Monday, November 29, 2010

Making Money on Ebay



Several factors have contributed to this year’s gusher, including a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in January that now allows unlimited campaign spending by corporations and unions. In August, a low-profile Federal Election Commission decision opened the door for donors to pool their money and give anonymously, which produced a bumper crop of ads from nonprofit political groups and committees trying to influence voters.

“The biggest factor driving the spending is the competitive landscape,” said Evan Tracey, president of Kantar Media’s Campaign Media Analysis Group. “Incumbents across the country are worried about losing, and they are not holding on to their money. And many of these statewide races are in states with expensive media markets like New York, Texas and California.”


Political spending this year should reach record levels, Tracey predicted.


Wells Fargo's Ryvicker estimates that TV stations will collect $2 billion in political money this year.  Cable television systems will generate at least $150 million; radio stations will garner $250 million; direct mail efforts should consume $650 million; and billboards will receive $55 million. Ryvicker estimated that newspapers would take in $95 million in political money. 


Coming in last, according to Ryvicker and Tracey, will be Internet sites. Their collective haul should be about $50 million -- less than 2% of the total.


Companies that own TV stations in the LA market include CBS Corp., NBC Universal, Univision Communications, News Corp., Walt Disney Co. and Tribune Co., which owns KTLA-TV Channel 5 and the Los Angeles Times.


For the full story in the Los Angeles Times, click here. 


-- Meg James



Ebay launched a Group Gifts service using Facebook’s application programming interface, aptly named for the ability to digitally pay for a present with contributions from more than one person.



Go to the group gifting page on eBay, and you see a button that can open the Facebook logon window, prompting the request for permission to access profile information, friend lists and their respective birthdays, among other data that might influence a group buying decision.


Group Gifting  designates one person as the organizer who chooses the gift, and then invites others to contribute funds.  I think version 2.0 ought to give you the option to invite friends first, and then make a group decision on the gift; offline, when we buy presents as a group, people often give suggestions about what to buy before coughing up any cash.


The next best thing to making a group decision on what to buy is looking at your intended recipient’s wish list on eBay, which you can certainly do right now using the current iteration of Group Gifts. And if your intended beneficiary doesn’t yet have a list on eBay, I suggest you look for it on other online retail sites, in addition to your friend’s profiles on social media and personals sites. It’s also helpful that the gifting service asks you the occasion for the gift, with a drop-down menu. Here’s another idea for version 2.0: Allow people to name their own occasion that isn’t on the list of choices.


For now, whoever initiates the group buy chooses the gift, then invites other would-be contributors and sets a deadline for contributing. No transaction goes through until enough people pony up money to meet the cost of the item.


If you have a sense of deja vu, perhaps you’re thinking of Facebook’s partnership with Amazon.com announced this summer, which enabled the ability to tap the social network for product recommendations. That integration doesn’t yet include group funding of gift purchases, but I wouldn’t be surprised if something to that effect became available in the very near future.


The group gifting service looks pretty cool and tempts me to start plotting acts of generosity toward the people nearest and dearest to me. I bet you’ll feel the same way after watching the explanatory video below:




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