Harry Rinker, a well-known expert in the antiques and collectibles field, is leaving eBay over its ban on checks and money orders. It's time to take a stand, he wrote in his column last week. "I will be damned to hell if I am going to allow eBay to dictate how I should pay for my purchases. My checks are good, none bounced. I am taking my business elsewhere." The syndicated column is published in antiques journals and newspapers in the US and Canada.

The celebrity figure's protest against eBay's policy cannot be reassuring to sellers, who must be wondering how many other buyers feel the same way and will also abandon the auction site. What makes Rinker's views even more notable is his relationship with eBay. He has served as a spokesperson for eBay's Collectibles Division USA and for eBay Canada, and has been a speaker at three eBay Live conventions.

AuctionBytes Editor Ina Steiner conducted an interview with Rinker on Wednesday, available on the Ecommerce Industry SoundBytes podcast (also available on iTunes). Rinker talked with Steiner in-depth about the early days of eBay, the current state of the antiques and collectibles industry, and what the future looks like both online and offline. "None of us, not even I, thought eBay would fall in our lifetimes. Now my feeling is that if the right entrepreneurs come to the table, the antiques and collectibles selling will shift from eBay to one or more other sites within the next 3 to 5 years."

Listen to Harry Rinker on Ecommerce Industry SoundBytes