We would ask that buyers are patient during what is a difficult time for many sellers, and allow a little longer than you normally would for delivery. If you have any concerns about your delivery, please contact your seller directly to avoid confusion or disappointment.

We also ask sellers to take the initiative and contact buyers quickly if they think deliveries will be affected in any way by this unusual situation.

Regards
The eBay.co.uk Team

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We wanted to remind you about improvements we’re making to buyer protection on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie.

PayPal now provides £150/€200 of coverage for certain items, with no processing fee and no minimum purchase price.

Additionally, buyers who use PayPal to purchase items from eligible sellers may be entitled to up to £500/€1000 protection.

The protection offered by PayPal is an expansion of PayPal Buyer Protection and replaces the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Programme, which will be retired.

For further details, please read the announcement last month, and the PayPal Buyer Protection information. PayPal Buyer Protection Help is also available.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams

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	***Original: New and Improved Buyer Protection on eBay***
	08 June, 2007 | 12:43PM BST We wanted to remind you about improvements we’re making to buyer protection on eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie. PayPal now provides £150/€200 of coverage for certain items, with no processing fee and no minimum purchase price. Additionally, buyers who use PayPal to purchase items from eligible sellers may be entitled to up to £500/€1000 protection. The protection offered by PayPal is an expansion of PayPal Buyer Protection and replaces the eBay Standard Purchase Protection Programme, which will be retired. For further details, please read the announcement last month, and the PayPal Buyer Protection information. PayPal Buyer Protection Help is also available. Regards, The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams
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Regards,

The eBay.co.uk Team

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If you’re looking for a Credit Card that offers great rates, security benefits and the convenience and control to manage your account 24/7, check out the PayPal Credit Card.

Not only do you get 0% p.a. on Balance Transfers for 9 months (a 2.5% fee applies)*, 0% p.a. on purchases for 6 months** and a fantastic low rate of typical 12.9%APR variable, but with the PayPal Credit Card you get much more:

Take Control with Online Account Manager

The PayPal Credit Card has recently launched its brand new Online Account Manager service. It’s faster and easier to use than ever and provides maximum convenience allowing you to do everything from making payments to viewing your Online Statement, to changing your personal details at the touch of a button.

The PayPal Credit Card also comes with great protection benefits as standard including Identity Theft Assistance and an Internet Fraud Guarantee.

Get great rates, security and convenience. Get the PayPal Credit Card – Apply now for an instant decision.

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We wanted to draw your attention to the strike action that will disrupt Royal Mail services on Friday 29th June, starting at 3am.

Members who are trading around the time of the strike should bear in mind that payments and items being sent by post are likely to be delayed. If you think that the payment or item you are sending will be affected by the strike, it is advisable to inform the person you are trading with. If you are waiting for payment or delivery of an item, please be patient.

Further information on how postal services will be disrupted is available in the Royal Mail’s announcement.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk Team

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We are pleased to announce that we are making a number of category changes during the week beginning 16th July.

New Top Level Category: Local Services

New Level 2 Categories:

• Artistic & Photographic
  Moved from Photographic > Darkroom & Developing
• Babysitting
• Car & Vehicle
• Courier & Delivery Services
  Moved from Business, Office & Industrial > Business Services
• eBay Services
• Events & Parties
• Health & Beauty
• Tradesmen & Household
• IT/ Web/ Communication
• Nannies & Au Pairs
• Pet Related
• Professional & Business
  Moved from Business, Office & Industrial > Business Services
• Removals & Storage

Within the categories listed below in bold the Item Specifics feature has become firmly established and all sub-categories will be removed.

We will no longer ask sellers to input multiple sub-categories AND repeat the same information in the Item Specifics fields. Sellers will simply choose the main category, e.g. Baby Clothing and then Item Specifics, such as Size and Colour.

In addition, buyers will not be presented with both Matching Categories and a series of drop-down boxes (a ‘Finder’). Instead the more complete and flexible ‘Finders’ will be the only refinement choice. Besides making the page clearer, the ‘Finders’ allow buyers to simultaneously search by multiple criteria such as size and colour.

Books, Comics & Magazines > Antiquarian Books (Pre-1940)

Books, Comics & Magazines > Children’s Books

Books, Comics & Magazines > Fiction Books

Books, Comics & Magazines > Non-Fiction Books

Music > CDs

Once the changes have taken place you will be able to see the new and changed category IDs on the All Categories Page.

We would like to thank all the members who took the time to contribute the thousands of ideas and suggestions that have helped to shape these changes.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Team

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eBay for Charity
eBay for Charity (known as "Giving Works" in the US) came under the spotlight, with the announcement that the programme would be extended to other eBay markets over the next couple of years.

Since it was launched in the UK in early 2006, almost 2,000 charities have signed up for eBay for Charity, including Comic Relief, BBC Children in Need and the NSPCC, while hundreds of UK charity shops and the community use the eBay for Charity platform to raise much-needed cash. The UK and US charity teams have been working together closely on improving the platform, and we’re looking forward to announcing changes that will make it easier than ever before to raise money for charity.

eBay to Go
Members in the US have already heard of "eBay to Go", a tool designed to enable eBay users to show people their listings on places other than eBay. Like the eBay Mozilla Companion we recently co-launched, it’s another fun way of broadcasting the eBay experience. This will soon be available in the UK, so watch this space for more news.

And more ...
We’re proud of the great progress we’ve made in improving the eBay.co.uk homepage over the last year, making it clearer and easier to use while still keeping the uniqueness that marks eBay out from the crowd. There were some fun innovations launched at eBay Live! for US buyers and Sellers on a similar theme.

One of these concerned "Visual Navigation", a new way of finding items on eBay.com. Initial tests have proved successful and this will be extended to all eBay users in America in the coming months. We will start trials with a few UK and IE users in September.

US sellers now have the ability to put videos in their listings for items for sale on eBay.com. This is something we are watching very closely from the UK and Ireland, with a view to seeing whether it will work here.

Finally, we are constantly working to keep the marketplace as vibrant as possible – whether reducing Final Value Fees in technology categories and Insertion Fees in the media category, or pioneering the eBay Seller Rewards Programme, which has been enthusiastically received by thousands of sellers – and we look forward to updating you with further news in the next several months.

There are a host of other things in the pipeline that will make it easier and more fun than ever to use eBay.co.uk. In the meantime, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for helping to make the marketplace the liveliest place in the world to buy and sell online.

Regards
The eBay.co.uk & eBay.ie teams

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My World is an updated profile page that complements your About Me page. It brings together many features already available on eBay to help you build a page that reflects you and your interests.

In addition to the features we announced in March, we’re bringing you:

1. New My World main page
   A new My World page featuring clickable My World avatars and the most popular tags members use to describe themselves.
2. Guestbooks
   Chat with other members by posting comments and conversations on My World pages.
3. New themes
   Six new colour schemes to help customise your My World Page.

Visit myworld.ebay.co.uk or myworld.ebay.ie to find out more.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams

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Sellers who list one or more items in an eligible category using the Auction-style format will pay a reduced 10 pence Insertion Fee per item they list.

What are you waiting for? Get selling this Thursday!

Terms and conditions apply.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk Team

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This is due to PayPal moving its data centre to a new location, which will require approximately two hours of downtime. Merchants, eBay sellers, and buyers, on and off eBay, will be unable to pay for items, print labels, view Account History, etc. during this time. A message will appear on the PayPal site to alert our customers of this scheduled upgrade.

We appreciate your support and understanding.

Regards,

PayPal Operations Team

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Sellers will notice that once 2 hours have passed after the start time of their listing, the ability to change their listing’s duration will be removed from the Sell Your Item form, Turbo Lister, and any third-party tools which use our API. We have kept a 2-hour window available so that sellers will still have the opportunity to correct the duration of their listing if they discover they have listed their item with the wrong duration.

We are making this change to support the important policy change we made earlier this year, limiting the practice of extending the duration of an Auction-style format listing. Auction-style format listing duration extensions disrupt normal bidding patterns, creating a poor buyer experience. Some sellers were also using this ability to gain an advantage for their Auction-style format listings in terms of exposure on the site.

For more details, please read our Fee Circumvention policy.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams

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What have you got in your home that people might want to buy?

Get selling this weekend!

Terms and conditions apply.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk team

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My name is Matt, and I am the Events and Education Manager at eBay.co.uk. I wanted to let you know that eBay University is coming to London at the Business Design Centre, Islington this coming Saturday, 9th June 2007.

eBay University is a chance to learn about eBay, meet eBay staff and network with other sellers. For full course details and to book a place, click here.

On the day we’ll have a whole host of classes for you to choose from, on all sorts of eBay topics, ranging from Search Engine Optimisation to Marketing strategies. We also have the ‘Basics’ course which is ideal for beginners who want to master the basics of eBay selling. Tutors on the day are PowerSellers and eBay Staff, and there will also be sessions delivered by tutors from the Institute of Business Advisers.

If you can’t join us in London, don’t worry - eBay University will be visiting Glasgow and Manchester before the end of the year.

Find out more about eBay University here.

Regards,

Matt
Events and Education, eBay.co.uk

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Classified Ad listings give eBay sellers a way to list items and services to generate multiple leads or potential buyers.

While the Classified Ad listing format does not enable buyers and sellers to complete transactions through eBay, our listing policies still apply in order to maintain our members’ trust and the legitimacy of the eBay marketplace.

We have published a Classified Ad policy to help clarify listings and listing methods that are not permitted in Classified Ads. The policy includes examples of listings to enable our members to use the Classified Ad format effectively.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams

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Where Item Specifics have been introduced, sellers see an increase in sales. Buyers can refine their searches quickly, and Item Descriptions are more detailed and clearly structured.

Sellers can choose whether to include Item Specifics in their listing, and buyers can choose whether or not to use them in search.

Item Specifics are now available in the following categories:

Antiques > Antique Furniture
Baby > Baby Changing & Nappies
Baby > Baby Feeding
Baby > Nursery Decoration & Furniture
Baby > Safety > Monitors
Baby > Toys & Activities > Soft Toys
Cars, Parts & Vehicles > Automobilia
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories > Clothing & Shoe Care
Coins > Share Certificates/Bonds
Collectables > Animation > Animation Characters
Collectables > Phone Cards
Collectables > Transportation > Underground
Collectables > Vanity/Perfume/Grooming > Combs/Brushes
Computing > Apple/Macintosh > Accessories
Computing > Drives/Storage > Floppy Drives
Computing > Drives/Storage > USB/Pen/Key/Flash Drives
Computing > Services
Consumer Electronics > DJ Equipment > Lighting, LEDs & Strobes
Consumer Electronics > DJ Equipment > Smoke Machines & Atmospherics
Consumer Electronics > Home Audio/Hi Fi > Speakers: Hi Fi
Consumer Electronics > Radio Equipment
Consumer Electronics > TV Accessories > Aerials
Crafts > Cardmaking & Scrapbooking
Crafts > Ceramic & Pottery Making
Crafts > Leathercraft
Health & Beauty > Bath & Body
Health & Beauty > Dieting/Slimming
Health & Beauty > Hair Care > Salon Equipment
Health & Beauty > Tattoos/Body Art
Home & Garden > Bathroom > Sinks
Home & Garden > Dining Room > Table Linens
Home & Garden > Living Room Furniture
Home & Garden > Stationery & School Equipment
Mobile & Home Phones > Mobile Phone Data Cables
Musical Instruments > Pro Audio/Equipment > Microphones
Musical Instruments > Pro Audio/Equipment > Midi/Audio Interfaces
Musical Instruments > Pro Audio/Equipment > Recorders/ Rewriters
Photography > Film Camera Accessories > Batteries
Photography > Tripods & Supports
Sporting Goods > Camping
Sporting Goods > Cricket
Sporting Goods > Running & Athletics > Counters/Pedometers/Monitors
Sporting Goods > Sailing
Toys & Games > Electronic Pets

For more information about Item Specifics, please refer to the Item Specifics help.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk Team

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Next week we will begin to remove the Home Page Featured option from the eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie websites. We are doing this as part of our ongoing efforts to keep the home page as relevant and useful as possible for all our members.

The removal of the Home Page Featured option will take place in two stages:

Stage One:

• We will remove the featured item option from the Sell Your Item form and from Turbo Lister.
• Third-party applications attempting to submit Home Page Featured items will receive error messages informing them that the option is not available.

Stage Two:

• We will remove the Home Page Featured section from the home page.

The removal from the Home Page will take place after an appropriate period of time to allow current listings on the Home Page Featured option to end.

Scheduled advance listings will have the Home Page Featured option removed prior to the listing appearing on the site. Sellers will not be billed for using the option.

Regards,

The eBay.co.uk and eBay.ie Teams

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