We heard too many stories of fraud on ebay about having paid for items undelivered, fraudulent escrows and a very timely process of recovering the payback money. Ebay has developed the Trust And Safety Team to investigate disputes between seller and buyer. The seller is given 10 days to respond to ebay once informed by Ebay team. Now, buyers protection has been tightened after which Paypal offered the Buyer Protection free of charge wherein eligible transactions will receive an insurance coverage of up to $200 along with that, if you�??ve purchased your item through a PayPal-verified seller, you may be covered for your purchase up to $1000. Once the buyer clicks the Paypal Buy Now button, he is entitled with the Buyer�??s Protection. The buyer may also pay for the shipping insurance for additional protection. In this case you must pay the seller the additional charge for package insurance. This will cover your purchase up to the insured amount while in transit through the post office, UPS, or FedEx. Trusted Store seal is awarded to merchants that consistently receive positive customer ratings and reviews. Provide accurate price and shipping information. Honor prices listed on their site without excuses. Hacker Safe seal is awarded to sites that are safe and protected from identity theft and creditcardfraud. These sites are remotely scanned on a dailly basis for vulnerabilities.

All members operating business on Ebay �?? UK and Ebay-Ie are required to display their business addresses at the �??View Item Page�??, �??About Me�?? and the shop�??s Custom page.  According to ebay, they are complying with the Ecommerce regulation that requires businesses to clearly state their business geographical locations.  This new change will give buyers the security assurance that all businesses in ebay are registered therefore no fraudulent transactions will most likely to happen.  On the part of the seller, this will generate more sales because of the good impression they make on buyers. The P.O Box address is not accepted as it is not considered as a valid business address. Just recently, Ebay UK and Ebay �??Ie also implemented the VAT inclusive policy.  The  new changes will make everyone profit on ebay.

If you are new to bidding you need some helpful tips that a bidder must know about auctions on ebay. First, make sure you have visited ebay�??s community help boards and chat. The help board has a quick tutorial to help you. Go to buyer central and you can read more tips and discussions regarding auctions. But before you even place a bid, remember that unless the item is so rare, you can always bid for another so there is no reason why you should be carried away in winning a bid. Read the sellers feedback, check the shipment price, If you can�??t find these information, you may send a seller in �??Ask A Seller A Question.�?? Some sellers start bids at very low bid prices and have high shipping to offset it. Once you start bidding, start not bidding early but bid high and place the bid in odd numbers. Usually with decimal digits placed like for example: 89.01 or 65.99. Remember even a small digits matter. Don�??t freak out if you find yourself in a bidding war. Don�??t keel over if, at the split second you�??re convinced that you�??re the high bidder with your $45.02, someone beats you out at $45.50. Watch for item relistings. If you see an item that you want but it has too high an opening bid (or too high a reserve), there�??s a good chance that no one else will bid on the item either. Put that auction into your Watch area of My eBay. Then after the auction ends, every so often doublecheck the seller�??s auctions to see whether the item has been relisted with a lower starting bid and a lower (or no) reserve.Combine shipping when possible. When you purchase an item, check the seller�??s other auctions and see whether you�??re interested in making a second purchase. If you see something else that appeals to you, e-mail the seller to see whether he or she will combine the items in shipping. That way, you can make two purchases for a smaller single shipping bill. Try for a Second Chance offer: If you get outbid and miss the chance to increase your bid on an auction item, you�??d be smart to e-mail the seller and ask whether he or she has any more. You may get lucky, and the seller can send you a second chance offer for your high bid.

A renowned artist, Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripol popularly known as Shakira is auctioning tickets on ebay which will entitle the holder to be her guest and actually share moments with her on her table at a private gallery in Toronto, Canada. At the same time she is promoting her concert and her auction items like guitars from her tours, clothes won from previous concerts and many of her items on ebay. The proceeds will go to the Barefoot Foundation which she founded at age 18. This foundation helps improve the lives of thousands of children. The winners of the auction will be able to help build schools of 1800 children in her hometown, Baranquilla, Atlantico, Colombia.

Shakira is a two-time grammy award winner and Golden Globe nominated Columbian artist. Shakira is the highest-selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold more than 50 million albums worldwide according to BMI. She is also the only artist from South America to reach the number-one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, the Australian ARIA chart, the United World Chart and the UK Singles Chart.

You may have encountered placing a bid on ebay on the last minute of the auction. You have the highest bid so far and is excited to win the bid but all of a sudden it turned out somebody else won and you don�??t know exactly why it happened. Well it�??s simple, you�??ve been sniped!

Sniping is the fine art of outbidding your competition in the very last seconds of the auction �?? without leaving them enough time to place a defensive bid. Sniping is my number one favorite way to win an auction on eBay. When I first touted this method in 1999, it was a fairly new idea. Now everyone knows about sniping, and it�??s pretty much an accepted bidding method. Bidders (that is, losing bidders) whine and moan when they lose to a sniper, but they should remember one thing: The high bidder always wins, whether you�??re sniping or using the automatic bid system. If you�??re going to snipe, assume that the current bidder has a very high dollar proxy bid in the works. Some eBay members consider the practice of sniping unseemly and uncivilized �?? like when dozens of parents used to mob the department store clerks to get to the handful of Cabbage Patch dolls that were just delivered. (Come to think of it, whatever happened to those collectibles?)

Of course, sometimes a little uncivilized behavior can be a hoot. Sniping is an addictive, fun part of life on eBay. I recommend that you try it. You�??re likely to benefit from the results and enjoy your eBay experience even more �?? especially if you�??re an adrenaline junkie.

Ebay UK recently announced to change its policy regarding seller�??s addition of VAT on items for sale. Normally, ebay sellers have an option whether they include VAT in the selling price or add it after the sale at the checkout. Now, ebay UK announced that all registered VAT ebay stores are required to display �??inclusive of VAT�?? to their listings. Payment of VAT after sales is no longer permissible. Ebay UK further announces the closure of Ebay Express. The site encourages sellers to go to the main site instead of going to ebay express site. There will be a new pricing model which offers discount on Final Value Fee of up to 40% to powersellers with registered business on ebay. Sellers who have at least a volume of sales equivalent to Bronze PowerSeller level or above, with a minimum DSR of 4.6 will also get 20% Final Value Fee discount.

It is important for ebay sellers to verify their ebay user ID to show other members that they are earnest in their desire to become responsible members of the community. For ID verify, you must Be a resident of the United States or U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, and Guam and you will be required to pay $5.00 which is a one time charge. In cases where you have not completed or passed the verification process, no charge will be debited from your ebay account.

A company like Verisign verifies your identity by asking for the following information: name, address, phone number, social security number, driver�??s license information and date of birth. You may need to provide information of monthly payments, credit accounts or installment payments. The questions are meant to protect you against anyone else who may come along and try to steal this information from you and assume your identity.The information you give will be matched to what�??s in its humungous database and presents you with a list of questions from your credit file that only you should know the answer to. When your information is verified, they will provide you with a verified icon in your member profile. You will not be allowed to change the contact information you provided until 30 days from the day you were verified. If after 30 days, you decide to change the contact information, the verified icon on your member profile will no longer be displayed.

In order to pass the verification process, make sure that you have the necessary information needed for verification. It must be updated information and provides authentic data of your identity. Ensure that you have the appropriate credit information. Review the information you provided before you submit the form page.

If you want to sell on eBay, it is important for you to register first and choose a username or userID. Your user ID is as important as your password. You need to provide a user ID that is easy for you to remember, easy to type in because you will be using it every time you open your ebay account. Ebay requires short words as your user ID and you can use underscores or hyphens to separate them. EBay doesn�??t allow spaces in user IDs, so make sure that the ID makes sense when putting two or more words together. More often, people use their own name, nicknames as their user ID�??s.

You can change your user ID once every 30 days if you want to, but I don�??t recommend it because people come to know you by your user ID. If you change your ID, your past does play tagalong and attaches itself to the new ID. But if you change your user ID too many times, people may think you�??re trying to hide something.

Nevertheless, to change your user ID, click the My eBay link, which appears at the top of most eBay pages. From your My eBay Summary page, click the My Account: Personal Information link, scroll to the User ID area, and click the Change link. Fill in the boxes, and then click the Change User ID button. You now have a new eBay identity. eBay also has some user ID rules to live by:

�?� No offensive names

�?� No names with eBay in them. (It makes you look like you work for eBay, and eBay takes a dim view of that.)

�?� No names with & (even if you do have both looks&brains).

�?� No special characters allowed such as (&,$#%()<>,.:;�??�???/).

�?� No symbols, consecutive underscores (__).

�?� No IDs that begin with an e followed by numbers, an underscore, a hyphen, a period, or dot (as in dot.com). Number is allowed only at the end of the user ID.

�?� No names of one letter (such as Q from Star Trek).

When you choose your user ID, make sure that it isn�??t a good clue for your password.

Historic documents from New York State Library were found sold on eBay by an Archivist, Danielle Lorello. Investigators found out a lot of missing documents from the library and traced the person responsible for the lost of these state property. One of the documents sold on ebay includes an 1828 letter of former president Vice President John Calhoun, who is now charged of grand larceny, possesion of stolen property. The four-page letter from Calhoun drew bids of more than $1,700 while being monitored by investigators.

With the ongoing news of economic crisis within the country today, consumers are holding their wallets tighter while retailers are trying to find ways to increase sales during these tough times.  It is expected that not only consumers are affected but all people in the business industry most especially.  Tendency is, retailers will focus more on hot items that are saleable and are prime commodity because people will be wiser when it comes to priorities in shopping.  Retailers will keep a very close eye on which products are actually selling and focus efforts on those items, making sure they have all of the colors, sizes and varieties of the most in-demand goods. Otherwise, they’ll be forced into big markdowns on leftover inventory that will further deplete their bottom lines. Even grocery stores, which are losing traffic to discount warehouse outlets, will advertise and push fewer items, according to Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, a retail consulting firm. More sales promotions will be offered as buyers are waiting for discount items instead of regular priced ones.  Stores will opt for budgeted marketing strategies like sending emails and will concentrate more on online adverting to gain customers.