Some new additions to the badge family!  We now have badges for leaders in each category.  These are updated periodically throughout the day and as always, stay tuned for more!  Check out the most current badge leaders here.

Congrats to tyhana on a job well done!

A couple updates from us on this Friday afternoon.  We pushed out a new badge system for user achievements.  Right now you can see how many badges a person has by going to their profile.  Check out satin7’s profile page: http://www.listia.com/profile/3637  For a list of badges and what they mean check out the legend: http://www.listia.com/badges  More to come in the near future!

Along with the badge system we’re rolling out some changes for all new auctions some time within the next 24 hours.  After an auction ends credits used to be transferred directly to the seller’s account.  Credits from auctions listed by sellers without the “Trusted Sellers” badge are now held in a pending state for the lesser of 10 days or until the winner claims they received the item.  Users with the “Trusted Sellers” badge are not affected by this change.  The following scenarios can take place after an auction:

Winner: no response, Seller: no response
Seller will receive the auction credits after 10 days from the date of auction close.

Winner: receives item, Seller: delivers item or no response
The seller will immediately get their credits if the winner claims they received the item.

Winner: does not receive item, Seller: no response
The buyer will receive an automatic refund after 20 days from the date of auction close. This waiting time can be expedited in special circumstances.  Note that a winner has 10 days from auction close to claim that they didn’t not receive the item.

Winner: does not receive item, Seller: delivers item
During an auction dispute the outcome will be handled by a moderator. If your auction is in this state, please contact us with your auction details.

Let us know if you have any questions!  We’re hoping that this system both automates returns as well as makes it more obvious who’s who on Listia.  Thanks!

Over the long weekend (long weekends don’t really exist at a startup) we pushed out a few features that we thought we’d let you know about.

First, we added start bids for auctions from 0 to 100.  You can find this field in after you click on “show advanced options”.

Second, we also added variable auction lengths from 3 to 10 days.  This option is also under the advanced options menu.  Auction lengths are displayed on the auction view page.

Third, we added a way for you to import your email contacts to refer your friends a lot easier.  You can now import your addresses from Gmail, Yahoo & Hotmail under ‘My Account’.

Fourth, follow @onlistia to see newly listed items in your Twitter feed!

More to come!!!

Had some coffee with the Posterous crew today in SF. If you are thinking of setting up a blog or just want to share some photos or video, check out their site.

Today we’re launching an experiment called a Tiered Rewards Auction.  The way this works is the auction item changes as the high bid amount moves into different tiers.  For example on our first auction the item in tier 1 is a $10 iTunes gift card.  If the bid for this goes higher than 499 then the tier moves up to 2 and the auction item changes to something else (which remains unknown until the bid amount gets this high).

We thought it’d be a little more fun than your standard rewards auction.  Have fun!

http://www.listia.com/auction/5054

I couldn't figure out how to add pictures to my previous post and wanted to add a few more …

See the full gallery on Posterous

Tonight was the last dinner for the Summer 09 class of Y Combinator.  The last 3-4 months have been one of the greatest experiences I've ever been through.  I'll have a full review and details of my thoughts in the near future.  For now … a couple pictures …

See the full gallery on Posterous