eBay Anything Points is being phased out.

eBay is discontinuing a 2-year-old incentive program for sellers and partners in the United States, the company announced on Monday.



eBay Anything Points, which operates like a “frequent flyer” program to stimulate customer loyalty, will be phased out by Feb. 28, the company said. Points earned under the program will be honored through August 2006.

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eBay will prevent sellers from offering the incentive points on new listings starting Aug. 15. eBay said it would, on Sept. 30, remove remaining points from listings still offering them.

The Anything Points program on eBay Canada will continue.

This is very disappointing news for me. Other than signing up for some free trial offers a year ago, I only used this on my Priceline bids. But the value proposition was compelling — 1000 to 1500 Anything Points on a successful bid, which converted at better than 1:1 into Cathay Pacific Asia Miles. And since 60,000 Asia Miles buys a British Airways business class ticket from the US East Coast to most destinations in Europe, the program offered $3000 – $5000 in airfare for 45 – 55 Priceline wins.

Soon I’ll have to go looking for the next best Priceline deal.