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EBay abandons negative comments about buyers   Suzy Jagger and Jonathan Richards   All buyers and sellers are equal in the virtual auction world of eBay, but buyers are about to become more equal than everyone else. From May, eBay, the world's biggest online auction house, will block sellers from posting any negative or neutral comments about buyers who purchase their goods to coax more of them on to the site. The move means that anyone selling an item will have little recourse to complain that the purchaser of their Britney Spears T-shirt or antique Whitby egg-timer had been...

This is an update to my thread the other night about Cindy Sheehan. A group called Yearly Kos was auctioning off Cindy Sheehan to do a speaking engagement. Last time I checked, the bids were up to $1,275.00. There is also a thread about this auction on the eBay sellers central discussion forum called "AHHHHHH! Uh, well, at least shipping is free. Is this for real?" It can be found at http://forums.ebay.com/db2/thread.jspa?threadID=1000218333 This thread is still running in that forum, even after several days. Several of the posters there noted that the Cindy Sheehan auction violated ebay's policys, and apparently...

FBI agents and state troopers in New Jersey have arrested 17 people as part of a sweep of online auction fraud. Most of the suspects face charges of failing to deliver merchandise as promised or for selling bogus items. The items ranged from cars to baseball cards. The three-month investigation was the first of its kind and followed fraud complaints by Web consumers. Authorities hope the arrests serve as a warning for people to surf the Web carefully.

When Jerald R. Klein, a Manhattan housing court judge, got a call from a reporter yesterday morning, he had no idea why he was being bothered at home on the weekend. He did not know that his face was all over eBay. He did not know that he was for sale. "What are you talking about?" he said. "Yes, I am a housing court judge. But I'm not for sale." According to a posting on eBay, an online auction house, the 55-year-old judge would go to the highest bidder. After four days, the best offer was $127.50. The eBay advertisement,...