Two eBay-related posts in as many days? There goes that promise…
However, it is newsworthy to note that Randy Smythe, a former eBay Powerseller who achieved over 200,000 positive feedback, has started a column outlining his views on eBay.
Randy decided to leave the world of online selling in February 2006, and the radio silence since then has created quite a bit of chatter in the eBay community.
The introductory article is here:
What is the E! True Hollywood Story About eBay’s Former Top Seller Glacier Bay DVD?
Interestingly, Randy is quite reticent about his own successes and failures in business, which to me is refreshing. Running a small business is one of the most difficult challenges professionally, and running one online is no exception. If Randy chooses to share his insights from this experience, it could benefit a lot of people.
I’ve commented on this blog that people are rarely rational with money, and surprisingly, this can even impact people when they run multi-million dollar businesses. Like personal finance, I believe that entrepreneurs have the most to learn from each other – the good, the bad and the ugly.
To give some insight into Randy’s perspective, he linked to this article from The E-Commerce Guide on the challenges facing eBay. It’s an interesting piece as well. You can find it here:
I am, of course, extremely optimistic about the future for eBay and for e-commerce in general.
Psychohistory 
Adam, thanks for the kind words. I just came across your post. I’ve been critical of ebay in some recent articles because I can’t seem to get a fix on the direction they are moving. As a small business owner a month or more of uncertainty can be a lifetime. Although I no longer sell online I feel for sellers who are selling on eBay these days. Somehow eBay needs to speak to their sellers in an open and honest way regarding the future. Sellers aren’t sitting on $3 Billion in cash to hold them until eBay figures it out.
The Media category is going to be decimated before too much longer. Hope you are having fun with Express.