PayPal announced on Friday the filing of a registration statement for the initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock. PayPal is a person-to-person (P2P) online payment system that rose to popularity through its promotions to online auction users. Copies of the written prospectus relating to the proposed offering may be obtained from Salomon Smith Barney, Brooklyn Army Terminal, 140 58th Street, Brooklyn, New York 11220. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper site carried an interesting story with facts & figures from the prospectus (PayPal has lost $231 million since its inception and expects to lose more next year)):
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/technology/sns-ap-paypal-ipo0928sep28.story
JustBeads.com, a bead-only auction site, announced it has reached an agreement with Envision Software to insure compatibility of their auction-management tools with the JustBeads auction site.
AuctionTamer automates repetitive tasks for auction sellers and tracks and manages feedback. It has a listing feature that will enable sellers to Bulk list their auctions. Sellers can also dictate the time that their listings are to be posted. For additional information about AuctionTamer you can visit the JustBeads.com Bead Auction Site at http://www.justbeads.com and click on the AuctionTamer icon located at the bottom right of their home page.
TIAS.com, an online catalog of antiques and collectibles, has entered into an agreement with Yahoo. TIAS.com's 700+ merchants will now be able to transfer their merchandise to Yahoo Auctions. TIAS.com already has such an agreement with BargainAndHaggle.com and eBay.
Phillip Davies, president of TIAS.com, said "Our merchants have expressed interest in this new system, because unlike eBay, Yahoo permits our dealers to have return links from their Yahoo auctions, back to their online store." There will be a separate TIAS merchant area within Yahoo Auctions, and TIAS merchants will get a $10 credit that can be used towards featured listing on Yahoo Auctions.
http://www.tias.com
Antiques & Fine Art: Bakker Boccelli, Watertown, Massachusetts, Preview at 10am, auction starts at noon. http://www.sbauctioneers.com
Toy Auction: WexRex Collectibles, Framingham, Massachusetts, Preview at 4pm, auction starts at 6pm. http://www.allcollectors.com and click on "Live Auctions"
A September 28th article in E-Commerce Times says eBay Stores are underwhelming. "The only problem is that once you get inside a store, the most visually appealing thing on your screen is the "Back" button on your browser,...,Even the storefront maintained by Big Blue has little more than the IBM logo in one corner to distinguish it." The article by Keith Regan, called "eBay Stores Not Ready for Prime Time," can be found here: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/13720.html.
We've got a hot discussion in the forums about this very topic in the "Online Auction Sites" forum:
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=26&forum=3&22
I've posted antiques/collectibles events for October in the Online Auction Sites forum. The thread is entitled, "Events Calendar - October 2001." Please feel free to comment on any of the events or to add events by replying to the post.
http://www.auctionbytes.com/forum/phpBB/viewtopic.php?topic=74&forum=3&0
The subject of the latest AuctionBytes Crossword puzzle is Glass and was submitted by Bonnie Riley. If you'd like to submit a crossword puzzle, email dsteiner@auctionbytes.com for details. If we use your puzzle, we'll send you $20 and an AuctionBytes Mug (while supply lasts)