To our valued community:

In the past few months, eBay has made a concerted effort to maintain a safe trading environment for our growing community. And in the coming months, we plan to make several improvements to create a safer, more secure trading environment at eBay for you - including Insurance, changes to the Feedback Forum, changes to the User Agreement, and a voluntary User Verification program. These recent efforts also included taking a hard look at our policies on bidding on your item, shill bidding and bidding but not completing the transaction.

based on your suggestions, we have also taken a hard look at our policies on Dutch Auctions and their impact on safe trading at eBay. What we found has prompted two very important changes to Dutch Auctions that will be made immediately.

As of February 3, 1999, in order to sell items using the Dutch Auction format, sellers must:

1. Have a Feedback Rating of 10 or above; and
2. Be a member of eBay for 60 days or more.

We believe that this will help prevent unscrupulous people from taking advantage of honest, trustworthy individuals in our community. We understand that this may inconvenience a few sellers, but we hope you understand our concern for protecting bidders and for maintaining an open, honest and safe environment for online trading.

As always, we try to do things hand-in-hand with you, our valued community members. You have helped make eBay what it is. And we thank you for your support and for your help in making eBay an even better place for online trading.

Regards,
eBay