In a random eBay search, I came upon a very alarming item up for sale… eBay.com. Yes, you read that right. eBay is selling its website on its website! Click the thumbnail on the left to view a larger screenshot.

As you can see from the image, the price was just over $30 million last time I checked. There is no “Buy It Now” option so the price is likely to continue to rise until the auction ends in a few weeks.

There is much speculation over why eBay would be selling its site. A key thing to remember is that eBay isn’t selling its company, only its auction website. Yes, eBay the company is mostly eBay.com, but it has many employees and other ventures that it’s working on. Pay Pal is a large part of the company as is its relatively new eCommerce site hosting. eBay is likely looking to raise some capitol for a new venture or to help fortify current projects.

There is also the fact that the online auction market has much more competition these days. Maybe eBay is backing out of the online auctions due to pressure from Craigslist or the new Google Base.

There is little in the way of concrete information coming directly from eBay, but I’m sure eBay has some kind of plan for the money raised from selling off its main source of income.

Tags: eBay, eCommerce, online auctions