TLC Returns...Because You Gotta Have Heart

For all the fans of the eBay Traveling Lab Coat (TLC), you'll be happy to learn that latest version has been listed for auction.

This time the (TLC) is back new and improved complete with it's own successful Heart "transplant." Embroidered inside the jacket, at the top, near the collar, the new Heart provides the lucky owner wearing the (TLC) that warmth and protection often found among those with a good Heart.

While growing in popularity, the Traveling Lab Coat (TLC) has been listed again using eBay's Giving Works tool. A full 100% of the final proceeds are destined to provide tender loving care to the St. Louis Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, whose services help to save lives and hope to increase the greatest chance to find a cure for breast cancer.

The current high bid is $200.00, but luckily 3 days remain in the auction to allow for the eBay Community to display how generous it's Heart is by paying it forward once again with the great Traveling Lab Coat (TLC) auctions. This should be exciting!

Striking the Jackpot...and Paying it Forward

"You're a Winner!"  If you're like most people, the thought of winning an incredibly cool prize might seem like one of those things that only happens to other people. That's what Sophia from Virginia thought too...that is, until she attended eBay Live! in Las Vegas in 2006.  She recently shared her great story with us, and we had to pass it along.

While at the event, Sophia stopped by the UPS booth to try her hand at the roulette-themed (we were in Vegas, remember?) prize wheel. Sophia can no longer say "I never win anything" because she won the grand prize of a brand new Dell laptop computer from UPS!

However, that's not where this story ends. Sophia soon learned through her friend Jim that his son Jon was to be deployed by the military to Iraq and that Jon was planning to buy a computer so he could stay in touch with friends and family. Sophia surprised him by "paying it forward" and giving Jon her brand new laptop. 

At eBay Live! in Boston in 2007, Sophia and Jim stopped by the UPS booth to meet the UPS staff and let them know Jon would soon be heading to Iraq. Jon is currently serving as a Private First Class in the 101st Airborne Division near Baghdad, and he has his Dell laptop with him, courtesy of Sophia.

Thank you Sophia, for demonstrating how to turn winning a prize into something really amazing. And of course...to Jon and everyone in the military who serves our country each and every day, we "bid" you a huge thank you!

The Traveling Lab Coat Journey Continues

Seasons Greetings!

I trust everyone is super busy preparing for and enjoying this holiday season.  If you don’t mind, I’d like to give you an opportunity to take a break from all the holiday hubbub, if you will, and read about the next stop along the journey to what is fast becoming known as the, eBay Live Traveling Lab Coat .  For those of you who are not familiar with the escapades of this illustrious lab coat, I encourage you all to read about the earlier stops in our previous blog post.

In keeping with the “Traveling Lab Coat” tradition, previous auction winner, ebetsy, listed this item with eBay Giving Works and chose the AIDS Services of Dallas as the benefactor of 100% of the proceeds raised under ebetsy’s eBay Live Traveling Lab Coat  auction.  AIDS Services of Dallas is the largest provider of medically supportive housing in Texas for those in need living with HIV/AIDS. 

Be sure to check out ebetsy’s fun and fanciful video of herself while she opened and tried on her stunning lab coat she won on eBay.  Can you believe she managed all that while singing her rendition of Weird Al’s “eBay” song?

This notion of “paying it forward” is special and definitely exciting to watch as the eBay Live Traveling Lab Coat gains momentum with in the Community.  If you want to jump on the momentum you should know the auction ends tomorrow with the current bid amount at $315.00 so if you’re going to bid, hurry up and place that bid now! Good Luck!

The Intrepid Adventures of The Traveling Lab Coat from eBay Live!

Hey everyone,

I'm here to warn you to be on the lookout for a traveling lab coat. You know, those sterile, white jackets doctors or scientists wear in their laboratory.  But this ain't your ordinary lab coat.  It's a very special lab coat because it's "Traveling on for Charity" and listed through eBay's Giving Works tool.

Since I'm a native of Salt Lake City, I wanted to blog about this fantastic, grass roots, idea to raise money for the Primary Children's Medical Center, located in Salt Lake City, Utah.

A big pat on the back should be given to eBay Community member danna who started the lab coat on its adventures. She's even written about the lab coat on her own blog. Please be sure to read her story, The Traveling eBay Lab Coat to learn how her idea came to fruition. In a nutshell: Lab coats like this one were worn only  by a few eBay employees during eBay Live! earlier this year. When the event ended, the employee who had worn this lab coat listed it, donating the proceeds to charity. danna won that auction, and then had a brilliant idea -- why not "pay it forward" by listing the lab coat again, and donating the proceeds from the second auction to her own favorite charity? Whoever won the second auction could re-list it yet again for their own favorite charity, and keep "paying it forward."

And so the lab coat's travels began...

danna says, "the goal is to keep the Lab Coat Traveling around eBay and for each owner to sign it and re-list it back on eBay as a 100% Charity auction! A company logo can be added, an autograph, a patch, pin... the ideas are endless!"

We couldn't agree more, so we're going to try to keep track of the traveling lab coat here on the Chatter Blog, and give you updates about its progress and the money that it is raising for various charities.

Fast forwarding a few weeks after danna listed the lab coat, here we are again to discuss the latest version of the eBay Live! Traveling Lab Coat.  The “pay it forward” torch has passed on to the winner of danna's auction, kompolt.

The Kompolt team created a clever About Me page for the coat as it narrates its short life span within the eBay Community.  You can read more about it here traveling_lab_coat.

For the non-profit organization that will benefit from this auction, kompolt has chosen the Challenged Athletes Foundation, in memory of the late Bob Hebeler, an eBay employee. Bob passed away suddenly last year and the Challenged Athletes Foundation was set up as a way for those of us who knew him or others that want to support this cause as a way to honor Bob and his love of outdoor sports and athletics. 100% of the proceeds from the eBay Live! Traveling Lab Coat auction will go to supporting and encouraging challenged athletes to achieve their goals.

There are still 7 days remaining so bid now, or maybe wait until the auction is drawing to a close and try to win with your best sniping finger. Who knows, maybe I'll be blogging about you and your favorite non-profit as you join in on the fun of "paying it forward" with the eBay Live Traveling Lab Coat!

Video Interview with 2007 PayPal Star Developer E-junkie

"Developers and merchants participating in the PayPal forums are actual merchants who are going to use the features, so any feedback I get from them is very valuable."

-- Robin Kohli, development lead of E-junkie, on how his service to the community pays off for new feature development ideas and adoption

Robin Kohli of E-junkie out of Tuscon, Arizona joined us at DevCon in Boston to speak about his FatFreeCart application, and how he built his tool to sell software and allow independent musicians to sell their music.

Listen to Robin's thoughts in his PayPal Star Developer Award interview (clip is 5:10 in length):

-Delyn

eBay Live! -- The Gory Details

At the end of an epic movie, when the credits roll, we sometimes get nuggets of information about the lead characters (such as "Paulie 'The Scowl' Azzuri entered the Witness Protection Program and now lives quietly, making hand-painted dolls," or "After that night, the Manila Folders never won another game" or "Jeff is still at large.")

Here then, in the same vein, are some interesting follow-up facts to nicely wrap up that epic event of two weeks ago - eBay Live! (We got these fun facts from Abby and Rebecca, the heart of the organizing force behind eBay Live!) Enjoy!

• 10,071 people registered for eBay Live! this year.
• 96,500 pins were handed out during the 9 times we heard the foot-tapping beats of the "Celebration song" (kudos to the hard work of pinrunners like Aubry).
• 9800 people attended education classes.
• 6000 people came to the Keynote.
• 16 times the fire alarm went off when Bill Cobb was rehearsing the Keynote.
• 7000 people went through the clapping tunnel - in 30 minutes. (Wow!)
• 655 staff from eBay, Inc.
• 1 time the fire alarm went off at the Westin and the Boston Park Plaza Hotel, unnerving many (except Jeff, who, thinking the fire alarm was playing "Celebration," handed out pins to puzzled hotel staff. Just kidding - actually he was in the gym and missed the drama).
• 1902 books sold in the first ever eBay Live! Bookstore.
• 130 exhibitors on the Solutions Center Floor.
• 33 eBay booths.
• 72 hours to set up the show floor. (And only 4 hours to tear it down after the event - a nice indication of the contrast between creation and destruction.)
• 5 layers of padding under the carpet at the PayPal booth (perhaps to cushion the droves of members swooning with joy at the Security Key?)
• 1 person run over by a scooter, went to the ER for injuries and still made it back in time for the Gala! (That's the true eBay Live! spirit!)
• 656 PowerSellers went to the PowerSellers dinner on Thursday night.
• 857 Top Sellers attended the Top Seller Reception.
• 1 Developers Conference with 550 attendees.

And last, but certainly not least....

61,171 pounds of food served during events at eBay Live! (and that doesn't include the 15,000 sodas given out during the Thirst Quencher Breaks in PowerSeller Central.) Now those are truly impressive numbers.

Own Griff's Blinding Mylar Jacket

I thought mylar was normally reserved for festive balloons, but apparently not. Those of you at eBay Live! were treated to Griff doing the lead-in to the keynote address in this blindingly-reflective mylar blazer. If you were thinking "wow, I desperately need one of those," it's your lucky day! Griff is auctioning it off to support one of his favorite charities, the Disabled Online Users Association.

Check out this very unique piece of eBay-abilia, and make sure you read Griff's description of how he picked out the blazer in the first place - thinking of him as "fat Kirsten Dunst" is hilarious (and a bit disturbing).

Check out the eBay Live! Chatter

Hopefully you all really enjoyed the massive coverage (46 POSTS!!!!) from eBay Live! last week, and really feel like you "were there".  I'm here to add one more layer to that, with a chance to check out the print newsletter we handed out at the event.  Unfortunately we can't mail every member a copy, but hopefully this PDF will help give you all a taste. Or I guess you can just buy one on the site (there's only one listed at the time of this posting, but it's for charity!)

The file is about 1.7MB (sorry if you are on dial-up) but I think it will be worth the wait. We'll also have a link for it in the sidebar for a little while.

Other Takes on eBay Live!

You've been reading our view of eBay Live! for the past week (and we thank you heartily for it!), so I thought it'd be a nice break to let some others do the talking. Here are a few reviews of the show from newspapers and websites around the country:

BusinessWeek: Beantown's eBay Circus

The Boston Herald's "Working Stiff"

ecommerce-guide.com's "Best In Show"

USA Today's recap of the Keynote

You can also check out short blog recaps from some of our members: newbostonme, vintreasures, 1a1z3k, and arecibosannexllc.

If you just want some pictures, bobal and other members have posted a bunch to this thread on the eBay Live! discussion board.

What a Kool Gala - See you in Chicago!

Now that our team is back in San Jose, and has had a few days to let our keyboards cool off from the furious posting last week in Boston, it's time to recap the final event of eBay Live! 2007 - the always-fun Closing Gala.

Taking a cue from last year in Las Vegas when members started lining up really early to get in, our crack eBay Live! organizers put together a pre-party for those in line this year. As I walked by, it was like a mini-carnival. Clowns on stilts were roaming the line and cracking jokes, balloon-animal-makers and face painters were busy gussying people up, and jugglers were showing off their skills. A rock band was playing in the background, and snacks were being passed out to those waiting (it was very hard not to grab an ice cream sandwich as I passed).

But the most meaningful part came from the members themselves - just like last year, they applauded all us employees as we walked by to take our positions within the Gala. Let me take a second on that. From Meg on down, our employees really aren't kidding when we say that eBay Live! is our favorite time of year. Not only is it a ton of fun, but it's incredibly inspiring to meet all the members that are using the site to make a better lot for themselves. When you're flying back on that plane, you feel really good about working for a company that means so much to so many people, and it makes it easy to come to work in the morning. But Live! is also a ton of work - there's not only a huge amount of prep that goes into it, but each employee is working pretty much from before sun-up to past sun-down at the event. It's all definitely worth it anyway, but having the members show their appreciation for the work that you're doing in that way is pretty much indescribable. I can only really say thank you - it's appreciated far more than you know.

And then it was time for us to turn the tables on all the attendees. I've said before that the clapping tunnel (where all the employees line up and cheer as everyone comes in to the Gala) is my favorite part of the event, and this year was no different. I love watching the members soak it in - most were taking pictures or recording it on their cameras, others were slapping fives with all of us, and others were just kind of stunned. There are a few pictures scattered in this post. I was standing next to Griff most of the time, and I can only describe him as a human traffic jam. A bunch of folks wanted to take one last picture with him, so I apologize to everyone who has some random tall blonde guy in the background of their picture with Griff.