Bloggingstocks:
In a Financial Times article eBay’s desire to ‘cash in’ on blogs, a competitor in that space laid down the ultimate fighting words: ‘eBay can’t do this because they don’t have the inventory.’ This being letting bloggers list products on their own sites, receiving half of the fees if the product sells.
The competitor, MeCommerce, is selling mainstream stuff - books, music and t-shirts - through 3rd-party distributors, so in a way, co-founder Yobie Benjamin is right. eBay doesn’t have deep inventory in, say, the copy of Penelope and the Pirates that I might recommend on my own blog.
Claims that eBay ‘doesn’t have inventory’ are made to stir up interest, to inspire a 2nd look. And I’m not buying the razzle and dazzle. I am interested in these ‘cash in on blogging’ plans, but it seems all murky, hopeful, and ‘open source’ (which in this case seems to be eBay speak for ‘we’ll let someone else make a decision here’). UK managing director Doug McCallum says ‘Our approach would be to develop new tools that we can turn over to bloggers, so they can define the natural shape of the marketplace on their own.’ While it may be ‘how eBay originally developed,’ it doesn’t give investors much to go on.
Subscribe 
I love that book! In fact, we will be rolling out a 2nd hand book collection soon and interestingly enough in negotiations with the used book consolidator, I asked about your book and I got this: Penelope and the Pirates: Being the Exciting Tale of a Young Cat and Her Adventures at Sea, With a Full Account of the Search for Treasure
I hope it’s the same one! Right now I don’t have that book but your comments inspire me to look for the obscure, out of print and wonderful.
Rest assured that our work is dedicated to folks like yourself and meeting your needs and at the same time allowing the ‘little folk’ to have their little ecommerce store in the big world of the internet.
Our best to you!
All of us at GoodStorm
Very good and interesting post!