You can already see evidence of our fascination with celebrities by performing a quick eBay search. Whether it’s something basic like a guitar pick autographed by Eric Clapton or something a little more extreme like a T-shirt worn by a Jonas brother – eBay has become a destination for people looking to buy and sell items that have been touched by celebrity in some way.

And celebrity.ebay.com is tapping into that potential for a good cause.

The new site, which launched on Monday, provides a platform for celebrity items or celebrity experiences to be auctioned – with the proceeds going to the particular celeb’s charity of choice.

For instance, one current auction with 9 days remaining is for the chance to hang out with Brad Pitt for a night. Right now, the current bid is $10,000. All of the money generated from the auction will go to Pitt’s cause, the Make It Right Foundation – a program that builds homes for New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Another example is with Katy Perry, whose sequined red dress will go up for auction on November 9th. All proceeds for that will benefit the American Red Cross.

As of launch day, there are 13 celebrities involved in the project inlcuding NASCAR’s Jimmie Johnson, famous actor Robert Duvall, boxer Vladimir Klitschko and NFL athlete Troy Polamalu.

As you can see, each celeb has their own page that includes information on their charity, as well as any current auctions taking place. The page also suggests other eBay searches based on the celebs’ interests and links to associated eBay items.

So even though eBay isn’t taking a portion of the proceeds, they will benefit from the new initiative.

“We know that our customers have been coming to eBay specifically to look for and connect with their favorite charities and celebrities,” says eBay CMO Richelle Parham. “For many years, the eBay platform has been the choice for celebrities who are looking to raise funds for their charities.”

Celeb-crazy fans will pay an unbelievable amount of money to own items that bring them closer to the culture – no matter what the cause. So why not benefit the less fortunate is the process?

eBay Seller Experience Vice President Todd Lutwak says:

On August 30, list Auction-style for just 1¢ Insertion Fees—even high-ticket items! This offer applies to listings on eBay.com, eBay Motors Parts & Accessories and eBay Canada. Most categories are included—get complete details.

This promotion applies to both eBay Stores subscribers and sellers who do not have an eBay Store subscription. Sellers who do not have an eBay Store subscription are still eligible to list Auction-style listings for free—up to 50 listings per month. Once the free insertion fees have been used, the 1¢ promotional rate will apply to eligible listings.

This isn’t the first time eBay has done this of course. Every now and then, gives sellers one-day discounts on listings. Most recently, they offered one-cent listings on August 9 and July 25. Sometimes they’ll make the fee 5 cents or 25 cents.

There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the site in the past. BigDeal CEO Nicolas Darveau-Garneau shared some thoughts on this controversy with WebProNews. 

"There has been some confusion and misconception about how paid auction sites work and whether or not they provide a safe shopping environment for the consumer," Darveau-Garneau tells us. "We’d like consumers to know that we designed and engineered BigDeal.com from the ground up to provide them with just that. Shopping with us is fun, risk-free, and enables shoppers to win up to 95% off on brand new items – think PS3, iPod, jewelry, handbags, and more!"

Earlier this year, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington, who had an advertising partnership with BigDeal, wrote after terminating the partnership, "BigDeal offers a service that is completely legal, and is backed by very well known venture capitalists. On the surface we shouldn’t have any issues with working with them. But the service is, in my opinion, at best misleading and at worst little more than a scam."

Judging from the comments on tha piece, Arrington is not alone in his assessment. 

Darveau-Garneau says, "In a November 2009 New York Times article, journalist Brad Stone points out that BigDeal.com has ‘taken all the risk out of the bidded auction game.’ It’s a mantra we’ve had in place since our inception and we’re continuing to lead the way in this multi-million dollar industry by pioneering a number of unique features not found on other similar sites. Some of these include our ‘Loyalty Store’ concept, new social integration features, and specific shopping categories that enhance the shopper’s experience."

"The way to think about BigDeal.com is this:  play a fun game to win 75%-95% off an item. If you don’t win, buy it at about the same price you would have paid anyway. We have over 50,000 paying members and have 40,000 auctions won so far, so I guess we must be doing something right!"

How BigDeal.com Works

BigDeal’s members purchase the right to bid on items. Bids cost $0.75 each.  Members then compete against each other to win items. Each item begins at $0 with no reserve price, and each bid increases the price of the item by a few pennies and adds a few seconds to the countdown clock. The last one to bid wins the item at that price. The company tells us its average winner gets a 75% saving and over 50% of its winners get 90% or more off.

Members that don’t win can buy the item at its retail price. Users also receive loyalty dollars on BigDeal.com. For every $1 spent bidding on the site, they give users $1 in loyalty dollars, which can be used for large discounts in BigDeal’s loyalty store.

Auction winners are likely to get 75% or more off a brand new item, the company claims. Last week, BigDeal introduced a new version of its site, which now features new social integration and product categories. 

Since TechCrunch’s article about the site, BigDeal’s uniques have done nothing but grow. As the holiday season approaches, I wouldn’t expect that to chanage in the near future. 

Have you used BigDeal.com? Tell us what you think about it. 

The program was previously available in beta, but now it’s widely available. Users will get reward certificates at the beginning of each calendar quarter for the amount of eBay Bucks accumulated in the previous quarter. You have 30 days to spend the eBay bucks. They will be automatically applied to purchases upon checkout.

More information about the program can be found here.

In other eBay news, Local Onliner reports that the company is doing more to integrate eBay and its Marketplaces with ProStores, which it acquired five years ago.

In the UK, eBay has launched a shopping basket beta, according to TameBay. "It’s great to be able to drop items into the shopping basket and then if you find a better deal or price you can simply click the remove button to take items back out of your basket," writes Chris Dawson. "When you come to pay you can choose to purchase everything in your shopping basket, or remove the check boxes to just pay for those items you’re ready to buy."

Separately, Dawson also finds that eBay appears to be bidding on Google AdWords ads for his eBay user ID. Interesting.

Starting this week, you’ll be able to see a member’s Feedback ratings by type – positive, neutral, or negative – on their Feedback Profile page.  Just go to the Feedback Profile page and click on a number in the Recent Feedback Ratings table to filter comments by type. You’ll see that set of comments along with replies. There are no changes to the item page. This is a feature on the Feedback Profile page many members have requested to help them make faster, more well-informed decisions when transacting on eBay.

The feature has been available on the UK version of eBay for a long time, according to Chris Dawson at Tamebay, who recommends that if you don’t get the feature in the U.S. yet, you can still use it by editing the URL from eBay.com to eBay.co.uk.

Ina Steiner at AuctionBytes says U.S. PowerSellers had successfully pressured eBay from letting shoppers see all their negative ratings in one place. It appears eBay is no longer feeling that pressure.

Of course, it also lets buyers see all the positive feedback in one place.

"The topic of feedback has always been a hot-button issue for eBay buyers and sellers, although less so since eBay began a campaign of changes in 2008 that included prohibiting sellers from leaving buyers negatives and neutrals," says Steiner.

What do you think? As a seller, do you like buyers having the option to filter the feedback? Comment here.

The option will be available for Buy It Now and approved auction purchases on eBay. It is also available at "tens of thousands" of online stores that accept PayPal Express Checkout.

"Bill Me Later is the perfect complement to PayPal and eBay," said Sam Shrauger, vice president of global product strategy for PayPal. "By offering Bill Me Later as part of the PayPal payment service, customers now have the choice to buy the items immediately and pay for them when they want with Bill Me Later’s flexible financing options."

"Bill Me Later provides a great e-commerce experience for eBay buyers and sellers, and we’re excited to give our customers an easy, safe new way to pay just in time for the busiest shopping season of the year," said Dinesh Lathi, vice president of buyer and seller experience of eBay Marketplaces.

eBay says that the Bill Me Later feature will increase sales and create higher average order values by giving consumers options like no payments for 90 days. To use it, consumers just select "Bill me Later" as their payment choice and enter information like their birthday and last four digits of their social security number.

eBay says Bill Me Later uses a real-time credit model to make decisions about credit within seconds, so consumers don’t have to complete a lengthy application prior to making a purchase. PayPal customers will be able to access their Bill Me Later statements directly from their PayPal accounts, with the option to pay their Bill Me Later balances with PayPal.

eBay bought Bill Me Later about a year ago for about $820 million in cash and $125 million in outstanding options. Now we are seeing it become integrated into eBay’s business.

According to the site Power Sellers Unite, Bonanzle is a little over 100,000 listings away from becoming the top alternative to eBay. Right now, it is only behind eBid, and of course eBay itself.

eBay appears to even be recognizing Bonanzle as legitimate competition. A new survey from the company asked participants which other websites they use  to sell items, and it listed Amazon Marketplace, Overstock, Craigslist, personal website/online store, and Bonanzle.

Bonanzle is currently developing an API that will allow third party developers to develop tools to enhance users’ Bonanzle experience. This is expected to launch by the end of September. Bonanzle also recently launched an affiliate program called the "Syndicated Seller" program.

Bonanzle previously told WebProNews that it doesn’t really focus on competing with eBay. They said this competition was something that was probably paid more attention to by users than themselves.

Last week, eBay announced its latest round of changes, and while not everyone is 100% happy with them (that’s got to be impossible anyway), they seem to be going over relatively well compared to previous announcements. How are they going over with you? Tell us.

AuctionBytes conducted a poll on the changes to find out which ones people thought were good, and which ones they thought were bad. Following are some results they got for individual changes. These are the ones that got the most negative responses:

Starting in April, there will be a new structure for PowerSeller Final Value Fee discounts. The Final Value Fee discounts will change to 20% for eBay Top Top-rated sellers and 5% for all other PowerSellers.

Good: 31.0%
Neutral: 27.5%
Bad: 41.5%

Even these are getting fair amounts of "good" votes, so clearly not everyone is displeased. There are a lot more positive votes on other changes, which you can check out at AuctionBytes’ blog here.

On the other hand, you can see how a lot of users really feel by perusing the comments in our own coverage of eBay’s latest announcement here also. It’s not all glowing, believe me.

eBay announced this week that they were starting to test the new top-seller badges.

"Over the next few weeks you may see a new seller badge appearing on some item pages and in search results," the company said in a statement. "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."

Are you in the majority that feel eBay’s latest changes are a step in the right direction? Which changes do you like? Dislike? We want to hear from WebProNews readers.

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.

Original Article: After much anticipation, eBay has announced its new changes for sellers. Essentially, there are three main points. Are you an eBay seller? Tell us what you think of the upcoming changes.

First, eBay is saying they will reward sellers for delivering great buyer experiences. The company says that sellers who deliver the highest level of customer service (as rated by buyers) will be promoted with a special "Top-Rated" seller badge, as well as receive deep discounts of 20% on their final value fees. They will also be elevated in search. The badge will be displayed on the "view item" page.

"For buyers, the new eBay Top-Rated Seller status makes it easy to find the highest quality sellers on eBay based on the feedback of other buyers," said Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces. "For sellers, the Top-Rated Seller status recognizes and rewards their commitment to consistently delivering the highest level of customer satisfaction."

Any seller with as few as 100 transactions a year and $3,000 annual in sales volume can qualify based on buyer feedback, the company says.

The second point is that eBay will be enhancing search to present more relevant listings. Here are some things to note:

- Best match will look at listings’ recent sales in relation to the number of recent impressions it received as a key factor for fixed price listings.

- Single quantity and newly listed Fixed Price items will be given exposure in Best Match even though they have no sales history.

- Auction-style listings will still get a boost in exposure as they are about to end.
- Auction with Buy It Now listings will be required to have a BIN price at least 10% higher than the auction start price.

- There is a new search visibility tool for users to evaluate their listings

- Featured Plus, Border, and other features are being eliminated

Finally, eBay says selling will be easier and more profitable. "We’re well aware that sellers of all sizes deliver the deals and quality experiences that bring buyers to eBay and keep them coming back," says eBay’s Stephanie Tilenius. "That’s why we’re taking new steps to reward great service, bring you more sales, increase your profitability, and help you succeed."

eBay says there will be faster recourse for unpaid items. Specifically, resolution time will be "cut in half." The company is working on a new automated option that will make the process more efficient, and cut the time down to as litle as 8 days and block negative feedback when a seller opens a claim and a buyer doesn’t pay.

eBay is making enhancements to My Messages and post-transaction emails to make buyer communications faster and easier to manage. Sellers will also get more control over international ship-to locations. Tracking and delivery numbers for more shipping carriers can be uploaded as well.

Listing editing will be faster and easier, according to eBay, and new selling manager applications will boost efficiency. To see a few other changes, and get more details on all of them, be sure to read eBay’s announcement.

eBay intends to immediately qualify 50,000 eBay Top-Rated Sellers in the U.S. when the program goes live. Changes will go into effect between September 22 and October 1.

What do you think about eBay’s announcement? How will this really affect sellers? Sound off in the comments.

eBay Senior Counsel Scot Shipman discusses the changes in a company blog post. He says that under the changes:

- Buyers and sellers shall work in good faith during the resolution process to determine that the item is not counterfeit.

- If buyer and seller cannot determine that the item is not counterfeit, buyers are required to send the item back to the seller. Cost of return shipping will be paid by the buyer or eBay, unless both buyer and seller have agreed otherwise.

- Covered claims that meet the conditions and are not excluded will count as a violation by the seller of our prohibited and infringing items policy.

- If eBay determines the buyer is not acting in good faith, eBay may restrict or eliminate their ability to return items or make future claims.

- Sellers shall not list, advertise, or cause that item to appear for sale, barter or trade, on any eBay Inc. web site or service.

According to Shipman, the goals of the revisions are to:

- Provide sellers protections against inaccurate counterfeit claims.

- Provide buyers assurances about the authenticity of the item received.

- Maintain integrity of the eBay marketplace.

The updates to the user agreement go into effect on June 14th for current eBay members. For new members, they will apply immediately.

I’m guessing eBay users will have some things to say about the changes. So let’s hear them. What are your thoughts?