eBay upset a lot of its sellers over the last year and a half or so with various announcements and policy changes. Evidence of this is all over the web on message boards, blog comments, and social networks.

Update: eBay is starting to test the badges. The company made the following announcement:

Over the next few weeks you may see a new seller badge appearing on some item pages and in search results. This badge is part of the new eBay Top-rated seller status announced last week and launching in October. Starting this week and over the next few weeks, we’ll be testing the badge in search results and item pages for a small percentage of eBay traffic.

eBay has announced "Quality Click Pricing" for the eBay Partner Network affiliate program. The company describes this as a new payout structure designed to further reward affiliates who drive incremental transactions on eBay, and who send "value buyers" to the company’s sites.

UPS said Monday that all U.S. based eBay sellers now have a direct, free connection from within eBay to the shipping system UPS WorldShip.

eBay sellers can now import their information into WorldShip without having to manually enter data. Sellers can export shipping data from WorldShip and automatically update their orders with UPS tracking numbers.

eBay has announced Selling Manager Applications, a directory of apps for eBay sellers to use to improve their customer service, streamline shipping, and make their businesses more efficient.

Sellers can use these apps if they are subscribed to Selling Manager or Selling Manager Pro. Regular Selling Manager is free. Any apps the seller subscribes to will appear under the Applications tab in their version of Selling Manager.

eBay-owned PayPal has launched a new way for teenagers to shop online with PayPal and in stores with the "Student Card," part of the "Student Account." The account comes with a number of capabilities for parental monitoring.

Features include:

Car dealerships don’t always make a lot of sense; they’re high-pressure environments in which consumers are asked to spend tens of thousands of dollars on whatever vehicles happen to be sitting around.  So eBay and General Motors appear to be rethinking the process with a new car shopping website.

gm.ebay.com is scheduled to launch tomorrow and connect consumers to over 225 GM dealers.  Consumers should then be able to browse the dealers’ new car inventories, ask questions, and negotiate all of the financial details online.

eBay Motors has launched a video contest to find what it calls  America’s ultimate automotive enthusiast.

Winners of the 2009 Motors Master contest will receive a trip to Las Vegas to attend the Specialty Equipment Market Association Show (SEMA) and receive an eBay Motors shopping spree.

PayPal announced that it is opening an API to developers to allow them to embed PayPal’s payment system into their own apps and platforms. The company, a subsidiary of eBay, says this is the first global payment platform to open to third-party developers.

eBay announced its second quarter results yesterday, and claims to have had a strong second quarter, slightly higher than expectations. Here are some of the numbers:

- Second quarter revenue was $2.10 Billion (a $97.7 million decrease year-over-year)

- Net income on a GAAP basis was $327.3 million ($0.25 per diluted share)

- Non-GAAP net income was $478.6 million ($0.37 per diluted share)

- eBay generated $730.7 million of operating cash flow during Q2 and free cash flow during the quarter was $602.3 million

Shoe retailer Steve Madden has filed a lawsuit against eBay over the alleged sale of counterfeit watches on the auction site.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan Tuesday, claimed eBay has failed to remove counterfeit watches from the site bearing the Steve Madden brand name. The suit accuses eBay of trademark infringement.

eBay’s traffic appears to be on the way down. This doesn’t come as a huge surprise if you pay attention to the commentary on message boards and comment sections on eBay articles.

eBay has announced it will no longer be hosting its annual networking event eBay Live!, and will instead focus on a series of local gatherings.

The company told sellers in a blog post Monday that it would be canceling its planned August 2010 event in Orlando, Florida. Its new plan is to host "more local events that don’t require costly travel" for attendees, said president of eBay Marketplaces Lorrie Norrington.

It seems that Microsoft’s taking three steps forward and one step back, with its hiring of other companies’ employees. It just lost Hugh Williams to eBay.