28.01.10. Facebook Setup Powerful Link With Paypal
In a move that see’s the world’s largest social network and the world’s biggest online payments system combine, Facebook is adopting PayPal as its payment system.
Through a two-part roll-out, Facebook aims to make transactions on the website easier for both users and advertisers, while also positioning itself for a larger role in e-commerce. Facebook’s 400m users will now be able to use PayPal to purchase Facebook Credits, the virtual currency that can be used for various transactions around the website. Advertisers will also be able to use PayPal to buy the advertisements that made Facebook cash flow positive earlier than many expected.The integration of PayPal signals a wider roll-out of Credits, which could allow Facebook to tap into new sources of revenue.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent last year on the social games that are played on Facebook’s platform, analysts estimate. Companies such as Zynga and Playfish sell virtual goods to users who play games such as Mob Wars and Restaurant City. But until now Facebook has not taken a cut of those transactions. The social game companies turned instead to PayPal and a handful of other payments providers to sell credits for individual games.
Now Facebook is testing the use of Credits within games and other applications on its platform. By allowing users to pay for in-game purchases with Credits, Facebook hopes to simplify the experience, allowing users to have a Facebook wallet of sorts, and likely taking a small commission on the payments. Credits could also be used to make purchases in the retail storefronts that have begun appearing on the Facebook platform. Retailers including BestBuy, Sears and 1-800-Flowers are rolling out sophisticated e-commerce storefronts on Facebook’s platform and are looking to cash in on the site’s user engagement.
In choosing PayPal to provide its payments infrastructure, Facebook puts an end to speculation that it was developing its own payments system.PayPal, which is owned by eBay, the online marketplace, also stands to benefit. With Facebook growing to be one of the largest sites on the web, it is attracting significant advertising dollars. PayPal, which takes a commission on each transaction, will now get a slice of that revenue.
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07.01.10. Coldplay Auction Raises Quarter Of A Million For Charity
Coldplay’s End Of Decade Clearout Sale on eBay has raised a grand total of £251,482 for charity.
The band put up loads of old instruments, costumes and lots of other memorabilia on the auction website over Christmas.
Chris Martin, Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion saw their items attract some frantic last minute bidding. Six of the items they sold raised more than £10,000, with a guitar from their Viva La Vida album selling for £15,000.
All the money raised from the auction is going to Coldplay’s favourite charity, Kids Company, which supports underprivileged inner city youngsters.
04.12.09. eBay Reunites Gran With Long Lost Cornet
A Gran went on to eBay to buy a Cornet, and found the childhood instrument she sold in 1968.
Brass band member Cynthia Godley, aged 66, recognised the distinctive box for the item she originally bought for £10 when she was aged 12.
The instrument dates from the 1800s, and Cynthia, who lives in Dorset, played it in five orchestras before reluctantly selling it to raise cash when she was 25.
After 41 long years, Cynthia is now reunited with the cornet after paying £24.99 for it on the auction website. She said; “I’m overjoyed. It’s like having my baby back. It even had my original mouthpiece.”
She continued; “When I was 12, I saved for months doing a paper round so I could afford it. It was a good one. But when I was married and had a baby, I needed the money. When I sold the cornet I regretted it. I never thought I’d see it again.”
Cynthia is even quids in on the Cornet. She originally bought it for £15 in 1968, which is around £300 in today’s money.
19.11.09. Beachball Scores £400 On eBay
The infamous beachball that ‘scored’ a goal past Liverpool for Sunderland has sold on eBay for more than £400.
The red inflatable ball deflected Sunderland striker Darren Bent’s shot past scouse goalkeeper Pepe Reina to give Sunderland a 1-0 win last month.
After the incident, the stewards gave the ball to spectator Callum Bate, aged four. His dad Wayne, aged 41, from Thirsk in North Yorkshire, auctioned it on eBay and raised £411.77 for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool.
Alder Hey fundraiser Chris Done said; “We never imagined it would raise so much.”
31.10.09. £450 Truck Sells On eBay For £20k
A vintage vehicle fanatic sold a lorry for a hefty £20,000 after he bought it for just £450.
Ally Sutherland, aged 69, spent five years restoring the old fish truck before putting it up for auction on eBay.
The canny pensioner made a huge profit on the truck when it was snapped up by a transport museum in Australia. A chuffed Ally said; “The truck was on eBay a couple of days when I got the offer.
“The truck had to be completely rebuilt. It took me five years to complete the job but I had a lot of fun doing it.”
30.09.09. ‘Annoying’ Gran Put Up For Auction
An ‘annoying’ gran was put up for auction on eBay after her granddaughter had grown ‘tired’ of her.
Zoe Pemberton, aged 10, from Essex, put her 61-year-old nan Marian Goodall up for auction and hoped to get ‘just 99p for her’.
In the joke listing the youngster described Mrs Goodall as ‘rare and annoying and moaning a lot’ but she also called her ‘cuddly’.
Zoe said; “I was sitting down watching TV and she kept asking me to do things like make her a drink. I was on the laptop and suddenly thought I’d put nan on eBay.
“I didn’t know how much we’d get for her, maybe 99p. But she’s very good at word searches. She can finish them in ten minutes.”
The youngsters father, Thomas, aged 31, said that Zoe had previously put her mother Marian up for auction after a minor falling out, but added; “They love each other really.”
He said; “We’ve had loads of inquiries asking if mum comes with a guarantee or MOT.”
Despite the flurry of online bids that Mrs Goodall received, eBay bosses were forced to take down her listing over human trafficking regulations.
An eBay spokeswoman said; “Obviously we have rules about the selling of people. We had to take it down but it was quite amusing and there were a number of offers.
“The little girl had described her grandmother as ‘annoying’ but had gone on to say she liked crosswords and was ‘cuddly’ and there were quite a few offers.”
The spokeswoman added; “The advert was obviously light-hearted and had been done with the full knowledge of grandma – we do get these kind of things from time to time.”
28.09.09. Dream White Wedding Bought For £51 On eBay
A strapped-for-cash couple managed to buy their dream white wedding for just £51 on eBay.
Colette Palin, aged 25, scooped the amazing prize after a hotel put the wedding up for auction after a last-minute cancellation. The sales rep had dreamt of making her marriage vows to civil engineer Lee Clark, 34, at a lavish bash with family and friends and with the average wedding costing around £15,000, Colette — who recently learnt she is expecting a baby — was overjoyed to find she had won with her bid of just £51.
The package at the three-star Buckatree Hall in Shropshire, included red carpet arrival and champagne reception, followed by a sit-down three-course meal plus wine for 35, and a 50-person evening buffet.
Colette, whose father paid hotel bosses in cash, said; “I couldn’t believe I could bag a wedding for just £51. As times generally are hard with the credit crunch we didn’t want to splash out too much cash on our wedding.
“We had been quoted almost £1,000 for a wedding package and it was just a bit too much out of our price range. Then we heard the hotel were planning to auction a wedding day on eBay and we just thought we would see if we could strike lucky.”
The couple, from Telford, made an initial bid of £2. After a bid of £50 came in they bid again at £51 and thought no more about it. Colette said; ”Incredibly I got a call later on to say I had won and I couldn’t believe it. I was stunned that nobody went any higher.”
The package at the 62-bedroomed hotel also included a glass of bucks fizz per guest, table decorations including linen, cake-stand and floral arrangement, toastmaster to announce the happy couple, plus a complimentary overnight stay on the wedding night for the bride and groom.
Colette added; “We are really happy and now we can look forward to our honeymoon in October, without starting married life in debt.”
19.08.09. eBay Fraudsters To Face Trial
Three suspected fraudsters yesterday denied making around £100,000 by selling 100 fake prints of work by graffiti artist Banksy on eBay.
It was also claimed that they flogged copies of clothes by fashion guru Vivienne Westwood and punk guru Malcolm McLaren on the internet auction site for a similar amount.
Grant Champkins-Howard, 44, and wife Vesna Grandes-Howard, 32, of South Croydon, South London, and Lee Parker, 43, of Eastbourne, East Sussex, denied fraud charges over six years.
They were bailed at the Old Bailey and face trial next May.
15.08.09. Bid For Deathbed Next To Marilyn
Movie fanatics have the chance to bid to lie next to movie legend Marilyn Monroe forever.
The crypt above the Hollywood beauty’s final resting spot in Los Angeles is being auctioned on eBay starting at £300,000.
Widow Elsie Poncher currently owns the plot, but she wants to pay off the £1 million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.
Poncher plans to remove the remains of husband Richard to a different location to free up the plot for the winning bidder.
Marilyn Monroe died aged 36 in 1962 after a drugs overdose.
31.07.09. eBay UK Celebrates 10th Birthday
It has changed the way we shop for ever, bringing the thrills of the auction house straight to the living room.
And today eBay is celebrating as it celebrates its tenth birthday since entering British shores.
After arriving in 1999, four years after the US launch, Brits went bidding crazy as they became hooked on finding a bargain.
The very first sale in the UK was a three-track CD by The Scorpions offered by a user in Renfrewshire, Scotland which was snapped up by a US bidder. Since then 964 million items have been sold on eBay.
Nearly 38 million people have used it over the past decade and more than 7.4 million have put something up for sale. In total a massive 11.4 billion listings have appeared.
The most popular items to be sold on the site include mobile phones, football programmes and women’s clothing, but eBay is the place where you can find almost anything.
The most expensive item sold to date in the UK was a villa on Spain’s Costa Del Sol, which went for £1.9 million last year. The most bids received on one lot was a gold edition of the Elvis Presley DVD box set Graceland, which received 3,668 bids from would-be buyers. It eventually sold for just £71 in 2004.
To show eBay’s financial success, the total value of goods sold on the UK site last year was greater than the individual gross domestic products of a raft of countries including Fiji, Gambia, St Lucia and Greenland.
This week a dining room chair used by JK Rowling as she wrote the first two Harry Potter books in her flat, which she later signed and decorated, was sold for £19,555.
If stretched end to end, the items listed on eBay.co.uk would reach to 1.4million times the height of the Eiffel Tower. They would also fill the area taken up by 1,350 football pitches.
