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1.  

   But...

   

   Ed, Jun 27th, 2002 @ 9:36am

   
   

   As I understand it, if you buy sports memorabilia at a real live auction, the auctioneer is required to vouch for the authenticity of the items (in California, at least). And despite eBay's position that they're 'just a venue', it sure seems like they're running auctions and taking commissions to me.
   
   I'll bet that eBay's legal position has something to do with why the word 'auction' is actually pretty hard to find on their site. In a cursory search I found only one place where that word was actually used by eBay (search by seller and sort by 'auction end date'). Everywhere else they are careful to use generic terms like seller and item.

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2.  

   Re: But...

   

   Mike (profile), Jun 27th, 2002 @ 9:45am

   
   

   True. But, the difference is that at a live auction, the auctioneer has the chance to actually review the material and see it. That's not the case for eBay. They're not actually acting as the "auctioneer" in a typical sense, in that they never see the merchandise, and no one at eBay has anything to do with the actual transaction.

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3.  

   Re: But...

   

   Ed, Jun 27th, 2002 @ 10:48am

   
   

   That would be ok for eBay if all they did was accept a flat fee for listing an item, but because they take a commission based on a percentage of the selling price, they make more money for higher priced items, so they could be providing some service in return for the higher fee.

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