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The company also raised its full-year revenue and profit forecast and its shares rose 7.3 percent in after-hours trading.

EBay, which began as an online auction house, but sees most of its sales at fixed prices, is in the latter half of a three-year turnaround focused on its marketplaces unit.

The company competes with Amazon.com Inc and a host of e-commerce retailers, all of whom are hoping to appeal to cost-conscious shoppers still pressured by high unemployment and a sluggish U.S. economy.

The company, which also owns PayPal, expects fourth-quarter revenue of $2.39 billion to $2.49 billion, with adjusted earnings per share of 45 cents to 48 cents.

That is above the 44 cents per share on revenue of $2.4 billion that analysts have been expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"This is good across all their businesses," said UBS analyst Brian Pitz, adding the results and forecast would improve lukewarm investor sentiment toward eBay. "They're starting to see traction with marketplaces and they expect pretty decent results in the fourth quarter."

For the full year, eBay expects revenues to range between $9.05 billion to $9.15 billion on adjusted earnings of $1.67 to $1.70 per share.

That was above an earlier revenue range of $8.8 billion to $9.0 billion on adjusted earnings per share of $1.60 to $1.65.

"With our U.S. business stabilized, we are making the adjustments necessary to capitalize on the pricing and search changes made earlier this year and we are continuing to innovate around the user experience," Chief Executive John Donahoe told analysts on a call.

EBay has tried to simplify its process for listing items and lowered upfront fees to encourage more sellers, while focusing on safety measures to protect buyers.

Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan said the marketplaces division should have a "strong performance" in Europe and a "stable performance" in the United States over the holiday season.

The November and December holiday season is a key selling period for e-commerce players and their brick-and-mortar rivals. Market research firm comScore said last week that holiday online spending could rise between 7 percent and 9 percent this season.

Investors are awaiting a holiday forecast from Amazon.com when it reports third-quarter results on Thursday. Amazon is generally expected to dominate e-commerce holiday sales as it fosters shopper loyalty and cuts prices.

Analysts, on average, expect Amazon to post a 36 percent gain in 2010 revenue, compared with the 5 percent eBay expects at its high end.