Jessie X

I love eBay. I just love It … Them … and the "Thems Who Use It": eBay’s robust community of sellers and buyers.

To me, eBay has given  many Americans the dream — and for more than a few, the reality – of being "self-made," having their own business and building their dreams of financial success and freedom in a way aligned with their personal passions and pursuits.

I see the eBay system as having energized customer service and the value of doing business with a real person. I have experienced the most stellar service from eBay-ers, sometimes on the smallest of purchases. eBay’s accountability system and rating, both of buyers and sellers, has instituted a new norm of civility and manners in conducting business.

It’s true, I’ve encountered a slimeball here and there, particularly in the realm of digital media (software, tutorial DVDs and such), and guess what: I report them, as the eBay system allows, and encourages.

I’m an advocate of Citizen Patrols on the Internet. You can read my post about it here. The short version of my position is that too much crap is being posted and citizens should have the right, the responsibility and the tools to report back to the search engines when a site is utter crap. (I’m speaking of, for example, content aggregator sites that offer no value. I do not believe in censorship based on subject matter. After all, that’s one of the reasons the Internet is so fabulous.)

I believe that eBay has provided the most sensible, well-used and respected systems to date for "citizen patrol." Rather than patrolling for content value, eBay patrols where it needs to: in business value. Did the seller deliver as promised? Did a buyer pay on time? Did the seller go out of her way to resolve a misunderstanding? And was the buyer respectful in her request when identifying the misunderstanding? eBay-ers "live and die" by ratings. It’s integral to the system. eBay provides the platform. The users patrol, report and value the collective information, experiences and perspectives of the others in the community.

eBay is also a co-parented company (a term I got from Faith Popcorn’s book, Eve-olution). eBay became what it is because it’s customers wanted it to be more, do more … and the company listened, responded and gave its users what it wanted.

At this time, I’m not in the stock market, and I don’t pay it much mind. But, were it me, I wouldn’t want to be holding Amazon.com stock. Why? Seen eBay’s new eBay Express? It’s eBay for new stuff. New items (and "mostly very new"). No vintage ’50s circle skirts here. And, guess what. From what I have observed, no corporate stores. Yes, I can find Banana Republic clothes for sale on EBay Express, but not from BR or The Gap. Nope, such items are only for sale from someone selling them at a small, privately owned store and/or electronic storefront. OK, maybe the clothes are one season off. Fine with me.

eBay’s relationship with the small entrepreneur and the ease with which they allow folk to be in business and exposed to a world of customers … and competitors  is, to me, absolutely All-American!They have taken the much-loved and oft-twisted (particularly when one gets mega corporations, REITs and publicly traded companies involved) concept of a "free market" and it  "democratized" it by creating the tools, the platform and the system for small-time players to participate in the economy at a scale and investment level of their choosing. They lowered the entry barrier to and made real the dream of "owning my own business."

Baseball (or is that soccer, now?), apple pie and eBay. That’s my kind of America.