Ebay - Live Auction Format Being Retired End of 2008

This message was posted on ebay today. Regarding the ending of live auctions on ebay.  woodwright

***A Message from Jim Ambach ?Live Auction Format Being Retired End of 2008 *** 
 
April 15, 2008 | 01:00PM PST/PT

Jim Ambach
Hi everyone...As of December 31, 2008, eBay will no longer offer eBay Live Auctions. As we work to improve the buying and selling experiences which you've heard our leaders talk about ? including significant investments in Trust & Safety and customer support ? we need to make sure our resources are aligned with our priorities. In the case of Live Auctions, maintaining and improving this platform falls outside our immediate focus, and will, therefore, be retired at the end of the year.
Many members may not be aware of Live Auctions ? these are differentiated listings linked to physical or virtual auction houses, and moderated by a live auctioneer. Furthermore, these listings are not subject to a specific end time; Live Auctions conclude when there are no further bids.

Before I continue, let's be clear: eBay will continue to offer auction-style listings which constitute the majority of items on eBay.com.

Over the years, eBay partnered with a very small number of service providers who in turn worked directly with the live auction houses to supply merchandise and auctioneers for eBay Live Auctions. In addition, several hundred sellers list their items directly using the Live Auction format.

This announcement will represent a significant change for the small number of partners, buyers, and sellers involved with Live Auctions, which is why we're giving eight months notice. We've been in touch with each of our service provider partners, and between now and the end of this year, we'll continue to work with our Live Auction partners and sellers to ensure a smooth and seamless termination of this aspect of our business.

Sincerely,

Jim Ambach
Vice President, Seller Experience

They should spin it off or something.  Live Auctions helps me "attend" these auctions that happen where or when I cannot attend in person.  I even bid on local auctions which have their auction during the business week.  Do these auctions think that only retirees want to go to their auctions?  I never understood the Tuesday 9-5 auction.

Rare - it goes both ways. You can "attend" an auction via ebay, but if you actually attend the auction it is irritating (at least to me) to bid against someone online. I lost a nice Brooks center table that way. It's all fair for everyone to bid, but it will give us an upper hand if you have an auction in your area you can attend in person. Less competition. Plus there is always bidding by phone or absentee bids.

well, something else will develop, second tier and lower (everyone but sotheby & christies) auction houses are not about to abandon WEB customers. ebay didnt do a very good job anyway, time estimates were always wrong and often lost connections to sales floor just when your item came up. there's an opportunity here for someone whos a puter geek to develop that biz, someone will, trust me.

the other thing thats missing from ebay auctions? a cam, so one can see the bidders and sales floor.

Bummer about Ebay Live Auctions... I received an email today from ArtFact stating they are developing "ArtFact Live!" in response to Ebay Live going away.  There is currently liveauctioneers.com, but I'm unclear if this site is affiliated with Ebay since I use my Ebay username & password to login, and if they would go away as well at the end of the year.

formulagal, yeah, i got that email too. i took it to mean artfact was going to broadcast "their" auction houses online. considering theres an extra 5 point premium for online auction bidders i feel someone is bound to pick up that biz. also, garth's, skinner, freeman, cowan, etc. get about 15-20% of their biz from online bidders so i cant imagine they will just let that go.