eBay as a Platform...

eBay is certainly a key part of my e-commerce lifestyle. But, I have to say that I'm becoming a bit disillusioned/dissatisfied. (full disclosure:I'm an eBay shareholder-not much, though)

I sold 4 items in the last 2 weeks and on 2 of the auctions, I had a fraudulent buyer who never paid.

I re-listed one and sold it for a lot less (considering that the fraudulent buyer had bid up another buyer who eventually backed out) and one, I'm going to keep. Just not acceptable.

If I'm eBay, perhaps I charge sellers to only accept bids from buyers above a certain rating (both of mine had 0), but we're back at the issue of how you effectively establish trust in the online world. My friend, Auren Hoffman, is attacking this issue at Rapleaf.

eBay is evolving into a different type of being and frankly, I'm more optimistic about the future of Skype as the platform for your phone (as I posted here) and I saw a router from Netgear that has Skype built in.

Pretty soon, if you have broadband in your house and reliable broadband when you're out, you won't need a traditional landline or a cell phone plan.

Like music, newspapers, and movies, the cell phone business is going down a path of doom...thanks to the Net.

Yeehaw...let the revolution continue.