On Thursday, Penn State plans to hold a service entitled “A Memorial For Joe” inside the 16,000-seat Bryce Jordan Center. It’ll be streamed online and broadcast on cable, but of course some Penn State fans really want to attend. So much so, that tickets to the event “sold out” in just seven minutes after becoming available, according to the AP.

The tickets were actually free, but on a first come, first serve basis. Over 10,000 tickets were up for grabs, and according to Penn State’s athletic site, ticket orders were limited to two per person. Apparently, not everyone that snatched up tickets actually wanted to attend the event – some had different motives.

Looking to bank on the legendary sports figure’s popularity (and possibly his recent controversy) some ticket-holders put theirs up on eBay. And before eBay pulled the listings, one of them had reached nearly $100K from about 73 bids.

There’s some chatter that Penn State faithfuls drove up the price in order to prevent the scalper the satisfaction of making a buck off Joe Paterno’s death, but whatever the case, eBay did eventually pull the listings as they violate this particular policy:

Some news outlets struggled with accurately reporting Joe Paterno’s death last weekend. It appears some people, in this case, struggled with acceptable social behavior. But enough about Joe Paterno.

This isn’t the first time the two online businesses have clashed over the disputed issue of regulating online sales tax. According the eCommerce Bytes, eBay’s head of North American government relations, Becky Relic, spoke up in support of small businesses who, she claims, stand to lose business if forced to compete toe-to-toe with Amazon. Relic said, “We need to see all small businesses grow, all of them thrive.”

In the opposite corner, Paul Misener, Vice President of Amazon Global Public Policy, countered by saying that “the time is now for Congress to act” and that Amazon’s view is that “Congress may, should and feasibly can allow the state to require out-of-state sellers to collect [taxes].” eCommerce Bytes continues:

Misener and other backers of sales tax reform are quick to point out that the legislation would set minimum annual revenue thresholds that sellers would have to meet before the states could require them to collect the taxes. The Marketplace Fairness Act pending in the Senate, for instance, would exempt sellers with annual remote sales of less than $500,000, meaning that more than 99 percent of online sellers would not have to collect the tax, according to Misener.

No mention of Relic or Misener was mentioned on the State of the Net’s agenda so it remains to be seen if the scuffle will surface on State of the Net’s YouTube channel, where they’ve been posting video of panels and keynote speakers.

As Zach Walton reported yesterday, Paypal also projects that its payment volume will be $7 billion in 2012.

Both eBay and Paypal are riding an ever-climbing wave of sales made on mobile devices – smartphones, tablets, etc. Ebay’s sales volume for mobile sales doubled last year to $5 billion from the nearly $2 billion bar set in 2010. Paypal’s volume was up from $4 billion in 2010 to that $7 billion mark in 2011.

Smartphones and tablets allow consumers to find and purchase items without having to be at a home computer or even laptop. Ebay boasts multiple apps for iPhone that include features that aid in last-minute bidding, research of sales trends, even barcode scanning to help fill in item descriptions. For buyers, the app gives you alerts, price comparison capability with barcode scanning, and, of course, pay in the app.

We reported last week that Walmart is spending tons of money to acquire and develop mobile purchasing position in their market.

eBay was involved in two industry panels during CES that discussed the future of digital and mobile payment industries. The company was able to announce record mobile payment volume.

The Ebay Ink Blog was kind of enough to recap the panels that Ebay was involved with. The first panel was PayPal at “Mobile Payment Basics: How the Technology Works.” The title sounds like a boring introductory course, but it turned into a discussion on the pros and cons of the “wallet in the cloud” versus NFC solutions for mobile payments.

“We see the wallet in the cloud as the best way to bridge the gap between the online and offline world,” said David Marcus, VP/GM of Mobile for PayPal.

Andrew Paradise, CEO of Aislebuyer, agreed saying, “If I lose my iPhone, I don’t want to have to cancel all my credit cards. It would be no different than losing my wallet.”

Bill Gadja, Head of Mobile for Visa, was more in favor for NFC solutions, but said that “whatever technology we end up using, it’s all going to come down to the widespread education and adoption by the individual merchants.”

All at the panel agreed that 2012 may very well be the year of the digital wallet. Paypal used this to announce that their mobile payment volume had reached $4 billion, a huge increase from the original prediction of $1.5 billion.

The second panel, aptly named “Planet of the Apps,” included the eBay company proper with Steve Yankovich, VP of Ebay Mobile, speaking on the panel.

The panelists discussed trends in mobile apps in 2011, but Yankovich stressed the importance of QR codes in 2011. He predicts that the next big trend will be apps that utilize the camera on mobile devices.

Chris Hercik, Creative Director at Sports Illustrated, said that organizations need to adapt and react to shifts in consumer behavior. He presented the example of readers using the Sports Illustrated mobile app are asking for interactive ads instead of having to reject or be put off by them.

Yankovich went on to equate eBay to plumbing in that they only exist to connect the buyer to the seller.

eBay, like PayPal, did well in mobile in 2011 as well. The company’s global mobile gross merchandise volume reached $5 billion in 2011.

The suit, led by a seller from Phoenix, alleges breach of contract on eBay’s part, as well as violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law and “tortious interference with the sellers’ prospective economic advantage”.

eBay explains how automatic bidding works:

1. When you place a bid, you enter the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for the item. The seller and other bidders don’t know your maximum bid.

3. If another bidder places the same maximum bid or higher, we’ll notify you so you can place another bid. Your maximum bid is kept confidential until it is exceeded by another bidder.

To illustrate this, eBay also shares the following example:

1. The current bid for an item is $10.00. Tom is the high bidder, and has placed a maximum bid of $12.00 on the item. His maximum bid is kept confidential from other members.

4. We send Tom an email that he has been outbid. If he doesn’t raise his maximum bid, Laura wins the item.

Under a section on eBay’s help center labeled “The Fine Print,” eBay says, “In reserve price auctions, if your maximum bid is at least the reserve price, we’ll automatically increase your bid to meet the reserve, and bidding will continue from there.”

Those who have further questions are directed to contact customer support.

Here’s the complaint in its entirety (via AuctionBytes):

The suit was filed on December 30 in the U.S. District Court for California’s Northern District.

eBay CEO John Donahoe is taking over for Thompson at PayPal in the interim. eBay is sharing an internal memo that all PayPal employees received from Donahoe today. It says:

As you may already have seen, Yahoo! announced this morning that Scott Thompson is joining the company as CEO, effective immediately. Scott informed me Tuesday afternoon, saying that despite his passion for PayPal, this was an opportunity he felt he had to take. I know I speak for everyone in wishing Scott the best.

Let’s do it, and take this special business to the next level in 2012 and beyond.

Amanda Pires, with PayPal Global Communications, said: “Scott was a terrific leader for the PayPal business over the last seven years, and I know all of PayPal joins me in wishing Scott the best in his new role. He will be missed.”

Just before Christmas, eBay announced the acquisition of BillSafe, a purchase-on-invoice technology provider, which would be rolled into PayPal in Europe.

Two intrepid men seek to change all that. Marcos and Mateus Boyington of YUNiTi launched Vendalism.com in December of 2011. Its tool set rivals those that eBay employs while providing extra functions like Craigslist integration all for the low price of free.

“I’ve been using eBay since about the time it was first launched. A few years ago, it occurred to me – why should I have to pay to sell my items?” Marcos Boyington said. “I thought: there really should be a free alternative to eBay.”

The tools included are similar to eBay in that it allows users to set a fixed price, auction or both for their items. It also includes seller and buyer feedback, automatic cross-listings with Google’s Product Search index, allows use of both Paypal and Google Wallet, social networking features with both Twitter and Facebook and the option to submit listings to Craigslist.

Vendalism includes Craigslist protection that does not reveal the users’ email addresses preventing automated spam being sent to said users.

Vendalism also allows for trading of items and letting potential buyers list their best offers for items if the seller thinks the item may not sell at its current price.

Having just launched, there are not many items or any at all for sale in the numerous item categories on Vendalism. Most of the items are being sold by the same person as well. That is likely to change in the coming months as the site picks up more traffic.

At the moment though, it’s going to have to fight an uphill battle against the established Web sites it takes many of its design cues from.

“By making Vendalism.com easy-to-use, powerful, yet free, we think we’ve created a website which is a powerful tool for netizens wanting to sell their products,” Boyington said.

eBay has owned a minority stake in BillSafe since October 2010. Now it owns the whole thing.

eBay says BillSafe works with merchants of all sizes in Germany, where there are already over 15 million PayPal accounts. Purchase-on-invoice is the most popular form of payment in Germany, as well as in Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, eBay says.

“German customers are extremely security-conscious, and they enjoy the convenience and safety of invoicing when they shop online. One of PayPal’s greatest assets is the security of our system, and we’re glad that we can now offer customers even more peace of mind with a payment method that they already know and prefer and that drives more sales for the merchants,” says Arnulf Keese, managing director of PayPal Germany. “Together with BillSAFE, we can offer even more choices to our customers – whether they prefer to pay with their bank accounts, their credit cards or now through purchase on invoice.”

“Purchase on invoice is an ideal addition to the payment options available with PayPal and makes it the most comprehensive service for consumers and merchants alike,” said Alexander Ey, managing director of BillSAFE. “Security-conscious shoppers can receive and inspect the merchandise they bought online before paying for their purchases. And merchants can sell to customers who were previously skeptical of buying online. It’s an ideal match.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. eBay says it doesn’t expect the acquisition to have a material impact on its financial guidance as issued in its Q3 earnings release.

eBay has issued their 3rd-annual “Top Shopped” report, where they analyze all of their sales data to come up with what pop culture forces captivated the nation throughout the year. The data was pulled from various eBay categories and solidified into a top 10 list featuring the most popular things of the year (at least in terms of $$$).

Strangely enough, the Top Shopped list does seem to reflect what was popular in 2011. People really do “vote” with their dollars:

1. NFL
2. Harry Potter
3. Twilight
4. Call of Duty
5. Green Bay Packers
6. iPad
7. Sade
8. Justin bieber
9. Glee
10. Charlie Sheen

eBay also dives deeper into the pop culture data with some more facts about the year-end sales figures. eBay shoppers bought 83,879 Lady Gaga-related items, as opposed to only 65,822 Katy Perry items. The Green Bay Packers had more related items sold that any other sport figure (234,089), but QB Aaron Rodgers couldn’t compete with Derek Jeter, who sold an athlete-most 131,250 related items.

“eBay sales are a direct indicator of what Americans are most fascinated by and uniquely reflects the cultural zeitgeist,” said Karen Bard Sayah, eBay Spokesperson. “From the latest video games and tech devices, to royal wedding memorabilia and ‘Winning’ t-shirts, shoppers know that whatever it is they’re coveting, they can find it on eBay.”