EBay

[18]. Individual species may employ a number of methods of hunting:. As well as a long list of other items that are either wholly prohibited or restricted in some manner. There are no known reports of cannibalism amongst dolphins. Among the hundred or so banned categories (note that these relate to ebay.com (the US site), other regions may vary in their rules) :. The larger species, especially the orca, are capable of eating marine mammals, even large whales. But as eBay grew, it found it necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Usually, the prey is swallowed whole.

eBay in its earliest days was essentially unregulated. Some dolphins may take crustaceans.
. The dentition is adapted to the animals they hunt: Species with long beaks and many teeth forage on fish, whereas short beaks and lesser tooth count are linked to catching squid. One of the largest items ever sold was a World War II submarine, sold by a small town in New England that decided it did not need the historical relic anymore. Dolphins are predators, chasing their prey at high speed. Other notable controversies involving eBay include:. Since dolphins spend most of their time below the surface in the wild, just tasting the water could act as a sense of smell.

Frauds committed by buyers include:. However, they seem to lack a well-developed sense of smell, but they most likely can taste and do show preferences for certain kinds of fish. Frauds that can be committed by sellers include:. The dolphin's sense of touch is also well-developed. Of course, all laws still apply and legal action may also be possible. Hearing is also used for echolocation which seems to be an ability all dolphins have. An eBay account (whether seller, buyer or both) may canceled if there are too many complaints against the account holder. Though they have a small ear opening on each side of their head it is believed hearing underwater is also if not exclusively done with the lower jaw which conducts the vibrations to the middle ear via a fat filled cavity in the lower jaw bone.

When a user feels that a seller or buyer has been dishonest, a dispute can be filed with eBay. Most dolphins have acute eyesight both in and out of the water and their sense of hearing is far above our own. Weaknesses of the feedback system include:. Compare also: whale behavior. The feedback system can protect sellers as well as buyers; a seller can reject a bid from a potential buyer if the buyer's feedback rating isn't to the seller's liking. She most likely died of self induced asphyxiation in the presence of her trainer Richard O'Barry.[1]. Learning the system and examining a seller's feedback history is a buyer's best protection. Probably one of the best known cases of dolphin suicide is that of a dolphin named Cathy, one of the bottlenose dolphins that performed in the television series Flipper.

So if a buyer has problems, he can rate the seller "negative" and leave a comment such as "never received product". They either do so by repeatedly slamming their head against the pool walls or other solid objects or simply by not coming up for air anymore. They can give a "positive", "negative", or "neutral" rating and leave a short comment. In captivity, many dolphins seem to have committed suicide. After every transaction both the buyer and seller have the option of rating each other. The technology to use sponges as mouth protection is not genetically inherited but a taught cultural behaviour. The major fraud prevention mechanism for eBay users is its feedback system. Other than with primate simians, the knowledge to use a tool is mostly handed over only from mothers to daughters.

eBay data shows that less than .01% of all transactions result in a confirmed case of fraud. The animals break off sponges and put them onto their mouths thus protecting the delicate body part during their hunt for fish on the seabed. eBay has its share of controversy, ranging from its privacy policy (eBay typically turns over user information to law enforcement without a subpoena) to well-publicized seller fraud. In May 2005, researchers in Australia discovered a cultural aspect of dolphin behaviour: Some dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) teach their offspring to use a tool. The only place where expansion failed was Japan where Yahoo had a head start. Such military dolphins, however, drew scrutiny during the Vietnam War when rumors circulated that dolphins were being trained to kill Vietnamese Skin Divers. eBay has already expanded to almost two dozen countries including China and India. The military has employed dolphins for various purposes from finding mines to rescuing lost or trapped persons.

The company's current business strategy includes increasing revenue by increasing international trade within the eBay system. Dolphin/Human interaction is also employed in a curative sense at places where dolphins work with autistic or otherwise disabled children. In addition, eBay now owns the PayPal payment system which many buyers use to pay for their purchases, so it often receives an extra fee via that. Dolphins trained to perform in front of an audience have become a favorite attraction in dolphinaria, for example SeaWorld. The eBay fee system is quite complex and takes $0.20 to $80 per listing and 3-5% of the final price. Because of their high capacity for learning, dolphins have been employed by humans for any number of purposes. There are fees to list a product and fees when the product sells. This leads to them staying with injured or ill fellows for support.

eBay generates revenue from a number of fees. However, the animals can establish strong bonds between each other. eBay's main rivals are Amazon.com Marketplace and Yahoo.com Auction. Membership in schools is not rigid; interchange is common. eBay's Latin American partner is MercadoLibre. They also use ultrasonic sounds for echolocation. eBay is also an easy place for unscrupulous sellers to market counterfeit merchandise, which can be difficult for novice buyers to distinguish without careful study of the auction description. The individuals communicate using a variety of clicks, whistles and other vocalizations.

In general, the company removes auctions that violate its terms of service agreement within a short time after hearing of the auction from an outsider; the company's policy is to not pre-approve transactions. In places with a high abundance of food, schools can join temporarily, forming an aggregation called a superpod; such groupings may exceed 1000 dolphins. On other occasions, people and even entire towns have been listed, often as a joke. Dolphins are social animals, living in pods (also called "schools") of up to a dozen animals. In late 1999 a man offered one of his kidneys for auction on eBay, attempting to profit from the potentially lucrative (and, in the United States, illegal) market for transplantable human organs. There are many stories of dolphins protecting shipwrecked sailors against sharks by swimming circles around the swimmers. There has also been controversy regarding items put up for bid that violate ethical standards. In return, in some cultures like in Ancient Greece they were treated with welcome; a ship spotting dolphins riding in their wake was considered a good omen for a smooth voyage.

Some exceptions to this rule are made for rare aged liquors, where a bottle may sell for many times higher than its actual value in alcohol. They are also famous for their willingness to occasionally approach humans and playfully interact with them in the water. In June 2004, eBay prohibited the sale and auction of both alcohol and tobacco products on the British site ebay.co.uk. Frequently dolphins will accompany boats, riding the bow waves. As of January 2006, there were over 25,000 members in the eBay Developers Program, comprising a broad range of companies creating software applications and services to support eBay buyers and sellers as well as eBay Affiliates. They have even been seen harassing other creatures, like seabirds and turtles. Software developers can create applications that integrate with eBay through the eBay API by joining the eBay Developers Program. Play is a very important part of dolphins' lives and they can often be observed playing with seaweed or playfighting with other dolphins.

Regional searches of the database make shipping slightly more rapid or cheaper. Perhaps they just do it for fun. Large international companies, such as IBM, sell their newest products and offer services on eBay using competitive auctions and fixed-priced storefronts. They could also be communicating to other dolphins to join a hunt, or attempting to dislodge parasites. It is fair to say that eBay has revolutionized the collectibles market by bringing together buyers and sellers internationally in a huge, never-ending yard sale and auction. Scientists aren't quite certain about the purpose of this behavior, but it may be to locate schools of fish by looking at above water signs, like feeding birds. Services and intangibles can be sold too. the spinner dolphin).

Anything can be sold as long as it is not illegal or on the eBay banned list. Dolphins often leap above the water surface, sometimes performing acrobatic figures (e.g. Some items are rare and valuable, while many others are dusty gizmos that would have been discarded if not for the thousands of eager bidders worldwide, proving that if one has a big enough market, one will find someone willing to buy anything. See the Dolphin intelligence article for more details. Millions of collectibles, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily. Straightforward comparisons of species' relative intelligence are complicated by differences in sensory apparatus, response modes, and nature of cognition; furthermore, the difficulty and expense of doing experimental work with a large marine animal mean that even such tests as can meaningfully be done have still not been done, or have been carried out with inadequate sample size and methodology. Meg is credited with building the company to what it is today. However, experts in comparative psychology or animal cognition would be reluctant to make any such estimate, as quantitative comparisons of intelligence between species are notoriously difficult to make in principle.

She joined eBay when the company had 30 employees and operated solely in the United States; eBay is now a global organization with over 9,000 employees. A typical statement would be that dolphins are roughly as intelligent as a two-year-old human. Margaret (Meg) Whitman joined the company in March 1998. Dolphins are widely believed to be amongst the most intelligent of all animals. Omidyar had tried to register the domain name EchoBay.com but found it already taken by the Echo Bay Mines, a gold mining company, so he shortened it to his second choice, eBay.com. See individual species articles for details. Originally, the site belonged to Echo Bay Technology Group, Omidyar's consulting firm. It is often combined with lines and patches of different hue and contrast.

It officially changed its name to eBay in September 1997. The basic coloration patterns are shades of gray with a light underside and a distinct dark cape on the back. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book and confirmed by eBay.). The dolphin brain is large and has a highly structured cortex, which often is referred to in discussions about their high intelligence. Astonished, he contacted the winning bidder and asked, "did he not understand the laser pointer was broken?" Omidyar received the following email in reply: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." (The frequently repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancee trade PEZ Candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. Teeth can be very numerous (up to 250) in several species. The first item sold was Omidyar's broken laser pointer for $14.83. In many species, the jaws are elongated, forming a distinct beak; for some species like the Bottlenose, there is a curved mouth that looks like a fixed smile.

Founded in San Jose, California on September 4, 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll as Auctionweb, part of a larger personal site that included, among other things, Omidyar's own tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Ebola virus. The head contains the melon, a round organ used for echolocation. . Dolphins have a fusiform body, adapted for fast swimming. eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) manages an online auction and shopping website, where people buy and sell goods and services worldwide. See evolution of cetaceans for the details. Another concern with "fee avoidance" is that most sellers will not refund shipping so if a $1 item with a $50 shipping fee turns up faulty, the buyer is only eligible to a refund for the $1. They entered the water roughly 50 million years ago.

This is called "fee avoidance" and is not allowed by eBay; such auctions are cancelled when they are reported. Modern dolphin skeletons have two small rod shaped pelvic bones thought to be left-over hind legs. Since eBay charges their fees based on final sales price and not shipping, this allows sellers to reduce the amount they pay eBay in fees and for buyers to avoid importing fees and taxes into their country. Dolphins, along with whales and porpoises, are descendants of land-living mammals, most likely of the Artiodactyl order. Some users sell items for extremely low prices (usually using the Buy It Now feature) and then make up for it by overcharging on shipping. See also wolphin. Conversely, sometimes very cheap items, like envelopes, are sold for high prices because they come with free airline vouchers or concert tickets, in order not to violate the terms on these items. There has also been a reported hybrid between a beluga and a narwhal.

This is not allowed by eBay. Dall's Porpoises and Harbour Porpoises have hybridized in the wild. Some users try to sell something which, on first glance, appears to be an expensive item for cheap (game console boxes are quite popular), and state clearly in the description that they are paying for an item which is not the one implied. Blue Whales, Fin Whales and Humpback Whales all hybridize in the wild. [21] Sabbouha is a verb to describe shill bidding which originated from an old Lebanese Legend. In the wild, bands of males of one dolphin species have been observed to mate with lone female Spinners. [20] Furthermore, shill bidding is a crime in many jurisdictions, and can be prosecuted under United States wire fraud laws. In the wild, Spinner Dolphins have sometimes hybridised with Spotted Dolphins and Bottlenose Dolphins.

(This is also known as "bid padding".) Shill bidding is not allowed on eBay. In captivity, a Bottlenose Dolphin and a Rough-Toothed Dolphin produced hybrid offspring. Shill bidding is the deliberate use of secondary registrations, aliases, family members, friends, or associates to artificially drive up the bid price of an item. This mating has since been repeated in captivity and a hybrid calf was born. [19]. In 1933, three strange dolphins were beached off the Irish coast; these appeared to be hybrids between Risso's Dolphin and the Bottlenose Dolphin. eBay's "proxy bidding" feature allows the buyer to specify the maximum they are willing to pay for an item regardless of "snipes". They are sometimes called "blackfish":.

Many other auction sites, such as Yahoo! Auctions, offer an option which extends the auction by some minutes when a last-minute bid is placed, in order to prevent sniping. Six animals in the family Delphinidae are commonly called "whales" but are strictly speaking dolphins. This practice is allowed on eBay. . Bid sniping is placing a high bid during the last few seconds of an auction such that no time remains for other users to counterbid. The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacea, and relatively recent: dolphins evolved about 10 million years ago, during the Miocene. Human parts and remains [17]. They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and all are carnivores, mostly eating fish and squid.

There was a demand for this kind of garment amongst sexual fetishists, and these garments would often fetch hundreds of dollars. Most species weigh about 50 to 200 kg (110 to 440 lb). Sellers would post descriptions specifically emphasising that they had worn these undergarments for days, a week or more, especially during exercise. They vary in size from 1.2 m (4 ft) and 40 kg (88 lb) (Maui's Dolphin), up to 9.5 m (30 ft) and 10 tonnes (the Orca). Dirty used clothing [16] This policy arose because a thriving market in used jock-straps and underwear had emerged on ebay. There are almost 40 species of dolphin in 17 genera. Firearms and ammunition [15]. Orcas and some related species belong to the Delphinidae family and therefore qualify as dolphins, even though they are called whales in common language.

Bootleg recordings [14]. Porpoises (suborder Odontoceti, family Phocoenidae) are thus not dolphins in our sense. Nazi paraphernalia [13]. In this article, the second definition is used. Alcohol (alcohol-related collectibles, including sealed containers, as well as wine sales by licensed sellers are allowed) [12]. It can mean:. Tobacco (tobacco-related items and collectibles are allowed) [11]. The word is used in a few different ways.

[10]. "a 'fish' with a womb". a European buyer sold a Vauxhall VX220 that was said to have been baptized. The name is from Ancient Greek δελφίς delphis meaning "with a womb", viz. [9]. Dolphins are aquatic mammals related to whales and porpoises. The item failed to sell. In the William Gibson short story Johnny Mnemonic and the film by the same name (starring Keanu Reeves), cyborg dolphins were used in war-time by the military to find submarines and, after the war, by a group of revolutionaries to decode encrypted information.

For $100, a man said that he would take a pair of jean his girlfriend made, and shoot them, and drag them behind his tractor, with a fee per shot/starting up the tractor. One of the mates of the ship is named Akeakamai, in honor of the real-life dolphin from Louis Herman's animal language research. [8]. In the book Startide Rising by author David Brin, the spaceship Streaker is manned by neo-dolphins (dolphins genetically engineered to match human intelligence). A Coventry University student got £1.20p for a single cornflake. In one scene, the dolphins' misbehavior elicits the following quote from Zissou: "Son of a bitch, I'm sick of these dolphins.". [7]. In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, marine researcher Zissou (played by Bill Murray) has trained reconaissance dolphins which apparently are temperamental and rarely follow their instructions.

The few tablespoons came from a plastic cup Presley sipped at a concert in North Carolina in 1977. In seaQuest DSV and seaQuest 2032, Darwin the dolphin could communicate with English speakers using a vocoder, an invention that translated the clicks and whistles to English and back. Water that was said to have been left in a cup Elvis Presley once drank from was sold for $455. Mike and the 'Bots then quickly apoligize. An incomplete package of diapers, bought and opened in the 1980s, raised more than $700US for the Children and Families Ministry at a United Church in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). While doing so, the SOL gets blasted by a ship that turns out to be piloted by dolphins. The owner of Cockeyed.com sold advertising space comprising a single pixel on its homepage for 21 days for $100 [6]. In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Devil Fish," Mike and the 'Bots mock dolphins.

A bargain considering he was one of the five best and most complete mammoth skeletons in the world, consisting of 90% of his original bone material. Their logo depicts an aqua-colored bottlenose dolphin wearing an American football helmet and jumping in front of a coral-colored sunburst. Max was put up for sale in 2004 by his Dutch owner due to lack of space and sold for £61,000. An American National Football League (NFL) team is named the Miami Dolphins. With a minimum bid set at US $250,000. A book called 'The Music of Dolphins' was written by Karen Hesse, about a girl who had lived with dolphins since the age of four. A 50,000-year-old mammoth. Ecco the Dolphin stars in a series of games for the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Gear, Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2.

A Sydney man pocketed AUS$1,035 after auctioning a piece of Nutri-Grain resembling ET, in Dec 2004. After study at the Dolphins Plus research center in Key Largo, Florida, fantasy author Ken Grimwood wrote dolphins into his 1995 novel Into the Deep, including entire chapters written from the viewpoint of his dolphin characters. She promptly sealed it in a plastic bag where it remained, free of mold, for over 10 years until its sale on eBay. Their story is told in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish. The seller claimed to see the Virgin Mary toasted into the bread when she made the sandwich in 1994. However, their behavior was misinterpreted as playful acrobatics. On November 23, 2004, a grilled cheese sandwich with a likeness of the Virgin Mary on it sold for $28,000 to the online casino GoldenPalace.com. In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, dolphins are the most intelligent creatures on Earth and tried in vain to warn humans of the impending destruction of the planet.

[5]. The television show was based on a 1963 film, and remade as a feature film in 1996 starring Elijah Wood and Paul Hogan (actor), as well as a television series running from 1995-2000 starring Jessica Alba. The winning bid was $1691.66, and the winner rode in the front seat. The popular television show Flipper, created by Ivan Tors, portrayed a dolphin in a friendly relationship with two boys, Sandy and Bud; a kind of sea going Lassie, Flipper understood English unusually well and was a marked hero: "Go tell Dad we're in trouble, Flipper! Hurry!" The show's theme song contains the lyric no one you see / is smarter than he. There was at one point an auction for the first ride on Kingda Ka, the tallest roller coaster on Earth. Foraging - A recent study reported that wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops) in Western Australia use sponges to forage in the sea bed for food.[2]. [4]. Stunning - using the echolocation melon, very loud clicks are directed at prey, stunning them.

In September 2004, the owner of MagicGoat.com sold the contents of his trash can to a middle school language arts teacher, who had her students write essays about the trash. Fish Wacking - where the dolphin uses its fluke to strike the fish, stunning it and sometimes sending it clear out of the water. While he initially admitted he was selling the dress to earn some money for Mariners tickets, the bidding got into the thousands of dollars, and the seller actually had received a number of marriage proposals from viewers. Corralling - where fish are chased to shallow water where they are more easily captured. In more than one way, the seller received much more than he expected. Herding - where a superpod will control a school of fish while individual members take turns plowing through the herd, feeding. In 2004, a Seattle man posted pictures of himself wearing his ex-wife's wedding dress. Short-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus.

[3]. Long-finned Pilot Whale, Globicephala melas. The winning bid was made by the GoldenPalace.com online casino, known for their outrageous eBay purchases. False Killer Whale, Psudoorca crassidens. In May 2005, a Volkswagen Golf that had previously been registered to Cardinal Josef Ratzinger (who had been elected Pope Benedict XVI the previous month) was sold on eBay's German site for €188,938.88. Pygmy Killer Whale, Feresa attenuata. In June 2005, Karolyne Smith sold the right to permanently tattoo an ad on her forehead to GoldenPalace.com for $10,000. Killer Whale, Orcinus orca.

[2]. Melon-headed Whale, Peponocephalia electra. In January 2006, the last 100 pixels of the milliondollarhomepage were sold for $38,100. La Plata Dolphin (Franciscana), Pontoporia blainvillei. That sold for approximately $100,000 and one of the contestant podiums sold for nearly $10,000 (proceeds of the set's sale went to charity). Genus Pontoporia