WatchCount.com is gaining prominence as a new, helpful website to identify popular items on the internet’s largest trading platform, eBay. With the doors closed on 2008, WatchCount.com recognizes its accomplishments throughout during the year but especially in recent months where it forged a partnership with a major ecommerce trade association and garnished several accolades and distinctions. In looking at its growing user base throughout the year, WatchCount.com noted a distinct category of users that were drawn to the site: purveyors of a wide range of collectibles.

What makes the site particularly unique to eBay users is its ability to retrieve Watch Count data on many listings — a proprietary metric typically unavailable on the eBay site. While both sellers and shoppers in many niches find usefulness in WatchCount.com’s increasingly popular services, collectors of various kinds have been particularly keen to use the site to “spy” in on how many people are secretly watching their favorite eBay items. With this additional number at hand, buyers have more information at their disposal as they scout out hot items and unique, in-demand collectibles.

Unlike a simple page view count, the Watch Count on an item only accumulates when a registered, logged-in eBay user explicitly clicks an eBay-provided Watch Link to effectively “vote” for the item. As an example, during 2008 the site had witnessed regular visitors keeping an eye on certain collectible coins, Griswold cast iron items, and Reborn dolls. In comparison, an item’s Bid Count is of course a fantastic measure of item popularity as well, but it does have its shortcomings. Usually bids only accumulate close to the end of a listing’s duration, while the number of watchers (and viewers) builds over time. Many collectors already frequent the eBay marketplace plying their trade, but until now haven’t had a solid, tangible means to quantify the popularity of their favorite items until the last minutes when bidding activity culminates. With this new ability to see how many others are actively but tacitly keeping tabs on an item, both buyers and sellers can make more informed decisions in their respective eBay activities.

The site offers other Watch Count related services to visitors, such as advanced search capabilities to dig even deeper into live eBay data, allowing specific keyword and category choices. Moreover, the WatchCount.com Widget is used by some sellers to publicly flaunt their items’ Watch Counts to potentially increase perceived value and stimulate bidding activity.

eBay has certified WatchCount.com as an “eBay Compatible Application”, approving its use with the eBay platform. All services are currently offered free of charge.

About WatchCount.com
WatchCount.com (http://www.WatchCount.com/) offers a collection of helpful tools and services for eBay users, including unique marketplace search capabilities unavailable on the eBay site. Sellers can avail themselves of automatic listing enhancements, such as the WatchCount.com Widget, to publicly flaunt their item’s Watch Count, and both buyers and sellers find it helpful to lookup Most Watched eBay items in real-time to better help them frame their buying and selling activities on eBay.

Rwanda expects its 2009 earnings from tea to rise 29 percent to $54 million compared with the previous year, due to higher yields per hectare, branded packaging and new varieties, the central African country’s industry regulator said on Friday.

Rwandan tea leaves are currently sold in bulk for $2.20 per kg at auction at the Kenyan port city Mombasa. Butera said by bagging and packaging the tea in Rwanda, the leaves could be exported for $17 per kg, almost seven times the price.

New advertisement and auction website launched by AZannunci carrying thousands of ads, registered users may place their advert for free. New kid on the block AZannunci have launched a free, feature rich and highly secure advertisement and auction site. Registered users may place their advert for free, and the service includes both regular ads and auctions. The internet is populated by a whole host of similar sites, so what makes AZannunci different? Joanne Pedrini, who is a spokesperson for AZannunci had this to say, “Yes, we are aware that competition is incredibly stiff in the on-line auction and advertising marketplace, yet we feel we are bringing something fresh to the game. Our advertisements offer a much richer feature set than other sites, allowing advertisers to place ads which can include video from a variety of sources and in a range of formats, our users may also include documents within their advert as well as images”. AZannunci have obviously taken quite some time to define the functionality of their new website, this theory is backup up by the attention to security that has enabled AZannunci to promote their advertising and auction site as secure. The site is protected by the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) web browser protocol and carries both the Igra and Safesurf certification logos. Joanne Pedrine tells us that “We had a very long list of features which we wanted to include within the site, as a result of this we became aware of the fact that we would need to take extreme measures to ensure that our ads and auctions were also bulletproof when it came to security. We have implemented many major security processes and are happy to have received certification from both Igra and Safesurf”. Any advertisement and auction site is only as good as it’s depth of scope and AZannunci has made sure that their site has a very long reach, by incorporating over 2,700 separate categories that ads can be placed in. AZannunci are obviouslyaiming to serve a very high percentage of potential users wishing to place ads by opening up this many categories. Joanne Pedrini confirms this assumption by saying “We are keen to offer the ability for anyone wishing to place ads or start a new auction to have a website which allows them to sell into the correct niche. We fully understand that some of this large number of categories will be relatively stagnant, but we feel that it is better to have categories that are infrequently used than to send a prospective user away due to the fact they cannot find the right box for their ads to fit in”. Some people would likely believe that the advertising and auction style of website is no longer an avenue rich with prospect. AZannunci seem to disagree, and they have obviously taken every step to ensure that their new venture is not only successful, but useful to as many internet users as possible. The current downtrend of the global economy means that auction sites will likely gain more popularity in the coming months, AZannunci have made a smart move by positioning themselves ready to take advantage of this. Joanne Pedrini 191 Huron, ST 709 London Ontario N5Y4L9 Canada Website: www.azannunci.eu

Copart, Inc. has announced that it has opened its automotive sales web site to the public, allowing them to see the company’s patented VB2 technology.

Up until recently, the site – www.copart.com – was password protected, allowing only registered buyers and sellers to view this innovative technology. Now everyone can see how VB2 works by replaying previous sales.

VB2 is a unique online technology that allows buyers from all over the world to bid against each other on vehicles over the Internet, breaking down geographical barriers because they no longer have to travel to a physical sale. More than 100,000 buyers from more than 100 countries use VB2.

Besides viewing replays of these internet sales that feature International bidders, the public can also now search for vehicles from more than 130 Copart locations in North America.

“The cutting-edge technology of VB2 has been somewhat of a secret that registered automobile buyers and members of the insurance and bank industries have enjoyed, but the public has been unaware of,” said Copart President Jay Adair. “Now we’re letting the secret out. This will change the way people think about how cars are bought and sold.”

Copart also sells cars for the public using VB2 through a division called CopartDirect (www.copartdirect.com). Now members of the public using that service can also view vehicles being sold online to Copart’s International buyer base by going to www.copart.com.

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