Internet Auction Blog

WOW @ the ridiculous amount of “sponsored links” on EBAY search result pages. EBAY is taking money away from most sellers that way, as novice/casual buyers on EBAY will not ever see how to get to page two of the search results.

I just looked at one of my completed listings, which I started as a “fixed price” 30-day listing, with Free Shipping. Now I go look at the completed auction and it is full of external links to other peoples stuff for sale.

Not cool, eBay. You are supposed to be helping us sell our OWN stuff, I still have other items on auction, but yet my completed listings have a huge box for “Check out similar items from all eBay sellers” and then below that another huge box of “Sponsored links” that take youaway from the eBay site entirely.

Then, under all that, is a huge box saying “Find more items from the same seller. Bid or Buy Now!”

Thanks eBay, that is lame.

Well, maybe I spoke too soon with my previous posts about Gozbay.com, as they are now back online, and will hopefully be here to stay. Here is a copy of the eMail I received from them.

Hello Everyone,

Great News! Very much has happened with GozBay since November 2008. We realized that scalability was an issue as our server was experiencing millions of hits and our site was dramatically growing. I’ve had a variety of people and companies approach me with resources and now I’m confident we have an outstanding management team that is ready to take on anything.

Shortly after we took the site down, the owner of a successful IT company contacted me about GozBay. We have put an exceptional team together capable of providing the security, scalability and resources required to make GozBay a successful auction website. This team consists of security experts and IT professionals, Attorneys, and expert programmers along with me. Each of these key people has a stake in GozBay and together we have been re-building GozBay and have released an extremely aggressive new GozBay.com. Our #1 goal and our attention will be directed towards site stability and usability, after which we will focus on design and feature requests. Rest assured we have the resources and capability to grow this site into a successful auction website which meets your needs.

We publicly went live with GozBay on June 1st of 2009,and would like to welcome everyone to chat in the new GozBay forum at http://gozbay.com/community/. If you have anything that you would like to see in the new GozBay please make a post in the forum, using the same username and password that you use on GozBay. If you have forgotten either of these please point your browser to http://gozbay.com/retrieve_password.php to retrieve your info.

We want you to know that even though this is a new site, we still have all of your information that you entered when you signed up for GozBay and if you were one of the first 2000 VIP users you will still have no fees for life. Your grass roots marketing effort is what made GozBay successful and our success is your success, as all of us build this into a powerhouse site.

There are many new features that you will have an opportunity to explore as soon as you log into GozBay. An important one, which we highly recommend using, is the ability to start your auctions on the first bid rather than when you list the item. When this feature is enabled your auctions will be live but the auction duration will not be active until the first bid is placed. This will ensure that your auctions will not end without any bids. We have additional features and functions that will come online over the next few weeks.

As a parting note, the site name may change in the next few weeks. Although our lawyers are confident we don’t have an issue with the current name, we are going to play it safe and change names. We have registered a few domain names and are in the process of choosing the one we want to go public with. We will announce the change before it occurs and the existing urls will redirect accordingly for a period of time. Thanks for your support and understanding.

I am fully aware that you may have moved on but I hope that everyone will try out the all new GozBay.com. If you have any questions please either post in the forum or feel free to contact us.

Thanks for your support,

Zach

I really want to see the website succeed, although it will be nearly impossible. Check ‘em out at www.Gozbay.com.

While leaving a feedback on an item I purchased, I noticed a new feedback system in place. Luckily, I took a screenshot image of it, because it seems to be gone now. It only happened for me on 1 item, and the stars weren’t working (I couldn’t fill-in the stars). Here is the image below, I’m not sure when they’ll put it in place permanently. (Click the image for a larger view)