Don't remotely pretend to understand ebay's "thinking" on all this but it appears the "language" of the link is just as critical as the criteria to have items at higher prices there.
It appears, to me atleast, that ebay's main concern is the language of the link "driving" sales to an off-line situations.
Thus, if the link is worded something like, "For more great items, visit my website at xzy.com", that looks like you are trying to direct people to your website to make sales off line where ebay doesn't get their cut.
I suspect links worded like this get more attention.
However, if your link is worded as ebay suggests "visit my website at xzy.com", it doesn't necessarily suggest you are trying to drive sales off ebay. You might have pictures of the spouse, the kids, the dog & your vacation at Mt. Rushmore.
Links worded this way are probably rarely looked at by ebay unless someone is having a REAL slow day.
If you use the ebay suggested language AND the two click rule, it should be more than enough to keep ebay happy {for the time being anyway}.
I've not heard of anyone using this language, who also meets ebay criteria about having their website prices higher, who've been suspended or warned for having inappropriate website links.
Now, the day most likely WILL come when ebay is tired of ANY traffice being driven off ebay, regardless of the prices on websites or the language. But, for now, based on the emails you've gotten from them, this should be enough.
Seems like the reply you got from ebay is consistent with the information supplied by the pinkliners.
It seems that:
One can link to a website and certain rules governing what can sold on ebay also governs what can be sold on your site. If items are the same as to what you offer on ebay, they must be higher priced on the website.
One cannot promote this link too aggressively on the ebay auction page. Wording and size of link matters.
If the link to your site also brings up auctions to other sites, you must put these auctions on another page requiring another click to access.
Assumming ebay does not change the rules in the future when they decide to push their storefronts, these conditions seems flexible enough.
Of course, an interesting discussion would be what constitutes the same item. I mean, if let say one is selling different size shoes, does offering different sizes of the same style shoes on website versus what is offer on ebay makes these shoes dissimilar.
Regarding colelctibles, does selling similar collectibles in different grades of condition make them dissimilar?
Another interesting discussion would be what is definition of higher price. If one sell widgets on website for $10 + $1/P&H and sells the same widgets on ebay for $9.99 + $2/P&H, would ebay viewed this as violation of the law?
And what happens if one swaps website links. Let say you sell military books and I sell history books. I can promote your book site on my ebay auctions and you can promote my site on your ebay auctions. In reality, ebay rules would be circumvented.
posted on March 19, 2001 04:26:29 AM
This will all change in the coming year. Ebay is currently Beta Testing a program for selling banner ads to regular sellers on the site. Currently these ads link to the seller's "about me" page. Eventually, they will link to Ebay hosted Galleries and Storefronts.
By the end of this year, they also expect to have fixed-price storefronts available on Ebay. This will change not only the site, but they way they feel about links to outside sites.
Historically, Ebay does little to inhibit outside activities or third party programs until they have one of their own to sell.
Example One:
For years there was no policy regarding banners and links to third party payment services or picture hosting services, ect. Shortly after Ebay purchased BillPoint, the new policy went into effect that restricts the size of link that can be used.
Example Two:
After purchasing Butterfields, they created an entire section "Ebay Premier/Great Collections" to set their own auctions apart from the crowd. Had they never bought Butterfields, they most likely would have never created the new section.
Example Three:
With their recent agreement with BlackThorne to offer seller management tools directly, all of the sudden the email addresses are hidden and the HTML requirement within auction description was changed. This change interfered with the smooth operation of nearly every third party auction management software or service. This appears very much like another move to gain a competitive advantage for their new service. Buy it now was available in MisterLister (Ebay's) long before it was available with third party services.
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I expect that during the next several months, nothing will be done to restrict links to seller's websites. In fact, they are probably hoping that 1000's of sellers will setup galleries and websites in order to create a captive audience when they launch their own storefront service and change the policy to prohibit website links completely. Once Ebay has their banner program and fixed-price storefronts working completely, the policies will begin to change. The linking criteria for your own website will become so restrictive that it will become totally useless. At the same time, the sellers that pay Ebay to have a storefront will have special links (similar to all the BillPoint info that gets added to your auctions) as well as the ability to buy banner ads that link directly to the storefront. And of course, this will all cost money. A monthly fee based on the number of items in your store plus a commission on everything sold.
Sellers probably have about 6 to 9 months to operate their websites and add links in all their auctions before the new policies take effect. This is plenty of time to build a customer base that will provide long term revenue. It is also a long enough time to allow the site to be indexed by the search engines and find of sources for traffic. (affiliate programs, link exchanges, etc)
Maybe when ebay starts to restrict website links to reduce competition, we should all band together and file complaints with the BBB. Hopefully this will lead to an investigation of ebay and whether certain practices are monopolistic.
I personally think there is a chance that ebay will be found to have cross the line if ebay do implement very restrictive rules. And there may also be possible violations of the first amendment. If nothing else, it may start to serve as a wakeup call for ebay to rethink their attitude.
I always wonder how courts view ebay. Since ebay claims it is NOT an auction site, but just a venue, who are really the customers of ebay. Since buyers do not paid anything to ebay, can they be view as customers of ebay? If they are not, than the only customers of ebay are sellers. If this is true, how can ebay prevent sellers from contacting possible buyers via email or solicit them via website links?
posted on March 19, 2001 11:16:58 AM
I agree with MrJim's prognosis. Once eBay's storefronts get setup I think they will institute more restrictive rules regarding website links. They're already telling folks not to use the word "STORE" in these links. I do believe eBay will be wading in some very muddy waters if they totally ban website links due to restraint of trade issues.
I guess we'll have to wait and see but no matter what happens, the small seller is going to be buried even deeper in the pile.
posted on March 20, 2001 11:38:39 AMI'm a bit confused about that since he first says you CAN'T have a link (button) to other auction sites on your website and then he suggests having two links or buttons one for your eBay auctions and one for other auction sites.
Here's my explanation, how does it sound?
According to your post what he actually said was "AS LONG AS YOU DO NOT LINK DIRECTLY TO A PAGE THAT HAS A BUTTON FOR ANOTHER AUCTION SITE"
What it sounds to me like he is saying is you can't have a button on the destination page labeled "My Yahoo Auctions" as you would be advertising a specific auction site, but it is ok to have a button labeled "My E-Bay Auctions" and a button labeled "My Other Auctions" as no other specific auction site is being advertised. Then on that destination page you could have a button for each specific auction site...bringing us back to the 2-click rule.
posted on March 20, 2001 02:47:32 PM
Hiya auctionee. I think you, Mike and eventer have properly interpreted his meaning. I was confused by it because we had already gone through the rules for galleries, other auctions and storefronts (with items to sell off eBay) which have to follow the "two click" rule so I thought he was being redundant. But what he's basically saying is you ALSO have to follow the "two click" rule if you're linking to another auction site. Well, I already knew that!! I think he's also suggesting not to put the NAME of the auction site on your link but instead just say "other auctions".
I wish he hadn't added that part because everything was crystal clear until I read that "two button" comment.
OK, here's my summary and please correct me if it isn't right:
1. You have to follow the "two click" rule when linking to galleries, storefronts and websites IF they offer items for sale off of eBay. You also have to follow the "two click" rule if you link to any other auction sites.
2. Don't mention anything about having other items for sale on your auction page and don't use the word "STORE" in that link. You can say "please visit my website" but you cannot say "please visit my online store".
3. Don't mention the name of the other auction sites on the destination page of the first link. You can say "visit my other auctions" but you can't say "visit my Yahoo auctions".
4. You cannot EVER link to a site that has the same item for sale at the same or lower price of the item you're selling on your auction page no matter how many clicks you use and this applies to prohibited items as well.
5. You don't need to use "two clicks" if you're linking to your website which has other items for sale as long as these items aren't located on other auction sites ( and follow rule 4) But you still must be careful about your wording and don't use the word "STORE" on the link located on your auction page.
6. If you really want to play it safe use the "two click" rule for ALL links offering other items for sale. Just use the destination of your first link as a gateway, cover page or your ME page and insert your links on that page but WATCH YOUR WORDING.
