I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again: eBay has reached its nadir. The once might giant is now facing competition not only from Craigslist but from online forums and shops where experts in their field, be it photography equipment to watches, are buying and selling to an informed audience. In short the economy of ignorance that drives most auctions is almost dead and everyone from Joe the Plumber to an auction-master at Christie’s knows – or can find out – the true price of an item online.
That said, eBay is now facing a revolt by its power sellers due to changes in the feedback policy. The policy changes are a bit convoluted. Writes BizWeek:
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Some clumsy Briton at MI6 has lost a Nikon digital camera that’s filled to the brim with all sorts of sensitive information, including info on al-Qaeda. What’s worse, not that losing the camera isn’t bad enough, but that it was sold on eBay.
Yup, the missing Nikon is loaded with info on al-Qaeda, including names, finger prints and academic records.
Oh, and the camera was sold for the low, low price of £17, or just under $31.
At right, the only James Bond that matters.
Somewhere in our crazy world, a true BlackBerry fanboy spent 17 large for a pre-release BlackBerry Javelin. Either there is something shady going on here and the shipping box is packaged with baby mink fur, or actually, someone wants the latest non-3G BlackBerry Javelin. Sure, word is the phone does have WiFi and GPS, along with a speedy 512 MHz CPU and a HVGA+ screen, but who would spend more than a Toyota Scion for a phone?
Follow the jump for better uses of $17k than spending it on a BlackBerry.
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Selling a lot of small items via the 1998 internet sensation eBay? How about ditching that full-size tape gun and spend $2 bucks for this little guy. It uses Scotch tape refills but works the same way as its monstrous brethren. Still, sending a small box via UPS taped up with just masking tape might not be the best shipping technique. Anyways, the Micro Tape Gun is $2 and available at Harbor Freight.
Harbor Freight via Toolmonger
Oh, Back to the Future. It was because of you that during the run-up to the revealing of the Segway, I thought it was going to be a hoverboard. It was because of you that I was so bitterly disappointed. But your uppance has come! Your most precious wooden prop will be mine — for the paltry cost of only $30,000.
No, it doesn’t hover, but it’s in excellent condition. I actually may save my money for when that jacket he’s wearing hits eBay. I bet it would drive the ladies nuts. [via Geekologie]
In a not-too-surprising turn of events, someone has taken upon himself to purchase the new iPhone 3G, and then turn around and sell (some of) it on eBay. Figuring the hype would shoot up the bid, they were right, and the auction finished off at $650.00 with a ton of bidding. Well, now that its over, the winning bidder is the proud owner of an “iPhone 3G Black 16 GB Box and Instructions”.
Ah, the smell of the weak feeding upon the weak.
No iPhone is included as the auction was for just the box and instructions. I don’t know who was thinking what with this auction, but I’m sure this transaction will never be consummated. When the winner highest bidder realized that they weren’t going to get an iPhone, I would assume they weren’t in a rush to pony up the cash. Especially since the auction doesn’t bother to state that there is no iPhone included. Unless of course, they actually did want a $650 box, in which case I have nothing more to say.
eBay via GearDiary
EBay was found today to not be responsible for allowing the sale of counterfeit items. Tiffany and Company initially filed the lawsuit in 2004 after a study they conducted determined a high rate of fakes being sold under the Tiffany brand.
The ruling issued by Judge Richard Sullivan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan is a major victory for the online giant, as they do not have to actively weed out suspect listings from the site. Intellectual property holders instead are tasked with the chore of policing the site and alerting eBay of possible infringements. Accordingly, eBay would then faithfully take down the offending listings.
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While now may be the best time to buy an iPhone 2G on Craigslist or eBay, it sure as hell isn’t the time to buy an iPhone 3G on those same sites. Cruising Craigslist New York and San Francisco, one finds iPhone 3Gs for as much as $1,000.
Prices on eBay are much the same, around the $1,000 mark. One even costs $1,600. What?!
Maybe I’m hungover from all the iPhone news, but why would a person buy an iPhone 3G only to sell it on eBay—what do they do with the required two-year contract?
Also, as Doug said in our award-winning podcast earlier today, prices on iPhone 2Gs should hit rock bottom by the end of August, so if you’re willing to hold out a bit longer—it’s not like being an early adopter is without its headaches—you may well get a decent cellphone for very little.
An Australian man is auctioning off his life on eBay. Neat!
So yeah, some guy in Australia, Ian Usher, just split up with his wife, and rather than be a good solider and find someone else, he’s decided his life isn’t worth living, per se. Not that he’s going to off himself, but that he’s giving away his life—house, job, car, possessions and his friends.
The auction, which runs from today to June 29, is currently at 702,000 USD.
Didn’t Seinfeld have an episode like this, where Kramer sold his life’s story to J. Peterman?
via hardocp.com
Has the announcement of the iPhone 3G, and its $200 starting price, affected prices for the current iPhone?
Eh, not really.
A quick scan of the Internet—yes, all of it—shows no real deal trends. Gearfuse was able to find one current gen iPhone going for less than $200, and one for $200; the rest are all over the place.
The second-hand iPhone market should pick up once July 11 rolls around, and not a day sooner.
Though Twitter is rife with “who wants to buy my old iPhone” tweeets. Of course it is.
eBay has an one “beta” HTC Shadow 2 for sale for $499. As the breathless prose says “Here is a Beta Test Verstion of the Not out yet HTC Shadow 2!!” It has WM 6.1, Wi-Fi, MP3 playback and supports MyFaves. Not sure if it supports HotSpot@Home, though.
Oh me, oh my — here’s a new one.
I purchased this a few years back as a project but it just ended up sitting in my closet. This is a rare Xentex Dual Screen Laptop. Each screen is 13.3″ and one pivots so that one can be facing you and the other one facing the person sitting on the other side of the laptop. This was a prototype and is missing some parts but does turn on so I have no doubt someone can make this work with the right skills.
This has to be the worlds largest laptop when unfolded which measures about 19.5″ across when you unfold it. This company had a great idea on the hinging concept because the entire laptop folds twice making it very portable.
Unfortunately, it’s a prototype that just kinda-sorta works…
The keyboard is functional and it does type and you can enter the bios but I have not been able to go past that since I do not have a hard drive cable (which appears to be a custom cable with 1mm pitch) and I do not have a CD Rom for the unit. I have tried to getting it to boot of an external USB CD Rom but it would not detect that. The small plastic latches that hold the screen in place when it is all folded up are broken but does not effect it that much. Trackpoint is missing from the middle of the keyboard but the touch pad should work but have never booted to windows to confirm.
The touch pad also duals as some sort of signature pad and the pen is included.
Xentex Dual 13.3″ Screen Laptop Prototype [eBay] via The Register
There are 42 minutes left on this auction for a Zune that has been run over by a charming young lady who caught her boyfriend cheating on her.
Well, this WAS my ex boyfriend’s Zune. It used to hold 60GB of music, videos, etc., until I caught him cheating on me. Now it plays nothing, except a little hide and seek with my car tires, and of course it was a bad sport. How do I know he was cheating on me, you ask? Well, this precious little
Zune held videos of the a$$ doing things with other girls, things I thought about uploading to porn sites online, then chose not to. If you can figure out how to extract that stuff from the Zune’s memory, you’re welcome to do with it as you wish. You are buying this AS IS!
Condition: It’s permanently damaged, just like the ex is. This little baby of his was one of the few things he managed not to get away with. Thanks to him taking MY digital camera with him, I had to take after-pics of the Zune with my cellphone. I just moved to a new city with this A$$, and now I have no money and need something for rent and bills. Buy this thing. It does me no good. Just like his lying a$$. Help out a strong young woman, who refuses to be taken advantage of, and won’t take $hit from anyone, including a slick 24-year-old loser motorcross racer!
While the story seems kind of fake — who puts video of their sexual conquests on their Zune — it’s nice to know there are some real gentlemen on eBay.
Q: wow. that sucks…. hope someone buys it. i find the description about hide and seek with your car tires amusing…. do u have a myspace>? May-13-08
A: thanks….i found it amusing too as i was doing it….i do have a myspace, but i don’t want to mix my ebay with my other stuff, sorry.
This is exactly the girl you want to friend on MySpace.
Holy crap, who’s got $38,000 I can borrow? See, there’s this replica of Airwolf on eBay that I’d really like to pick up. I mean, it doesn’t fly, but how badass would this look parked on the roof of my building? You could see it from Queen Anne! People would always wonder, is that where Jan Michael Vincent lives?
Of course it’s not, but I could get an eye patch and pretend!
I want it!
It was bound to happen, and today it’s official: Craigslist is countersuing eBay, claiming unfair competitive practices, fraudulent business claims, copyright infringement and more.
The auction site has a roughly 25% stake in Craigslist, and Craigslist wants it back, and the filing says that Craigslist wants eBay to divest its shares.
We’ll have to see how this pans out when it goes to court, but it’s looking like eBay, the company that trades on people being good to each other, wasn’t taking its own medicine.
Let’s say you buy a few coins on eBay. Let’s say you get a fair price. Let’s say when the coins arrive, though, they’re packed poorly, loose in an envelope. Not good for old coins.
So, because the price was fair but the shipping sucked, so you leave neutral feedback. That sounds reasonable.
But let’s say the seller then sues you for $10,000. That’s the story of Steve Shellhorn. That exact scenario happened to Shellhorn, and it cost him $500 to hire a lawyer to convince a judge to drop the suit.
Sadly, the fiasco has put him off leaving feedback ever again, an important part of the eBay system. The seller is mum, but we’re guessing he feels “Great buyer would sell again++++++”.
Things are getting messy in the used items category of the Internet, a place where many of us get our gear.
Auction site eBay is suing Craigslist, of which it has a minority interest, for trying to dilute its stake in the classifieds company. The stake is 28%, but eBay claims the Craigslist leaders tried to maneuver it down to around 18%.
The suit came as a shock to Craig Newmark and the rest of the Craigslist board, who shortly after posted a damning rebuttal on the Craigslist blog, calling eBay’s actions unethical and perhaps an overture to a hostile takeover.
This will all wind up in court in Delaware, where the suit was filed, according to the AP. We’re hoping this ends well; eBay has the economic muscle — as well as the motive — to quash one of the great Internet success stories.
Despite the nasty rumors going around about eBay selling Skype, the VoIP provider is poised to introduce an unlimited international calling plan that will cost $9.95/month. The 34 countries included are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and most of Europe. This new plan will, of course, include calls to domestic land-line phones and cell phones as well as calls made to cell phones in Canada, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, but no other countries. Maybe I’m missing something here on the latter half about cell phones, but $10/month for unlimited international calling isn’t too shabby.
Do any of the other reputable VoIP services offer a deal such as this?
It seems a bunch of current military gear is showing up for illicit sale online. I’m not really surprised, given how shoddy the military’s bookkeeping is. Investigators found F-14 parts as well as hazardous materials suits and accessories for sale on eBay and Craigslist. I don’t think Craig would approve.
They guess the stuff was stolen from the Defense Department, but it seems they really only started a real inventory two years ago and in those two years have catalogued only 20,000 items. Really now. I think there are a lot of guys on their third tour in Afghanistan who would love to get their hands on a cushy detail like that. Counting bullets? Better than dodging em.
[via Slashdot]
It’s not the actual, actual car from the movie but it was “built by Paramount as a prop for the Paramount Kings Island ride, Stan Milenkos.” So it’s at least somewhat legit.
The Buy It Now price is $7,999.99 and bidding is currently just over $2,500. The car itself is a 1976 AMC Pacer with 25,565 miles on it. It’s located in Columbus, Ohio which, incidentally, is where Biggs is right now so maybe he can dig into his editor-in-chief salary and pick this thing up. The license plate says “SHA WING” for cracked ice.
Here’s more; “Very low mile car, but has all typical pacer problems, Saggy Drivers door, cracked door panels, there is not a working radio in this car or speakers. Even though this car runs and drives I wouldn’t drive it any long distances being that it has been sitting in a show room and a garage for years needs some TLC.” Sounds perfect!
AMC : Pacer [eBay] via Feber.se
