"Today, auctions are a smaller portion of ecommerce than they were in 2001, and even on eBay they are a dwindling . . . [t]hey now account for just 31 percent of all sales on the site and are no longer at the heart of the company’s business model."

Why have internet auctions fallen out of favour?
posted by Jasper Friendly Bear on Jun 15, 2011 - 108 comments

You talked to her father, prepared a YouTube worthy proposal, gathered all your courage.... and she said no. How will your life go on? And what are you going to do with the ring? Enter I Do... Now I Don't, an auction site that caters to broken-hearted lovers such as you. Started by a fellow who has been there. Buy if you dare. Via
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Feb 26, 2008 - 19 comments

eSellout.com : Freaky Things for Sale on eBay. From Your business on my chest, A very normal 1998 red VW Beetle with a long story, A potato that looks like the cartoon character Arthur, A mohawk toupee, Someone selling his dreams, but not in the way you might think, A very unique tomato and many, many more.
posted by psmealey on Sep 8, 2007 - 11 comments

Crazy Eddie. His prices were in-sane! After a failed attempt to revive the home electronic brand known for wacky commercials, the name is being auctioned off on eBay.
posted by Yakuman on Jul 4, 2006 - 27 comments

Look at eBay from a different angle. eBay Pulse shows the most 10 most popular search terms, as well as the 10 most 'watched' items on the auction site for any category, including the weird ones. Updated daily.
posted by crunchland on Mar 20, 2005 - 10 comments

Tired of EBay scams? Think EBay is a haven for criminals? Maybe you ought to surf on over to MormonBid.com.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Feb 7, 2005 - 19 comments

Friday Ebay Feedback Madness
posted by Frasermoo on Sep 17, 2004 - 53 comments

Buy Douglas Adams' tent What I really want is his towel.
posted by feelinglistless on Apr 27, 2004 - 16 comments

EBay in patent dispute. EBay is currently involved in a patent dispute with someone who claims to have patented the idea of online auctions in 1995. EBay believes it has found prior art in a USENET post from 1994.
posted by CrunchyFrog on Sep 30, 2002 - 7 comments

NASA scavenges on eBay for old parts for Space Shuttle [NYT link-reg req] The Space Shuttle is so old that many of the parts for it are no longer being made. NASA has been reduced to buying old equipment on eBay to scavenge for circuit boards and old CPUs.
posted by geneablogy on May 12, 2002 - 10 comments

What will people auction-off next? And what ever happened to that person who said he would post a link on MeFi for the high-bidder? Did the post ever go up? Was it worth it? Totally slow newsday.
posted by tsarfan on Dec 3, 2001 - 14 comments

Bid Now! Six more days left if you're looking for someone to beat the living crap out of you. C'mon. You know you want to.
posted by jcterminal on Sep 23, 2001 - 11 comments

Some guy is pissed at eBay for what he (rightly?) considers stealing his business.
posted by Spanktacular on Jun 30, 2001 - 5 comments

The funniest thing I've seen in many a moon. Want to find crazy crap on eBay? Don't waste your prescious time, Disturbing Auctions has done it for you!

This for the golfer in the family.

This for the hawaii-bound honeymooners.

This for... I don't know.
posted by o2b on May 14, 2001 - 19 comments

You're the world's number one Web destination, responsible for 40% of Internet traffic. You've been making money from advertising for years, but you know that you need to diversify your revenue streams. You run a popular auction site with over 2.8 million listings, but the only money it generates is from ads. The number one site in the auction space charges fees, so why can't you? You come up with fees that are lower than your competitor, and implement them. And then, over the next six weeks, the number of listed items on your site falls 86%. What went wrong?
posted by tranquileye on Feb 16, 2001 - 13 comments

20yr old sells soul on eBay for $400 For the auction listing, he displayed a picture of himself wearing an "I'm with stupid" T-shirt.
posted by ritualdevice on Feb 9, 2001 - 9 comments

Everything's a collectible... on eBay, anyway.
posted by milnak on Nov 14, 2000 - 1 comment

Buy My Vote!!! Obviously a statement or joke, this could spell trouble for the involved party. I had the original URLs for eBay, but can't seem to find them now :-(
posted by da5id on Aug 17, 2000 - 6 comments

Mach 5 (yes, that Mach 5) now for sale on eBay.
posted by jjg on Jun 21, 2000 - 7 comments

The user who was selling Metallica's soul has been banned by EBay for bidding on another item he/she was selling. The strange part of all of this of course, is that I recognized their username when I read this story. Why can't we delete particular items in memory like we do with files on a computer?
posted by fooljay on May 12, 2000 - 2 comments

Next up for bid, the damn raft. That's right, the top item for sale is the raft that Elian survived on while traveling to the United States from Cuba. Although six days are left in the auction, 112 bids have already been placed on it, with the high bid now at $10 million.
posted by bvanveen on May 1, 2000 - 7 comments

This iMac would be cool in 10 or 15 years. Too bad nobody bidded on it.
posted by premiumpolar on Mar 8, 2000 - 1 comment