CEO Meg Whitman told analysts that eBay will see a higher percentage of its Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in fixed-price format and called it the fastest-growing part of the market. The remarks were made Wednesday during a conference call when analyst Benjamin Schachter of UBS asked if the rising number of fixed-price listings as a percentage of GMV would be problematic given eBay's Store versus Core issues of last summer. Whitman said it's not about the format, it's about finding.

Who could forget Whitman's words last July when she said the eBay marketplace had been "overwhelmed with identical, often poorly-priced items that have diluted the magic of the eBay experience." Since then, eBay has rolled out features to improve search, which it calls "finding," and continues to test new search technology on the site. It has also invested in a Checkout feature set to roll out soon that will let shoppers buy multiple items from multiple sellers and pay with one transaction (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m10/i03/s01).

According to eBay's SEC filings, fixed-price trading as a percentage of gross merchandise volume went from 32% in the third quarter of 2005 to 37% in the third quarter of 2006 to 41% in the third quarter of 2007.

eBay is still mired in legal wrangling over fixed-price patents belonging to MercExchange, which is fighting against an injunction ruling that lets eBay continue to offer the fixed-price format on its site (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m07/i30/s02).

The number of eBay Stores in the US remained stable, going from 279 thousand as of June 30, 2007, to 280 thousand as of September 30, 2007. eBay reported the total number of eBay Stores went from 649 thousand to 520 thousand in the same period, but said it began excluding eBay China stores from that count beginning in the third quarter.

A recording of the call is available in the Investor Relations section of eBay's website (http://investor.ebay.com/eventdetail.cfm?eventid=42562). Seeking Alpha has the transcript of the call (http://seekingalpha.com/article/50275-ebay-q3-2007-earnings-call-transcript). eBay's full financials can be found on the SEC website: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1065088/000089161807000598/f34623exv99w1.htm

Update 10/19/07: Originally this article omitted the word "thousand" in referring to the number of eBay Stores, it has been corrected.