A cautionary tale about offering to pick up eBay items in person and to always check out a seller's feedback thoroughly, especially if the "deal" seems too good to be true.

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17673088&BRD=1710&PAG=735&dept_id=99784&rfi=6

I was reorganizing my bookmarks, so thought I'd post these here in case anyone's looking for some new eBay/business-releated websites to kickstart their brainstorming.

Thought I'd post some of my favorite business bookmarks. Always looking for new sites to read and maybe others will chime in or find these useful.

eBay 7 Steps to Scalability-
http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/pdf/pdf7Steps2006.pdf

Auction Bytes- http://www.auctionbytes.com/

http://www.auctioninsights.info/

ebay radio- http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio.cfm/shows/eBay-Radio.html

ebay strategies blog- http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/essentials/ebay/

entrepreneur radio- http://www.wsradio.com/internet-talk-radio/network.cfm/station/Entrepreneur-Network.html

ebay live 2006 videos- http://www.ebayuniversity.com/features/ebay_live_2006/

http://www.platinumpowerseller.com/eBaySellingSuccessSecretsVideoBlogNewsletter/

top 1000 ebay sellers- http://www.topsellerlistlive.com/modules.php?name=Growth_Top1000

seo for ebay stores- http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m11/abu0178/s03

channel advisor blog- http://blog.channeladvisor.com/

entrepreneur business blog- http://www.entrepreneur.com/blog

entrepreneur.com podcasts- http://www.entrepreneur.com/podcast

free ebay templates- http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=free+ebay+templates

skip mcgrath ebay blog- http://blog.skipmcgrath.com/

ebay seller central seller best practices-
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/bestpractices.html

ebay seller central seller profiles-
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/sellerprofiles.html

web/auction tools- http://www.isdntek.com/

Quick Summary: 30 days from now, eBay sellers will no longer be allowed to automatically or manually extend the length of auctions.  For example, if you list an auction for 3 days and it has no bids on day 3, you can no longer extend it to 5 or 7 days.  If you wish to extend the auction, you have to wait until it ends and relist the item.  Sellers who use the "relist" function can still receive a listing credit if the item sells, so will not have to pay listing fees 2x.

My Thoughts: This will arguably "level out the playing field" since Mega Sellers (the most common users of automated auction extenders) will no longer be able to manipulate their auction lengths in order to keep their listings "highest on the eBay totem pole."  While I understand the benefits of extending auctions in order to remain at the top of eBay listings, I am not sure eBay should punish all sellers due to the actions of a few greedy Mega Sellers.  Too often eBay's Mega Sellers abuse policies to suit their own greedy needs and then balk/ blame eBay when the "gig is up."  Perhaps if these eBay Mega Sellers did not abuse the policies in the first place, eBay would not have to hammer out new rules every month.  What's not to say that Mega Sellers will not find a way around this latest policy?  For example, what's to stop Mega Sellers from flooding eBay with 1, 3, 5, 7 day listings simultaneously to keep their listings "highest on the eBay totem pole?"  Rather than punishing all sellers, eBay should focus its enforcement efforts on sellers who violate eBay policies.

Likewise, this new policy may hurt those sellers who use auction templates in bulk listing services like Turbolister and who forget to change the "auction length" field.  Sometimes in the haste to list eBay items, sellers miss details like auction lengths and I'm not sure sellers who make "innocent mistakes" should be lumped into the same category as "Mega Sellers who use 'ethical' tools to manipulate listing placement."  Additionally, this new policy may be eBay foreshadowing the introduction of a tiered-fee system where sellers are charged different rates for 1, 3, 5, and 7 day auctions.

Full text of article: http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m01/i23/s02

eBay appears to be putting its money where its mouth is. At a gathering of top sellers last week, eBay emphasized the importance of improving the buyer experience, and it confirmed this week it is banning auction extender tools on its site.

eBay changed its "Circumventing Fees" policy to prohibit the extension of auction durations, both manually and through the use of automatic tools. The new language is found in a section called "Extension of Auctions" that explains, "Extension of auctions by a seller for any reason is not only a form of fee avoidance, but also harms the finding experience for buyers."

The issue of extending auctions came up in a major brouhaha in the summer of 2005, when it was revealed that a developer called Ethical Technologies had been marketing a tool to members of the Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PESA) that automatically revised listings for sellers. At the time, eBay waffled on whether the practice was allowed. When Ethical ceased operations, other developers created their own auction extenders to fill the demand from sellers.

Ethical had pitched its original Extender tool as marketing device that could increase sales by up to 50 percent on a sustainable basis. The tool automatically extended eBay auctions from a 1-day listing to a 3-day listing, 5-day listing and 7-day listing, as long as the item had received no bids more than 12 hours before the listing was due to end. The seller would pay one listing fee, but the auction would appear on eBay's highly-trafficked "Ending First" pages up to four times in a 7-day period instead of once. Some eBay users felt the ever-changing ending date of the auction made for a bad users experience, however.

The new policy language bans automatic extender tools, but it also bans manual revisions of auction durations. Formerly, eBay allowed sellers to change duration in special circumstances.

Why the policy change, and why now? Durzy said eBay constantly reviews what is happening on the site and the interpretation of what its policies mean. "We are open to questioning our own decisions," Durzy said.

There has been speculation in the past that eBay might consider changing its fee structure to charge different rates for differing durations. eBay already charges a premium for 10-day listings. Durzy said, "We've made no announcement to that effect, and I wouldn't comment or speculate about what we might do down the road." No such change was announced in the latest fee changes that go into effect next week.

"Circumventing Fees" policy: http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/listing-circumventing.html

eBay recently held its annual eCommerce Forum (EEF) in San Francisco, catering to eBay’s top 200 sellers, stock analysts, and more.  Like eBay Live (which is open to all eBay users), EEF often highlights “things to come” in the world of eBay.  To follow all the news from this conference, go here: http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/  Feedback 2.0 was one of the highlights of Bill Cobb's Keynote at EEF, and if you'd like to learn more, go here: http://blogs.ebay.com/rainmanesq/entry/eBay-to-Roll-Out-Feedback-2-0-Safe-Payment-Requir/_W0QQentrysyncidZ99612012QQidZ99605012

Safe Payment Requirement: Another development from EEF was eBay’s new "Safe Payment Requirement" that requires newly registered sellers to accept PayPal or a merchant credit card in order to list items on the US and Canadian sites.

My Thoughts on the New Safe Payment Requirement: The Safe Payment Requirement comes on the heels of eBay’s move to hide bidder IDS (which has reduced fraudulent second chance offers by 80%+, eBay’s move to ban sellers from making their feedback private, Paypal’s Virtual Debit Card (a one time use debit card that provides buyers with a unique ID # so that buyers do not have to use their own credit card, and Paypal’s Security Key (generates a unique 6 digit security code every 30 seconds that users must enter when logging into eBay and Paypal) .  For more information about Paypal’s Security Key, go here: http://biz.yahoo.com/indie/070116/559_id.html?.v=1.  Neither eBay nor PayPal have released statistics about whether these new anti-fraud/security measures have reduced fraud, but the measures to be strides in the right direction.

eBay and PayPal have been aggressively stepping up efforts to combat fraud in recent years, and this latest effort appears to offer many advantages.  Requiring newly registered US and Canadian sellers to offer PayPal or a merchant credit card to list on eBay will likely reduce the number of eBay accounts that are generated with false contact information, are not ID verified, or are not PayPal verified.  Additionally, buyers who pay US and Canadian sellers by PayPal or through a seller’s merchant credit card account have a quick and relatively simple way to recoup their $ should the seller not deliver the product.  However, in order to receive buyer protection through eBay/PayPal, buyers must pay through PayPal, use confirmed PayPal addresses and sellers must have sufficient $ in their PayPal accounts to repay buyers. 

eBay recently held its annual eCommerce Forum (EEF) in San Francisco, catering to eBay’s top 200 sellers, stock analysts, and more.  Like eBay Live (which is open to all eBay users), EEF often highlights “things to come” in the world of eBay.  To follow all the news from this conference, go here: http://ebaystrategies.blogs.com/

Feedback 2.0: One highlight from Bill Cobb’s Keynote at EEF is Feedback 2.0, a program that will be launched in pilot markets outside of the US over next month.  Feedback 2.0 is similar to the feedback system on Amazon.com, Bizrate.com, and others.  Rather than simply leaving one positive feedback/a 1 line comment, Feedback 2.0 will allow buyers to rate sellers on variables like item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping & handling charges.  Another key component of Feedback 2.0 is that eBay will also archive all but the last 24 months of users' feedback history.   Members' total scores will remain, but the percent will be based only on the last 2 years of activity.

My Thoughts on Feedback 2.0: One advantage of Feedback 2.0 is that it could allow buyers to offer more comprehensive feedback, which may give potential buyers a more accurate picture of their buying experience with a particular seller.  Currently, many buyers (and sellers) leave positive feedback that is vague (e.g., “Ok”, “+”, “good”), perhaps because buyers may fear that sellers will leave retaliatory feedbacks for any comments/feedback that are less than positive.  Feedback 2.0 could also benefit sellers by allowing them to get a broader picture about what aspects of their business work the best, what aspects may need improvement, and what buyers are dissatisfied with. 

One disadvantage of Feedback 2.0 is that it may be more time-consuming than the current system.  Rather than clicking 1 box (“positive, neutral, negative” and leaving a 1 line comment like in the current system, Feedback 2.0 will apparently require buyers to click at least 5 boxes (“positive/negative/neutral”; “item description”, “communication”, “shipping time”, and “shipping and handling charges”).  I am not sure how many buyers will take the time to click all of these different boxes, and I am also not sure how buyers are going to discern between say a 4 or a 5 on “shipping time”.  Another disadvantage of Feedback 2.0 is that sellers do not appear to be able to leave the “comprehensive” feedback that buyers will be able to do so.  Thus, outside of using the standard/current feedback system, sellers cannot address such things as slow paying buyers, rude buyers, buyers who had false contact information, etc.  It can be very hard to fit all of those comments into the 1 line of feedback eBay currently allows.  Likewise, sellers who have 1000s of negatives/year will arguably be able to have their accounts/feedback “cleansed” every two years, which could lead to a skewed feedback %.

Received a Paypal payment from BigCrumbs the other day.  Who knew you could get FREE cash back just for shopping on eBay and for referring others who shop online?

For those who are not familiar with BigCrumbs, here is some information.  If you are looking to sign up for BigCrumbs, please use this link: http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/frontpage.jsp?r=rainmanesq

How Does BigCrumbs.com Work?

We have agreements with over 136 (and growing) popular retailers, such as eBay, Target, Old Navy, Gap, Circuit City, Best Buy, and more.

When you visit BigCrumbs.com before shopping online and click our links to reach these retailers, BigCrumbs.com is paid a marketing commission. We pass that commission on to you!

Membership in BigCrumbs.com is 100% free. There are no hidden costs and you don't pay extra when shopping at our featured retailers. It's really that simple!

We also give you a chance to earn thousands just by telling friends how you're saving with BigCrumbs.com.

Membership Types (CrumbSaver and CrumbEarner)

What's A CrumbSaver? What's A CrumbEarner?

A CrumbSaver is a member who shops through BigCrumbs.com and earns cash back on his or her own shopping, as well referral commissions on the shopping of any friends referred to BigCrumbs.com. CrumbSavers earn the maximum amount possible as rebates on their own shopping (listed beside each retailer).

A CrumbEarner earns a generous, but lower rebate on his/her own shopping. However, in addition to earning referral commissions on their direct referrals, they also earn when the CrumbEarner referrals of their referrals shop, and so on, up to 5 generations away.

This dramatically multiplies the amount a CrumbEarner can earn. In fact, CrumbEarners can suddenly find themselves earning additional income from the shopping of thousands of members, many of whom they don't even know!

http://www.bigcrumbs.com/crumbs/frontpage.jsp?r=rainmanesq

We have noticed an increase in the # of spoof/phishing emails purporting to be from eBay and Paypal, so we thought we would outline 8 ‘flags’ eBay and Paypal users can examine to determine if an email is spoof.

1. Legitimate eBay and Paypal emails have your full first and last name. caveat- there are Paypal emails that have your first/last name (it is unclear how scammers obtain this information) but these emails may be spoofs.  If the email says ‘dear eBay member’, ‘dear Paypal user’, 'dear member', or ‘dear ____’ (___ will be your email address), it is likely spoof.

2. eBay and Paypal will never request you enter to sensitive personal information such as a User ID, password or bank account number by clicking on a link or completing a form within the email.  Should your account be compromised or need to be verified, eBay and Paypal will request you to verify personal information over the telephone and/or via facsimile.

3. Check ‘My Messages’ on eBay. If you receive an email that looks like it is from eBay about a problem with your account registration, credit card, or other issue and the message is not in My Messages, it is spoof. I have yet to see/hear of any case where a legitimate eBay mail has not gone to My Messages.

4. Click ‘view full headers’ once you are in the body of the header (this button is often in the upper right hand corner of most email providers), on your email and usually you will find a non-eBay/non-Paypal URL.

 
5. Hover over the link in the email.  Legitimate eBay and Paypal addresses have .ebay.com’ immediately before the first “/”.  Also, look for ‘https’ and the legitimate eBay/Paypal addy. If it’s not there (most likely it is not), it is likely spoof.

Here are examples of legitimate eBay Web addresses and fake eBay addresses:

6. Watch the grammar and punctuation. If there are extra spaces between words, poor grammar (for ex., Note: If this is the second time you RECEIVE this notice), improper punctuation (for ex., commas used where periods should be used), etc. it is likely spoof.

7. There is no ‘ebay member verification procedure’ and there are no ‘security verification procedures’ done through email by either eBay or Paypal.  If by chance your account was hacked/needed to be verified for some other reason, the verification procedure would be done over the telephone/via fax.

8. Check out the “From” field of an email.  If the “From” field has a non eBay/Paypal address, it is likely spoof.  However, please note that the "From" field of an email can easily be altered and is not always a reliable indicator of the true origin of the email.

If you are in doubt about whether an email is spoof, forward the email to spoof@ebay.com or spoof@paypal.com and simply open a new Web browser, type in www.ebay.com or www.paypal.com and perform the requested activity.

My thoughts: I am mixed about this latest eBay decision.  On the one hand, it gives buyers greater coverage, which may better protect buyers of high $ items.  By contrast, it eliminates buyer protection for people who do NOT use Paypal.  Not everyone is comfortable using Paypal and some buyers prefer to pay by checks or money orders.  By eliminating buyer protection for non-paypal payments, eBay has arguably created a loophole for unscrupulous sellers- e.g., sellers can cash a buyer’s check or money order and NOT send the item and the buyer is left w/o any recourse (at least not through eBay) to get their $ back.  Buyers could pursue mail fraud charges or sue in small claims court, but how many buyers will know that and how many buyers will take the time (and spend the $) to do so?

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m01/i10/s01

eBay will double PayPal Buyer Protection on its site, offering up to $2,000 of coverage for qualified transactions on eBay.com, but is eliminating buyer-protection for non-PayPal transactions.

eBay has had a buyer protection program since 1999. The eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program provides buyers coverage of up to $200, less $25 to cover processing costs, in cases of non-shipment or significant misrepresentation. eBay is eliminating the program as of January 17.

For all other qualified transactions on eBay.com that are not covered by PayPal Buyer Protection, PayPal will provide up to $200 of coverage with no processing fee, no minimum purchase price and no seller requirements - as long as the buyer pays for the item with PayPal.

The soon-to-be-discontinued eBay Standard Purchase Protection Program had a $25 processing fee, so purchases up to $25 had effectively lacked coverage.

But with the new policy, eBay will provide no buyer protection to consumers who pay for transactions with checks, money orders, postal orders and bank-to-bank wire transfers.

eBay had already banned sellers from offering cash and instant cash transfer services like Western Union as payment methods in their listings as part of its "Safe Payments Policy," rolled out in October 2005 and later renamed the "Accepted Payments Policy."

The policy was introduced as talk of a "PayPal-killer" from Google picked up steam in 2005, and some remain skeptical over eBay's motivation in banning Google Checkout, believing it's a competitive issue, not a trust & safety issue as eBay has stated.

eBay has also prohibited third-party vendors from integrating with Google Checkout in their checkout features that integrate with eBay through eBay's Checkout Redirect.

Man Gets Letter Postmarked 1954

FERNDALE, Pa. (Jan. 7) - A western Pennsylvania man is trying to solve a mystery that recently landed in his mailbox: a letter mailed more than 50 years ago and addressed to a Frederick Zane Yost.

The letter, with a 3-cent stamp and postmarked Oct. 26, 1954, was encased in a large Postal Service window envelope. There is a return address -- in nearby Richland Township -- but no sender's name.

Brian McAteer said that the letter appears to be sealed and has not been damaged, and that he will not open it. However, he hasn't had any luck finding Yost. Among his efforts have been to contact Yosts in the area, speak with longtime residents and search on the Internet.

"I haven't given up trying to find him," McAteer, a road foreman, told the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown.

The newspaper reported that its archives show Yost's parents, both of whom are dead, lived in Ferndale in 1954. His father was a sports editor at the newspaper, which reported that the younger Yost had moved to Florida.

Tad Kelley, a spokesman for the Postal Service in Pittsburgh, said he could not comment specifically on the letter without investigating.

"Sometimes pieces of mail do get lost behind equipment or transporting equipment. ... It is infrequent, but every once in a blue moon, it does happen," Kelley said. "No matter how old it is, we will deliver it."

Ferndale is about 65 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

I have a short survey involving eBay stores. I'm asking as I'm an eBay store owner and just want to see want other ebay users think about them to possible incorporate into my store. Any thoughts or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Do you regularly visit or search eBay stores for items?

Do you think eBay store items are easily found on the site?

Do you find the majority of eBay store items to be priced too high compared to current auction ending prices of comparable items?

Do you use the "Best Offer" option when a store owner offers it?

If so, do you regularly have your offer accepted?

If you do shop eBay stores:

How did you find the store or stores?

As a whole, do you find most eBay stores are well organized with the custom categories?

Do you visit any specific store on a regular basis?

If so, did you purchase a second item?

Any other thoughts in general about eBay stores?  Likes, dislikes, or thoughts to better a store for potential customers.

As some of you may now, eBay rewarded sellers with a listing day special (auctions and fixed price) last week.  Today, Bill Cobb sent out a message to eBay users announcing another fee hike.  While I am not a fan of fee hikes (who is?), in the long run, I think fee hikes may cause some sellers to re-evaluate their business plans and perhaps list a little smarter rather than using eBay stores as a ‘dumping ground/quick inventory storage’ system or using auctions with high opening bids and low sell-through rates. Likewise, perhaps the latest fee hike will give sellers yet another 'push' to move some of their business off site, whether to multiple channels like Amazon, Overstock, Yahoo, etc., their own website, or somewhere else.  How will you responsd to the latest fee hike as a seller?

Bill’s Message:

Hello everyone...An important part of any business strategy is a regular evaluation of our pricing structure. From time to time, we make pricing changes to correct unhealthy dynamics in the eBay marketplace, as was the case last July. Typically, however, we make changes on an annual basis at the beginning of the year.

Today, I'm here to tell you about fee adjustments for eBay.com and eBay Motors which go into effect on January 30, 2007.

Core Auction-Style and Fixed Price Listing Fees:

Insertion Fees
We're increasing the Insertion Fee for the $1.00 to $9.99 level from thirty-five cents to forty cents.

Final Value Fees
We're increasing the Final Value Fee for the $25.01 to $1,000.00 level from 3% to 3.25%.

Please note that there are no fee adjustments for eBay Stores or Store Inventory listings.

eBay Motors Fees
The Insertion Fees and Final Values Fees mentioned above will also apply to eBay Motors Parts & Accessories categories.

For eBay Motors Vehicles categories, we are making these adjustments:

• The Transaction Services Fee for both Motorcycles and Powersports is increasing from $30.00 to $40.00.
• The Transaction Services Fee for Cars & Trucks and all Other Vehicles & Trailers categories is increasing from $40.00 to $50.00.
• The Motors Reserve Fee is changing from a flat $5.00 to 0.1% of the reserve price, with a minimum of $5.00 and a maximum of $10.00. (The Reserve Fee is refunded when bidding meets the reserve price.)

Let me say that, while we believe these changes are modest, we consider any changes that may impact our sellers with great care. These adjustments are the result of careful analysis, and we believe they're the right thing to do to keep the marketplace strong for our eBay.com and eBay Motors sellers.

To learn more about each of these changes, I invite you to read our Frequently Asked Questions and our eBay Fees Help page. (To learn more about Canada fee adjustments, please check the Announcement Board for eBay.ca.)

A Successful Online Holiday Shopping Season
As I've said many times, one of our most important jobs here at eBay is ensuring that we're driving buyers to the site. This online holiday shopping season was a big success, and I want to acknowledge the outstanding efforts this last quarter from our marketing team led by Gary Briggs. Our integrated "IT" campaign performed well for the second year in a row, reaching our targeted shoppers an average of 13 times per person.

In fact, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, overall traffic to online shopping sites on the day after Thanksgiving (known as "Black Friday") grew 12% from last year - and eBay was shoppers' number one destination that day with an impressive 7.5 million unique visitors. But the good news didn’t stop there. This momentum continued through the weekend to "Cyber Monday" – the Monday after Thanksgiving which has become associated with peak online holiday shopping activity. I'm pleased to report that Nielsen declared eBay the most visited internet site that day, too, with 5.6 million visitors.

Of course, our shelves need to be well-stocked when the buyers arrive, so these results are testament to the partnership we have with our dedicated sellers. We can all be proud of our joint success in pleasing shoppers with whatever "IT" was this season.

More to come in 2007
Looking ahead at the new year, it's never been more important that eBay deliver value through our marketing investments, product initiatives, and Trust & Safety strategies. Times have changed from 11 years ago when we were a small innovative idea on the internet. Quite frankly, some of the problems demanding our attention are more complex. But what inspires me every morning - and what I hope inspires you, too - is that the opportunities for eBay and its Community to succeed by celebrating what makes us unique have never been greater.

Later this month, I'll be addressing a group of eBay sellers who will be here in person in the San Jose area, and I'll be sharing some of our plans and priorities for the coming year. My keynote speech will be available via a recorded Webcast for our whole Community to tune into. And we'll also be following the event with more announcements on specific initiatives. I think you'll find we're taking a surprisingly fresh look at some of the old challenges, and I'm excited about the road ahead.

Please stay tuned via the Announcement Board for more details on the availability of my Webcast. I hope you'll be able to listen in.

On behalf of everyone at eBay, I wish you all a very Happy New Year.

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President, eBay North America

This is a great article, but I think it missed a few things.  Here are my recommendations to increase the security of your eBay and Paypal passwords: (1) Change your passwords regularly (I recommend monthly); (2) NEVER save your passwords on your computer; (3) NEVER use the same passwords for your eBay, Paypal, and email accounts; and (4) Use DIFFERENT email addresses for your eBay and Paypal accounts.   

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m01/i01/s02

It never ceases to amaze me the number of eBay sellers who have fairly insecure passwords. Even the larger companies I deal with are prone to creating simple, highly insecure passwords. Judging by the number of sellers I personally know who have had their accounts compromised, eBay is a prime target for password attacks.

Now, like you, I hate to create a complex password I can't remember. So here's a little background on what it takes to hack an eBay password and how you can create highly un-hackable password you can remember.

Rule #1 - Create a password longer than 4 characters
The more characters in a password, the harder it is to crack. You probably knew this already, but did you know that a password of 4 characters or less can be hacked instantly using any number of commercial programs?

Rule #2 - Use upper and lower case letters in your password plus digits
Lowercase letters are the easiest to break. Adding upper case letters increases the level of difficulty, but is still not the best solution. Adding a digit is also a good idea. See Rule #3 below.

Rule #3 - Incorporate the full set of ASCII characters in your password
What's an ASCII character? Anything on your keyboard is an ASCII character, but the characters above the numbers (!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,(,)) are particularly useful in creating a powerful password. Here's an example. If my password is "ebay" a password-breaking program would crack this instantly. If my password is "ebay3" it would take 2 minutes to get into my account. If I added an uppercase letter and made my password "eBay3" it would now take 12 minutes to gain access. But if I added an ASCII character, "eBy!3" it will now take 4 hours to get into my account.

Rule #4 - Choose an uncommon or non-existent word
Common English words are subject to Dictionary attacks. This is where a password cracking program runs through every word in the dictionary to find your password. Even if you put two common words together to create one that is not an actual word, for example "sidebook," a dictionary attack can still find it.

Now, here's a simple way to create a secure password you can remember that complies with all the rules above. Think of a sentence that describes something you can remember. For example, "I lived at 45 Maple Street in Ohio" or "My 3rd grade teacher was Mrs. Snyder at McKnight. Then, create your password by taking the first letter or number from each word in the sentence. So, our first example would become "Il@45MSiO" and the second would be "M3gtwMS@M".

Want to know how long it would take a program to crack those passwords? 44,530 years. Yes, it would take a program that long. If you remove the @ sign and replace it with the letter "a" it drops to 178 years, but still a very powerful password.

Now, make a resolution for the New Year to keep your eBay account secure and change that flimsy password to something powerful!

As part of our regular evaluation of our business plan (on eBay and offsite sales), I thought I’d put this post out there to ask eBay buyers what matters MOST to you when it comes to buying on eBay.  Is it fast shipping, communication, combined shipping, return policy, something more?  Do you have certain ‘favorite’ sellers you look to buy from first?  If so, what do those sellers do right?  How could those sellers improve?  If you had a chance to sit down with your average eBay seller, what would you tell them?  How has your overall experience been as an eBay buyer?

http://www.techspot.com/news/23990-ebay-and-paypal-hit-by-two-bugs.html

By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com

Published: January 2, 2007, 12:24 PM EST

eBayers beware, recently a a flaw in the linking between PayPal and the online auction has been discovered.

This particular bug could result in a sort of denial of service, with someone being unable to accept payment for an item.

This comes right along with yet another, bug, one that could result in new auctions being unable to be created.

Luckily, this doesn't appear to be security related – just a nuisance, although a particularly aggravating one for those relying on auctions.

Both companies are aware of the problem, and a pseudo “work around” has been made public, though it may not always work.