Google Checkout Is Here

You'll soon start seeing these little buggers all over the Web if Google Checkout (a.k.a. GPay) is anywhere near as popular as it promises to be. While not as sophisticated or robust as eBay's PayPal service, Google's got one big advantage for the average small-time seller: price. That's because Google charges a mere 2% of the total, plus $0.20 per transaction. That's significantly less than PayPal, who charge 2.9% and $0.30 for totals less than $3,000 per month. And that doesn't take into account that, according to Google Checkout's FAQ, "for every $1 you spend on AdWords, you can process $10 in sales for free."

Is this going to be a PayPal killer? I seriously doubt it. PayPal has some very robust trust and safety mechanisms in place, they are ahead of the game internationally and they have terrific brand recognition. However, despite Google's assertions to the contrary, you can bet Google Checkout is looking to muscle in on PayPal's market share. In fact, they already are in PayPal's merchant account space and, unless eBay explicity prohibits it, I don't see why they wouldn't start becoming an accepted payment method on eBay. It will be interesting to see where things stand 6 months from now.

Gates' retirement was a message to eBay - Valleywag

Gates' retirement was a message to eBay - Valleywag

Is it possible? Could a Microsoft and eBay marriage be in the works? There's been speculation for weeks now that eBay and Microsoft are courting. Most people, like me, think that this is a lot of hot air and that the merger of two companies plagued by anti-trust threats are not likely to tie the knot.

This week Valleywag claims a little birdie told them that "Gates stepped down in an attempt to convince [eBay founder] Pierre Omidyar that Gates shares all the same values as Pierre in terms of charity." Sounds like a stretch to me.

eBay Jackpot?

Web auctions, the new jackpot for middle Americans - Yahoo! News
Regular folk attend this years' eBay Live! event hoping to learn the secret to making big money on eBay. The truth is, it's just like most anything else. A lot of work.

Add gumshoo search to your site - it's easy!

See that search box over there on the right? Yeah, that one with the gumshoo logo. Looks pretty doesn't it? If you're a blogger or you own your own website, you're probably thinking, "gee, how do I get one of those on my site?" Well, I'm glad you asked. It's actually incredibly easy. Just one line of JavaScript in the right spot and you're done!
Visit gumshoo.com to grab the code.

eBay's Live Announcements

eBay Live Announcements - Skype integration, blogs and a Crackdown on Excessive Shipping Fees

This week eBay made some important announcements regarding new additions to the site, Skype integration and Trust & Safety. For the most part, these announcements are not earthshattering. Adding a wiki and a blog is not exactly revolutionary, but it should help make eBay a little stickier and improve their presence in the search engines.

The Skype integration was certainly predictable. Of course, you have to wonder how many sellers are going to want dozens or hundreds of people calling them and expecting immediate answers. Sellers have already complained that tending to their buyer questions via email takes too much of their time. I can't imagine adding a Skype Me button will make this better. eBay will have to quickly demonstrate that average selling prices go up significantly when the Skype Me button is present on a listing. It's the only way this service will take off.

The most interesting announcement, from gumshoo's perspective, was the verbal commitment to crack down on eBay sellers charging excessive shipping fees. This is an issue that has been well documented for years. It's why gumshoo includes an excessive shipping and handling fee alert in all auction scans.

So will the promised crackdown on excessive shipping fees prove effective? We'll have to wait and see. In order for eBay to implement this crackdown without significantly impacting their bottom line, they will need to have a pretty liberal definition of "excessive". One that you can bet will favor the seller. Gumshoo will continue to scan for excessive shipping and handling fees unless and until it becomes abundantly clear that eBay has elimintated the problem.

Safari Working Again

We received a few reports that some of our beloved Mac users were having trouble with the Safari browser on gumshoo. We're happy to report that we've found the offending code and Safari is once again working. We'd like to give a shout-out to all our Mac users! You rock!

gumshoo.com Reaches 100,000 Auction Milestone

gumshoo.com Reaches 100,000 Auction Milestone

Back around May 22, we reached a milestone in gumshoo's history. An incredible 100,000 eBay auctions had been scanned, revealing a variety of risks that users may have otherwise remained unaware of. Over 20% of all the listings we've scanned have been flagged for questionable seller reputation, over 20% had excessive or unspecified shipping costs, about 10% were listed from a foreign country and nearly 20% had suspicious item descriptions.

As of today we've scanned over 120,000 auctions and are still going strong. If you ever want to see the total, we track it on the home page. You can also view the statistics (e.g. 20% of listings trigger seller alerts) by visiting this gumshoo help page. Better yet, head over to gumshoo and search for yourself!

BBC NEWS | Business | EBay users 'need to be streetwise'

BBC NEWS | Business | EBay users 'need to be streetwise'

The BBC talks with eBay Trust and Safety head, Garreth Griffiths about the risks of buying on eBay. Griffiths says that only about 0.01% of all eBay transactions are fraudulent, but many would argue that is a dramatic understimate of the acutal amount of fraud on the site because eBay only tracks the transactions buyers take the time to report as fraudulent.

While gumshoo doesn't track statistics on fraudulent transactions, we do keep statistics on the number of auctions that are flagged by our risk detection engine. Our records indicate that about 20% of auctions are risky enough to warrant additional research on the part of the buyer to ensure that they don't get ripped off. Click here to see the latest eBay auction statistics.