One in three Australian adults now use internet auction house eBay to do their shopping, as online spending continues to grow as the preferred method of purchase.
The website said it had signed its five millionth Australian member, which was up two-thirds from the three million users it recorded in August 2005.
eBay Australasian managing director Simon [...]

Australia’s newest fine art auction house, Deutscher Hackett, has appointed businessman and art patron Ian Hicks AM as its inaugural chairman.
The Deputy Chairman of the National Gallery of Victoria Foundation, Hicks will become an equal third equity holder in the new business, along with co-directors Chris Deutscher and Damian Hackett.
“We are delighted to have a [...]

EBay Inc., the world’s largest online auctioneer, said fourthquarter profit rose 24%, beating analysts’ estimates, as holiday shoppers bought more goods using the company’s PayPal onlinepayment service. The retailer also boosted its full-year earnings forecast and said in a statement yesterday that it may repurchase as much as $2 billion in additional stock, sending the [...]

An auction for CanWest’s $3 billion-plus stake in the Ten Network is looming.
Private equity players such as the Carlyle Group and Texas Pacific Group are believed to be eyeing the company as are European and United States TV networks.
Fairfax Media chairman Ron Walker last week ruled out his company as a potential buyer of Ten.
“We [...]

Twenty-four-year-old Australian surfie, Nicael Holt, is auctioning off his life on eBay.
At the time of writing, bids had reached US$24,222, and the auction had been viewed 245,869 times. Holt says he will give 30% of the proceeds to charity.
Oh, and there’s one more thing, this is all part of a documentary - so whoever [...]

A meteorite-damaged sofa up for auction on Trade Me has attracted an opening bid of $400, while a Pink Batt has met its reserve with a bid of $1.50.
New Plymouth couple Phil and Brenda Archer are selling the suede sofa – with a meteorite-sized hole in it – a Pink Batt, ruptured roofing tiles, a [...]

Arstechnica is reporting that PayPal and VeriSign are releasing code-generating key fobs that will be used in conjunction with user passwords for added security.
According to Arstechnica, the devices display a six-digit code that changes every 30 seconds. This ever-changing code, as well as the user’s password, cannot be used on its own so if either [...]