eBay has decided that sellers will only be able to accept COD or Paypal. This will come into effect after June 17.

I think this is a great move and a great win for the consumer. I recently bought a nikon d80 from ebay which came up to almost $1500 including the 18-200mm lens. The seller only accepted direct deposit into his bank account. Despite the seller having a good reputation and over a thousand sales, I still felt a bit uneasy.

The beauty of paying by paypal is that it comes with a chargeback policy where you can claim up to $20,000 if you do not receive the item or it is not as it was described. With a direct deposit to the sellers bank account, you need to deal with the banks and whilst I’ve never had to do it before, I seriously doubt your chances of getting your money back.

Popularity: 7%

This is another one of those crazy stunts where if you’re the first to do it, you’re going to generate a lot of buzz around the world.

The guys name is Ian Usher and he plans to ’sell his life’ on eBay. Now, when I first read this on the newspaper reports, I though he was just looking for someone to share his life with, since he just recently divorced with his wife of 5 years (reading in between the lines, I gather he caught his wife cheating on him.. poor bugger). If you read his site, alife4sale.com, he is actually selling everything so that he can use the money for a bit a whole lot of globetrotting.

Up for auction is

• his house
• his car
• his Kawasaki
• his bycycle
• his jet ski
• his electronics (including home entertainment system, laptop, digital camera, etc, everything!)
• his job (well a two week trial stint with his employer anyway)

On face value, it’s stupid. The best way to get most value out of your auction is to split it into multiple auctions so that people can bid on just the things they like. By bundling everything together with his house, he has shut away thousands of potential bidders who may be able to afford his camera but not his $420,000 house! As stories of the internet age go though, traditional thinking is there to be tested. Since publicising this auction, he has appeared on TV shows in the US, Japan, Britain, and a host of radio shows aswell.

He’s probably made enough money from those appearances already but for the trained money makers eye, there’s more. If you poke around his website, he’s got amazon and adsense ads, and judging from the footer link - a deal with his hosting company. According to Alexa, the site has already spiked up to the top 100,000 most visited sites and backlinkwatch shows that it has more than 1000 link backs already. Turns out that this will prove to be a smart finance move for Ian.

Regardless of his money making motives, and the fact that he’s already made a killing, I’ll be keeping a close watch and come 24th June, I’ll definitely add his ebay auction to my watch list.

Update: Just read his post on his adsense earnings. How abysmal. I think he needs some serious help on monetising that amount of traffic from yours truly.

Popularity: 5%

If you haven’t heard, the Scarlett Johansson eBay auction is now live! Check it out:

Colin Firth went for a cheap $9,300. I would put my money on it that Scarlett will easily top this… perhaps doubled or tripled. Although the auction says it is a meet & greet, some newspapers have reported it as a ‘date’ with Scarlett. If that was the case, this would easily fetch $100,000. As it turns out though, your actual time with the goddess may be quite limited due to her schedule.

The winning bidder will receive:

* Two tickets to the world premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You. The premiere location has not yet been determined but will be in either Los Angeles or New York this July.

* Chauffeured car service to the premiere

* Hair and makeup for one by Privé

* A meet and greet with Scarlett Johansson at the premiere

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q: Is Scarlett Johansson answering emails through this auction?
A: Scarlett Johansson is not able to check emails sent to her through this auction.

Q: How long will the meet and greet last?
A: There is no set amount of time but it is estimated to be a brief visit due to Scarlett’s schedule that evening.

Q. Are travel and accommodations included?
A. Chauffeured car service to the premiere included. All other arrangements (including hotel, flight, additional ground transportation, etc.) arenot included and are the responsibility of the winning bidder.

Q. In what city will the world premiere be held?
A. The world premiere will be held in either Los Angeles or New York. The winning bidder will be notified once the location has been confirmed.

Q: Are there any age restrictions?
A: The winner must be 21 or older, but their guest can be younger, provided that the winner is a parent or legal guardian.

Q: Is my bid tax deductible?
A: Your winning bid is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. Please consult with your tax adviser for more information.

Popularity: 7%

I found this neat feature on eBay today. With just a few clicks you can set up your own ’shopping’ portal to eBay via what they call an ‘Editor Kit’.

Check out the live sample at my new Maltese Dog Shop :) The eBay listing are actual live auctions with the keyphrase “Maltese Dog”. I’ve previously had real shops like Pet Care RX and Dog.com on there but they didn’t convert very well. I’m hoping eBay does much better because everyone uses eBay - right? Being on the front page of the google serps should help my cause too :)

Anyway, to set this widget up, you can sign up via this link:

Editor Kit Link - Visit: http://pages.ebay.com/api/editorkit.html - to use this link

The Editor Kit is like a sort of ‘wizard’ that takes you step by step to creating whatever live listing you want to show. At the end of the process you get a script that you simply cut and paste into any Wordpress page and walaa, you have a fully functional, live eBay listing that is updated in realtime! How sweet is that?

Popularity: 7%