A Little Something from Grannie Annie

Have you ever met one of those people that tend to inspire and motivate you after having talked with them for only a few minutes? I met someone like that at eBay Live! 2008 just as the first day was nearing an end. Sitting at the end of a hall due to a dead battery in her scooter.

I was first drawn to stuff-from-hawaii because of the scooter (a story in itself). Decorated (as you will see in the attached video) with all kinds of 'stuff' and in the midst of the stuff sat Ann (stuff-from-hawaii - my use of the word stuff is coincidental, I promise). The second thing that drew me to was her smile and the sense of openness and welcome.

I stopped and chatted with Ann for a bit and the longer we talked, the more inspired I felt. I think Ann's  page provides an insight to this wonderful person, "Thanks for stopping by. I am 70 years young and really enjoy buying and selling any and every thing on eBay."

Ann shared that after hearing about eBay on the Today's show, she started selling Beanie Babies. From there her sales evolved into selling antiques, collectibles and is now selling 'light-ticket' items. At one time, she sold Hawaiian phone books for $8 each, phonebooks the phone company had given her (how's that for sourcing?). She also sells hat that her son gives her that was given to him by companies from all over the world (talk about no over-head...okay, that pun was deliberate).

While chatting with Ann about some of the changes we've gone through at eBay, she shared the following, "I miss Meg and Bill. They always treated me good and I had confidence in them. I will stay with eBay and adjust to the changes. If you think out-of-the-box, you'll make it. You've got to stop thinking 'What's eBay going to do for me' and learn to help ourselves."

We then chatted a bit about the scooter and how it came to be decorated. Ann faced the challenges of decorating the scooter the same way she faces doing business in a competitive market, "It took me five trips to the hardware store to fix this cart and had to get the pipe cut twice before it would fit." (notice the stick-to-it-ness). Near the end of our chat, Ann shared the following, "I'm going to stick with the one that brought me to the dance," adding, "I look to see what it takes to solve the problem and think about how I can make it work for me."

Thank you Ann for inspiring me and reminding me why I work for eBay - it's because of people like you and it's eBay that provides that opportunity.

In closing I leave you with a quote by Art Williams, "I'm not telling you it is going to be easy - I'm telling you it's going to be worth it" and with a bit of inspiration from Grannie Annie - take it away Ann...