eBay competitor Overstock Auctions will be contributing to victims of the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia via their charity auctions, however the Red Cross will not be a recipient of their efforts.

Overstock Auctions, which launched in September, put into place a system to allow its sellers to place charity auctions on the site to aid in tsunami relief efforts. It allowed sellers to choose from a several charities, one of which was the Red Cross.

But according to Overstock Auctions Vice President Holly MacDonald-Korth, the Red Cross would not accept donations from them because the Red Cross has an exclusive contract with eBay.

"We were disappointed to hear that one of the country's most popular charities would not accept donations from Overstock Auctions or our sellers," MacDonald-Korth said. "In the first 5 minutes of being live, there were already 48 items listed that had chosen the Red Cross as their charity of choice."

Overstock Auctions removed the Red Cross as an option, but sellers can continue to list charity auctions and select from Oxfam, CRS, Unicef and the LDS Foundation.

AuctionBytes spoke to representatives at the Red Cross several times on Tuesday, but could not get an official response to questions by press time.

eBay does have an exclusive agreement with its non-profit partner MissionFish.org. In 2003, eBay teamed up with MissionFish, a nonprofit service of the Points of Light Foundation, to offer sellers the ability to list items on eBay and donate part or all of the proceeds to their favorite nonprofits. MissionFish Director of Communications Clam Lorenz said the organization entered into the exclusive agreement with eBay because it was the leading auction site by such a margin at the time.

Both parties spent an enormous amount of time and money into developing the program, he said, and eBay markets the program, called eBay Giving Works, on its site.

"Our ultimate vision is to help as many nonprofits raise as much money as possible," Lorenz said, and added that both organizations were committed to and satisfied with their relationship.

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