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Quote:While not official, we've heard from credible sources that eBay is doing away with its Live Auctions platform. This is the area on eBay where auction houses advertise and run their auctions in "real time." Not only do they get traffic and bidders on eBay, it adds an Internet-bidding component to their real-life auctions (just as some bidders phone in their bids to live auctions).

With enormous changes rolling out at eBay over the past year, particularly with the January 29th announcements, many eBay sellers have been feeling that the company is trying to boot out small sellers and that it favors commodity items rather than collectibles. Killing off Live Auctions may be seen by sellers as one more sign that this is the case...

full article: http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blo...21221.html

The official announcement:

Quote:***A Message from Jim Ambach – Live Auction Format Being Retired End of 2008***

Hi everyone...As of December 31, 2008, eBay will no longer offer eBay Live Auctions. As we work to improve the buying and selling experiences which you've heard our leaders talk about – including significant investments in Trust & Safety and customer support – we need to make sure our resources are aligned with our priorities. In the case of Live Auctions, maintaining and improving this platform falls outside our immediate focus, and will, therefore, be retired at the end of the year.

Many members may not be aware of Live Auctions – these are differentiated listings linked to physical or virtual auction houses, and moderated by a live auctioneer. Furthermore, these listings are not subject to a specific end time; Live Auctions conclude when there are no further bids.

Before I continue, let's be clear: eBay will continue to offer auction-style listings which constitute the majority of items on eBay.com.

Over the years, eBay partnered with a very small number of service providers who in turn worked directly with the live auction houses to supply merchandise and auctioneers for eBay Live Auctions. In addition, several hundred sellers list their items directly using the Live Auction format.

This announcement will represent a significant change for the small number of partners, buyers, and sellers involved with Live Auctions, which is why we're giving eight months notice. We've been in touch with each of our service provider partners, and between now and the end of this year, we'll continue to work with our Live Auction partners and sellers to ensure a smooth and seamless termination of this aspect of our business.

I won't shed a tear.



(((ETA)))

I received this news from Kovel's Comments newsletter this morning.