The Windsor Auctions lawsuit against eBay is steadily gaining the attention of fellow live auction sellers, who are now beginning to question why eBay is shutting down its live auction venue at the end of the year...

"No doubt, live auction sellers have come to terms with the closure of the eBay Live auction platform. Auction houses are now questioning the reasoning behind eBay's decision to cut off a massive money making machine and as such, we are now being contacted by these auction sellers on a daily basis who have questions. We have learned that a picture is worth a thousand words and we are directing these sellers to eBay's site specifically, the jewelry category.

Once these sellers type in the keywords Ruby Rings, they are presented with results from one seller who (to this very day) is using the end time tool to gain an unfair competitive edge. In fact, the default of "Best Match" seems to greatly increase the amount of product popping up on the first ten to twenty pages in many of the top selling sub-categories under eBay's main jewelry category. Needless to say, once these auction sellers view the results, they go a bit ballistic and come to the quick conclusion that they were harmed in one way or another", stated Paul Fischer CFO of Windsor.

Just what is going with eBay core and the steady flow of items finding their way into top placement positions?

The easiest way to explain what is happening is to take a look at eBay Motors. eBay Motors has its own core while eBay Live Auction items flow through regular eBay core. As a result of live auction items sharing eBay core, somethings got to give.

The 12 Hour Auction Window...

At one time, all live auctions had a full twelve hour window. eBay updated the back-end of the system a few years ago, specifically the Catalog Management page. This is where live auction sellers (direct clients of eBay) would set up their auction catalogs.

On the Catalog Management page, live auction sellers type in the title of their auction, catalog description and select the duration of their auction. A drop down window, which is used to select how long the auction will last, appears for those who are direct eBay clients. If a live auction seller was not a direct to eBay client, the drop down window disappeared from their catalog set-up page once the initial auction duration was selected.

It is this drop down window, which has been used by two eBay direct live auction sellers that has caused all the commotion amongst 900+ live auction sellers.

How did they do it?

The two sellers, who gained the unfair competitive edge, initially selected a twelve-hour auction duration window for their auctions, however, they then went a step further by resetting the twelve-hour duration to three hours and uploading 150 pieces (for the first three hours of their auction) and thereafter 50 pieces per hour, until they finally reached the original 12 hour auction duration.

If these two sellers had 100 pieces leftover, upon reaching the twelve-hour mark, they simply uploaded the remaining pieces in one large batch. Once their auctions began, their first 150 pieces flowed through the top of eBay core categories for the first three hours of their auction duration and thereafter, fifty pieces (per hour) every hour on the hour, flowed through eBay core for the remaining nine hours of their auction.

One of the sellers who used this tool gained such a presence (through eBay core) that they were able to increase their auctions from two auctions per day up to five or six auctions per day. The use of this tool may have had ramifications for regular eBay sellers, buyers and live auction sellers and buyers.

Was eBay informed of exactly what this seller was doing to gain top eBay core placement?

"While the end time duration on live auction lots was always a bone of contention for all live auction sellers, we informed by eBay Live (on October 16th of 2007) that eBay live items are a moving target and as such eBay had no plans on the road map to address the problem but, on October 29th of 2007 we discovered that they not only were they aware that these sellers were using this end time tool to gain top placement, the tool was to be automated. However, according to one email we received from a former employee of eBay, we were informed that eBay's Product Management Team would never automate the tool, as the flow of thousands of live auction items - to the front of eBay core - on an hourly basis, would clutter core", stated Fischer.

Why is one seller out of 900 still allowed to use the tool? No one knows and that's a question that will undoubtedly have to be answered when the Windsor case goes to trial...

"Who knew what and when they knew it will certainly be at the heart of the matter once we go to trial. We have documentation in our possession, which shows that those at eBay Live Auctions personnel knew the tool was being used, by whom and when they began dominating eBay core with their products", stated Fischer.

Could the actions of the two live auction sellers who used this tool be the final straw that broke the camels back at eBay Live? The two sellers who used the tool have been named as seller defendants in a shill bidding case filed against them and eBay in San Francisco.