It’s another fine Whine Seller Way Back Wednesday. This one is three for the price of one.

eBay Keywords&.with a kick from Jun 12, 2006

eBay AdContext is all over the news, essentially eBay Keywords all over again, this time on any website that wishes to host them.

I am personally excited about it as a webmaster, not so much as a seller. Sites such as my own that are heavy on collectibles and other such frequently ebay-ed items will really benefit from this.

I guess the advertising aspect is good as well. I am just trying to picture how many “Looking for 80’s toys?” ads I could run along with everyone else.

Modern Day Take: Whatever happened to this program? Does it still exist?

Top 5,000 eBay Reviewer from Jun 19, 2006

When I logged into my account recently, I discovered that I have been labeled a top 5,000 reviewer on eBay. It’s displayed proudly next to my user ID with my PowerSeller logo.

I would be much more proud of this if I had been trying. But, to be honest, I have only ever written one guide and have never even written a review at all.

I suppose eBay is doing this because they hope that this will make people more likely to write more reviews and guides for the competition aspect and I suppose it is working. I just wrote a second guide because I felt like having only one looked bad and then copied two reviews I had written on Amazon over to eBay.

eBay guides are definitely a great way to get some exposure for some of your items and I think I will try to make an effort to write more guides and reviews in the future. Right now, however, it seems like participation is pretty low.

Modern Day Take: I don’t think I’ve written another review or guide since that day. 🙂 Yet, they still have me listed as a top 5,000 reviewer.

Shoebox Size! from Jun 22, 2006

For those of us who have lamented that the box that would really fit this particular item the best is a shoebox, the USPS has heard our cry and released shoebox sized co-branded boxes.

In the beginning, I thought the co-branded boxes were silly since you could already get the boxes for free from the USPS website. I must say, though, that the interface of eBay’s order page is much easier than the USPS’s and, while they don’t have every size box, it does give you a sort of Rah Rah eBay feeling to display your alliance with pride.

I just ordered some flat rates and an order of the new shoebox size. I would have ordered more, but I just ordered a ton from the USPS so I really didn’t need any more. I always need to stop myself from orders tons upon tons of the free USPS boxes.

What can I say? Free stuff makes me giddy!

Modern Day Take: I still love the Priority Mail shoebox size. It is without a doubt the most useful size of the free boxes.