Jeff King

• The removal of the Choice policy gets rid of the restriction that has required sellers to list individual listings for each size, color or configuration of the same item.
• The removal of the Multiple Listings Limit policy ends the 15-item rule that has governed how many identical listings a seller can have listed at the same time.

As John also mentioned, these policy changes go hand in hand with changes to our Finding experience. In a nutshell, now our Finding technology can do the work of removing duplicates from search results, ensuring buyers have a good finding experience with plenty of variety and that sellers can list in whatever quantities and configuration that make the most sense to their business.

Starting this week, the display of multiple identical items from the same seller will be limited to one in Search results. An item is considered identical if it has the same title and the same listing format, and the listing chosen for display will be determined by the sort option that the buyer chooses. We will be rolling this out to all sort options by next week. When multiple auction-style listings with the same title have a different number of bids and different prices, these are no long considered identical and will all be displayed.

Also, the number of unique listings (listings for different items) per seller will be up to ten per page. In a case where a seller has a number of items—for instance 20—that could potentially show up in the same search results, 10 will be shown on the first page, and the other 10 will be on the second page. (These improvements go hand in hand with the removal of the Multiple Listings Limit policy.)

As a reminder, our new Search & Browse Manipulation policy prohibits sellers from "gaming" the system to trick the system into displaying their identical items. For more information, please read the Frequently Asked Questions on this topic.

Added flexibility for sellers, added variety for buyers
Now sellers are free to list identical listings in whatever volume is right for their business, because our technology will ensure buyers are not overwhelmed by an over-abundance of identical items. For larger sellers, this reduces the operational complexity of ensuring only a certain number of similar items are active at one time. For smaller sellers, these changes preserve a fair climate that allows them visibility in search results.

This improvement showcases the breadth of attractive inventory from a variety of sellers, making it easy for buyers to find what they are looking for – which in turn benefits sellers with more sales.

Get your questions answered from the Finding team
My team and I want to help answer your questions about these and other Finding changes. It’s our goal to make sure you have the best experience possible as we gradually transition to the new Finding technology. Please visit our thread on the Search board to ask us your questions.

Sincerely,

Jeff King
Senior Director, Finding

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John McDonald

After my announcement, we received questions and concerns from sellers about this change. At eBay Live!, our staff made it clear we would be going back to reconsider some aspects of the policy around how third-party links would be treated.

As promised, we’ve been reviewing all the different types of situations that our sellers have brought to our attention, and we’ve been meeting with additional stakeholders to understand how our policy update would impact them. After this additional research and discussion, we’ve decided to leave our Links Policy as it was before my May announcement. There will be no Links Policy updates at this time. (Please read the Links Policy for more information.)

I want to thank our sellers for your support and patience around this matter.

Sincerely,

John McDonald
Senior Director, Trust & Safety

This message was updated to clarify that the existing Links Policy published in Help prior to May will remain unchanged.

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Jen Ibarra

Hi everyone…I'm Jen Ibarra with eBay Giving Works. We're committed to offering you a variety of ways to support your favorite cause on eBay, and I'm excited to let you know about a new feature we launched last month, called Donate Now.

As you know, you can easily help your favorite nonprofit organization by listing an item and donating a percentage of the final sale price, or by buying an item marked with the special charity ribbon. With the new Donate Now option, you have an additional option to give back: you can also make an online gift to your favorite organization. All you need is a PayPal account. You can give as little as $5 by visiting the new "Donate Now" tab on your favorite nonprofit's "About My Nonprofit" page on eBay Giving Works.

For more information, please feel free to visit the Donate Now information page.

Thanks, as always, for your generous support of such wonderful organizations!

Sincerely,

Jen Ibarra
eBay Giving Works

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Rita Bosch

Hi everyone…I'm Rita Bosch with eBay Motors. Over the past three months we've been slowly introducing an updated Sell Your Item form for our eBay Motors sellers. The Sell Your Item form for eBay Motors is very similar to the form on eBay.com, with a few changes to accommodate the specialized needs of eBay Motors sellers.

This new Sell Your Item form is the default for the majority of eBay Motors sellers already. In the next few days, we will make it the default for every eBay Motors seller.

Although most of the changes are minor, here are a few improvements to know about:

• The process for listing Parts & Accessories listings has been condensed into one page to make listing these items faster. Sellers can also add a second category to their Parts & Accessories listings, including categories from eBay.com.
• More tips and guidance appear in the tool to help sellers listing vehicles.
• Saving an incomplete listing has been made easier, so you can come back to finish it later.

To stay on top of what’s going on around eBay Motors, visit our update thread on the eBay Motors discussion forum.

Sincerely,

Rita Bosch
eBay Motors

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

• Jerad Schempp, COO of HostedSupport.com, an eBay Certified Provider, gives you tips on how to turn unhappy customers into loyal customers.
• Marsha Collier, Author of "eBay for Dummies" and "Starting an eBay Business for Dummies," joins us with some helpful eBay selling tips.
• Chris Malta, CEO of WorldWideBrands.com, talks about the importance of an eCommerce education in optimizing your online sales.
• Ken Atkinson, President and CEO of GrafXpress Digital Studios, talks about using eBay to market your services rather than just material goods.
• Skip McGrath, Publisher of "The eBay Seller's News" at skipmcgrath.com and author of "Ten eBay Niche Businesses Anyone Can Do" and "How To Sell Used Books on eBay and the Internet" talks about finding a niche market with not too much competition.

Plus we'll have "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community.

Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible".

Don't miss the Thursday "Ask Griff" show
And if you can't catch the live show on Tuesday, you can always select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives or tune into the Thursday edition of eBay Radio, "Ask Griff" from 3:00pm to 5:00pm Pacific this Thursday, July 24th. You can also join the eBay Radio eBay Group for more information on eBay Radio.

If you can't catch either of the live shows, you can always subscribe to the podcast , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Try the Featured Plus! listing upgrade for 50% off during this 3-day special offer on www.ebay.com. With Featured Plus!, your listing will be displayed right at the top of search results pages, within the Featured Items section. Take advantage of this promotion and add Featured Plus! to your listings!

The promotion will start on Tuesday, July 29, 2008 at 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second) and end on Thursday, July 31, 2008 at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds). Listings created prior to July 29, 2008 that are scheduled to start during the promotional period will be eligible for the promotional rate.

This promotion will not apply to the following types of listings: eBay Motors Passenger Vehicles, Motorcycles, Power Sports, and Other Vehicles, as well as International, Live Auction, Professional Services, Real Estate, Ad Format, and Store Inventory listings. For full details, please see our promotion page.

We hope you enjoy the 50% off Featured Plus! promotion!

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John Canfield

We built our strategy around three distinct layers of protection:

Preventing fraudulent accounts. Our first priority is to stop fraudsters from being able to operate on the site in the first place. Stronger verification of new sellers allows us to know our sellers better and makes it harder for fraudsters to open new accounts. Anti-phishing efforts, including our alliance with Yahoo! and recent announcement with Google, blocks phishing e-mails before they arrive in users’ inbox. Finally, trusted selling with identity confirmation, which will be fully implemented later this summer, prevents account take-overs by requiring anyone attempting to list an item from an “unknown” computer to go through identity confirmation.

Removing fraud visibility. Next, if fraudsters manage to get hold of an account, we make it unlikely that their fraudulent listings will become visible to the Community. We do this in three primary ways.

1) In April 2007, we announced that items most favored by fraudsters would not be visible in search for a number of hours. During those few hours, our fraud detection algorithms and investigators in our over 2,000-plus Trust & Safety team work to stop fraudsters and their listings before they ever become visible to the community. In the 15 months since that announcement, we have reduced fraud visibility by over 80%, and we’re working to reduce exposure for this type of fraud even further.

Your community reports of potential fraudulent listings help us to identify additional problems, as well as help us to improve our algorithms. We appreciate the many members who contribute their support by reporting suspicious listings to us.

2) In March 2008, we expanded the use of anonymized bidder IDs to all auction-style listings. This project, known as the Safeguarding Member IDs initiative, protects under-bidders from fake (fraudulent) Second Chance Offer requests and other malicious spoof email. As a result of this initiative, fake Second Chance Offer volume has declined by over 90%. We’re pleased with these results and the increased protection for our Community that they signify. (For more information, see "Safeguarding User IDs" in Help: Protecting Your Privacy.)

3) In order to further secure our listings against malicious content, we will roll out controls on “active” user-generated content in early 2009 that will provide rich user experience through eBay-approved secure widgets and mark-up language. (Stay tuned for more information from eBay and your Certified Providers on this subject.)

Ensuring safer transactions. Lastly, should fraudsters obtain a fraudulent account and get visibility for their fraudulent listings, we have safeguards in place to thwart them in their attempts to convince buyers to pay using an unsafe payment method. Our Accepted Payments policy requires that new sellers and listings for higher-risk items accept safe electronic payment methods only. (For more details, please read our January 2008 announcement.) Fraudsters can also attempt to use e-mail to coax buyers into unsafe, off-eBay transactions, even before the auction closes. To counter this, we recently announced Safer member-to-member email via anonymous email forwarding, which keeps pre-sale communications safe on eBay and keeps the buyers’ e-mail address anonymous and protected. (For details, read our June 2008 announcement.) As a reminder, if you ever suspect that an email you receive isn’t legitimate, make sure to forward it to us at spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com.

I hope this helps give you a better sense of how all the safety initiatives fit into our overall strategy -- and I hope that the results I've shared illustrate for you how these efforts are truly making a difference.

On that note, while the Trust & Safety teams here have been working hard to make security and safe transactions as seamless and automatic as possible to our Community, your safe practices play an important role as always. All buyers and sellers should know that paying with PayPal is the #1 way to protect yourself against fraud. For additional tips on how to protect yourself from spoof and phishing emails, check out the eBay Security & Resolution Center, the PayPal Security Center and take PayPal’s Fight Phishing Challenge.

Stay tuned for more news on our progress as the year goes on.

Sincerely,

John Canfield
Senior Director, Trust & Safety

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Bev DeSomber

When Does Your eBay Hobby Become a Business?
This workshop will be held on Monday, July 28th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Pacific time.

When do you have to report the money you make from a few eBay sales? Does eBay report the sales to the IRS? These are some of the frequently asked questions we get again and again. Please join best selling-author and CPA Diane Kennedy to learn how to turn those sales into a real business that help you pay less tax – not more.

Use Research to Find Hot Seasonal Products
This workshop will be held on Friday, August 1st from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time.

Seasonality can make a huge difference to your profits. Listing some items in the right season can make all the difference between the final sale price just barely covering your costs or making a huge profit with a flurry of competitive bids. A savvy seller will weigh seasonal demand into their marketing mix and leverage timing to their gain. The more people shopping for your item at a given time of year, the more bids and purchases your products will garner! Please join Denise from Terapeak Marketplace Research as we look at how to determine up- and -coming hot products, forecast customer demand and understand when to build up your inventory without taking too much of a risk!

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. Remember, if you can't make it during a particular workshop, just visit our Workshop Archives, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Want timely reminders about workshops? We recommend two ways to make sure you never miss an important workshop:

• Sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. (To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Workshop board. When a new workshop becomes active, your RSS reader will be updated. (You can also subscribe to just the specific topic thread that interests you.) To subscribe, click on the button at the bottom of the Workshop board or thread. Copy and paste the feed URL into your reader to subscribe. For more information on RSS, please read our RSS Help page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Bev DeSomber
Community Development

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We plan the following Item Specifics changes in August:

• Updates to DVD & Movies Item Specifics values
• In particular media areas, we will introduce Condition values "Brand New", "Like New", "Very Good", "Good" and "Acceptable" in place of the current values "New" and "Used". The categories affected are:
  • Books: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Cookbooks, Children's Books, Textbooks and Audiobooks
  • DVD & Movies: DVD HD-DVD & Blu-ray, VHS, VHS Non-US (PAL), UMD and Other Formats
  • Music: CDs, Cassettes
  • Video Games: Games

  These changes won't affect items currently listed on the site. However, during the relist or revise process, items that currently have their Condition as "New" will be defaulted to the "Brand New" value and items with the condition "Used" will be defaulted to "Acceptable". Sellers may of course change the Condition value for their item at any point after these changes are introduced. Condition will also be defaulted to "Acceptable" on new listings if the seller has not selected a condition value.

• In Jewelry, eBay Item Specifics will be attached to the upcoming new Fine Jewelry categories:
  • Fine Bracelets
  • Fine Earrings
  • Fine Necklaces & Pendants
  • Fine Rings
• Jewelry Condition will add "Used" to the existing "New" value.

A list of planned changes to Item Specifics on eBay.com can be found at Seller Central.

If you list items manually through an eBay seller tool (for example, the Sell Your Item form or Turbo Lister) or the eBay API, the updated Item Specifics will be available in the next few weeks. If you use a third party listing service (such as ChannelAdvisor), please contact them to verify when they will update these Item Specifics.

For general information about Item Specifics and how to use them, please visit our Item Specifics overview page. If you have any comments or feedback about Item Specifics, please email them to taxonomy@ebay.com and they will be considered for future enhancements.

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• Bright Starts ring rattles due to a choking hazard

• It's My Binky's personalized pacifiers due to a choking hazard

eBay takes recalled items very seriously, and we work closely with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on these issues. We encourage buyers and sellers to visit http://www.cpsc.gov (see the Recent Recalls section) for more details about the products and model numbers included in this recall. You may also wish to visit our Recalled Items policy at http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/recalled.html.

For Sellers: Please check your product model numbers and refrain from listing any items that are part of this recall. Any currently listed items that are included in the recall should be ended.

For Buyers: If you believe an item you are interested in bidding on or purchasing may be part of this recall, we encourage you to use the Ask Seller a Question feature to verify.

As a service to our Community, eBay announces some product recalls, like these, when we believe the marketplace will be impacted. To stay informed about all CPSC recalls, please bookmark www.cpsc.gov and sign up to receive notices on new recalls issued by the CPSC.

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

• Brandon Delgrosso, General Manager of doba.com, speaks on how Doba can help you.
• Barbara Weltman, Host of Build Your Business Radio, talks about trends concerning eBay business in today's economy.
• Scott Sumner, President of Sumner Communications, Inc. and WholesaleCentral.com, joins us with information on how to find wholesale merchandise for you to list on eBay.
• Jason Miner, PayPal Community Education Specialist and the host of PayPal Radio, joins us to tells us about some of the new currencies that PayPal has now added to the site.
• Terry Meade, owner of tootsiegirls, joins us to tell us about her fundraising efforts to support the Gift of Life Foundation Transplant House.

Plus we'll have "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community.

Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible".

Don't miss the Thursday "Ask Griff" show
And if you can't catch the live show on Tuesday, you can always select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives or tune into the Thursday edition of eBay Radio, "Ask Griff" from 3:00pm to 5:00pm Pacific this Thursday, July 24th. You can also join the eBay Radio eBay Group for more information on eBay Radio.

If you can't catch either of the live shows, you can always subscribe to the podcast , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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During the eBay Motors Parts and Accessories 20¢ Insertion Fee sale: For regular Auction-style and Fixed Price Parts & Accessories listings, in the applicable categories, the insertion fee will be capped at 20¢ for all items with a starting price or reserve price above $0.99 on the U.S. eBay Motors site (www.ebaymotors.com). All insertion fees that are less than 20¢ will still be charged at the normal rate. All items listed in excluded categories will be charged at the normal rate.

Listings created prior to July 22nd, 2008 that are scheduled to start during the promotional period (July 22nd, 2008) will be eligible to receive the promotional rate. Excluded are Vehicle listings, listings on international eBay sites, Live Auction, Professional Services, Ad Format, Store Inventory listings, and listings on www.ebay.com. For full details about the sale, please see our information page. We hope you enjoy the eBay Motors Parts & Accessories Bling Cha-Ching Insertion Fee Sale!

This post was originally created on 7/21/2008 at 5pm. It was reposted to correct a typing error in the year.

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Bev DeSomber

Customizing your eBay Store
This workshop will be held on Monday, July 21st from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific time.

With a bit of HTML & some graphics, your eBay store can be customized to be uniquely yours. Learn how to create a custom store header, custom store pages & promotion boxes. Certified eBay Stores Designer, Sally Milo of Milo Design (and seller GOing1nceLLC on eBay) will guide you on customizing your own eBay store. (Please note, this will not be a tutorial on learning HTML - there are many resources on eBay & the web to learn HTML and creating web graphics.)

Successful Product Sourcing for the Holidays
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, July 22nd from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time.

The holiday selling season is just around the corner and buyers are heading online to shop earlier than you think! But will you have the products they want? Creating the right product line mix is essential to your successful holiday sales. Without a correctly balanced product assortment, you'll be unable to offer your buyers the products that excite them, attract buyers to your listings, or increase your final sales tickets through cross-selling or up-selling. Please join Lisa Suttora Founder/CEO of Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com and featured speaker at eBay Live! 2008 Product Sourcing Panel as she discusses how to put together a winning product line for the holiday season and make this your best holiday selling season ever!

Building Supplier Relationships
This workshop will be held on Thursday, July 24th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. Pacific time.

Building Supplier Relationships is very important for growing your business, increasing your profit margins, and especially for preparing for the Holiday Season. Colette Marshall, Business Development Manager for Product Sourcing Experts WorldwideBrands.com, will explain the key elements in improving your supplier communications and using those skills to prepare for the holiday season with your supplier.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. Remember, if you can't make it during a particular workshop, just visit our Workshop Archives, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Want timely reminders about workshops? We recommend two ways to make sure you never miss an important workshop:

• Sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. (To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Workshop board. When a new workshop becomes active, your RSS reader will be updated. (You can also subscribe to just the specific topic thread that interests you.) To subscribe, click on the button at the bottom of the Workshop board or thread. Copy and paste the feed URL into your reader to subscribe. For more information on RSS, please read our RSS Help page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

Bev DeSomber
Community Development

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Pre-Filled Item Information enables sellers to easily add standard product information such as brand, model, color, and in some cases, a stock photo, to their listings. Buyers find this additional product information very helpful as they shop on eBay. Below is the list of categories where Pre-Filled Item Information will be introduced:

Business & Industrial

• Tractors

Computers & Networking

• Hard Drives
• Games & Entertainment
• Headphones & Headsets

Consumer Electronics

• Car Audio In-Dash Units
• Car Speakers & Speaker Systems
• Radar & Laser Detectors
• Satellite Radios
• Surveillance

Sporting Goods

• Night Vision Optics
• Range Finders
• Spotting Scopes

Home and Garden

• Cookers & Steamers
• Indoor Grills
• Juicers
• Mixers

Musical Instruments

• Microphones

Video Games

• Accessories

Sports Mem, Cards & Fan Shop

• Baseball-MLB

Note: Sellers who use a 3rd party listing service (ChannelAdvisor, etc.), should contact them to verify that they will offer the Pre-filled Item Information capabilities in the categories listed above.

Please visit our Pre-filled Item Information page to learn more about this feature.

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Kari Johnson

Here are a few highlights of what you'll find in The eBay Shop:

• A Fresh New Look. We've redesigned The eBay Shop to make it easier to find just what you’re looking for.
• New Products. We now carry over 125 brand-new products to choose from.
• International Shipping. By popular request, The eBay Shop will now ship to international destinations.
• Customization Options. Most merchandise can be customized with your User ID or Store name. It's a great way to build awareness of your business
• Bulk Orders. Need something in large quantities that you don't see in the shop? Contact customerservice@theebayshop.com to create a special order.

Visit The eBay Shop at www.theebayshop.com.

Sincerely,

Kari Johnson
The eBay Shop

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