Welcome to a special edition of the AuctionBytes Update newsletter. Today, we share the results of the survey conducted in January 2010 in which we asked you, online sellers, to rate the marketplaces you've used. Over 1,400 online sellers rated 15 ecommerce sites, including eBay, Amazon, Bonanzle, Craigslist and more. Find out which marketplaces earned high marks on profitability, customer service, communication and ease of use. Read the comments (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and see which marketplaces readers said they would recommend to their friends and colleagues. David and I want to thank everyone who took the time to complete the survey, and leave thorough (and frank) comments about each venue. We're very excited to share the results with you in today's issue.

eBay is announcing its next round of seller changes on Tuesday, January 26. Despite indications that eBay would change feedback this year, a spokesperson told me not to expect changes to feedback in 2010. You can read more in this AuctionBytes Blog post, and look for our updates on the Blog this week.

eBay announced fourth-quarter earnings last week. PayPal revenue increased 28% year over year, but marketplaces grew slightly. In the U.S., the value of goods sold (GMV) on eBay.com, excluding vehicles, grew only 4% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2008 (keeping in mind that the fourth quarter of 2008 was strongly impacted by the economic crisis, so should not have been difficult to beat). Total eBay non-vehicle GMV grew 8%. Auction GMV fell 3 percent, while fixed-price non-vehicle GMV grew 18%.

eBay Inc. revenue for the full year 2009 was up 2% from 2008 to $8.7 billion. You can read eBay's press release in this AuctionBytes blog post along with links to AuctionBytes coverage (including coverage of eBay's conference call with Wall Street analysts) and comments.

The first article in today's issue is an introduction to our special editorial feature, Seller's Choice. The remaining articles contain the detailed results for each marketplace. We've also set up a blog post where you can leave your feedback about the survey results. We'll be back next month with our regular features, as well as Part 2 of Jennifer Van Iderstyne's popular series, "Four Ways to Apply Big Brand SEO to Small Merchants."

Thanks for reading.