Welcome back to our Verizon readers! Verizon had been blocking international emails to their users since early this year, (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m01/i26/s02). Since our list server is located in the U.K., this affected several hundred subscribers who hadn't received our newsletter since January. We've heard from several Verizon subscribers this past week saying that our newsletter has started showing up in their email in-box again. We checked our database, and indeed, it seems that the emails are now being successfully received. Let's hope it continues - we're glad to have you back!
Much to my dismay, I learned of another incident involving police and eBay drop-off stores over the issue of whether the storeowners are required to fingerprint consignors. On August 10, Traverse City (Michigan) police descended upon The Drop Spot, arresting its owner. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to police and prosecutors to get their perspective. After talking to Drop Spot's owner, the incident looks remarkably similar to the arrest of an eBay drop-off store owner in Tallahassee, Florida, in March. (The Florida judge ruled in favor of the owner of the drop-off.) Slapping handcuffs on these business-owners in front of their customers in the middle of a working day instead of giving them the opportunity to turn themselves in is brutal. I'll have more to report in a future issue of AuctionBytes Newsflash.
Andy Geldman has an interesting article about wireless access to eBay in today's issue. Don't worry if you feel it is a bit advanced if you don't routinely access the Internet from wireless devices - it's just great to know what CAN be done! I've had more than a handful of people tell me they access AuctionBytes Newsflash daily news articles on their Blackberries (definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry) or Treos (definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo).
If you are interested in this topic, I interviewed Mike Burch, Chief Technical Officer of Abidia, in May, and he gave me some interesting stats (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m05/i26/s02). The article also has two screenshots so you can see what a completed-item search on eBay looks like from a Palm device. So next time you're elbowing your way through a book sale at the local library and you see people clicking away on small portable devices, you can figure they are looking up book prices online. In fact, some Friends of Libraries are considering banning the practice.
It's hard to believe some kids are going back to school already. I hope you enjoy the remaining weeks of summer, here's looking forward to a busy and profitable Fall selling season.
Thanks for reading.
About the author:
Ina Steiner is Editor of AuctionBytes.com and author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). She has a background in marketing and research in the high-tech and publishing fields. If you have story ideas, comments or questions, send them to ina@auctionbytes.com.
