in the price is an Astroturf field that once was in the Hoosier Dome, all the uniforms and football equipment, and the team's office equipment.

Perhaps the most humorous part of the listing is the shipping information: "Will arrange for local pickup only." So no, they will not mail you the franchise.

The Greyhounds were a success in the National Indoor Football League, winning titles in 2002 and 2003, but fell on hard times last year in their first season in the UIFA, finishing 6-11.

The listing says the Greyhounds "have proved to be one of the most stable entities in sports."

Do "stable" businesses generally end up on eBay?

-- David Andriesen