Ebay

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - It probably won't go down as an important moment in the history of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, but it was my favorite sports story of the week until good sense and a spirit of compromise came along and ruined everything. Manhattan lawyer Kerry Konrad bid $2,325 in an eBay charity auction for the one-day naming rights to Boston's FleetCenter, but the arena balked at his desire to rename it "Derek Jeter Center" in honor of the popular Yankees shortstop and frequent Red Sox nemesis.

IF I'M Red Sox first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz, there are a couple of things I'd do right now. I'd change my name, of course (I mean, how do you go through life trying to spell that every time you want to use your debit card at Taco Bell), and I would throw that World Series ball on eBay so fast it would make Larry Lucchino's head spin. Of course, when Larry was here running the Orioles, I once accused him of being able to turn his head completely around like Linda Blair did in The Exorcist, but that's another story.

Buying and selling on eBay used to be so easy and so much fun. It used to be that the online auction site's biggest strength was the idea that anyone could sell anything there. A box of sports pages from the 1950s, discovered in my father's basement after he died, generated all sorts of interest; two lots of four pages sold for $10 each, and the buyers were plenty happy to get them. A relative once bought a plastic container filled with candy jawbreakers, ate them, then put the empty container on eBay.

The common perception of eBay, the extensive online auction site, is of Aunt Tillie selling her collection of 1950s-era Avon bottles and Cousin Jose browsing for a bargain on a laptop computer. More than 5,000 such folks attended eBay Inc.'s convention in June in Anaheim, Calif. But in the past year, major companies such as International Business Machines Corp. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. have become eBay devotees, too. eBay now expects its growth to be propelled not by individual users, but rather by big corporations.

One Manhattan apartment, six interior designers, an eBay auction budget and eight weeks to decorate. Sound like the newest reality designing show? Not exactly. When executives at online auc- tioneer eBay were looking for a new way to highlight their home furnishings category, they turned to renowned interior designers and set them loose on the site. All items in the finished apartment, with a total value of about $70,000, will be for sale in the eBay Showhouse Charity Auction from Thursday through Oct. 30. Proceeds will benefit Alpha Workshops, a nonprofit design studio that provides work in the decorative arts for artists who have HIV or AIDS.

It didn't take long before people began cashing in on Kimmie Meissner. Even as the 16-year old Bel Air ice skater was landing her triple lutz triple toe combination in Turin yesterday, there were 24 postings on eBay by people selling autographed photos, newspaper clippings, signed ice skates and autographs connected to starlet Meissner. Among the goods was a "Brand new! Never opened, mint condition" copy of Harford Schools, a monthly newspaper produced by the school system that is mailed free to 33,000 people -- mostly to families with children in the county's public school system.

A 40-foot bronze sculpture in rural Maryland of three New York City firefighters raising the U.S. flag at Ground Zero has failed to sell on eBay. The monument to heroes of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks was offered by a court-appointed receiver for 10 days to recoup money for victims of an alleged Ponzi scheme. The auction ended Saturday with no bids. The statue was commissioned by Coadum Advisors Inc., which donated it to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation in Emmitsburg for a tax break.

Missing a profit estimate by a penny a share cost eBay Inc. about $13 billion in market value yesterday. The online auction's sharp stock sell-off, which sent its shares tumbling 19 percent, was a realization by Wall Street pros that eBay's days of youthful perfection could be numbered. They are perhaps discovering what eBay's millions of users already know: The Internet bazaar has entered a more mature stage, and with maturity comes complications. It is a stage where frequent increases in fees irk those who sell on the site and where users are more likely to be professional businesses - not the mom-and-pop consumers who helped build eBay.

If we were a nation, we would be the ninth most populous nation in the world," noted eBay CEO Meg Whitman during a CNBC documentary in June. By "we," she meant the 135 million users who had registered on the site by the end of 2004. Add to that figure those who lurk on eBay, talk about eBay, read about eBay, create businesses based on eBay, fantasize about finding treasures or making a fortune on eBay, and the population of this virtual nation would soar astronomically. As it reconfigures consumer culture, the auction site, which officially turns 10 years old this Labor Day weekend, stirs passionate debate over its impact on society.

When not performing in piano concerts around the country, Michael Faircloth is busy with his second career - selling housewares and kitchen items to thousands of buyers worldwide, without leaving his Bel Air home. Faircloth, better known to eBay buyers by username thebarringtongarage, began selling housewares and kitchen items online when his concert itinerary slowed down after the Sept. 11 attacks. He needed additional income, and a friend suggested selling some otherwise yard-sale-bound items on eBay.