What made the day standout was not the similarities between the (pardon the pun) cradle to the grave auctions. Sadly, what stood out was the fact that people bid on items for which they had no intention of buying. Something that undermines the very integrity of the marketplace.

eBay has no tolerance for this sort of behavior (the two high bidders in these auctions have been banned – for life – from eBay) and because placing a bid enters someone into a legal, binding contract, the consequences might not end there.

One of the bidders may have even lost his job over the matter, and both may also face suit from the sellers for breach of contract. If you are a seller and you ever find yourself in a similar situation, please report the bidder here: http://resolutioncenter.ebay.com/ so that eBay can take appropriate action.

eBay prefers to be able to work with sellers in advance of a high profile listing in order to best ensure a successful outcome (FYI… selling a crypt above Marilyn Monroe’s that currently houses your late husband qualifies as high profile). They have done this numerous times in the past, the most obvious example being the annual charity auction for lunch with Warren Buffet. In those auctions, eBay has helped to raise millions of dollars for worthy causes with nary a hiccup, because they have been able to work with the sellers in these auctions to pre-approve all bidders.

What most sellers don’t know is that eBay can offer you the same sort of assistance it offers to Mr. Buffet. In the future, if sellers are interested in listing items considered to be high-profile and/or likely to garner media interest, we suggest the following process:

1) Complete a request at http://news.ebay.com/media-request.cfm. Include specifics about the item, timing, and contact information. Upon reviewing the request, eBay will determine the level of support and contact you within 3 business days.

2) If warranted a high-profile listing, eBay will work with you to create the listing in compliance with policy and implement a pre-approved bidding process to ensure only legitimate bids are placed on your auction.

Cheers,
RBH

I hope everyone had a good week last week. My time away with my family was unbelievable (it’s 1:30pm on my first day back and I miss them already!) and our first family vacation as the four of us will be something I remember forever.

I’m still getting back into the swing of things here and looking forward to sharing more info and news as we head into the second half of 2009.

Before I do though, and at the risk of running two “enough-about-you-what-about-me?” blog posts in a row, here is a video interview from the TWTRCON I attended last month talking about corporate blogging, Twitter, and social media policies for corporations.

Cheers,
RBH

Cheers,
RBH

That’s how it all began, a year ago today. Indeed. Today marks one year to the day that this blog has been up and running. I had debated writing a standalone post regarding the milestone. It is, after all, rather self serving and I’ve been pretty busy this week at the Web 2.0 Expo but I figure I’d take a few minutes to reflect.

Yesterday, eBay’s CTO and SVP of Global Platform, Mark Carges, closed out the first day of Web 2.0 Expo’s keynotes with “Five things that matter to developers today.” I was lucky enough to have a front row seat and at its conclusion I started to wonder what the 5 things are that have mattered most to this blog over the first year… I’m not saying I’ve been able to follow these 5 keys to success every day, but when I have come close, the blog has been better off for it:

1. Consistency
I’ve been doing this for 365 days. There have been stronger weeks than others and I can see when those peaks and valleys occurred quite quickly when I look at the blog stats. I will say that in the first year, eBay Ink has had over 136,000 unique visitors that have made 201,735 visits with 432,000 pageviews. The average time on the site has been over 3 minutes. You have contributed over 5,000 approved comments in the first year (this doesn’t include the over 7,000 invitations to meet someone in a chat room or to boost my “manhood” that were deleted) to the 212 posts (213 with this one) I’ve made. If my math is correct, that makes about 4 posts a week, every week, since launch. Pretty consistent. NOTE: 730+ of those comments were made to the “Feedback on Feedback to Feedback” post.

2. Knowledge
If I don’t know a subject inside and out – and this is pretty frequent I admit – then I better find someone who does because the readers will pounce pretty quickly and tell me where I’m falling down on the job. To say I came into this job “green” with regard to eBay background experience is an understatement but I still feel that hiring a devoted blogger with no prior bias or agenda was essential to keeping the credibility at a decent level. I still approach each interview or story as an outsider and if I don’t have the right questions set up, your participation makes it so I can definitely ask the correct follow-ups.

3. Self Discipline
Blogging is a lonely business. Sure I have a great team behind me and the support of the organization but there are many times when it’s just me and the blog at 3am and I need to publish a story – regardless of how tired or preoccupied I may be. Perfect example was October 6, 2008 when we had significant news coming out of the organization. My wife had gone into labor early and we welcomed our second daughter, Quincy, into the world 2 weeks earlier than expected on Sunday, October 5. Thankfully the hospital room had wireless so I was able to make the three blog posts at 5am the following day. I remember that long night of mixed emotions more than any moment since we launched the blog.

4. Selflessness
Just because this blog is “my baby” and it’s my name and face on the front page, I have to remember EVERY DAY, that this blog is not about me. It’s about you. It’s about every individual that is involved with eBay Inc. and, when one really analyzes it all, the ultimate measure of success of what we’re trying to accomplish with eBay Ink is that I’ll be out of a job. Seriously. Eventually, in an ideal world, the conversation will be happening between multiple members of the company and all of its constituents. The novelty of a “corporate blogger” will go away pretty quickly when that happens. Until then, you’re stuck with me, baby.

5. Twitter
The personal and professional relationships I’ve been able to establish with people that have been following our company a lot longer than I have is all down to Twitter. I still find myself in conversations each day with friends and family answering the question, “so what’s with this Twitter? Why should I care what you’re having for lunch?” Quite honestly, unless you’re Shaq or Stephen Fry (gratuitous Twitter inside joke) you really shouldn’t. However, Twitter is great as a business communications tool. You either use it to receive information or distribute (and redistribute for that matter). I’ve used it equally for both since June of last year. We’ve made some pretty significant strides as a company in the financial and IR world using Twitter. I’m really looking forward to what we can do with it over the next 12 months.

That’s it really. A busy 12 months to say the least. I like to think that the last year was simply building a foundation for eBay Ink and connecting previously disparate groups that should be otherwise intertwined. We still don’t have any marketing or promotion of the blog on any of our online properties. Something else that will change in the coming months.

For now, I’ll continue to be thankful that I am employed full-time doing something that I love. Giving an opinion and communicating with as many people as possible. On those days when I’m less than 100% I find myself repeating the same three words in my head – and I try to apply them to all aspects of my life for that matter: Make It Count.

Thanks to all of you for your support over the year. It has been overwhelming to receive such positive feedback from people, most of whom I’ve never met and I hope I can continue to strive to bigger and better things over the next 12 months.

Cheers!
RBH