eBay pulled the plug on changes they made to a paid feature after members expressed anger over the changes. On Monday, eBay changed the way "Featured Items" were displayed in Listings. As a result, Featured Items no longer appeared on the first page/pages of eBay's auction listings, but rather, were displayed based on sort order. Featured Items is an option for which sellers pay $99.95 for Featured Auctions or $19.95 for Featured Plus! Auctions.

On Wednesday, eBay posted an announcement to their Site stating, "We have received a number of comments from members regarding the recent changes to Listings results. In particular, members have complained about the way Category Featured Items are displayed and the removal of buyers' sorting tools like "New Today". We apologize for not appropriately communicating these changes to you and will re-double our efforts to ensure that proper notification is given whenever we make changes to our site.

After considering the effect these changes have had on sellers who utilize Featured Items, and on buyers who used specific browsing tools that are no longer available, we are reinstating the previous format. We will return to the way we used to display Featured Items in Listings and we will provide buyers the ability to sort by "New Today", "Going, Going, Gone" and "Ending Today". The new "Buy it Now" tab we announced two weeks ago will remain.

It will take approximately three to four days to reinstate the previous format, and we will notify you as soon we have made the changes.

Again, we apologize for the inconvenience that these changes have caused our members."