eBay Sellers' Customer Service

I liked this note about how eBay Sellers' customer service is in some cases better than retailers, owing to the vertical nature of some eBay sellers:

-Play up personalized service-
A few sellers noted that another aspect of buying on eBay that deserved to get more marketing airtime was the personalized customer support provided by most eBay sellers. clact observed, "Did you ever wonder when you are asked by a buyer something about an item that they would never be able to get this service from anywhere else? Why isn't that a good selling point? If most of you are like we are we answer questions all the time…I mean getting through to someone is rare these days anywhere else. I think that is a good selling point. Did you ever ask JC Penney to email you if a color was more Emerald or Evergreen in color?"

Google, Yahoo, Live, MSN Reach

I was looking at this Alexa reach data, and it looks like when Live.com launched, there was a drop at yahoo.com which recovered, and that in 2007 Live.com is cannibalizing MSN.com, perhaps from driving traffic from MSN to Live.

Reach for eBay and Amazon

I was looking at Alexa.com for reach numbers. I wonder if these percents for reach are because of Alexa toolbar installs, or if the peak at January 2006 and subsequent decline would show in Explorer or Firefox statistics on visits.