10 Counts Of Wire Fraud

The matter is obviously still ongoing but in short Shawn was accused of cookie stuffing, a technique that is considered illegal and more so immoral. Adding to the problems the FBI in July 2010 indicted him on 10 counts of wire fraud and criminal forfeiture.

This is a guy who was not only at one piont making over $1,000,000 per month from the eBay affiliate program but was even featured in Wired magazine for his courageous stand and victory against the RIAA just 2 years prior. This guy was hailed as a hero and to many he’s a role model for internet success. So what exactly is going on here!

Shawn’s Comments

For many this issue is old and forgotten but Shawn recently posted his own view and perspective on the whole clash and it’s in an interesting read to say the least. I’ve always been a Shawn Hogan supporter but after reading his own account taken from his blog, I have to say some serious questions come to mind.

For example buying the affiliate manager a $50,000 car and other accessories is not normal in any circle. It’s always going to look like a bribe especially when you’re insisting you were doing things illegally in the first place. And yes that’s even if you claim eBay was asking you to do things illegally which also sounds even more bizarre.

During the lengthy account another problem area for me is his insistance that he wanted to get out. He kept saying that he felt pressurized into staying with the program but for a guy who many respected for standing up to the bullies (e.g. RIAA case) why would he be bullied into staying on a program which he was free to leave at any time. Maybe the real reason was simply that turning down the millions of dollars he was making was simply too difficult to do.

Make Up Your Own Mind

Other questions have come to mind but for now I will keep silent on them. For now take a read of his own blog account and come to your own conclusions.

On a parting note however, I will say is that this whole fiasco is no laughing matter for eBay or Shawn as both sides stand to lose a lot of money and reputation. If found guilty it could mean serious fines and for Shawn that could even extend to some serious prison time.

The Code is: CHOLIDAYNOV2008

It will give you 10% off up to $100 and is effective from now until November 30, 2008.

If you got it in your eBay account or your email, now is a good time to take advantage of the program and pick up some Christmas gifts early. Every little bit of savings is going to help this holiday season. Hopefully, there will be a eBay/Paypal coupon code for December and the Holiday season 2008.

Upon signing up, you do have to give them your credit card information so that they have something to charge to when you decide to subscribe. Of course, the most important part of a service that purports to be a dropshipper for eBay is their pricing. Blah. In 90% of the items I looked at, the price on Doba was at least 10% higher than the highest sale price on eBay. Higher. Not a good sign. Did I mention that they are a eBay preferred service. Yep, they are certified by eBay and even did promotions at eBay live.

Unless they suddenly became so popular that every one used them and then the market for everything they sell dropped out from under them, they have never been that useful for eBay sellers. You’d think that eBay would filter a few of these parasites from the market. They lure in unsuspecting people who want an easy way to sell things on eBay and then when they can’t find anything, they end up paying for a month or more of the service. The service, if you don’t cancel within the 7 days is $39.99 a month.

What made me pull the ad, besides the fact that it’s a useless service (in my opinion), is the fact that while they are perfectly comfortable with taking your name, address, phone number, and credit card information through a internet form, you can only cancel your account by calling their customer service phone line. They state it is because of security issues. Um… if you’re worried about the security of your site, why are you taking my credit card information through your site? It’s a bullshit tactic to get me to A)not call, forget about it, and end up paying for a few months, or B)call, then have them try and upsell me to stick around and pay for a few months.

Either way, it’s a poor business practice and only ads to their parasitic nature. Avoid Doba like the plague.

P.S. if you have experience with Doba, please leave a comment or send us an email through our contact form. We’d love to hear them and we might just publish a few (with permission of course).

[tags]doba,dropship,dropshipper,product,ebay[/tags]

According to the email, anyone who takes the survey by August 1st, 2007 will be entered into a drawing for a $75 eBay gift certificate. The student also notes that the deadline may be extended based on the number or replies to the survey that she gets.

It’s a quick survey, and it gets you entered into a drawing for a $75 eBay coupon, so why not give it a go?

[tags]ebay,coupon,gift certificate,drawing,survey[/tags]

What could have turned into a bit of a disappointment for a reader has turned into a bit of a boon for many who decided to sell the error copies on eBay. Many of the copies are going for $40 or $50 with some raising up to over $100. The Harry Potter Misprints seem to mostly consist of missing pages, but there are also a couple that seem to be missing the gilding on the dust-jacket and even one that is bound upside down and backwards.

If the percentages were a little better, you could make a little money by buying them on Amazon and selling on eBay, but I think that sounds like a losing proposition to me. Especially if you have no way to get your money back out of the normal ones.

[tags]harry potter,deathly hallows,hp 7,misprint,error[/tags]

Seller Membership Eligibility

PeSA Seller Membership is open to all active eBay sellers who meet any TWO (2) of the following criteria (multiple User IDs may be combined):

eBay sales (Gross Merchandise Value) of $25,000 per month.
eBay fees (Listing plus Final Value Fees) of $1,500 per month.
500 positive feedbacks in the past 30 days.

Wow. By elite, I really meant super elite. Don’t apply unless you’re a super duper powerseller. Where’s the association for the common seller? The seller who’s a hobby seller, or isn’t a professional seller. What about the sellers who only sell $1000 a month? Are they any less influential to the eBay community?

All the PeSA will accomplish in the long run is to make the eBay seller community even more closed to the part time sellers. The part time sellers who make the core of the eBay community and are responsible for the success of the site as a whole. Oh, and membership in PeSA? It’s not free. It’ll set you back $199 a year. Not horrible, but certainly a bit exorbitant.

[tags]ebay,pesa,sellers,ebay sellers[/tags]

The scrapbook contained more than 40 “congratulations on the birth of baby” cards, a list of gifts received, receipts from the hospital, birth announcements from the Crescent-News and Cecil Cyclone, Easter cards, Christmas gift cards and first birthday cards.

In the middle of the book was a detailed and chronological diary of baby Billy Mack’s first year of life.

Of course, it wouldn’t be so easy as to just bid on it. The item had already been sold. After contacting the person who bought the book on eBay, Bill was able to get his hands on the book that was started over 65 years ago. It seems that it had been missing from their family for about 20 or so years.

Incredible the things you can find on eBay!

[tags]ebay,baby book,lost items[/tags]

More than 10 dot-coms have recently sought buyers on the popular auction site. Search engine DigForIt.com sold for $25,400 this month after promising bidders “great revenue potential.” SynapseLife, an online calendar and organizational site, sold for $60,000 despite warning it had “no advertising revenue.”

It’s an increasing trend and with the ease and speed that some of these internet companies are popping up, not necessarily surprising. Previously, when a company wasn’t making a good go of it, they sold out to another big company privately or went bankrupt. Now, with the power of eBay, they can offer themselves up publicly and for an auction format.

[tags]ebay,liquidate,web 2.0,company[/tags]

Giving the higher tiers and their respective payouts, it just makes for a better reason to sign up and use the Auctionads service. All the affiliates through the Auctionads service use one affiliate account for eBay and as a result, you benefit from the combination of all the affiliates sales and sign ups to gain a higher payout tier no matter how much you actually do in sales and sign ups. I haven’t seen any hard numbers on the totals that are running through the auctionads service, but if I had to guess, I would put it at least in the mid-range tiers.

You can sign up for the eBay affiliate program through CJ.com if you want to be independent or through the Auction ads site if you want to take advantage of the benefits of the affiliate masses.

[tags]ebay,ebay affiliate,cj.com,auctionads[/tags]

So far, the states of Virginia and Washington seem to be leading the race with 7 of the top 10 cities and Falls Church, Virginia in the lead. The winning town gets a $5,000 gift certificate for a Amazon chosen charity that serves the community. Sounds like a pretty good reason to buy a pre-order a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if your town is in the race.

[tags]amazon,harry potter,deathly hallows,harry-est town[/tags]