Shopster Inc., the leader in e-Commerce software for small and medium sized business announced today it has launched the new Shopster Listing Manager for eBay. The Listing Manager allows Shopster merchants to seamlessly list and track their products and products from the Shopster Network on eBay’s auction site.

The unique Shopster platform allows merchants to build their businesses through collaboration, including the sharing of inventory. The new Listing Manager for eBay allows Shopster’s 16,000 merchants to better market their inventory to the eBay community.

Shopster has been an official eBay Certified Solutions Provider since the spring of 2008, and is one of only 24 companies in the world to currently hold this designation. The eBay Certified Provider program allows Shopster to work with the eBay team to create relevant offerings for eBay members.

“eBay continues to be one of the key pillars of global e-commerce and sets the standard for all online auctions. Many of Shopster’s customers rely on eBay as a key sales channel, and the Shopster Listing Manager for eBay makes integrating the two systems much easier” says Sarath Samarasekera, Co-Founder and CEO, Shopster.

“The world of e-commerce continues to evolve at a frenetic pace and online retailing is becoming increasingly fragmented and complicated. Online selling has many aspects, and successful merchants have identified their unique selling proposition, and collaborate on the rest.”

Adds Samarasekera, “Shopster believes that integrating both technology and service partners into our Merchant community are the keys to success.”

About Shopster

Founded in 2004, www.shopster.com is an official eBay Solutions Partner that offers a suite of e-Commerce solutions for small to medium sized businesses. Thousands of online merchants from around the world rely on Shopster as it simplifies the complexities of online retail, allowing merchants to manage their store, transactions, and supply chain relationships in one easy to use place. Joining the Network is free, so merchants can focus on growth and relationships, not on costs.

eBay Deals is designed to deliver a stream of the best deals on the site from across hundreds of millions of listings. Like eBay Mobile, the company’s regular iPhone app, Deals lets you search, shop, and pay for your items from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
All featured deals spotlight items with no bids, no reserve price, free or fixed-rate shipping, and less than four hours remaining to bid.
You can browse deals across eight categories, including apparel, computers, electronics, and collectibles. If you spot a deal you like, just tap on it, and its listing pops up where you can watch it or bid on it. Not crazy about the current deals? Just shake your iPhone or iPod Touch, and a new set of deals appears.

eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced today that it has successfully completed the previously announced sale of its Skype communications unit in a deal valuing the business at $2.75 billion. The buyer, who will control an approximately 70 percent stake, is an investor group led by Silver Lake and includes Joltid Limited and certain affiliated parties, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Andreessen Horowitz.
eBay received approximately $1.9 billion in cash and a note from the buyer in the principal amount of $125 million. The company retained an approximately 30 percent equity investment in Skype. The company also purchased senior debt securities with a face value of $50 million as part of a Skype debt financing.

About eBay Inc.

Founded in 1995 in San Jose, Calif., eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) connects hundreds of millions of buyers and sellers globally on a daily basis through eBay, the world’s largest online marketplace, and PayPal, which enables individuals and businesses to securely, easily and quickly send and receive online payments. We also reach millions through specialized marketplaces such as StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, and eBay Classifieds sites, which together have a presence in more than 1,000 cities around the world. For more information about the company and our global portfolio of online brands, visit www.ebayinc.com

Shopster Inc., the leader in e-Commerce software for small and medium sized business announced today it has launched the new Shopster Listing Manager for eBay. The Listing Manager allows Shopster merchants to seamlessly list and track their products and products from the Shopster Network on eBay’s auction site.

The unique Shopster platform allows merchants to build their businesses through collaboration, including the sharing of inventory. The new Listing Manager for eBay allows Shopster’s 16,000 merchants to better market their inventory to the eBay community.

Shopster has been an official eBay Certified Solutions Provider since the spring of 2008, and is one of only 24 companies in the world to currently hold this designation. The eBay Certified Provider program allows Shopster to work with the eBay team to create relevant offerings for eBay members.

“eBay continues to be one of the key pillars of global e-commerce and sets the standard for all online auctions. Many of Shopster’s customers rely on eBay as a key sales channel, and the Shopster Listing Manager for eBay makes integrating the two systems much easier” says Sarath Samarasekera, Co-Founder and CEO, Shopster.

“The world of e-commerce continues to evolve at a frenetic pace and online retailing is becoming increasingly fragmented and complicated. Online selling has many aspects, and successful merchants have identified their unique selling proposition, and collaborate on the rest.”

Adds Samarasekera, “Shopster believes that integrating both technology and service partners into our Merchant community are the keys to success.”

About Shopster

Founded in 2004, www.shopster.com is an official eBay Solutions Partner that offers a suite of e-Commerce solutions for small to medium sized businesses. Thousands of online merchants from around the world rely on Shopster as it simplifies the complexities of online retail, allowing merchants to manage their store, transactions, and supply chain relationships in one easy to use place. Joining the Network is free, so merchants can focus on growth and relationships, not on costs.

A classic Ford pickup truck owned by film and music star Cher is being sold at auction this week.

Cher nicknamed this 1956 Ford F100 customized black pickup “Moonstruck” after the 1987 movie performance for which she won the Oscar for Best Actress.

The story behind Cher’s ownership of the truck and the unique customizations she had installed is an interesting one. Cher had always wanted a pick-up truck and would often talk about her desire amongst her friends. Then out of the blue one of her friends, actor Johnny Depp, spotted a 1956 Ford F100 pickup for sale on the side of the road and immediately called Cher.

When Cher bought the 1956 Ford F100 pickup, she knew it wasn’t perfect, but after reading an issue of Custom Classic Trucks, she wanted to know how to get the truck to look like some of the beauties she saw in the magazine. The truck was in decent condition; it had independent front suspension, a 460 V8 engine, a tilt steering wheel, shaved door handles and black primer finish. Except for the front suspension, most of the workmanship was marginal, and the engine was ready for a rebuild. Problems were either apparent or ready to surface.

She called Peterson Publishing and they agreed to steer Cher in the direction of quality work and parts. They recommended Baker Restoration in Van Nuys, California. This company, headed by Scott Baker, has a solid reputation for quality work and really knows classic trucks.

It took only a few days to break Cher’s truck down into pieces. Baker sent out the pieces and frame to be stripped at the Painting & Stripping Corporation of America in Santa Fe Spring, California, so there would be no hidden surprises under the primer. Cher decided that she wanted the truck black, totally black. We’re talking black frame, black suspension, black body, and black interior, so the body had to be flawless.

Bigger is better, right? How about 7.5 liters of fuel injected muscle ala ‘95 Ford? Ford Motorsport supplied the engine, which Cher also had painted black. Baker put in a sophisticated electronics system that includes the ability to limit engine performance to any speed the owner selects, that way when Cher lets her son Elijah drive the truck, he can’t get in over his head. A ‘95 A4OD (automatic 4-speed overdrive) transmission was bolted to the engine and a narrowed 9 inch rear-end was used to allow for the super wide tires. In terms of mechanics, the truck runs like a ‘95 model.

Richard Stark did the black leather custom interior; owner of Hollywood, California based Chrome Hearts. All the upholstery buttons, power window controls, light frames and crosses, which Stark embedded into the leather interior, are formed from sterling silver.

To install the sound system, Cher selected Los Angeles based Electronic Entertainment, where owner Howard Becker over saw the installation. Before work on the interior and sound system began, the cab was sound proofed using V-Blok sound dampening material and under carpet pad by Cascade Audio Engineering. The series of layers not only provides additional sound dampening, it also protects the wiring for the sound and security systems. Then over that, Baker layed the specially ordered wool carpet.

Because song demos always come in cassette format, Cher requested a cassette head unit. So Becker put in a Nakamichi TD/9 am/fm cassette, which is located in the dash. Additionally, should she want to listen to CDs, a Nakamichi MB-7 music bank 7 disc changer was installed under the seat. For the mids and tweeters, Becker used AVI MX-130 5 mid range speakers and HF25V tweeters, also from AVI.

Other features include power steering, a tilt wheel with air bag, stainless steel transmission, fuel, and brake lines, a reverse tilt hood, a completely digital dash, temperature controlled digital dash, power windows, doors and seats. This is probably the only ‘56 in the U.S. with an airbag.
Additionally, the truck contains a 15-gallon NASCAR fuel cell, which is accessed through an aircraft fuel inlet, flush mounted into the cleared and polished oak wood bed.

Additional photos and auciton details can be found on Ebay.com

eBay today made it easy for sellers to find and subscribe to third-party applications that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their eBay businesses. Available immediately through My eBay (my.ebay.com) for subscribers of Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro are about a dozen applications that have been pre-approved by eBay to be embedded on eBay.com. eBay anticipates steady growth in the number of tools available through the Selling Manager Applications platform to address specific needs of eBay sellers including: shipping, inventory management, sales tracking and customer support.
Announcement Highlights/Key Facts:

All Selling Manager applications are free to try. An app store for eBay sellers, third-party applications are subscribed to at My eBay (my.ebay.com) with eBay managing billing on behalf of third-party developers.
In April, eBay announced that it would no longer charge sellers to subscribe to Selling Manager, turning it into an open platform where third-party developers could embed their applications into my.ebay.com, allowing them to connect with sellers directly.
More than 96,000 third-party developers have already built more than 13,000 live applications that consume eBay’s Web services. These developers – along with new applicants – form the base of a vibrant developer community and expanding application marketplace.
Today’s announcement is also the latest milestone in eBay’s commitment to making it easier for sellers of any size to start, grow and maintain their business on eBay. In July, eBay rolled out enhancements for search relevancy, the automation and speed of the resolution process for unpaid items, new bulk editing tools, and an update to its highly regarded Seller Dashboard. These changes were part of the launch of the company’s Top-rated seller status, which is awarded to sellers that are ranked highly by their buyers through eBay’s detailed seller-ratings feedback system.
Sellers can access the applications directory for Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro by simply pointing their Web browsers to http://applications.ebay.com/. eBay’s Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro currently have 270,000 active subscribers in the U.S. and the tools can be accessed at http://pages.ebay.com/selling_manager and http://pages.ebay.com/selling_manager_pro.
First Group of Applications Rolled Out

Over the course of this week, the first dozen embedded Selling Manager Applications will be rolled out. Users can easily find, subscribe and manage the applications they want and need with a single eBay sign-on. Some top solutions eBay users can try out for free in Selling Manager include:

Terapeak: Research before you sell. Research before you buy. Find the value of your items, discover new products to sell, and develop your selling strategy using Terapeak Marketplace Research.
HostedSupport: HostedSupport’s customer support tool helps you answer the questions customers ask about your listings. ezSupport for eBay is integrated directly with the “Ask a question” link on your listings, providing direct access to your searchable FAQ knowledge-base and/or intelligent auto-response messaging.
ahTEXT: Keeps you connected to your eBay account by sending you a text message the moment that a buyer asks a question, makes an offer, buys an item, leaves Feedback or files a dispute.
For more background on any of these developers, please visit the eBay API Success Stories page.

Quotes

Dinesh Lathi, VP of eBay Seller Experience

“eBay’s Selling Manager Applications Platform is an app store for eBay sellers that makes it easy to find and subscribe to tools that can help our customers increase the efficiency and velocity of their businesses on eBay.”

Kumar Kandaswamy, Senior Manager, eBay Platform

“eBay’s API platform already attracts 96,000 developers who have built more than 13,000 live applications. Selling Manager Applications addresses the need of developers to more readily connect eBay sellers who are seeking useful tools for their eBay businesses. Under the eBay Selling Manager Applications revenue sharing agreement, applications that pass eBay’s rigorous approval process will be put in front of an active audience of more than 270,000 professional eBay sellers. By managing the billing on behalf of developers, we are simplifying the process for both eBay sellers and third-party developers.”

Andrew E.R. Sukow, Co-Founder, CTO, Terapeak

“The ability to embed our application inside My eBay gives us an opportunity to both reach sellers in an entirely new, more personalized way and also capture revenue streams. We’ll also get a much better sense of the needs of sellers as we think about creating new applications.”

Video Overview

A video overview of the eBay Selling Manager Applications platform: http://www.businesswire.com/multimedia/home/20090401005446/en/1778299

About eBay

Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, StubHub, Shopping.com and others. eBay Inc. is headquartered in San Jose, California.