Ebay is changing its business model away from pricing listings to taking commissions off actual sales. There is lot of competition on listings including some of those that you mentioned, but what differentiates ebay is the sales and the facilities for quick and secure checkout and product evaluation. Once they link the skype to the account so people can get to talk anonymously over internet as they transact it would fit into the overall ebay business model. A slow down in the economy makes ebay a great play modulo the CEO downer.