Star Trek’s Spock Ears for Sale on eBay

With a title of “Original Leonard Nimoy Spock Ears From Star Trek”, this item has a guide price of $2,500 to $3,500. The full description is paraphrased below.

A pair of original prosthetic Vulcan ears worn by Leonard Nimoy during the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series (NBC-TV, 1966-69).

Original flesh-colored latex Vulcan ears, worn by Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock during the first season of this classic sci-fi series. Each measures approx. 2 in. long, and were affixed to the top of Nimoy's ears to create his signature "Vulcan" appearance.

The ears come with an original call sheet from the episode "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (the episode in which Nimoy wore these ears), as well as a Desilu transmittal envelope.

This is probably one of the more unusual items we’ve learned about for sale on eBay. So for anyone interested in looking at the photograph of this item just enter the item ID 6518745496 in the search eBay link

Online Auctions in India Set for Huge Growth

The online retail market in India is growing at around 60% annually mostly fuelled by auction sites such as the former BaaZee. eBay took over the local India based BaaZee in August last year and is busily integrating the acquisition into the global eBay portal.

Apparently Online retail in India is no longer only about buying flowers and gifts. Giving up the touch and feel experience of shopping for the speed and convenience of buying from home, is what many Indians are quickly getting used to. BaaZee, now eBay.in is used to sell phones, IT products and jewellery as well as a wide range of other domestic and imported items.

Besides the convenience factor, many Indian retailers are finding that by cutting down on the selling and distribution costs, they can offer branded products including cosmetics, jewellery and consumer electronics products between 7% and 30% cheaper than in their own retail outlets.

Given that the cost of living in India is around one tenth of the USA and Western Europe, this increasing trend towards selling Indian sourced products on the world market through “buy it now” and auctions like eBay mean that fantastic bargains can be had.

But there is still an issue at the moment with eBay since items listed on eBay.in do not automatically show on eBay.com eBay.uk etc unless an international search is performed. Since most eBay buyers browse or search by default within their own country sites this means that many eBay.in sellers are registering directly with local countries to make their items more easily visible.

Will India use eBay and similar online shopping and auction portals to massively boost its’ export sales direct to the global consumer marketplace – probably the answer over the coming 1 or 2 years is a resounding yes!

Patent at Center of eBay Law Suit Revoked

In September 2001, MercExchange Inc sued eBay for $25 million. On March 16 this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that eBay’s fixed price auctions (otherwise known as Buy it Now) and some of its online payment methods, violated a patent originally obtained by MercExchange.

eBay was ordered to pay some $25 million and as a result of the court ruling, eBay could have received an order blocking it from using some of the functions in Buy it Now features.

But now the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has apparently made an initial finding to revoke the patent. eBay has always maintained the patents were not valid, and now the Patent Office seems to be in agreement.

If the Patent Office maintains its position of invalidity even after hearing from MercExchange, then the court case would be dismissed.So it looks like the fixed price Buy it Now feature will continue to be on eBay for the long term as an alternative to auction bidding.

Don’t Just Sell Your Collectibles on eBay Sell Your Name Too!

Mother of five Terri Iligan put her name up for sale on eBay and received bids. Terri sold her name to the Internet site Golden Palace Casino for $15,199.

She will be officially named goldenpalace.com once due legal process is completed.

Finding out how much it would cost to send one of her children to a golf school attended by Tiger Woods gave her the idea.

But apparently to her kids and to her husband she will always still be known as Terri. Her husband seems to be really supportive. Seemingly he thinks it's all very funny and presumably getting over $15,000 from the eBay sale helps quite a lot too!

Even if you don’t want to sell your name but you do want great bargains on everything from iPods and MP3 to cosmetics and makeup – have a look at some of the listings on eBay.

Dan Wilson's Recent Book - Make Money on eBay UK

Dan Wilson's recent book - Make Money on eBay UK - is a super example of a simple step-by-step “how to do it” manual that really helps people new to eBay understand how the whole thing works and how to avoid any pitfalls.

For those more experienced eBayers, Dan's book provides valuable insights and tips on ramping up sales and becoming an eBay PowerSeller

Make Money on eBay UK has a normal RRP of £9.99. The ISBN number is 1-85788-352-7

Free guides for eBay buyers and sellers are also available.

House Sales Appear on eBay

The range of things people buy and sell on eBay continues to grow. Apparently, Roy and Kathy Bolar are selling their Maryville house for around $74,000.

The 10 day listing has cost $100 – much less expensive than selling through the usual channels and probably reaching a much wider audience of potential buyers too.

So don’t just think of eBay as a great place to get bargains on cosmetics, clothes and jewellery – it seems that almost anything can be bought and sold on eBay.

We’ve got some free eBay buyer and seller guides but I think we need to update them now to include real estate!

Dan Wilson – eBay Community Manager

Dan Wilson is a Community Manager at eBay.co.uk and has worked for the company since it was established in 1999. He is also a tutor at eBay University.

His recent book – Make Money on eBay UK - is a super example of a simple step-by-step “how to do it” manual that really helps people new to eBay understand how the whole thing works and how to avoid the many pitfalls. Without giving any of Dan’s secrets away, he includes features on: –

‘Register on eBay and find items to buy with confidence’

‘Hunt for bargains and save money on everyday purchases’

‘Construct the perfect eBay listing to attract buyers and maximise your sales’

Free eBay buyers and sellers guides are also available.

Bargain Spring Cleaning with eBay

Who doesn’t want to take a fresh look at getting rid of all the household and garden clutter in spring? Whether it’s to find room for new garden tools or simply to raise cash to buy spring collections of makeup, clothes or sunglasses – eBay is a great place to sell and to buy.

But for those people without the time or inclination to look after the logistics of selling their old collectibles a San Francisco company is now sending its' specialists to peoples’ own homes to assess their belongings and auction them on eBay.

Naturally the company charges a fee for this service – but what a nice easy way to have a spring clear-out and get some money for a relaxing online shopping session – all without having to leave the house. More time for spring cleaning and cutting the grass!

Is eBay the Right Horse to Back?

Over the last few months, eBay has received some criticism for increasing its scale of charges to sellers. But most eBayers agree there is no better horse to back when it comes to ultimately getting the best bargains for buyers and the largest marketplace for sellers.

As if to prove the point they are leading the race as the foremost online shopping and online auction company on the internet, eBay has sponsorship of the £20,000 horse race, the Ayr Handicap Hurdle in its listings with bidding opening at £500.

With other online auction companies also in the race for market share of everything from bargain cosmetics and makeup to MP3 and iPods, you can bet that eBay will be doing everything it can to stay well ahead of the field.

Music to Your Ears? Screaming Adverts Sold on eBay

Last month, an advertising professional used eBay to sell the rights to his voice to a well known maker of throat lozenges.

The winning bidder for $750 was Halls Fruit Breezers and for that sum, British born Floyd Hayes agreed to shout the brand name at passers by in New York for a whole week. Apparently a lot of New Yorkers shouted back – although what they shouted isn’t mentioned.

Couldn’t find any reference either about how successful this advertising campaign was, but maybe Floyd would be available to help publicise eBay auctions for a reasonable price – assuming free lozenges were provided to sooth his aching throat!

I guess the problem would be writing the script for Floyd since there are hundreds of different auction categories with items for sale on eBay. He wouldn’t just have to shout “Halls” – anyone care to take a search through the eBay categories and let me know what humorous eBay items we could maybe suggest Floyd shouts to New Yorkers if he decides to sell his voice again?

Serious Stuff - eBay Takes Over India’s Top Online Auction

BaaZee is India’s equivalent of eBay with over 1m users. eBay acquired BaaZee in August ’04 and the name changed to eBay.in this week (22 Mar ‘05).

So what? - you’re thinking. Well, if you already use eBay to find bargains in your own country you really need to look at what you can get in India for really really low prices. Cost of living there is about one tenth USA and Western Europe so even allowing for postage there are some incredible bargains to be got.

But here’s the catch. Unless you do an eBay international search for specific descriptions, items on eBay.in don’t show up. So if like me a lot of your eBay shopping is done browsing through categories you won’t find the bargains from India.

If you do decide to look at eBay.in their main auction categories are Apparels & Accessories, Bollywood Costumes, Books & Magazines, Cameras & Optics, Cars & Bikes, Computers & Peripherals, Consumer Electronics, Fitness and Sports, Health & Beauty, Home, Tools & Appliances, Jewellery & Watches, Mobiles & Accessories, Movies & Videos, Music & Instruments, Services & Real Estate, Stamps, Coins & Hobbies, Toys & Games, Travel, Tickets & Vouchers and Video Games.

But eBay.in doesn’t yet seem to have portals like eBay Motors, eBay Collectibles (or eBay Collectables if you’re in the UK) so maybe that’s coming by June ‘05 when eBay say the global integration will be complete.

What a number of smart India based sellers have done to get their items easily visible across the world is register directly on eBay.com, eBay.uk etc. and are not just making a bit of money but (in relative terms for India) an absolute fortune selling their stuff globally. Good luck to them!

I think eBay is a great place to be – like anything else in life there are some things to watch out for, but a heck of a lot of fun (and money) to be made or saved. What does everyone else think?

eBay – the World’s Marketplace for Weird Stuff!

Bigfoot Bids on eBay to be Maid of Honour?

To kick off this blog on all things to do with eBay, thought it might be fun to look at a couple of the weird things people try to sell – sometimes successfully – sometimes not – on eBay.

Apparently, a “Hairy Man” (Bigfoot maybe?!) is bidding on eBay for maid-of-honour duties at the wedding of a young bride-to-be in Alberta, Canada.

Presumably, the young lady had either run out of local friends or decided offering the role for sale on eBay was a novel way to raise money so her best friend could make the trip from Ontario to be maid-of-honour.

I searched on eBay for this "Bigfoot" item but couldn’t find it – maybe it’s just one of those eBay myths? – anyone else had any luck?

“Holy Pan for Sale on eBay at $20,000”

Last year a Florida woman sold a grilled cheese sandwich she says had an image of the Virgin Mary on it.

Now she’s offering to sell the frying pan that made the sandwich - bids over $20,000 were made but didn’t reach the reserve price!

Did a search for this one too (just enter “holy pan” in the eBay search) but found a different frying pan (in Australia this time) also with a curious image burnt into it. Bids had only reached $26 but all proceeds are for International Red Cross so it’s in a good cause.

Anyone got any weird or funny stories about stuff people sell on eBay (but please remember to keep it relatively clean – thanks)