Frederick Crosby

What's more - from tomorrow through July 4th, you can use the International Site visibility listing upgrade for just 5¢. If you haven't tried our new feature yet, this is a great time to try it on your listings and see what it does for your business.

How it works
When you choose the optional International Site Visibility upgrade in the Sell Your Item form, Turbo Lister, and 3rd-party tools like ChannelAdvisor, your item will be displayed in regular search results on eBay UK.

For all the details about our promotion, and to learn more about the International Site Visibility Listing upgrade, please see our promotion page.

Sincerely,

Frederick Crosby
Director, Cross-Border Trade

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Scott Shipman

Most of these updates are minor, and your rights and our responsibilities have changed very little. The changes are part of a worldwide effort make the user agreements and privacy policies for eBay platforms around the world much more consistent. This way, when you use any eBay platform, you can be sure that very similar policies apply to you.

There are a couple of substantive changes to our User Agreement I'd like to point out. First, we've changed the "Content" and "Liability" sections to accommodate a new program we're rolling out worldwide. That program makes catalogs of content and product descriptions available to sellers, so they can easily include complete and up-to-date product information for the items they list (similar to the Pre-Filled Item Information feature that we offer on eBay.com).

Similarly, we've revised the Privacy Policy's "Disclosure" section to make sure that the language used there accurately reflects the ways in which we're transferring information between companies in the eBay Inc. corporate family to streamline services, fight fraud and provide you with the best, most relevant experience when you use any of our sites or services.

With these changes, we continue to make sure that our legal documents are consistent with the ways our sites and services are evolving and that we meet the needs of our Community. We hope you'll agree that these changes will make the eBay sites and services work better for you. If you accept the new User Agreement and Privacy Policy, you don't need to take any action. If you do not wish to accept the new User Agreement or Privacy Policy, please refer to this Help page for instructions.

Thank you for using eBay!

Sincerely,

Scott Shipman
Senior Counsel—Global Privacy Practices

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• Nordstrom's Cadence-Lea and Trio-Lea Girl's Sandals due to 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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Rachel Makool

Each of this year's five winners was honored last week during the keynote address at eBay Live! in Chicago. In addition, eBay Foundation (the primary vehicle through which eBay makes charitable contributions to help local communities) will make a $2,500 donation on behalf of each winner to a non-profit organization of the winner's choice.

Congratulations to this year's Community Hall of Fame winners:

• snowdealsnow
• kathiesklown1970
• shoemetro
• unclejoeadamson
• danna

Please take a minute to visit the Chatter blog to learn more about these outstanding members and their contributions to the eBay Community.

Sincerely,

Rachel Makool
Sr. Director, Community Development

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Attention Jewelry Sellers
We'd like to call special attention to the changes in the Jewelry category. They are a step in our plan to create a new Fine Jewelry section later this summer, separate and distinct from wedding-related and fashion-oriented jewelry. If you sell Jewelry, please visit http://pages.ebay.com/categorychanges/Jewelry-2008.html to learn more about our plans for the category.

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	***Original: Coming Soon - Changes to Item Specifics in Cameras & Photo, Jewelry & Watches, and on eBay Motors***
	May 21, 2008 | 02:39PM PST/PT We plan to update the Item Specifics in the following categories on eBay.com in the next few weeks: Digital Cameras Camcorders Camera Lenses Memory Cards Gemstone Rings Diamond Solitaire Rings Diamond Solitaire with Accents Rings Diamond Three-Stone Rings In addition, new eBay Item Specifics are planned for wedding & anniversary bands and CZ engagement rings in Jewelry & Watches. A list of planned changes to Item Specifics on eBay.com can be found at Seller Central. eBay Motors eBay Motors will add more Brands to Item Specifics in the following categories near the end of May: Wheels Tires Popular wheel brands such as DUB and Koenig, as well as tire brands like Dayton and Falken, will soon be added to help sellers better identify their items. After this change, over 250 wheel and tire brands will be available as Item Specifics. 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 Vendio or 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 the 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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Renee VonBergen

• Columns so you can quickly scan for information, as well as the traditional sections available in the current version of My eBay--Watching, Bidding, Active Selling, and so on.

• The ability to organize your items the way YOU want to--put items into lists that you create, such as "Items to Research," "My Wish List," or "Possible Gifts for Joe's Birthday." (More details are available on this thread on the My eBay discussion board.)

A new test
We're ready for a new round of testing, as we prepare for the expansion of the new My eBay to the whole Community sometime later this year. In the next few days, a group of members who have not yet used the beta will be randomly selected to be in the test. The easiest way to tell if you've been opted into our test is that My eBay will appear primarily yellow, while the "classic" My eBay is primarily blue.

Two different test groups will have slightly different experiences: one group will be able to opt out of the test, and one group will not. Why no opt out? Because it's important that we be able to measure the effectiveness of our changes through the total clicks and activity our test group makes. No single member is singled out, but together your numbers will be compared with the aggregate numbers in the control group.

You can learn more about the test by checking out my new thread on the My eBay discussion forum.

Send us Feedback!
Anyone who is placed in the test this week, or who is already using the beta version, can send us feedback at any time through the Send Comments link near the top of any My eBay beta page. You should also check out the beta thread on the My eBay discussion board and leave your feedback--my team and I monitor the thread and will pop in from time to time to answer questions.

I want to emphasize how much we appreciate the time you take to send us comments. Your opinion on what works--and what doesn't--helps us build a better tool. On behalf of the My eBay team, thank you!

Sincerely,

Renee VonBergen
Product Management

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The eBay Motors "Need for Speed" sale runs today through midnight PT on Thursday, June 26th.

For a list of eligible categories, including the details of the promotion, please see our information page.

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Take advantage of this promotion and add Gallery Plus to your listings for only 10¢!

The promotion will start on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 at 00:00:01 PT (12:00 AM plus one second) and end on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds). Listings created prior to June 24, 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: all eBay Motors vehicles listings including 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 10¢ Gallery Plus promotion!

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Make Repeat Customers out of One-Time Buyers
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, June 24th from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Pacific time.

In this workshop Jerad Schempp, COO of Certified Solution Provider Hosted Support, will provide pointers for how you can keep buyers "on the hook" to generate repeat purchases.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Go to www.ebay.com
• Click on Community at the top of the page
• Click on "Workshops" in the "Events" section
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshops Calendar.

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!

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Subha Shetty

Buyers and sellers have always relied on the item page. Sellers need this page to effectively showcase their items, while buyers need it to help them find the information they need to make a purchasing decision. Over the years, the page has suffered from "improvement overload" as more and more options and information have been added. The result is that today's page is cluttered and less efficient than it should be from both a buyer and seller perspective.

My team has spent a lot of time studying how buyers use this page and identifying the most important data. We've also done extensive testing on the best way to present these elements on this page. The result is a more streamlined page that gives buyers a quick snapshot of the most important information. Other details, such as high bidder and seller location, are still just a click away.

Here's a rundown of the most important changes:

• It's more visual. Buyers love pictures. The new design includes a larger picture shown at the top of the page so they can clearly see what they're bidding on.

• It's simpler. To make the page easier to use, we've moved some of the less critical features and put them behind tabs. We've also removed a few features that were under-used. The end result is a much cleaner page that emphasizes the most important information and features that buyers need when they make purchasing decisions. In addition, buyers will be available to place bids without having to go through as many steps.

• Buyers get more selection – sellers get more exposure. Online shoppers today expect an experience that highlights value and selection, and the new item page is designed with this in mind. Buyers will see links to similar items from the same seller in various places on the page. (These placements are still being tested.)

Community input has been invaluable
We've been testing our new page since February. (Read an earlier interview with me on The Chatter blog about this test). The input and information learned has been invaluable, and several improvements were made as a direct result of what we heard from our Community.

For example, in the original test back in February, we had messaging on the page to alert buyers when a seller had low DSRs compared to other sellers on the site. Members told us that this display was confusing and caused more issues and concern than it solved. We've gone back to the drawing board on this aspect, and it will not be part of our initial launch.

See for yourself - check out a preview of the new item page
After all that, I know that seeing the page is much better than reading a description. To check it out and learn more about the new design, visit this page - http://pages.ebay.com/newitempage/. I also hope you’ll visit our Frequently Asked Questions to learn even more about the new item page.

Our launch plan
We'll be phasing in our latest variations of this page with very small groups of members (less than 1%) in the next week or so. If you're part of this initial launch, you'll see a link at the top of page where you can send us your feedback – and please do! You'll also be able to opt out of the new page if you wish. As time goes on, we'll be expanding the number of members who see the new page by default.

We appreciate your input and support! We'll be back with more updates soon.

Sincerely,

Subha Shetty
Buyer Experience

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Dinesh Lathi

In addition to the news that Lorrie has shared, I'd like to share some more details and other news of interest to sellers that attendees have heard from us during the conference classes and discussions this week.

All sellers – now only 3 DSR ratings needed in 30 days for promotion in Best Match search results
We're elevating listings in Best Match for sellers with a 4.7 or higher across all four DSRs. To qualify for this boost in exposure, sellers have needed at least 10 DSRs left by buyers in the previous 30 days. (Without this minimum number, a seller's listings would receive normal exposure.)

We've heard from some of our sellers – especially lower-volume sellers - that this bar was set too high, and we agree. Now, sellers with DSRs of 4.7 or more will only need 3 DSRs left in the past 30 days to have their listings promoted. Check your Seller Dashboard to learn if your items are getting extra exposure in search.

Safer member-to-member email via anonymous email forwarding
To protect buyers, starting in September eBay will "anonymize" email addresses sent through the member-to-member communication system (Ask Seller a Question, Reply to Question). eBay will replace the sender's email address in the "From" field with a temporary anonymous address, and replies will be routed through eBay for processing prior to delivery. In turn, when recipients hit the "reply" button, their email address is also replaced with a temporary email address, which will then be routed through eBay before being sent to the original sender.

As further protection, starting in September email addresses will no longer be allowed in listing descriptions.

Making emails anonymous is becoming an industry standard that adds an additional level of safety. On eBay, we are limiting access to email addresses to people who are in a transaction together - and who have established a level of trust with each other – as another important step in improving the overall safety of the marketplace.

Required soon – Specified shipping, return policy, item condition, & handling time
As Kristina Klausen from our shipping team shared earlier (read her previous announcement), starting in July sellers will be required to specify their shipping cost and services.

Then later this fall, sellers will also be required to specify other key pieces of information in their listings: item condition (whether the item is new or used), your handling time (how long it will take you to put the item in the mail), and whether or not you offer a return policy, and if so, what the terms are.

More rewards for PowerSellers
As Lorrie mentioned, we're adding some new PowerSeller rewards to further encourage and reward our best sellers:

• PowerSellers with 4.9 or higher across all four DSRs will receive a 20% discount on their final value fees.

• PowerSellers may now receive savings of up to 23% of UPS Ground Daily Rates in addition to the current UPS Special Savings Program for eBay sellers.

In addition, we are launching a new Diamond level for PowerSellers with $500,000 or 50,000 items in sales a month, who also maintain 4.8s or above across all their DSRs. Diamond PowerSellers get the same baseline benefits as Titanium PowerSellers. In addition, eBay may consider alternative fee structures for Diamond PowerSellers. Consideration for alternative fee structures will be made on a case by case basis.

For Sellers – A quick "listing update" checklist
We realize that any time sellers need to change their listings or templates, it costs you time and energy. To minimize the effort it takes for our sellers to accommodate our changes, I'd like to give you a quick checklist of changes you may need to make in the coming weeks, based on the changes we’ve announced:

1. Remove any links to 3rd-party sites to stay in compliance with recent updates to eBay’s Links Policy (Read our previous announcement).
2. Specify shipping, return policy, item condition & handing time in the specified fields. This information will be required soon so now’s the perfect time to get started.
3. Remove any email addresses from your listing descriptions by September.

I invite you to read more details on these changes. To stay abreast of your standings, check your Seller Dashboard often.

Let me close by saying that attending Chicago at eBay Live! 2008 with much of my team has been an inspiring way to round out my on-the-job education. The sellers here and at home are not hesitant to voice concerns, and we appreciate that. Your energy and optimism about your businesses and the eBay marketplace are inspiring, and I look forward to serving you.

Sincerely,

Dinesh Lathi
VP, Seller Experience

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For those who may have attempted to listen to the webcast live today, we apologize that the link provided earlier did not work. We hope you enjoy the full webcast now at the archive link above.

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Lorrie Norrington

Today, we announced some exciting news that will go a long way toward meeting our goal of a healthy, vibrant marketplace. We also provided the audience with some updates on the changes we've rolled out over the past six months, including how members are responding to incentives, pricing and Feedback. Overall, we're pleased with what we've seen, but as with anything we do, we are committed to listening to all of you and looking for ways to improve.

I know that many of you have seen a lot of change over the past six months, and for some it hasn't been easy. But as I told the audience here, people simply expect more when they come to eBay ... and it's our job to make sure we meet their expectations.

Although we have more work to do, we're seeing signs of real progress. The news we announced today builds on what we've done to date ... and I know these changes will make our marketplace stronger.

I'm providing a summary below, and I encourage all of you to read our overview page to learn more about all of the changes announced today.

Improved Protection from PayPal When You Buy or Sell on eBay
PayPal is one of the safest ways to pay on eBay and already used by a majority of eBay's buyers and sellers. This year, our partners at PayPal are making another significant investment in building trust on eBay.

Starting this fall, eBay and PayPal are rolling out improvements to Buyer and Seller Protection on eBay.com. This is huge!

For sellers -- ALL eBay.com sellers will receive improved seller protection benefits previously available only to PowerSellers. Specifically, this means:

• There is no additional cost to receive this protection
• There is no coverage limit!
• There is no cap on items sold or dollar amount!
• You're no longer required to ship to confirmed address to be covered ... just send the goods to the address provided by PayPal and keep proof of shipment!
• Protection covers shipments to any of the 190 countries in which PayPal is accepted, so the world is more open than ever for U.S. sellers.

For buyers, I can sum it up in a phrase: "Pay with PayPal and you're covered."

This means you're covered on eligible transactions for the purchase price and original shipping costs. Again, this coverage is provided at no additional cost and with no cap on coverage, whether an item costs $50 or $50,000.

For more details about the improved PayPal protection and some eligibility requirements, please read our Frequently Asked Questions.

More rewards for PowerSellers
Last fall, we told you that detailed seller ratings (DSRs) would be an increasingly important success metric for seller standards and rewards. We also stated our intention to turn the PowerSeller label into a badge of distinction, one that buyers would come to recognize as a mark of trust. Today, the PowerSeller program is just that – it rewards sellers for their success in driving sales and buyer satisfaction, as demonstrated by great DSRs.

What's more, I'm pleased to share that sellers have done well improving their DSR averages over the last few months. When we first announced the PowerSeller incentives in January, we knew that 60% of PowerSellers had DSRs of 4.6 and above ... today 67% have DSRs 4.6 or greater.

Also in January, 15% of PowerSellers had DSRs of 4.8 and above ... today, 33% have a DSRs 4.8 or greater – that means that we have more than doubled the number of our best sellers!

In response to this great progress, we announced two new PowerSeller rewards to further encourage and reward our best sellers:

• Starting with July invoices, PowerSellers who have a 4.9 or higher across all four DSRs will receive a 20% discount on their final value fees. Today, 16% of all PowerSellers qualify for this substantial new discount ... and we hope to see that number grow.

• And - thanks to our partners at UPS - PowerSellers may now receive savings of up to 23% off UPS Ground Daily Rates. This is in addition to the current UPS Special Pricing Program for all eBay sellers, which offers Ground Daily Rates with savings of up to 31%. PowerSellers can enroll now at www.ebay.com/UPSPowerSellerSavings.

Pricing
Back in January, we announced that we were going to reduce the risk of listing and move towards success-based pricing. It's working ... we've seen an increase in volume.

Between now and the holiday season we'll do more to support your success and ensure we are price competitive in every key category. The intent of all this change is obvious: We want great stuff and great deals on eBay – new, used, and collectibles.

Please stay tuned for more pricing information on the Announcement Board later this summer.

Investments in our best buyers
We're investing heavily to make eBay.com safer and easier to use for all buyers. This includes enhancements in our search and user experience, so buyers will see more relevant, high-quality products than ever before on eBay.com.

We're also giving top buyers a bigger reason to keep coming back to eBay. Starting in May, we began sending coupons to top buyers. This is good for sellers too because we know that buyers who redeem these coupons go on to buy more frequently. By the end of June, we will have delivered millions of coupons to top buyers, and we’ll do even more during the holidays.

Top buyers are also getting more attention from us in terms of service. Starting at the end of June, we will be providing live customer phone support to our top buyers. We've been offering phone support to our top sellers for many years, and it is time to extend that to top buyers.

Feedback progress
I want to acknowledge the concerns many of you have shared about the changes to our Feedback system in May. As we outlined in January, we felt strongly that we had to make significant changes to preserve the system's integrity and to reduce the bad experiences created by retaliatory feedback that were driving buyers away. Many of you have written to me personally about your concerns, and I want you to know that we are listening.

I also want to share that, while it's still early, we're seeing encouraging results. Although sellers feared buyers would leave negative feedback more often, I’m happy to report that the combined rate of negative and neutral feedback is unchanged over the first month. Also, the percentage of buyers who are leaving detailed seller ratings has increased: Now buyers who leave Feedback leave DSRs 76% of the time, showing an increased confidence in the Feedback system. And when buyers have more confidence in feedback, they have more trust in shopping on eBay.

That said, this is an evolving system. For example, we’re looking at enabling buyers to withdraw/change their Feedback in limited circumstances to help resolve issues or correct the occasional mistake. Our goal is to address this by the holidays. And we're doing this based on input from our Community, including at eBay Live!.

We'll continue to monitor the effects of these changes carefully, and rest assured, we’ll make additional improvements as needed.

I'm so proud to work for a company that means so much to people ... and we at eBay are more committed than ever to making our marketplace better for all of us.

Sincerely,

Lorrie Norrington
President, eBay Global Marketplace Operations

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• "Hip Charm" key chains due to excessive amounts of lead

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

Here's the eBay Live! Special Broadcast Schedule:

• Thursday, June 19, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CST (8-10 PT)
• Friday, June 20, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. CST (2-4 PST)
• Saturday, June 21, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. CST (7-8 PST)

Listen live (and access the eBay Radio archives) at http://www.wsradio.com/eBayRadio.

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