David Beckham selling Porsche on eBay

David Beckham is selling his Porsche on eBay.

The British soccer ace has owned the sports car for the last two years.

But now wants rid of the motor, which cost a staggering $150,000.

The 35-year-old sportsman paid $100,000 for the matt-black automobile when he purchased it in 2008, and he spent a further $50,000 customising it.

It features heated front seats and has the number 23 - the number shirt he plays in for current soccer team Los Angeles Galaxy and wore at Real Madrid - emblazoned in the interior.

The car is being sold on eBay through Los Angeles dealer Chequered Flag and the top bid currently stands at $134,000. It is set to rise

because of its unique owner history.

Neil Jaffe from Chequered Flag said: "This is an opportunity to acquire a supercar with an unparalleled celebrity history."

Car lover David would often be spotted out driving around in the vehicle in Los Angeles -- where he lives with his family, wife Victoria Beckham and three sons Brooklyn, 11, Romeo, eight, and Cruz, five.

He is currently in negotiations to play for English soccer club Tottenham Hotspur for three months in London.

Try on sunglasses before you buy with the eBay Fashion app

Augmented reality apps have already given us the ability to search for our destinations, and even spot the best line-of-sight for our satellite dishes, simply by viewing the world through our smartphones. Now eBay is trying its hand at augmented reality with a personal touch, in a recent upgrade to its eBay Fashion app, available for the iPhone.

Using the iPhone 4's front-facing camera, the app now allows you to try on several different styles and brands of sunglasses before deciding to make a purchase. Simply calibrate the "See It On" feature using the on-screen prompts, and choose your favorite lens and frame combinations. Once you've done this, the app will give you a virtual pair of shades and display the results on your screen. You can tilt your head, turn, and do essentially everything you would normally do when trying on a pair of glasses in a store.

The feature only works on the iPhone 4, and not older iPhone models, due to the addition of the front-facing camera. However, those with previous iPhone models can still take advantage of the app's other key feature: the Outfit Builder. While browsing the apparel sections of the app you can choose to save items to your "Closet". Entering the closet allows you to mix and match looks by combining whichever items in your closet you think look best. You can even save the outfits for a later date, or maybe just to show of to your friends.

Ebay founder plans to be India's biggest social investor

The philanthropic fund started by Pierre Omidyar, the founder of Ebay Inc, plans to be the biggest investor in projects targeting India’s 900 million poor, living on less than $2 a day.

“The rate at which we’re investing, we will probably be the leading firm in that space at the bottom of the pyramid,” said Jayant Sinha, managing director of Omidyar Network’s India operations.
Ranked second on Barron’s list of the world’s 25 best philanthropists last month, the fund has committed $383 million in grants and investments since 2004. It plans to invest $200 million in India by 2015, according to Sinha.

Omidyar may announce as many as five new investments or grants in India over the next three months, said Matt Bannick, a California-based managing partner at the fund.

The fund’s portfolio includes d.light design, which sells solar-powered lights in Indian and African rural areas, with no access to grid power.

Tech drives eBay growth

A few years ago, eBay was getting battered by the likes of Amazon.com and was dismissed as an auctions has-been. Its technology was long in the tooth. And it was losing its iconic CEO, Meg Whitman, whose political ambitions led to a run for California governor in 2010.

Now eBay is betting its future on whipping its technology into shape as it navigates the limp recovery and red-hot competition from rival Amazon and hundreds of smaller, specialized retail sites.

The biggest marketplace on the Web — eBay has 93 million active users — is going all in on mobile shopping, a booming market that is projected to top $119 billion by 2015.

“I look through the eyes of the customer,” says the affable, 6-foot-5 CEO, John Donahoe, a New Trier grad whose father was an accountant at Price Waterhouse in Chicago.

“As a company, we needed to be more customer-driven and technology-driven.”

The four-year eBay veteran, named to succeed Whitman as chief executive in early 2008, has been on a nearly three-year quest to infuse the Silicon Valley icon with new technology, including:

† Buffing up the site’s e-commerce technology.

† Expanding eBay’s mobile capability.

† Opening up PayPal, eBay’s online payment service, to developers for new applications, which has helped continue its dominance.

† Orchestrating a series of acquisitions that reinvigorated the online auction pioneer.

“EBay had enjoyed enormous success, but the environment around us was changing, and buyers and sellers have higher expectations,” says Donahoe, 50, an ardent eBay shopper who typically is first to sign up for beta tests of new eBay products and services.

Billions of dollars are at stake: Americans snapped up $23.8 billion in goods online from Nov. 1 to Dec. 13, up 12 percent from the period a year ago, according to market researcher ComScore.

But old technology put eBay at a competitive disadvantage when Amazon “stepped on eBay’s turf with auctions and used products,” says Karsten Weide, an analyst at market researcher IDC.

Some of the fruits of Donahoe’s efforts were on display when eBay recently finished the third quarter with a 4 percent jump to 93 million active users who sold items.

EBay expects to sell $1.5 billion in goods via mobile devices this year, compared with $600 million last year.

The eBay that Donahoe took over as CEO in early 2008 had become creatively stagnant, and its top-heavy bureaucracy made it difficult to acquire small, hot start-ups.

Donahoe brought on veteran e-commerce experts and overhauled eBay’s search, catalog and user experience, and opened the PayPal platform to developers.

The results of Donahoe’s stewardship:

† PayPal expects to handle more than $700 million in mobile transactions this year ­ compared with just $30 million two years ago ­— though that still is less than 1 percent of the money processed through PayPal.

PayPal accounts for more than a third of eBay’s global revenue, raking in $838 million in the third quarter, and at its current growth rate would pass parent eBay in revenue around 2014.

† The company this month introduced Deal Finder, an online tool that lets shoppers compare eBay listings with the same products on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and other sites. The tool lets shoppers scan more than 50,000 deals for savings on movies, video games, electronics, music and books.

Big eBay sellers such as Jack Sheng say they have benefitted from the recent changes.

“I have seen more dramatic changes in the last three years at eBay than in the previous 10 years,” says Sheng, who launched the electronics seller eForCity out of his garage 10 years ago and now employs nearly 200.

Sheng was the first eBay seller to hit 1 million, then 2 million, in user feedback comments.

“I am proud of our progress, but that only makes me more hungry to get better,” said Donahoe. “I will never be satisfied.”

Unwanted Christmas gifts end up on eBay

THE season of regifting is here - the time to gather unwanted Christmas presents and pass them off as new to unsuspecting rellies and co-workers.

Fresh from under the tree, more people are recycling their unwanted items as birthday gifts or selling them online.

More than half the nation received at least one unwanted gift worth nearly $73 and close to one million are expected to sell them online after Christmas Day, according to eBay Australia.

More women receive unwanted gifts than men and nearly two thirds of women said they would sell unwanted gifts online, compared with 55 per cent of men.

Ebay’s Planned Merger of South Korean Units Delayed

EBay Inc.’s planned merger of its two South Korean units will be delayed further, the company’s local unit said in a regulatory filing, without giving a reason.

The merger of EBay Gmarket Co. and EBay Auction Co. was scheduled to take place on Nov. 1, according to today’s statement. The world’s largest e-commerce marketplace operator didn’t give a new date for the merger.

EBay acquired online auctioneer Gmarket Inc. for $1.2 billion last year to expand in South Korea, one of the most Internet-connected nations in the world. San Jose, California- based EBay plans to combine the two local units as it seeks to more than double sales in the country.

Gmarket and EBay Auction controlled more than 70 percent of traffic to online market places last month in South Korea, according to Rankey.com, a research company that tracks the nation’s e-commerce sites.

Getting Great Deals on EBay

I love getting a deal. I try to smell them out from miles away. I love frequent garage sales, flea markets, closeouts, and more -- but found that I could much better by simply buying through online auctions - if I shop carefully.

Getting a deal out of EBay auctions is an art. Buying from auctions can be a costly proposition or a very economical option depending on your tactics. Buy wisely by learning from my (sometimes costly) experiences.

1. Is the Seller Trustworthy?

Both EBay and Yahoo auctions have seller ratings. Read these and their associated reviews. If the seller has a great rating from buying and a poor one from selling, you probably don't want to buy from them. Look at both praises and complaints as they may or may not apply to what you are bidding on.

2. Read the Description Throughly

It is very easy to read what you want to see in an Ebay auction rather than what is actually written there. Read both what is in the Ebay description and what is NOT in the description. Often your mind will want to fill in details with what is your dream interpretation. You need to re-read the description until you find out whether what you are searching for and what the seller is selling match.

* Used or New?

Is the item you are buying used or new? If it doesn't say new, you are most likely buying something that is used.

* Real or Fake

Is the item you are interested in "real" gold, sterling silver or pearls? For example, a description saying: "gold necklace for sale" does NOT say 14 kt gold or 18kt gold. That most likely means a gold COLORED necklace which may or may not have actual gold metal. This also applies to pearls as many call plastic fake pearls simply "pearls".

If the seller is selling beads, those beads could be plastic, glass, stone, scrap metal, crystal, chips, wood, clay, gemstone or some other material.

* Item Details

Does the EBay description really say how much you are getting, how long the item is, and quality of the item? Selling by the pound can be a great deal - or a horrible deal.

* Beware of Hidden Costs

Look at shipping and handling costs. I've seen many penny auctions that have $13 or more shipping. Some auctions even have handling fees.

* How Fast Will it Ship?

I've been seeing a fair amount of auctions that note that the product will ship in 2 months or that shipping time is 2 months. If you are buying for a particular holiday, be sure that you will get the item in time.

3. Is it a Bargain For You?

Many times an EBay auction will say that the items are "worth $XXX". In many cases, that price is inflated. Often you can find similar items much cheaper tah "$XXX" at normal stores. (However, the auction price may still be cheaper than you can by elsewhere - it really helps to know how much you usually pay for items!) If you are only interested in some of the items in an auction, adjust your bid to reflect how much you are willing to pay for just those items unless you plan to sell the rest as that is how much you would pay for it elsewhere.

4. Auction Fever

Compare prices on the net at the same time to avoid overpaying. Know that usually you can get the item later elsewhere. Wise buyers know to walk away when the price is higher than the item is worth to them.