As a reminder, all listings that are running during the Daylight Saving change will still receive the full amount of exposure. For example, if you have a 1-day listing that you started at 13:00 PT (1pm) on Saturday the 1st, it will end at 14:00 PT (2pm) on Sunday the 2nd.

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Marketing and Business Advice for Trading Assistants
This workshop will be held on Monday, April 3rd from 11:00 PT to 12:00 PT. Please join Daniel Nissanoff, prominent entrepreneur and author of the new bestselling book "FutureShop", as he discusses how eBay is creating an "auction culture" that will soon change the way consumers think about their possessions. Mr. Nissanoff believes that as more and more people gain easier access to eBay, we will start using our possessions more efficiently, trading up to newer things more frequently by selling our older things while they still have value. Join us to learn how Trading Assistants are uniquely positioned to take advantage of this development.

eBay and The Tax Man
This workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 5th from 10:00 PT to 11:00 PT. "What taxes do I need to pay for my eBay business?" This is one of the most common questions this time of year from sellers. Please join best-selling author and CPA Diane Kennedy as she explains how to organize your business to help lessen the tax impact. She'll also review other business taxes that may be relevant to your eBay business.

Sell Smarter Using Market Research
This workshop will be held on Thursday, April 6th from 10:00 PT to 11:00 PT. There are a variety of free and paid tools that eBay sellers can use to find out how long to list an item, what time of the day or week to end a listing, and how to increase their sell-through rate and total sales. Please join Sara Taheri and Dave Frey, Brand Managers from eBay Certified Provider Terapeak, as they walk you through a number of examples of research tools, show you how to use research in your sales strategies, and demonstrate how specific events and seasonal changes can result in sales spikes and interesting market trends on eBay.

Sourcing Products at Trade Shows
This workshop will be held on Friday, April 7th from 11:00 PT to 12:00 PT. In this workshop, Rebecca Shapiro, Artist & Creative Director of Pig and Panda, will discuss how to source products at trade shows, as well as how to organize yourself for success after the show. Join Rebecca as she offers tips for finding viable products, negotiating with vendors, and making the most of a great opportunity to expand your business.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Click on Community at the top of almost any eBay page
• Click on "Discussion Boards" in the "Connect" Section
• Click on "Workshops" underneath the category-specific boards on the right-hand side of the page
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshop Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops?
To make sure you never miss an important workshop topics, sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. Each notification will include the time and date, a brief description of the event, and a link to the discussion thread where the actual workshop will be held. To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.

You can also find out about other Community events by visiting the Community Calendar.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Each week, we'll select a winning guide based on its originality, thoroughness and visual appeal, and the author will receive $1,000 in eBay Gift Certificates to spend like cash on eBay purchases. To enter, all you need to do is write and submit your guide at Reviews & Guides between April 1 and June 9, 2006. Your entry is automatically entered into the contest for that week. There is no limit to the number of times you can win, so get started here.

In addition to potential prizes, writing reviews and guides is a great way to interact with other eBay members, share your opinions and expertise, and learn from other knowledgeable authors.

You can learn more about creating a Guide at http://reviews.ebay.com. For full contest details, please see our contest page.

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Call in to eBay Radio today, March 28, with your host Jim "Griff" Griffith, Dean of eBay University, live from 11:00am to 1:00pm PT. Guests this week include:

• Greg Cole, President of HammerTapNow.com, who will discuss how Reserve pricing affects sales.
• Skip McGrath, Author and Publisher of "The eBay Seller's News," who'll talk about how to maximize your eBay Store sales.
• Jason Miner, Paypal's Lead eBay University Instructor, who'll update you on the latest news and features from PayPal, and will answer all your PayPal questions.

Plus we'll have "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community. Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible."

If you can't catch the live show you can always select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives. And don't forget to tune in to our "Ask Griff" edition of eBay Radio on Sunday from 3:00pm to 5:00pm PT.

Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Attend the Selling Basics course if you’re just getting started and learn about:

• Basic selling techniques
• How to create listings
• How to accept online payments with PayPal, and more.

Attend Beyond the Basics of Selling to take your sales to the next level and learn:

• Advanced selling techniques
• How to market your eBay listings
• What selling tools will save you time and increase sales, and more.

Register online before 11:59pm PT on April 7th and bring a friend for free!

Event Details
April 8th, 2006
JW Marriott
5150 Westheimer
Houston, TX 77056

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Call in to eBay Radio today, March 26, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm PT for the "Ask Griff" eBay Radio Sunday Show with your host Jim "Griff" Griffith, Dean of eBay University. This two-hour Sunday edition of eBay Radio is dedicated entirely to your calls! Call in during the show toll-free at 888-327-0061 or 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff, ask a question or just share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community.

If you can't catch the live show you can always select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives. Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Soon you'll see a new section within My eBay called Past Purchases. Here you'll be able to quickly review your last 3 years of purchases, up to a maximum of 500 items. Also included will be links to easily:

• Find similar active items to bid on or purchase.
• Research similar Completed Items.
• Sell that item or one similar to it.

Once the Past Purchases section has been introduced, simply go to the All Buying or All Selling sections of My eBay to find it.

Sincerely,

Jenny Copson
eBay Product Management

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Dealing With Your Income Taxes
This workshop will be held on Monday, March 27th from 13:00 PT to 14:00 PT. Please join small business expert Cliff Ennico, popular eBay University instructor and host of the PBS television series "MoneyHunt," as he discusses business tax issues and online selling. Cliff will cover hot topics such as getting organized and taking business deductions. For newer sellers, he'll focus on how to turn a hobby into a business and deduct start-up costs. Come join Cliff as he answers your toughest tax questions and gives you the information you need to survive yet another tax season.

Getting Started With the New Version of Turbo Lister
This workshop will be held on Monday, March 27th from 15:00 PT to 16:00 PT. If you are currently using Turbo Lister to upload your listings to eBay, you'll want to join us for this workshop to learn about the all-new version of the popular listing tool. The Turbo Lister team will be here to explain the changes, get you set up to use the new and improved bulk listing tool, and answer your questions.

Predicting Market Performance with Auction Research
This workshop will be held on Wednesday, March 29th from 14:00 PT to 15:00 PT. In this workshop, Jen Cano, from Certified Solution Provider HammerTap, will take a close look at how auction research looks into the past to help you determine what is likely to happen within the market in the future. Then, using simple research techniques, she'll share some ways that you can put your competition's trials and errors to work for you.

eBay Marketplace Research: Picking your Price
This workshop will be held on Thursday, March 30th from 14:00 to 15:00 PT. Buying and selling are both driven by pricing decisions. What price are you willing to pay for the item? How much can you expect to sell your item for? Please join John Bodine for a discussion on picking prices and learn how you can use eBay Marketplace Research to be a more informed buyer or seller. During the workshop, we'll also analyze elements of listings (such as listing features used, day the listing closed, duration, etc.) from members who attend.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Click on Community at the top of almost any eBay page
• Click on "Discussion Boards" in the "Connect" Section
• Click on "Workshops" underneath the category-specific boards on the right-hand side of the page
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshop Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops?
To make sure you never miss an important workshop topics, sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. Each notification will include the time and date, a brief description of the event, and a link to the discussion thread where the actual workshop will be held. To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.

You can also find out about other Community events by visiting the Community Calendar.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Since Bill Cobb first announced that eBay Express would be coming this spring (read A Message from Bill Cobb posted in January), the eBay Express team has been gathering input from members. I'd like to update you on a few points that answer some of the top questions we've received.

Support for Sellers Using Checkout Redirect
If you currently use Checkout Redirect through eBay's API, you need to also use the new Checkout Integration API to have your listings be eligible for eBay Express (assuming you meet the other seller and item eligibility criteria). Buyers who purchase your items through eBay Express will go through the standard checkout process on eBay Express, instead of your custom process. Of course, if they buy from you on eBay.com, they'll be redirected to your custom checkout process as usual.

For more details, check out this post on our Developers Program blog. If you use a third-party service for your checkout process, please contact them to make sure they'll support this feature when it launches in early April.

Limited Canadian Support on eBay Express
Many Canadian sellers have asked whether they will be able to sell items through eBay Express at launch. You will, under certain conditions. If your item is physically located in and shipped from the United States, and your listing is on eBay.com, it will be eligible (again assuming you meet the other seller and item eligibility criteria).

Opt-Out Preference for eBay Express
eBay Express is designed so that sellers whose items qualify will automatically get this additional exposure by default. For sellers who would rather not receive this exposure, we've added an Opt-Out preference in My eBay. Go to your Selling Preferences within My eBay to remove your listings from eBay Express. If you opt out after eBay Express launches, your listings will disappear within a few hours. Also, you can always choose to opt in again later. (Please note that it may take up to 2 weeks for your items to appear in eBay Express after you have opted back in.)

To learn more about the categories that will be supported on eBay Express at launch, please refer to our earlier announcement. Also, as you prepare your listings for inclusion, make sure to check out our seller checklist here and review our updated FAQs.

Sincerely,

Chung Cheong
eBay Express Team

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Since their launch last September, the reviews and guides you’ve written have been very helpful to buyers doing research before they buy! And for sellers, they've helped you showcase your expertise and get some extra exposure for your listings and eBay Stores.

We're now making a few enhancements to Reviews & Guides to make them more visible to buyers looking for particular items. These include:

Product Ratings on Item Pages
When you list an item with our Pre-Filled Item Information feature, your listing is populated with basic, standard information about that item (such as Author and Publisher if you're listing a book). Starting this week, we'll also include two new pieces of information beneath this area: an "Average Rating" bar showing how other members rated that product, plus a "See Reviews" link that lets the buyer easily read what other members thought of it.

If you don't want this extra information to appear on your listings, you'll be able to opt out through the "Show product ratings on your listings, if available" option within your Seller Preferences in My eBay.

Coming in April -- Member Guides in Search
In mid-April, we'll be giving Reviews & Guides a huge boost by including them in search results! Up to four relevant member-written Guides that have been voted as helpful will be included in a "Related Guides" box on the left-hand side of the page when you search for an item. These will be in addition to any of the eBay-provided Guides that we display today.

We appreciate the Community support we've seen for Reviews & Guides, and we want to encourage you to keep on sharing with others through this area. For more details about Reviews & Guides, see our information page.

Sincerely,

Ryan Spoon
Reviews & Guides

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We're running a limited test
In the next few days, we're going to start displaying a few enhancements to a small group of users to test their effectiveness. A small, random percentage of buyers will start seeing some of these changes to the bidding/buying process:

• The seller's Gallery photo – If the seller chose to use Gallery, the picture will be displayed when the buyer goes to confirm their bid.

• Average Selling Price for Items with Pre-Filled Item Information — We'll display the average selling price for that item when the buyer’s bid is significantly below the average. This will only be included on items where the seller’s listing was created using Pre-Filled Item Information. (Items listed with the same Pre-Filled Item Information are close or identical products and can be compared to determine a reasonably accurate average price.)

• More education about bidding – We're putting more education on the "Place Bid" page, including a graphic demonstrating how the bidding system works.

• Warnings to prevent accidental Buy It Nows – Buyers sometimes purchase multiple items accidentally by hitting Buy It Now more than once. This warning will prompt them after they've bought the first item to make sure they really want to buy another.

The data from this test will help us plan how to proceed, and we'll keep you updated on any permanent changes we may decide to make.

Sincerely,

Scott Loper
Buyer Product Team

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This should be especially helpful when your buyer completes checkout for one item, and then decides they want to make more purchases from you. You'll soon be able to revise your original invoice to include the new purchases. Your buyer will then be able to go through Checkout again to pay for everything at once.

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Call in to eBay Radio today, March 21, with your host Jim "Griff" Griffith, Dean of eBay University, live from 11:00am to 1:00pm PT. Guests this week include:

• Darlene Clementz and Artemisa Saucedo from eBay Stores Marketing. They'll talk about the new eBay Stores enhancements that launched last week, and share news about the Best in Stores Contest.
• Lori Pretzer, Category Manager for Home & Garden, and Maria Aviles, Co-Host of "Real Moms, Real Stories, Real Savvy," who will talk about the eBay and Real Savvy Mom's Baby Dream Room Contest.
• Greg Isaacs, Director of the eBay Developers Program, and Steve Yeich, CEO of HostedSupport.com, who will discuss their product called ezSupport.

Plus we'll have "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community. Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible".

If you can't catch the live show you can always select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives. And don't forget to tune in to our "Ask Griff" edition of eBay Radio on Sunday from 3:00pm to 5:00pm PT.

Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Members can already use RSS to keep an eye on the Announcement Board, the eBay Discussion Boards, or listings from specific eBay Stores. This week we're adding RSS support to our eBay Search pages. With this enhancement you can create a custom RSS feed that will deliver the results of your eBay Search to you via any RSS reader. Since we are integrating the RSS support with our Advanced Search pages, you'll have complete control over how you narrow down your search.

To subscribe to a RSS feed, you'll need an RSS reader or aggregator to gather and view the updates. Several free and commercial RSS readers are available, and some examples can be seen here (provided by dmoz.org). Once you have an RSS reader, simply go to the bottom of any RSS-enabled page you are interested in, click on the RSS button, copy the URL from the page that opens, and paste it into your reader to display the content in RSS.

We're working to add RSS to other areas as well in the coming months, so stay tuned.

Sincerely,

Arturo Zacarias
Senior Product Manager, New Technologies

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Call in to eBay Radio today, March 19, from 3:00pm to 5:00pm PT for the "Ask Griff" eBay Radio Sunday Show with your host Jim "Griff" Griffith, Dean of eBay University. This two-hour Sunday edition of eBay Radio is dedicated entirely to your calls! Call in during the show toll-free at 888-327-0061 or 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff, ask a question or just share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community.

If you can't catch the live show you can always select and listen to any past eBay Radio broadcast, listed by topic and date, in the eBay Radio archives. Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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We would like to invite you to attend the following workshops:

The Benefits of Using the New Sell Your Item (SYI) Form
This workshop will be held on Monday, March 20th from 09:00 PT to 10:00 PT. A new SYI form is coming and we want to get your feedback. The new SYI form is shorter and more efficient for both new and experienced sellers, with new features like personalized tips, the ability to save a draft and a listing preview section. Join us to walk through these new features and more. In preparation for this workshop, give the new SYI form a try.

How to Build a Product Line that Will Keep Your Customers Coming Back Time & Time Again
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, March 21st from 11:00 PT to 12:00 PT. Please join Lisa Suttora, Founder and CEO of Certified Service Provider WhatDoISell.com, in a discussion on how to build a product line that will bring customers back to your eBay store time and time again to purchase more. Learn how to use Power of 10 Product Sourcing™ to drive repeat business and expand your sales.

eBay Marketplace Research: Building an Effective Title
This workshop will be held on Thursday, March 23rd from 14:00 PT to 15:00 PT. An effective title not only informs buyers about what you are selling, but will also draw in buyers who search for specific products and do not browse the items available within a category. During this workshop, we will learn to write more effective titles by looking at buyer behavior and top sellers' strategies. Attend the workshop and learn how eBay Marketplace Research can help you grow your business.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Click on Community at the top of almost any eBay page
• Click on "Discussion Boards" in the "Connect" Section
• Click on "Workshops" underneath the category-specific boards on the right-hand side of the page
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshop Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops?
To make sure you never miss an important workshop topics, sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. Each notification will include the time and date, a brief description of the event, and a link to the discussion thread where the actual workshop will be held. To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.

You can also find out about other Community events by visiting the Community Calendar.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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For more information about Store categories and the Custom Listing Frame, please click here.

Custom Categories Supported in Blackthorne (Not Seller's Assistant)
As announced, eBay will be retiring Seller's Assistant in mid-May. For this reason, the Store categories expansion feature is not available from the Seller's Assistant tool.

Sellers are able to create these categories with Blackthorne, however, the tool that replaces Seller's Assistant. Blackthorne is available, so if you use Seller's Assistant, I strongly recommend that you switch now. Plus if you migrate over this month, you'll get one month of Blackthorne for free! For more details, please see the recent Blackthorne announcement.

Sincerely,

Ryan Dieckmann
eBay Stores

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	***Original: eBay Stores Enhancements: Category Expansion and Custom Listing Frame***
	March 06, 2006 | 02:13PM PST/PT Ryan Dieckmann Hi everyone, I'm Ryan Dieckmann, Manager of eBay Stores, and I want to provide you with an update to two exciting developments for eBay Stores. Up to 300 Custom Stores Categories In Bill Cobb's letter in January, he mentioned that this year we would be expanding our Stores category navigation to enable sellers to create up to 300 custom categories with up to three levels of categories and sub-categories. We're planning to make this available within the next few weeks. As an eBay Store owner, how you set up your categories is totally up to you. For example, you could use your 300 categories to create all top-level categories, or you could create two or three levels of categories (e.g. 30 top-level categories with 5 subcategories each). This category expansion will allow you to create an extensive category structure that is tailored tfor the items you sell and how buyers browse for your products. New Custom Listing Frame That Highlights Your Category Structure Currently, the Custom Listing Header gives Stores sellers the ability to automatically display a special version of their eBay Store header at the top of all their item descriptions. Very soon, Store sellers will also be able to include most of their Store category navigation (essentially, the links on the left-hand side of your Store) as well. The combined options for displaying your Store header and category navigation in item descriptions will be called the Custom Listing Frame. Sellers will be able to "frame" their listing description with content and branding from their Store. The Custom Listing Frame will be a simple, effective way for sellers to help buyers discover the full range of items available. Sellers will be able to add this new navigation to their existing Custom Listing Header display in just a few clicks through Manage My Store. We're excited about these new features, and we hope you are, too. I'll be back with more information as we get closer to launch. Sincerely, Ryan Dieckmann eBay Stores
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Soon you will be able to access your three most recently added Favorite Searches directly from the home page. If you do not wish to see your Favorites, you can disable this functionality under the preferences section of My eBay. (This module will replace the existing Favorites navigation on the bottom of the home page.)

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• Number of Doors
• Interior Color
• Number of Cylinders
• Transmission
• Vehicle Warranty
• Vehicle Title and Condition
• Fuel Type

If you list items manually through an eBay seller tool (e.g. Sell Your Item form, Turbo Lister) or the eBay API, the updated Item Specifics will be available in the next few weeks. If you utilize a 3rd party listing service (e.g., Andale, Marketworks, etc.), please contact them to verify that they will update their Item Specifics in the Passenger Vehicle category.

For general information about Item Specifics and how to use them, please visit the Item Specifics overview page.

We have also started a thread on the eBay Motors discussion board to provide more detail about the upcoming changes. To access the discussion board thread please click here .

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You might recall that we recently made a few improvements to our Best Offer feature for Fixed Price listings on eBay Motors. In the next few days, we’re also going to expand the ways sellers can use Best Offer in the Jewelry and Watches categories. We want to see whether buyers and sellers find some of the expanded capabilities valuable in categories outside of eBay Motors. If so, we’ll look into extending them to other categories across the site. These expanded capabilities include:

Increased Number of Offers - Buyers in these categories will be able to make up to 3 offers per item (increased from one), making it easier to negotiate a price acceptable to both parties.

Counter-Offer – Sellers can respond directly to a Best Offer by either accepting the offer or by making a counter-offer.

Auto Decline Feature – Sellers can set a minimum Best Offer price that they will consider. All offers below that price will be declined automatically.

To learn more about Best Offer, please see our information page.

Sincerely,

Erik Rannala
Senior Manager, eBay Product Marketing