Each year since 1995, eBay has hosted an annual convention/trade show/Woodstock called “eBay Live!” for people who buy and sell on the world’s largest Internet auction platform. The 2008 event was in Chicago last week, and I was pleased to be invited yet again to teach several classes for eBay sellers on legal and tax strategies, negotiating tactics and complying with some of eBay’s more arcane selling policies.

Here are some interesting facts, new developments and eBay selling solutions I learned about at this year’s show:

— more than 7,000 eBay community members attended the show, with a combined “feedback score” of over 20 million transactions;

— eBay CEO John Donohoe announced, among other things, that eBay’s popular “seller protection program” (basically an insurance policy that refunds sellers if buyers don’t pay or return damaged merchandise) would be extended to all eBay sellers effective immediately — previously this program was available only to eBay’s elite “PowerSellers”;

— are you looking to sell beyond eBay on platforms such as Amazon, Yahoo! Stores and Google Base, but don’t want to maintain separate e-commerce platforms for each of those venues? PhiConnect (www.phiconnect.com) has a solution that ties all of your e-commerce activities together, with prices starting at $799;

— eBay sellers, through several eBay charitable giving initiatives, donated more than $100 million to charities around the world during the last 12 months;