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| ==Controversy== | |||
| eBay has its share of controversy, ranging from its ] policy (eBay typically turns over user information to law enforcement without a ]) to well-publicized seller ]. eBay claims that statistically fewer than 1 in 200 transactions fail. | |||
| ===Seller Fraud=== | |||
| While eBay has various measures in place to prevent seller fraud, it remains essentially an honor system: buyers send their money to sellers and trust that they will receive the promised goods. A relatively small amount of fraud occurs, but the sheer volume of business passing through eBay means many people are affected. Fraud has included: | |||
| * Paying and not receiving merchandise | |||
| * Paying and receiving items other than those described | |||
| * Paying and receiving faulty merchandise | |||
| * ] fraud | |||
| * ] fraud | |||
| * ] merchandise | |||
| * Sale of stolen goods | |||
| * Paying inflated amounts due to "shill" bidding | |||
| ===Other Controversies=== | |||
| Other notable controversies involving eBay include: | |||
| *On ] ] a ] federal ] found eBay guilty of ] infringement and ordered the company to pay US$35 million in ]. The jury found for ] MercExchange, which had accused eBay in ] of infringing on three patents (two of which are used in eBay's "Buy It Now" feature for fixed-price sales) held by MercExchange founder Tom Woolston. The decision was appealed to the US Federal Court of Appeals and was upheld in part and rejected on others. As of Nov 2005, eBay has appealed to the US Supreme Court to effectively block injunctive relief to patent holder Mercexchange. | |||
| *On ] ] eBay and its subsidiary ] agreed to pay a $10 million ] to settle allegations that they aided illegal offshore and online ]. According to the settlement, PayPal between mid-] and November ] transmitted money in violation of various US federal and state online gambling laws. Paypal was also forced out of this market, which accounted for some 6% of its volume. These offenses occurred prior to eBay's purchase of PayPal. | |||
| *On ] ] ], ] of eBay's ] ] ], was arrested after a video clip showing ] between two Indian students was sold online. The company denied knowing the content of what they were selling and removed the ] material as soon as they became aware of it. The Indian government attempted to make the case that Bajaj broke a law under India's IT Act, that forbids "publishing, transmitting or causing to publish" ] material, even though the actual material was never published on Baazee's servers. eBay is strongly supporting Baazee. | |||
| *On ] ] eBay backed down and removed auctions listing the sale of free tickets for the ] charity auction. Hundreds of people complained about such auctions, and following a statement from ] that declared eBay a "''cyber pimp''", many of these auctions were bombarded with fake bids. Under normal circumstances, selling of charity tickets is not illegal under ] law. | |||
| *In ], the Australian ] tried unsuccessfully to persuade eBay to prevent scalpers from selling grand final tickets online. | |||
| ==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
Revision as of 00:16, 22 November 2005
 | |
| Company type | Public (NASDAQ: EBAY) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Auctions |
| Founded | San Jose, California USA (1995) |
| Founder | Pierre Omidyar  |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California USA |
| Key people | Meg Whitman, CEO & President Pierre Omidyar, founder |
| Products | Online auction hosting, Electronic commerce, Shopping mall PayPal |
| Revenue |  $3.27 billion USD (2004) |
| Operating income | 2,350,000,000 United States dollar (2022) |
| Net income | −1,269,000,000 United States dollar (2022) |
| Total assets | 23,847,000,000 United States dollar (2016) |
| Number of employees | 8,100 (2004) |
| Website | www.ebay.com |
eBay Inc. Nasdaq: EBAY is an online auction & shopping mall website, where people from all around the world buy and sell goods and services.
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Trivia
The most expensive items sold on eBay
- A 340-year-old copy of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre, which survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 (£5million)
- Grumman Gulfstream II jet ($4.9 million)
- 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card ($1.65 million)
- Diamond Lake Resort, western Kentucky ($1.2 million)
- Ferrari Enzo ($933,503)
- Shoeless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" baseball bat ($577,610)
- Round of golf with Tiger Woods ($425,000)
Largest item
One of the largest items ever sold was a World War II submarine sold by a small town in New England that decided it did not need the historical relic anymore.
Largest failed auction
One of the largest items ever to be put up to auction and not sold was a decommissioned aircraft carrier. The auction was placed by an anonymous seller from Brazil on eBay Motors.
Unusual sale items
- In June 2005, Karolyne Smith sold the right to permanently tattoo an ad on her forehead to GoldenPalace.com for $10,000.
- In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (who had been elected Pope Benedict XVI the previous month) was sold on eBay's German site for €188,938.88. The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases.
- In 2004, a Seattle man posted pictures of himself wearing his ex-wife's wedding dress. While he initially admitted he was selling the dress to earn some money for Mariners tickets, the bidding got into the thousands of dollars.
- There was at one point an auction for the first ride on Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster on Earth. The winning bid was $1691.66, and the winner rode in the front seat.
- A Sydney man pocketed AUS$1,035 after auctioning a piece of Nutri-Grain resembling ET, in Dec 2004.
- A 50,000-year-old mammoth. With a minimum bid set at US $250,000, Max was put up for sale in 2004 by his Dutch owner due to lack of space and sold for £61,000. A bargain considering he was one of the five best and most complete mammoth skeletons in the world, consisting of 90% of his original bone material.
- The owner of Cockeyed.com sold advertising space comprising a single pixel on the homepage for 21 days for $100 .
- An incomplete package of diapers, bought and opened in the 1980s, raised more than $700US for the Children and Families Ministry at a United Church in Victoria, British Columbia Canada.
- Mystery Auctions have become popular on eBay. In these auctions, sellers do not disclose the item being purchased. These auctions have been known range from $1 to $7,500.
Prohibited items
eBay in its earliest days was essentially unregulated. But as eBay grew, it found it necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Among the hundred or so banned categories (note that these relate to ebay.com (the US site), other regions may vary in their rules) :
- Tobacco (tobacco-related items and collectibles are allowed)
- Alcohol (alcohol-related collectibles, including sealed containers, as well as wine sales by licensed sellers are allowed)
- Nazi paraphernalia
- Bootleg recordings
- Firearms and ammunition
- Dirty used clothing
- Human parts and remains
As well as a long list of other items that are either wholly prohibited or restricted in some manner
Controversial practices of users
- Bid sniping is placing a high bid during the last few seconds of an auction such that no time remains for other users to counterbid. This practice is allowed on eBay. Many other auction sites, such as Yahoo! Auctions, offer an option which extends the auction by some minutes when a last-minute bid is placed, in order to prevent sniping. eBay's "proxy bidding" feature allows the buyer to specify the maximum they are willing to pay for an item regardless of "snipes".
- Shill bidding is the deliberate use of secondary registrations, aliases, family members, friends, or associates to artificially drive up the bid price of an item. (This is also known as "bid padding".) Shill bidding is not allowed on eBay. Furthermore, shill bidding is a crime in many jurisdictions, and can be prosecuted under United States wire fraud laws.
See also
Further reading
- . ISBN 0-316-15048-7.
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