And this (from the US site -- how come no one seems to have heard about this?? this is from last April!):

***New eBay Counters to Replace Andale Counters***

04 April, 2006 | 06:26 PM IST


Dear Sellers,

In the next few days, eBay will be offering our own counter free of charge that sellers can add to their listings. This new optional eBay counter will replace Andale’s counter and will track the number of times a listing is viewed. Counters can be made visible to everyone, or sellers can use our new “Hidden Counter” option, which displays the number of views only to the seller.

You will be able to add the eBay counter to your new listings through any selling tool. Once the eBay counters are available, any listing already running with an Andale counter will keep the Andale version – you will not need to change it until you relist the item.

Happy Selling!

Regards,
The eBay Team

Oops! That's from the INDIA eBay site! LOL. At least, I think it is.....IS there an eBay India?? Sorry about that, but still interesting, huh? Here's the URL of that page:

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/in/200604041826072.html

tictictic,

That's hilarious! I don't know if there is an eBayIndia or not. Probably is.

Now that you posted the message, I do recall seeing it. I bet you the eBay counters will go live the first of July as soon as the Andale counters are no longer in use. And that is most likely why the eBay counters are still not appearing on the Sell your Item page or Revise your Item page.

Thanks for sharing that!!

Judy/blue

I just spent the last 15 minutes at the eBay India site. Very interesting to compare and contrast. A cultural eye-opener, too. They have no categories for antiques or collectibles, but they do have entertainment collectibles (Bollywood!).

tictictic

Judy: I did do Overstock when it first came out. Stopped because stamp sales weren't so great there. Then Thom added OS to AW and I tried it again. By the way - what's with the 100's of emails from all of the OS sellers wanting to be my friend?. The second time I still didn't have much luck. Am just now getting ready to try it again for the third and final time. I've changed a lot of the auction information etc from what I do on eBay thinking that maybe OS buyers are a different breed of buyers. I'll see how it goes and I'm planning on doing this last round in July. Several years ago I did a lot on Amazon and Yahoo but both of those auction sites really came to a very abrupt decline.

Garry (AquilaStamps)

Garry,

Overstock buyers are a bit different in that many of the buyers come over from the Shopping site. So you deal with lots of newbies. If you let your eBay buyers know you are listing on OVerstock as well, they often will register and bid on Overstock. Especially if you move items to Overstock for which you only have 1 of, and they want it. They will bid at eBay and Overstock. Then because you use AW2000, you can group their winning bids onto a single invoice and save them money. My buyers love it.

Before you start listing on Overstock again, join the Subscription pricing plan. You can manage your bottom line more easily. In essence, you pay a flat fee for listing x amount of auction over the course of a month. I have included the URL link to the page on Overstock about the Subscription plan.

http://forums.auctions.overstock.com/viewtopic.php?t=13798

The email address is sellershotline@overstock.com
Tell Joe and Byron I sent you over. They will take good care of you.

The emails you are receiving concerning "Be my friend" is a personal network thing Overstock has set up. I am not much on the friends network thing. But others seem to feel more comfortable doing business with someone who belongs to a network of someone they know.

Something else you might try inserting into your listing template as a page component is the feedback site. It is allowable on Overstock to display the feedbacksite.com. And it shows how many feedback you have on eBay. Makes buyers feel better knowing you have been in business for a while.

Judy/blue

Judy/blue

Well finally I heard from eBay. I wrote them through the Trust and Safety dept and simply asked what about those eBay counters I'm seeing and why am I not allowed to use them. Just now got an answer (9:30 pm est Friday). The reply was:

Dear Garry,

Thank you for writing eBay in regard to the eBay counters.

At this time, we are still in the process of testing and refining the
eBay counters. To do this, we have made these available to the eBay
International sites. In the meantime, the eBay.com site will continue to
use the Andale counters. When eBay moves away from the Andale counters,
we will make the eBay counters available on all eBay sites. If you would
like to use the eBay counters, you would want to list your item from one
of the International sites like eBay Canada or eBay United Kingdom.

If you need further assistance, please don't hesitate to reply to this
email and let us know.

Sincerely,
Alexandra G. E.

eBay Customer Support

P.S. I'd also like to take a minute to tell you about a great new
resource available at eBay that will help you get the most out of your
selling experience. It's called the Solutions Directory, and it provides
you quick access to eBay and third-party software and services designed
to improve your productivity and grow your business.

To visit the Solutions Directory, please visit the link below:

http://solutions.ebay.com
_______________________________

Sooooooooo I guess we just wait a bit and it will happen. But for now I've turned off the Andale counter thingie in AW2000.

Garry
AquilaStamps

Garry,

Thanks for checking and letting us know what you found out. That explains why tictictic found the information on the eBay India site.

Now I wonder why in the world eBay elected to use International eBay sites for testing. I bet those sites do not have access to Andale.

Judy/blue

Judy:
I'm pretty sure eBayers outside of The US have access to Andale. I've seen Andale counters on other auctions from Europe etc. I think the reason eBay tested their counter that way is they really don't want any more bad press over the Andale thing. Just what eBay has been praying to the great auctioneer in the sky for - more whooha from their US eBayers. It would turn into yet another mess with people crying and hollering and eBay doing their now world famous two-step dance without any real answers. Don't know if that's the answer as to why they went outside of the US site to do it - it's just what I think probably went through their mind.

Didn't you just love the suggestion I post through another site. Hmmm, maybe I need to try posting in India? I could enlist TicTicTic's help. Nah, prolly won't do that - it's more than enough posting on eBay USA

I'm wondering if Thom will change the counter selection to reflect an eBay counter once they make the change.

Garry (AquilaStamps)

Garry,

Well, if the Andale counters are not available as before, I am sure the listings submitted using AW2000 for which the Andale counters are selected, will fail. So something will need to be done. However, unless Thom's crystal ball is working really good, I don't see how he could determine a fix before everything changes :o)

Gee, if his crystal ball is working, I sure need to know where he got his. Mine is not working worth a hoot!

I am quite sure Thom will supply a fix when and if there is a problem. And I would think the option for the Ebay counters would be made available as well.

Where did you post??? I did not see it. I want to look

Judy/blue