Hello all, this is Gary’s son Mike. I have been trying figure out everything dad had going on online and it seems as though there were a few projects in the works but this was his baby that he tended to every day.

For the short term, 1 or 2 months, this site and the garage sale challenge site will remain up and running. Please feel free to use the forums and continue with your own garage sale challenge.

The long term has yet to be decided, I know that I am no auction rebel and am sure that all of you would fit that title more then me. Therefore I would like your feedback, thoughts, ideas about what the fate of theaucitonrebel.com should be. Is the site useful as is or does the information get outdated like dad’s computer that I’m typing this on? No idea is a bad idea, well except if you suggest I take it over, we will all go broke then since I don’t have dad’s eye for buying the 25 cent item at a garage sale that will sell for hundreds or more online.

I look forward to hearing your ideas and thoughts.

Thanks,

Mike Hendrickson

Popularity: 69% [?]

Conficker, considered to potentially be one of the nastiest worms to hit the Internet in some time, appears to have woken up. It is now downloading updates, which security analysts suspect to be keyloggers or other code designed to steal information from infected machines.

You can see if your computer is infected by going to Conficker Eye Chart.

If you can see all six pictures, it’s unlikely your computer is infected. If you don’t see all six, there is a short explanation of what you may be facing at the bottom of the page.

Photograph by Leonel Cunha.

Popularity: 16% [?]

There have been some interesting things written on some of the eBay related blogs during the last week or so. Here are a few articles that caught my eye. I hope some of them get you thinking.

Steve Lindhorst provides every seller with something to think about with his post Are your PayPal funds safe?

Steve also provided readers with an excellent post analyzing a recent speech given by John Donahoe - eBay’s Disruptive Innovation, How’s that workin’ for ya?

If you either have an eBay store or are thinking about opening one, you should read what Mitzi Swisher has to say about The Future Of eBay Stores. I tend to agree with her. I think the days of the eBay store are numbered.

TheBrews News offered eBay Needs To Find A New Set Of Tools To Motivate Sellers In 2009 and a few days later followed up with Some Observations About eBay Trends From An eBay Seller’s Perspective. Both are well worth the time it takes to read them.

In What eBay needs to do Sue Bailey showed me she’s probably more qualified to run eBay than John Donahoe. Another post by Sue sellers should read is PayPal transactions reversed without warning.

Photograph by David McDermott.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Thursday, in a move that reinforces eBay’s Hopalong Cassidy complex toward Amazon and makes me wonder if those CareerBuilder television commercials may actually be filmed at eBay headquarters, eBay announced upcoming changes to Item Specifics in the Jewelry & Watches, Books, DVD & Movies, Music and Video Games categories.

In part, the announcement states:

“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”“

Does any of that sound familiar? If you sell on Amazon it should.

The affected categories will include fiction and non-fiction books, cookbooks, audio books, textbooks, children’s books, DVDs, VHS, and other video formats, video games, CDs, and cassettes.
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Popularity: 25% [?]

If you use the standard mileage calculation for deducting your automobile expenses for your eBay business on your tax return the IRS has some good news for you. Due to higher gas prices, the IRS has announced an increase from $.505 a mile to $.585 a mile for all non-remibursed business mileage driven after July 1, 2008.

The old rate of $.505 will still apply to mileage driven during the first half of 2008.

Photograph by Michael R. Johnson.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Intentionally or not, eBay is providing a window into how your feedback percentage may change once their new Feedback 2.0 is rolled out in the US.

Feedback 2.0 has recently been launched in Australia. You can see how what changes may be in store for your feedback percentage by using eBay Australia. Here’s how to check.

Go to eBay Australia. Using the “Advanced Search” link in the upper right hand corner, do a search for “Items By Seller” inputing your eBay ID. Click your feedback rating at the top of the resulting page, and you will be able to see what your feedback percentage would be today under the new Feedback 2.0.

Under the system currently used in the US, my percentage is 99.9%. Under Feedback 2.0 it drops to 99.7%. Not a huge difference, but there are reports of some seller’s percentages dropping by as much as 2-3%.

As might be expected, as this becomes wider known, most of what you hear about this is going to be negative. However, it’s important to realize that for every seller who sees a decrease in their feedback percentage there will likely be another seller who sees an increase in theirs.

Kudos to Randy Smythe of My Blog Utopia for the heads up on this.

Photograph by absolutwade.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Earlier this afternoon eBay released their 1st quarter earning report for 2008. For the fun of it I thought it would be interesting to do some digging and post the 1st quarter stats for The Auction Rebel.

One thing quickly became clear. eBay certainly doesn’t need to worry that the blog is going to replace them in either earnings or popularity any time soon.

So without further ado, here the The Auction Rebel’s stats for the 1st quarter of 2008.
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Popularity: 19% [?]

eBay is currently testing a revised listing template in the US and UK. Reportedly, is is currently being tested on 0.25% of US listings and 2.0% of UK listings. So far I’ve only found one live listing utilizing the new template.

While I’m not impressed with it, currently it’s being tested on only a very small number of listings and eBay has already admitted they are having some problems with it, so I’m sure there will be some changes made before they implement it site wide.

There are two features that I’m sure are going cause another firestorm similar to that just created by the recently announced policy changes.

The first is the new “Meet The Seller” module which looks like this:

Nothing wrong with that. But, now lets look at what the module looks like when the seller’s DSRs have fallen below what eBay considers to be minimum standards.

Note the text in red. For sellers who haven’t already taken steps to improve their DSR scores this is sure to provide some impetus. It’s also going to add fuel to the firestorm still going on over eBay’s recently announced policy changes.

The second is the new tabbed module right below the “Meet The Seller” module. Currently four tabs are displayed - “Description”, “Shipping & Payment”, “Related Items”, and “Buy Safely”.

The “Related Items” tab is sure to create considerable controversy with sellers. While it seems to display a seller’s other listings, below that displays listings from other sellers.

Kind of like going into the local Chevrolet dealer to look at Silverado pickups and having the salesman drive you across town to look at a competitor’s Ford F-150s after he’s shown you a Chevy or two.

For those who think eBay’s management is still a few buffalo short of a herd, this isn’t going to do anything to change their minds.

Photograph by Hey Paul.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Long-time reader, and fellow eBay blogger, Walt Kolenda - aka Auction Wally - has asked if I would be a guest on his recently launched on radio show Auctionwally Radio and I’ve taken him up on the offer.

The show will air live tomorrow evening, Tuesday February 12, 2008, at 8 PM EST. Walt is an eBay Powerseller and we will be talking about a variety of subjects related to selling on eBay, to include where we find inventory, what works for us when selling it, how we got involved in antiques and collectibles, how we got started on eBay, what we find works best for us when selling there, and a number of other eBay related subjects.

You can listen to the broadcast live by going to Auctionwally Radio. If you a specific question you would like answered, or if you would just like to comment on what you hear, you can do so by calling (646) 378-1561. We both encourage you to call in and take part.

If you are interested in what we have to say, but can’t listen to the show live, Walt will have a link where you can listen to a recording of the show on the left sidebar of What’s It Worth shortly after it is over.

Photograph by Dave Smith.

Popularity: 16% [?]

While there are still some people whining about the eBay feedback changes that will be going into affect in the next few months, there is additional information about these eBay feedback changes that many sellers should view as having a positive impact on their eBay businesses.

Lisa Suttora from WhatDoISell.com in her recent newsletter reported in part:

“I attended the eBay Developer’s Call this week (open only to eBay Certified
Providers) and found out a couple pieces of information that had previously not been made public that you’ll want to know about:

1. In May, eBay will go back and retroactively give sellers credit for previous repeat customer feedback. (Not sure yet how far back this repeat feedback credit is going to go. I’ll keep you posted.)”

Additional remarks made on eBay Radio over the last day or two make it sound as though these retroactive changes will extend all the way back to the creation of each eBay user ID.
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Popularity: 22% [?]