ebay

Internet auction site eBay is in "advanced talks" to acquire Web-ratings site StumbleUpon, according to a report Tuesday night in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required). The deal could be worth $75 million according to the newspaper, which cited unnamed sources.

The sources told the newspaper that the deal for StumbleUpon was not final and could fall apart.

The report comes a couple of weeks after technology blog Techcrunch reported that the sites were in buyout talks, as well as naming Google and AOL as other suitors. GigaOm, another blog, reported an asking price in the neighborhood of $… Read more

Crave would never intentionally create domestic problems for anyone, but if we did--theoretically speaking, of course--we would dare our readers to bid on this eBay item: a "Winntech Scorpion" car media display. You know those huge set-ups in car stereo showrooms where you see and hear equipment in action? This is one of them, in spades.

It's a four-seat display (though only two are shown here), which will "switch between six head units, four speakers, four subwoofers and two video overheads, one video head unit and two headrest monitors," according to the auction's description. … Read more

Normally we wouldn't torment you with an eBay auction that's already ended, but we've learned over the years that practically anything about Apple is worth mentioning--even used sneakers.

After seeing all manner of Mac tattoos, haircuts and other signs of affection, we're accustomed to seeing the familiar logo pretty much anywhere. The only thing that's somewhat surprising is that image-obsessed Apple allowed the hallowed icon to be used on something as easily soiled as footwear, even for just prototypes. (Then again, it was done during the non-Jobs years.)

Whatever the case, this size-8.5 promotional … Read more

eBay has a neat new way to promote your items for free. Users can take any item listed on the auction service and widgetize it using a really simple editor. There are three options to choose from: single item, multiple item, and search. The multiple items widget has a scrolling display of item images, and is good for Powersellers, or anyone who is selling a few things at a time. What's great is that you don't even need to sign in to eBay to make one, just an item number.

When you're done creating a widget, you … Read more

Wipbox is a relatively new service that helps people sell things on Craigslist and eBay. Wipbox charges a small fee to help you put together a really slick-looking listing and figure out some of the subtle aspects of getting an item to sell quickly based on what category and service it's listed in. If you've ever wanted to sell something on either of the two classifieds services but have been unsure about a good starting price or the best way to convey the product information, Wipbox does the heavy lifting for you.

To get started quickly, you can do a search for your item. It's not free at $0.25 a pop, but it gives you the starting and closing costs for your item in various categories (for eBay) or locales (for Craigslist). For example, if you're here in San Francisco, your item might fetch more money in surrounding neighborhoods. Likewise, on eBay, putting it in a different category can dramatically improve the closing price. You're paying Wipbox to do the legwork.

In testing, we came across some skewed numbers for certain search items. For eBay, it was likely due to auctioneers incorrectly labeling their items or adding extra words to their titles to boost search engine presence. For Craigslist, we ran into problems with the search grouping together multiple SKUs. For example, a search for an Xbox 360 pulled in results with a difference of about a hundred dollars due to the system having two versions, each at a different price. For popular items such as iPods though, drilling down to the specific model number helped with these issues.

Wipbox bases its statistics on 30 days of eBay listings, and a full week of Craigslist sales, so whatever information you're getting is fairly current for market value. To find general price ranges for online auctions, there's also Mpire, a service that tracks auction prices on eBay to show you whether or not it's in demand--a little bit like Farecast does for airplane tickets.

The real catch to using Wipbox is its listing creator. Wipbox will pull in a description, user reviews, and specifics from Amazon.com. You can either pay $0.15 to have this information posted straight to your listing, or copy and paste the code field by field into eBay or Craigslist's listing creation box for free. … Read more

Update: According to Boston.com's Extra Bases blog, the grill on eBay doesn't belong to Manny Ramirez. The grill reportedly belongs to Ramirez's neighbor; Ramirez is just helping drive up the bid price.

Major League Baseball players get paid a lot of money. But the sad truth is, they don't get a lot of downtime to enjoy all the things they can afford.

Case in point: Boston Red Sox outfielder Manny Ramirez is selling his high-end grill on eBay, claiming he can't use it much because he's "always on the road." In … Read more

Who says the Walkman is dead? (And no, that's not a play on Dead Man Walking.)

A gold-plated 1994 cassette version released to celebrate its then-15th anniversary, the WM-EX1HG, sold a few days ago for $550 on eBay, according to TechEBlog. The vintage collectible is ensconced its own presentation case and has never been used, the seller says, so don't expect it to come preloaded with the greatest hits of '94.

Speaking of which, extra credit goes to those Cravers out there who can name the top hit of that year. Answer: "I'll Make Love to You,&… Read more

What a day for date repellants. Just hours after we mentioned the "Lightsaber Umbrella" did we hear of another ill-advised purchase, one that would be the envy of every nerd at the convention: Spock's spacesuit.

As noted by Spluch, an eBay auction that ended today claimed to have the "authentic spacesuit featured prominently in Star Trek I: The Motion Picture when 'Spock' (Leonard Nimoy) left the Enterprise to conduct a mindmeld with the 'V' Ger Probe." Wow. The frightening thing is there are people out there who will instantly recognize this scene by that description, … Read more

If you saw our recent item on the shrine to the Mac and wanted to build one of your own, here's your chance to get started.

Gizmodo notes that 40 Macintosh Classic IIs are for sale on eBay, with bids starting at $799 for the whole lot (or you can buy them now for $999). But as others have noted, they're not exactly a bargain--especially when you consider what a pain it is to get rid of any old computer these days, now that they're classified as hazardous waste. But hey, if you're looking to spruce … Read more