eBay halts sales of phone numbers

[aww]

Looks like eBay has determined that phone number sales are not the same as domain name sales. I wonder how this will affect domains being sold with matching toll-free numbers?

full story (more info)

The phone number popularized by 1982's one-hit wonder Tommy Tutone - Eight-six-seven-five-three-oh-nieeine - rings into a Murfreesboro used-car dealership in area code 615.

Tuning in to national attention for the auction of New York's 212 version of the number on eBay, the dealership put its number on the Internet auction block Monday.

However Tuesday afternoon, David Ludwig, general manger of Auto Outlet, said he got an e-mail from eBay notifying him that his "Jenny" auction had been canceled for being "inappropriate." The other phone numbers being also sold disappeared from the Web site.

The auctions were put on hold until eBay could determine whether they fell within the company's guidelines, a spokesman said Tuesday night. "People are really creative," said spokesman Henry Gomez. "And this one had us scratching our heads a bit."

 

[Elefekt]

LOL, selling phone numbers, they are creative arent they?

 

[armstrong]

A good phone number that's easy to remember and brandable, such as 1-800-getnews, can be valuable by itself, similar to brandable domain names having value.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by armstrong
A good phone number that's easy to remember and brandable, such as 1-800-getnews, can be valuable by itself, similar to brandable domain names having value.

Exactly.

I would pay decent money to have 007 as my first 3 digits, or last 3.

 

[Anthony]

Well, I guess this is because of the publicity surrounding the sale of 212/867-5309 Oh well.