eBay Auctions: Going, Going ... Gone?

EBay is the Internet’s top auction site—which would be great if consumers still liked auctions. Long gone are days when consumers happily stalked their prey, which went to the top dog in frenzied bidding. These days, most prefer quick, one-click, fixed-price shopping—and eBay is scrambling to accommodate them, BusinessWeek reports. Old-school auction sellers, meanwhile, are furious.

“The bloom is well off the rose with regard to the online-auction thing,” one analyst said. Though the site says it will always host auctions, CEO John Donahoe has aggressively emphasized “Buy It Now” selling. His most controversial move has been a hike in fees for traditional auctioneers, which one says will “have the result of ending auctions as we know it on eBay.” (More eBay stories.)