As the Beckhams have recently discovered, Ebay can be a pretty scary place. I've lost many a friend to ebay. I've even nearly lost myself, and my pay packet, to it a number of times. The scope means your every whim is catered to - hell, Pater once sold a vase and made a girlfriend out of the buyer! It appeals both to the gambler in us with the auctioning system and the thrill seeker with the 'buy it now' function. And it has a community feel that brings like minded people together to exchange their wares.

And yet, despite a recent overhaul, I can't help but feel its usability is somewhat lacking. E-customers are a fickle bunch; on our local highstreet we still have to walk past the sellers we've shunned. On the web we can slip away without a backwards look. A competitor with the interface of a Amazon or Facebook, would make a MySpace out of Ebay in a matter of weeks.



In the meantime, however, I'm doing all I can to ignore the Abercrombie & Fitch buy it nows.

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