
Criminal probe of eBay employees
U.S. Prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into whether eBay Inc employees took confidential information from classified ad website Craigslist as eBay sought to build a rival service, a copy of a grand jury subpoena obtained by Reuters shows. Ref. Source 8
Ordering through Ebay really is a matter of the seller. I've ordered stuff from Hong Kong / China around the same time that I've ordered from the USA and the item from Asia came first! It is all about priority, I do not tend to leave negative feedback unless the seller is devious or underhanded.
I don't mean to stereotype but some of the Chinese sellers can ship you really crappy stuff. For instance they show you a picture of an item and then send you a generic form of it. Be sure to check out the seller's feedback before you buy.
Ebay recently sent out a newsletter concerning the US government wanting to tax internet purchases. Here is pieces of it:
Updates to the eBay User Agreement:
Provisions regarding Global Shipping Program. We added provisions describing the Global Shipping Program, through which we may make your domestic U.S. Listings available to international buyers. For items that are located in the United States and that you sell through the Global Shipping Program, you will simply ship the sold item to a parcel processing facility located in the United States, where a third party global technology and shipping provider will oversee the processing, customs clearance, and international shipment of the item to the buyer. Buyers will pre-pay all applicable shipping and import charges during checkout and will benefit from international tracking of the item from the parcel processing facility through delivery. Ref. EBay