AuctionBytes-Update Number 38 - May 20, 2001 - ISSN 1528-6703

AuctionBytes-Update is a free newsletter for online auction buyers and sellers. Read reviews of online-auction products and services, tips on being more efficient, and information about antiques and collectibles. AuctionBytes-Update is published by email twice a month. (Print it out for easier reading.)

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IN THIS ISSUE:
1) From the Editor
2) A Buyer's Guide to Online Auction Etiquette
3) This & That
4) Shipping Supply Costs for Booksellers: Prices of Bubble Wrap and B-flute
5) Avid Collector Turns Into "Mystery Seller"
6) COLLECTOR'S CORNER
7) Newsflash
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1) FROM THE EDITOR

How many eBay IDs do you have?

We're conducting research to see how many "User Ids" eBay users have and what they use them for. If you have a moment, please go to <http://websurveyor.net/wsb.dll/5852/auctionsurvey.htm> and answer 9 VERY QUICK questions. We think it will be interesting to find out the average number of User IDs that our readers have. And, if they have more than one ID, what they use them for.

This survey will only be available through Friday, May 25. We'll be publishing the results in the next issue of AuctionBytes-Update.

We have some interesting articles on auction etiquette, shipping supplies, and a story of a buyer who turned to a friend to help her sell online. Many thanks to Toby Aulman who writes about Fostoria Glass in this issue's Collector's Corner. He wrote an excellent introduction to this highly collectible glass and shares some great photos.

My niece Kate is graduating from high school on Wednesday in Omaha, Nebraska. She's going to college in the fall and will do great things in life. A huge CONGRATULATIONS to her from her favorite aunt, uncle and beagle cousin!

Ina Steiner, Editor
email: ina@auctionbytes.com

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2) A Buyer's Guide to Online Auction Etiquette
by David Steiner

If Amy Vanderbilt were still alive, she might be tempted to write, "Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Guide to Online Auction Etiquette." Ms. Vanderbilt, for those of you who were born AD (After Disco), imparted such vital information to America as: "Keeping Your Elbows off the Table," "What to Wear to a 4pm Wedding," and "The Proper Way to Eat an Artichoke."

Unfortunately, Ms. Vanderbilt passed away in 1974, so the task falls to me, a person who for years thought that artichokes were simply small pineapples. So strap yourself in as I present some basic, common sense guidelines if you're thinking about buying from online auctions.

I've broken the process into four steps, and there is a bit of overlap, but the basic tenet of the guide is simple: COMMUNICATE!

BEFORE YOU BID
1) If you're serious about bidding and you have questions about the item, email the seller BEFORE you place a bid. Reputable sellers are more than happy to answer questions. Don't bid first, ask questions later and then retract your bid. (Sellers have memories like elephants!)

2) Carefully read the Terms of Sale (TOS) included in the auction description. If you win the item and the auction states that the seller does not accept a certain type of electronic payment, only ships within the U.S., or uses Priority Mail exclusively, don't expect them to change their terms. If there are no terms listed, email the seller and ask what they are.

WINNING AN AUCTION
3) EBay states that buyers and sellers should contact each other within 3 days after an auction closes. Respond to a seller's End of Auction (EOA) message in a timely fashion.

4) If a seller sends an EOA email requesting your shipping address, include it in your response. Many sellers like to have that information so they can package your item and prepare the shipping label. It also gives the seller a clear, typewritten shipping address.

SENDING PAYMENT
5) Send payment in a timely manner. Sending payment within 5 days of auction close is reasonable.

6) When you send payment, realize that each seller has different schedules for shipping. Some ship daily, some ship 3 times a week, some ship weekly. Usually it's stated in a seller's TOS or their EOA email. It's certainly within your rights to ask how quickly an item will be shipped after payment, but allow the seller an opportunity to work within their schedule.

7) Somewhere along the line, you HAVE to give the seller your shipping address. I can't tell you how many times I've gone days without hearing from a buyer, only to receive a money order in the mail with no return address and no auction number. Kreskin does not sell on eBay. (Well maybe he does, and in that case, none of these rules apply to him.) A seller cannot ship without your address. I prefer to receive it after I send my EOA message, when I request it (see Rule 4). That way I have it neatly typed, not handwritten on the bottom of a Money Order.

8) Include the auction number with your payment. One of the easiest methods is simply printing out the EOA message you receive from the auction site.

AFTER THE SALE
9) Let the seller know that you've received the item. I love hearing from my buyers and knowing that the item got to its destination safely. I also like to know if the seller liked the item and found it to be as good as advertised. That's when I feel comfortable entering it in my database as a completed sale.

10) Leave positive feedback for a good transaction. As a seller, I generally leave positive feedback as soon as I receive timely payment. (If it's a money order or electronic payment, I leave feedback immediately. If it's a check, I wait until the check has cleared.) Leave positive feedback as soon as your item has been received and meets your approval.

11) If you have a problem with an item, contact the seller, state the problem and wait for a response! Don't immediately run and post negative feedback. Reputable sellers VALUE their rating. If there is a problem, try and work it out via email or by phone to your satisfaction. Negative feedback should be left only as a last resort.

12) One last thought, in deference to Amy Vanderbilt: always be polite. There's a person at the other end of the modem, and people respond better to courtesy.

A successful transaction relies on the cooperation of both parties. If you run into a disreputable seller, by all means you should leave appropriate feedback, contact safeharbor@ebay.com and the proper authorities. But make sure you give them time to respond to your problems. By and large, sellers work hard to make a transaction successful.

Let me hear what you think...have I missed anything? Do you disagree? Do you know how to eat an artichoke? Let me know at http://www.auctionbytes.com/bin/messagebbs/view.pl

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3) THIS & THAT

AuctionGator Tracking Service

AuctionGator is a new service that allows users to set up search agents that search eBay every 4, 8, 12 or 24 hours for items matching a desired description. The search agent sends an email alert containing items found since the last search. It can also be set up to alert users when an auction is almost ending. The service is free for now and is compatible with wireless devices, since it sends the alert to any email address. < http://www.auctiongator.com > Note that AuctionBytes did a review of tracking services in the December issue <http://www.auctionbytes.com/Email_Newsletter/27/27.html#alert> , but one service we liked, iTrack.com, is no longer offering auction-related services.

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Zoovy Says Don't Worry About eBay Link-Policy Changes

Zoovy offers tools that allow eBay auction sellers to have an "Auction Information Page" where they can link to their Web sites and online stores. Linking from the auction to the "Auction Information Page" page is perfectly valid and legal according to the eBay User Agreement policy.

Here's how it works. Sellers insert a link in the auction listing that says "Click here to See Important Statistics About This Auction." When you click on that link, you are taken to a page with a detailed graph showing bidder viewing activity. On that same page, sellers can set up links to their Web sites or storefronts. Zoovy says that the statistics generated by this page has also proven to generate more excitement from bidders.

http://www.zoovy.com/learn/auction/examples/

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ads4auctions.com: Display Ads and Auction Shops for Online Auctions

ads4auctions.com is a new online display-ad service for auction sellers. Sellers can create display ads in their auction listings and can incorporate their logo and contact information into the ads. Sellers can also set up Auction Shops, which are pages that shows all their online auction listings formatted and personalized. ads4auctions.com will soon create different codes for eBay, Amazon.com and Yahoo Auctions to allow for policy differences among the auction sites.

For an introductory, limited-time offer, Display Ads and Auction Shops are free to registered users. Registration is always free.

Although the site looks great, I found it difficult to get to the details I wanted. Here are some tips. First, the "register" button is at the top right-hand corner of the home page, right underneath the log in area. Secondly, the help section is great - it brings ups the details. The "Help" button is found at the top left-hand side of the page. "Buying Ads & Shops" in the Help section gives you pricing information.

John Crittenden, President of Tools4auctions, was very responsive to my questions and appears committed to the service. He explained, "I think bidders would be more inclined to click a link to a seller's Auction Shop than to their About Me page. Once you see a seller's About Me page that's about it. An Auction Shop is dynamic and will always change to include a seller's new auctions on eBay."
<http://www.ads4auctions.com>

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c2it Payment Service Offers $10 Bonus to First-Time Users

c2it is Citibank's online payment service. Users will receive $10 after they sign up and send money (to someone in the U.S.) for the first time. As we reported in Newsflash, AuctionWatch has chosen c2it as its preferred payment provider.
< http://www.c2it.com>

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Newbie Resources

If you an auction newbie, there are lots of resources on auction sites that explain how to place an item for auction:
http://help.yahoo.com/help/auctions/asell
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/auct/asell/asell-01.html
http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/n-selling.html
And remember, read the message boards and ask for help when you have questions.

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Reader Questions eBay's Policy on Scurrilous CDs

A reader, who wishes to remain anonymous, alerted us to the sale of CDs on eBay that advertise questionable practices and use spam words in the titles. She is concerned because the CDs tell people how to get private information about people. One of her customers, who had been a big eBay buyer, has fallen victim to identity theft and will no longer be buying items online. Our reader has reported these auctions to eBay, but eBay says the auctions are not breaking eBay policy.

"I have hope that they may one day end these auctions since they decided to Ban all that Nazi stuff. It means the Policy is not inflexible," our reader wrote.

And these CDs certainly contain questionable material, including the following:

- How to Pass a Drug Test
- Get anyone's address, driving record, Social Security Number - with just a name!
- Eavesdrop on the police

What surprises me is that anyone would send money to these sellers. I would be skeptical about the quality of the information contained on the CDs, among other things.

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4) Shipping Supply Costs for Booksellers:
Prices of Bubble Wrap and B-flute
By Edith Reynolds

As every online auctioneer soon learns, a great deal of your business success depends on how well and how inexpensively you can ship your merchandise. Every merchant has his or her special needs - breakables may require double boxing or tons of peanuts to insure safe delivery. Comparing costs and knowing where to find the supplies you need is essential to maintaining a healthy bottom line.

Thanks to Steamboat Bill's "Little Yellow Post" and Florida's "Big Blue Post" that are uploaded onto eBay's book chat board every day, a comparison of suppliers can be found. Just click on the small yellow rectangle or the shipping link to find a color-coded multi-part table. Here you'll find a list of suppliers from across the country. Some of them even have Web pages and links so you can do your shopping from home. You may be asking, why go through all this trouble? Can there really be that much of a saving by price shopping?

To see if it was possible to lower my shipping costs, I did my own little survey. I currently use a local distributor (Dumouchel in Waterbury, CT). My books are pretty standard size (8 vo.-approximately a little shy of an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of paper and weighing just under 2 lbs.). Each book is usually wrapped in two feet of 3/16 bubble wrap, then popped into a padded envelope.

Recently I did a test run using b-flute instead of the envelope and discovered it produced good results with a reduced cost. (B-flute and A-flute wrapping is brown kraft paper on one side and corrugated cardboard on the other.)

For the test, I used a standard order of 5 rolls of bubble wrap and 5 rolls of b-flute and contacted the companies on Steamboat Bill's list that provided an online link. Here's what I found:

Argrov Box Co. in Dayton, Ohio, <http://www.corrugatedboxes.com> has a clean site with plenty of information except prices. The customer is told to call the company, thereby making Internet orders moot.

Anchor Box out of Houston, Texas, <http://www.anchorbox.com> has a handsome site that's easily navigated and shows images of its products. For my purposes, I found they offered rolls of bubble wrap in 300 ft. lengths for a cost of $24.58 each and 250 feet of b-flute at $9.37. This equates to a cost of $.17 and $.08 per book (total $.25). The glitch was that the size of the rolls being shipped meant getting a special shipping rate, forcing me to call the company for help. When I did, I encountered an unfriendly response from a woman who claimed to be too busy to figure out my shipping and who advised me to call at a better time.

Papermart.com in Los Angeles, California, <http://www.papermart.com> ships its bubble wrap boxed in 175 ft. rolls with a cost of $28.63 ($.33 per book) and b-flute in a standard 250 ft. roll for $12.87 each ($.10 per book). Estimated shipping is calculated by a zone chart, with my area being the farthest away. Since my order would contain bubble wrap, special ordering was required--another phone call. If the weight was for easily shipped items via UPS, the weight of my order, according to the chart, was $41.

Closer to my home is Fetpak.com in Commack, New York, <http://www.fetpak.com>. Alas, although this company can supply boxed bubble wrap (175 ft. rolls) for what amounts to 37 cents a book, B-flute was not on their inventory list. I moved on.

By far, the friendliest company to contact is A&M Tape in Sunrise, Florida. Their Web site (www.amtape-tylertape.com) has been replaced by a catchier title, MrBoxOnline.com <http://www.mrboxonline.com>. I found the site easy to navigate and informative. Again, the size of the shipping forced me to call the company, but my first encounter was a far cry from the receptionist in Houston.

A friendly woman immediately transferred me to customer service rep named David. I explained that I wanted to order 5 rolls of bubble wrap in 300 ft. lengths and 5 250 ft. rolls of b-flute. As their online catalog showed, the cost for these would bring my per-book shipping to $.17 for bubble wrap and $.08 for the b-flute. Low prices, great service. I was ready to go with David. He worked hard to find the least expensive way to ship the order, but recent rises in UPS rates prohibited the deal from going through. As he explained, "UPS hurt our Internet trade when it raised its rates on bulky items. Even if they don't weigh much, the customer is charged for a 70 lb. rate." My order, it turned out, would cost me as much as $150.

A new contender missing from the yellow and blue posts is a company that contacted me via the mail. Brasspack.com from Mansfield, Ohio, <http://www.brasspack.com > offers both large rolls and boxed rolls of bubble wrap as well as b-flute. Their 300 ft. rolls of bubble wrap costs $25 a box ($.17 per book) and b-flute for $13 ($.11 per book). Again, the order required special shipping and a call to the company was mandatory. I was impressed with the company's willingness and foresight in marketing to online sellers. In a move to attract more eBay accounts, their promotion packet includes 5 labels that bear an extra line to accommodate eBay item numbers.

If cost-cutting on shipping materials is your primary goal, USPS provides free materials via their Web site <http://www.usps.com>. Of course, this requires priority shipping, and my 2 lb. book would cost the customer nearly $4 to receive. With your own packaging, you can opt for media mail. This cost can run as little as $2 plus packaging.

My last move was to review my own supplier, Dumouchel. Since they were a mere mile away, delivery was free, though the cost of materials was higher. Bubble wrap in 175 ft. boxes is $35.95 and the b-flute $13.79. Together, the cost for the book's shipping reaches $.51. Their proximity means timely delivery and emergencies need not take longer than perhaps an hour to overcome.

As David of Sunrise bemoaned, the prohibitive costs that UPS is now charging has choked off the national market for many companies dealing in bulky items. This has forced auction sellers to look closer to home and not be dazzled by the cheaper prices being touted in catalogs. But, if you live in sunny Southern Florida, Dave's your man. His demeanor and willingness to work with customers are assets you can't overlook.

The lesson I learned was multi-fold.
1) Companies should make it easier for eBay sellers to order online.
2) There are small discrepancies in cost, but hidden shipping prices can drive the cost of your order into a prohibitive range, potentially wiping out all your small profits.
3) Most importantly, there are a lot of helpful people out there in the World Wide Web who take the time to make our jobs easier.

So I offer special kudos to Steamboat Bill and Florida for their unselfish efforts in providing shipping information on the eBay boards.
---
Edith Reynolds is a former newspaper and magazine writer. She and her husband Dan own an antiquarian bookstore, The John Bale Book Company, in Waterbury, CT. For the past nine years, they have specialized in early Americana and rare bindings. They are members of the ABAA - Antiquarian Booksellers of America Association, ILAB - International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, IOBA - International Online Booksellers Association, and OAUA - Online Auction Users Association. Edith manages online sales. In addition to their bookstore, they sell on eBay and at book fairs. Visit Edith's Web sites, <http://www.taxter.com> and <http://www.usiana.com>. eBay IDs: TAXTER , TAXTER2 , TAXTER3 , USIANA , BALEBOOKS.

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5) Avid Collector Turns Into "Mystery Seller"
By Miss Terri Seller

It was high time, all right. After years of scooping up stuff at shows, in malls and on eBay, our living room was overflowing, our closets full of collectibles we didn't even remember buying. We thinned out most of it through a major international auction house. But what were we going to do with the hundreds of pinbacks and Cracker Jack premiums, the Japanese lusterware ashtrays, the vinyl hand puppets, the plastic spacemen and other odds and ends that didn't get the auctioneer's heart fluttering?

Hey, why not turn back to eBay, the culprit, and try our hand at selling? We suspected some collecting colleagues, miffed that they hadn't had first crack at the cream of the crop, would turn up their noses at the "rejects." So I decided I'd be a mysterious new player on the scene. I turned to a friend in the area and asked if he wanted to team up using his eBay nickname. He would be in charge of taking the photos while I would write the scintillating listings and post them via Auction Watch. He would handle the emails (that way, buyers would still not know it was me dumping my overflow) and concentrate on packing and mailing. His hard work would net him 20 percent of the selling price.

Well, let's just say that his photographs didn't always sing. And since he was not a collector himself, he rarely knew how to play up the important angles of the piece. He was just learning the ins and outs of a digital camera, so the colors were sometimes way off. But I didn't have the heart to tell him.

He was Mr. Nice, but hardly a seasoned auction buyer or seller; and he knew nothing about eBay protocol. To top it off, he was also just learning how to use his antiquated home computer, and would go days without checking his email. This, as we all have learned, is a no-no. At first we muddled through, with me doing the steering, all the while paying him a commission.

Whenever I had doubts, however, I only had to look at his packaging. This man could wrap a little $4.95 tin whistle like it was being shipped to the Louvre. But the stumbling blocks kept growing.

We all love to get our shipments fast, fast, fast. Mr. Nice, though, would sit for weeks on an order until I prodded him off to the post office. Feedback was an alien concept for him, and he would rarely remember to leave a few kind words. Again, not because he was a jerk, but because firing up his slow computer and unreliable Internet server was a big ordeal.

You all know how this little morality tale is going to end. Yes, we started getting the dreaded negs. "Too slow," complained one buyer. "I had to wait weeks," snorted another. Our reputation was sullied. Smeared beyond redemption. Soon we had three negatives within a month. As someone who had a perfect record as an eBay buyer, the slap on the wrist was particularly damning.

Our attempt lasted just a short while, but one deal is still underway, four months after it was listed, with a collector in China. It will be too late for either party to leave feedback, because the item has already dropped from eBay's records.

As for me, I have confiscated my digital camera and am determined to start again, this time under my own name. My emails will be answered promptly and cheerfully, and I will bite the bullet and learn the fine art of packing. Bubble wrap will be my middle name. Because there's one thing I know: If the item arrives at your door dented or broken, the dreaded negs will start all over again.
---
Miss Terri Seller is a pseudonym for our writer, who chooses to remain shrouded in mystery.

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>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>AUCTION FORECAST:

David's auction forecast calls for a mixed day for Sunday, May 20, 2001:
5-day auction: Fair
7-day auction: Good
10-day auction: Bad

Click here for an extended auction forecast:
<http://www.auctionbytes.com/Email_Newsletter/calendar/calendar .html >
Bookmark it!
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

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6) COLLECTOR'S CORNER

The Cubic Triad, or,
"Do I really have a piece of Fostoria American?"
By Toby Aulman

Fostoria Glass Co. produced high-quality elegant glass tableware for nearly 100 years. Founded in 1887 in Fostoria, Ohio, they moved to Moundsville, West Virginia, in 1892. Today many of their pattern lines are highly sought after by collectors.

Line number 2056, American, was Fostoria Glass Co.'s most successful pattern, produced continuously from its introduction in 1915 until the Moundsville, West Virginia, plant closed in 1986. It is also one of the most misidentified patterns by both buyers and sellers.

Like anything that is extremely successful, American has spawned lookalikes and wannabes. The two pattern lines that cause the greatest confusion are Cube, a.k.a. Cubist, by Jeannette Glass Co. and Whitehall by Indiana Glass Co. While remarkably similar at first glance, there are differences to look for that will help you tell the patterns apart.

Jeannette vs. American: Let Color Be Your Guide
Since Fostoria made relatively little American in colors, it is best to assume a colored item is either Whitehall or Cube until proven otherwise. Jeannette's Cube is a Depression Era pattern, produced from 1929 to 1933, and was made primarily in pink and green. Jeannette made a few Cube items in crystal and other colors. Most of these are relatively scarce with the exception of the individual creamer & sugar set that was later produced in crystal for a much longer period and are quite abundant. You can identify these by the much sharper turn of the handles that almost come to a point. <http://www.auctionbytes.com/images/cubeset.jpg> A round two-handled tray goes with this set.

This same creamer and sugar is also common in milk glass, but these were not made by Jeannette. Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. either borrowed or purchased some of the moulds and produced these. Some even bear the familiar H straddling A mark on the bottom.

Jeannette's pink tends to have a bit of an orange hue, and the "depression green" color is not found in American or Whitehall. For that reason, color is your best clue that you have a piece of Jeannette Cube. Cube is a relatively small line of just over 20 items and is well documented. Once you suspect you have a piece of Cube, a quick check in most any Depression Glass reference will confirm or deny your diagnosis.

Whitehall vs. American: 7 Tips
Indiana's Whitehall was introduced in the mid-1950s. It has been made in a wide variety of colors, and some pieces are still in production today. In addition to the Indiana Glass label, Whitehall was also sold under the Colony Glass(a) trade name. Unlike Jeannette's Cube, Whitehall is poorly documented, is a rather extensive line, and is abundant in crystal, so other methods must be employed to tell Whitehall apart from American.

1) The most reliable method is the black light test. Fostoria's crystal American(b) will glow a very pale yellow when exposed to black light in a darkened room. Whitehall will not.

2) Examine the clarity of the glass: it should be clear with a smooth surface. Fostoria fire-polished each piece. Indiana Glass doesn't, so a wavy or rough surface or cloudy glass is a good indication you have Whitehall.

3) Look at the bottom of horizontal pieces, plates, bowls, etc. If the base ring, where the item rests on the table, has been ground flat, you have American.

4) Handles on most Fostoria pitchers and jugs (all those with C shape handles) will attach at the very top edge of the pitcher. Corresponding Whitehall pitchers will have handles that attach an inch or so down the side. ( http://www.auctionbytes.com/images/whitehallpitcher.jpg)

5) For footed pieces, such as 3-toed tidbits, bon-bons, or fruit bowls, check the shape of the feet (toes). Feet on American pieces will have flat vertical sides with a front and back that is slightly s-shaped. Whitehall feet have an octagonal tapered peg shape. <http://www.auctionbytes.com/images/americanbowl.jpg>

6) Vertical pieces of American, goblets, tumblers, vases, etc. tend to have more curve to their profile and flare at the top. Corresponding Whitehall pieces are more straight sided with little or no flare.

7) Most American pieces will have 3 or more mould seams. Whitehall, due to the simpler, straighter overall shapes, will usually have only two seams.

Only the black-light test can be applied to all crystal items, and that isn't always possible or practical. The best solution, if you plan on buying or selling much Fostoria American, is to educate yourself. Get a good reference book and study the shapes. I highly recommend the works by the mother/daughter team of Milbra Long & Emily Seate(c). It is also helpful to visit antique shops and handle pieces that you know are Fostoria's American. I'll bet you'll also find a few pieces of Whitehall mis-labeled as American.

I'll conclude with one absolute fact that you can take to the bank. All avocado and amber pieces are Indiana's Whitehall.

Footnotes:
a) Lancaster Lens Co. purchased Indiana Glass Co. in 1957 and at that time changed their name to Lancaster Glass Co. In 1962, Lancaster Glass Co. merged with several other companies and became Lancaster Colony Corp., the "Colony" part of the name coming from the Colony Glass trade name.

b) Lancaster Colony Corp. purchased Fostoria Glass Co. in 1983. Several years after the 1986 closure of the Fostoria factory, Lancaster contracted with Dalzell-Viking Glass Co. to produce selected American items from Fostoria's moulds. This production continued until Dalzell-Viking closed in 1998. All ruby pieces of American are from this later production. These Dalzell-Viking pieces of American are of better quality than Indiana's Whitehall, but are not up to Fostoria's standards. These later crystal pieces by Dalzell-Viking do not glow under black light.

c) Reviews of Long & Seate's books as well as other glass references can be found at <~http://www.users.qwest.net/~atoby1/glassbooks>
---
Toby Aulman works from home as a Web Developer <http://www.cybercortex.com> and collectibles dealer. A hobby that started as an excuse to get out of the house became a second vocation. His main area of interest is pressed glass from the Depression Era of the late 20's and 30's on into the 70's. He says, "The only way to consistently find bargains for resale is to know more than your competition." You can email Toby at atoby1@qwest.net (auction id: abzoid).


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7) Newsflash Highlights - Selected Headlines
See Web Site for Full Details and Continuous Coverage
Go to <http://www.auctionbytes.com > and click on Newsflash.

May 18, 2001
BidBay Adds Innovative Auction Feature
More Clarification from eBay on Its Linking Policy
PayPal Up For a Webby
Mastro to Hold Two-Day Sports Auction in June

May 17, 2001
Yahoo Auctions Announces "Premium Sellers" Program
Yahoo Auctions Announces Sweepstakes Promotion
eBay Signs Up as Sponsor to "Antiques Roadshow"
eBay and CMP Media Announce Marketing Agreement
Pitney Bowes Enhances Small-Business Web Site

May 16, 2001
EBay Rethinks Email Linking Policy
Yahoo Adds Auction Management Tools
eBay Counting on Squealers to Enforce Policies?
Rolex Sues eBay For Trademark Infringement
FairMarket CEO Resigns, Company Announces Lay Offs

May 15, 2001
Terra Lycos May Purchase CNET or Earthlink
Diebenkorn Fraud Follow up
Rare Collection of Scales To Be Auctioned

May 14, 2001
eBay Changes Linking Policy

May 9, 2001
Nazi Traders Find eBay Alternatives
Franklin Mint offers Prototypes on eBay

May 8, 2001
French Users Can Search Auction Images
"Opt-Out" Also a Problem in Real Life

May 7, 2001
Two Newspapers Add "eBay Auction Classifeds"
Free Classifieds on MoreDeals.com
Amazon Auctions Creates "Book Loader"
Yahoo Lengthens Auction Titles
BidBay Changes Auto-Relist Policy

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