Where Is Everyone?

When I first entered the “Trade Show” area with all the booths, I saw that about 20% of them were empty. EBay filled the entire middle of the hall with category booths like Feedback Center, How to Improve DSR’s, Security and Trust, Education.

Splattered along the sides were “eBay approved” vendors. Booksellers, PESA, and some wholesalers that looked like they sold to dollar stores. There were some interesting photography table tents for sale, but no live demonstrations such as how to photograph jewelry, what camera to use and which settings worked the best. Just a guy standing there showing you the light bulbs inside the table tent.

The floor was empty with only about 200 people wandering aimlessly through the boring booths.

I stopped by PayPal booth and asked them a couple of questions about disputes. Their answer was – “Gosh, we don’t know. We don’t like to interfere with disputes between buyers and sellers.” Hmmm. My friend who came with me had her eye open for some PayPal guy who was handing out $10 bills. She found one and captured the $10.00.

Trust and Safety had the same vague remarks. “Gosh, we try to do our best”. At which time I offered to work for them 8 hours a week online and said I could clean off those bad listings, specifically the “Classified Ad” format, in a month. “Gosh, we’ll have to look into the problem”.

For the collective good of all 84 million active users. He said their decisions were made based on what is good for all of us. Father knows best attitudes.

The next day I went back with my friend to attend the Keynote speech. Fearing it would be standing room only, we arrived early. A new President and CEO of eBay, John Donohoe. This had to be good. I expected an announcement about something that would pick up my sagging selling disposition.

There were free donuts. Now that looked promising! But, we couldn’t get the free donut we wanted. We had to go to table 10 and could not get the donut I wanted on table 5 until the other tables were empty of donuts. People shoved and growled. I got a cheap chocolate donut and whoever came much later got the coconut donuts on the 1 st table.

We sat down and waited for John Donohoe. President and CEO of eBay. He wore a powder blue eBay shirt which didn’t fit him – sort of hung off his arms. It was at least 2 sizes too big. I think this was his effort to look casual – you know, a nice guy like you and me.

As he talked, his body language said everything. His arms raised, fingers spread – a “I know more than you” pose that he assumed over and over. He introduced his mom, dad, wife and sister. Showed us pictures of himself when he was little. He repeated the statement “We’ve made these changes for you” at least 8 times. I felt he had been condescending and not in any way in touch with the real sellers who were in his audience.

After him there was a 5 foot “Katie Couric styled” Lorrie Northington, head of the eBay Marketplace. At least her powder blue t-shirt fit her. She talked ad nauseam about dog pictures she had purchased on eBay. We were “treated” (and I use the term loosely) to several videos of successful sellers.....I felt terribly unsuccessful. How were they picked? One, of course, was the woman that sold her the dog pictures.

She briefly mentioned feedback changes which caused the entire group of at least 3,000 attendees to boo. I heard later this was the loudest booing crowd ever at a Keynote speech. She kept saying, we’ve done this FOR YOU. “Come on guys”. Arms raised, fingers spread, I wondered if she and John had practiced together. It was so sad. It was like parents talking to their children explaining how they know better. They know things that they can’t even tell us because we, the lowly sellers just wouldn’t understand.

Once the speeches ended, they left – never to be seen again. They didn’t go to the trade show floor and greet people and just say thanks for sticking with us. They did participate in a couple of executive lunches and handed out some awards, but "no mingling on the Trade Show Floor" with a common folks.

The rest of the day we spent at the trade show grabbing freebies. That was fun. USPS had super gifts including calculators, tool kits and tote bags. Who would have guessed? They were more fun and informative than any of the other eBay booths. In the picture above, my friend is getting her badge scanned at a trade show booth. We sometimes had to do that in order to get the free stuff.

I ran across this free download and want to share it with you. It is great for all levels of Photoshop Users. Loaded with tips and tricks. It is selling on eBay right now for $49.95. It is 295 pages long and loaded with goodies.

If you are into "photoshop" or just beginning, you will find some very useful information to improve your Photoshop skills.