UK eBay store owners are angry.

Planned changes to eBays search results will hit some store owners hard. While eBay justify these changes in terms of improving the customer experience on eBay, sellers now find that their goods will only be displayed if an item search brings up a small number of results from sellers without a store. Anyone who has sold on eBay for any length of time will remember how eBay always encouraged sellers to open eBay stores. Now products sold through these stores are potentially ‘downgraded’ in eBay search results, and from 21 August, eBay will also change the fees for Shops Listings which could result in higher fees for some sellers.

This is a sorry tale in the rise and potential fall of an industry giant who may have take its eye off the ball once too many times.

The small but growing angry band of UK sellers feel strong enough to propose an eBay.co.uk listing strike on the 15th August, 2006. According to the discussion forum on eBay.co.uk this is a proposal that many eBay UK sellers support.

In Australia just over 1,800 eBay Australian sellers have signed a petition protesting against fee rises there.

Some eBay sellers are so unhappy with their eBay experience that they are petitioning Google to establish an auction site of their own, reports the AuctionBytes website. At the time of writing over 1,100 sellers have signed a petition to Google to establish a Google auction site and you can join the discusssion on establishing a competing auction site, here. The discussion forum puts their case like this:-

We are ebay store owners who have been “dismissed” by ebay through extreme rate hikes. We are searching everywhere for a new “home” and google is the ONLY name on the internet which we feel would be totally trustworthy and woud actually get auction traffic and get it quickly.

According to an article on BloggingStocks.com there were 17 members of the discussion forum on August 3, 80 on August 9 and today, Aug 13, there were 354, most of whom appear to agree with the idea.

Where that leaves eBay sellers is anyones guess. This issue is likely to do the rounds on various forums and the blogosphere and one mainstream UK national newspaper picked up the UK sellers strike on Saturday August 12. It remains to be seen if this issue gets more and wider exposure. I can’t help feeling that eBay’s monopoly position is not healthy, and is ultimately unsustainable. I feel that internet retailers and buyers are crying out for an alternative with a cheaper fee structure and more consumer protection. However, with new and emerging web technologies coming into existence I think the next generation retailing platforms will be radically different from the auction system we have today. Whether Google is likely to be the company to deliver it remains to be seen, but I doubt it.

Technorati tags: eBay, eBay sellers strike, Google auctions, eBay UK sellers strike, eBay petition, alternative to eBay

Wired News has an interesting article on commercial space travel that shows just how close the reality really is.

Virgin Galactic are based in Spaceport America, in New Mexico and they could be the first of many space related businesses to move into the area which could possibly become the center of this amazing new industry.

Virgin plans to begin launching its SpaceShipTwo within the next two years. Potential touronauts, or space tourists, are lining up to board the first tourist flights. Some have even paid in advance but with suggested airfares of $200,000 a head, space tourism is likely to be for those with deep pockets at least for the forseeable future.

Technorati tags: Virgin, Virgin Galactic, Touronaut, space tourism, space tourist, Spaceport America

Nigerian ‘entrepreneurs’ have been making a fortune scamming gullible internet users with their e-mail sob stories promising a share of nonexistent fortunes.

Thousands of these 419 scam emails, named 419 scams after the section of the Nigerian penal code being broken, are sent out every day. These letters offer the recipients a share for a massive fortune - but only if they send the scammers cash first.

Wired News reports that a group of online vigilantes are taking on these scammers and winning. The article highlights the work of online one vigilante “Shiver Metimbers”

………….Metimbers has most recently spun counter-yarns that have compelled 419ers to make elaborate wood carvings, pose for comical photos and fly from London to Scotland. In one episode…………he succeeded in having a Nigerian fraudster tattoo “Baited by Shiver” on his body in order to claim a fictional $46,000 prize.

This is a hilarious article which praises the vigilantes efforts and has links to the correspondence with scammers and photos of Metimbers victims in humourous poses.

Technorati tags: scambaiting, 419 scam, cyber vigilante, scambuster, internet scams