Brian and Griff share their experiences at the recent 3-day seller event at the Blind Center of Nevada in Las Vegas, and talk about how attending selling events can benefit not only your business on eBay but your social well-being as well.
Episode Links:
Blind Center of Nevada
BOSS Reseller Remix
Attend or Start a Local Seller Event!
Recurring Links:
eBay for Business Podcast
eBay Seller Spotlight Podcast
eBay for Business Podcast Listener Survey
eBay Seller News Announcements
eBay for Business Facebook
Community Chat with eBay Staff
eBay Seller Center
eBay Help
eBay Local Seller Events
Seller Hub
eBay Events
Brian: I'm Brian.
Griff: I'm Griff, and this is the eBay For Business Podcast, your source for the information and the inspiration to help you start, manage and grow a business on the world's most powerful marketplace. And this is episode 265.
Brian: It is indeed.
Griff: That was a long week.
Brian: It was a very busy week, that's for sure.
Griff: For anyone who's wondering why. I think we teased this last week, we were on our way to Las Vegas for the seller led event that's called the Boss Reseller Remix. It's a three day conference and the north side of Las Vegas at a place called The Blind Center of Nevada. And we're going to spend a lot of time talking about that because I took my little trustee recorder and captured a lot of audio that we're gonna use for the episode this week.
Brian: And it was good that you were there with the trustee recorder because you actually can operate it and actually get recordings back.
Griff: Somebody actually brought that up. They said, so, is Brian recapturing any audio? I heard it was a bit of a disaster and I defended you. I said, no, that was my fault, because I really should have made sure that everything was set up and I should have reminded him. For those of you who are podcasters, we use these little handheld recorders that are produced by a company called Zoom and that has nothing to do with Zoom, the meeting platform. And they're for track. And you can use them for music. You could have your whole studio on this handheld, but because they have all this capability, there's a little bit of a learning curve to setting it up to make sure everything is working right. And when they work, they're great. Not your fault, Brian.
Brian: Right. Back then we were, remember we were using it to record 'cause it was back in the pandemic and so I was recording from home.
Griff: Yeah. Yeah.
Brian: And then I think I took it to go on the first event and didn't flip some switch on the Zoom to be able to get input into that zoom. But that's okay.
Griff: That's, and so I, I have that recorder and I found the file and it's a very long blank file. .
Brian: I was going for it. I was trying to get as much content as possible. It just, nothing recorded to the tape.
Griff: We could redo it as an episode and just call it like an eBay podcast performance piece.
Brian: Or we could do like Brian's meditation and put some like soft music with the silence of the recorder.
Griff: All sellers need a moment of that where you breathe in and breathe out. Right.
Brian: Especially when those returns come in.
Griff: I heard a few stories about returns and that's for another episode. But yeah, we really need to talk about returns.
Brian: We definitely should.
Griff: Well, before we get into the meat of the, the week, do we have any news we should talk about?
Brian: We do have one news item this week and it's actually been a news item that's been around for the last couple weeks. But due to the conflict in Israel, most major US shipping carriers are experiencing disruptions in service into and out of the country. eBay is temporarily pausing sales from the United States to buyers with shipping addresses in Israel as we cannot ensure that these packages will reach their final destination. We're closely monitoring the developments and we will update you as soon as we are able to resume regular operations in Israel. And as always, if you recently shipped an item to Israel, eBay will automatically protect your seller performance. As the situation evolves, we will provide updates as needed.
Griff: Yeah, and there's a link on the announcement board that has more details and who knows, this doesn't look like it's gonna resolve anytime soon.
Brian: Yeah, I would agree. Sad.
Griff: Well, without any further ado, let's get to our story of the week. It's our experience at a seller led event called the 2003 Boss Reseller Remix in Las Vegas.
Griff: As we just mentioned, Brian and I and many other eBay employees attended a seller led event in Las Vegas at a place called The Blind Center of Nevada. It was an amazingly well run event and it's a testament to how much a seller can do when they're creating an event for other sellers to learn and network and basically have a really good time. I think you got there before me. I arrived on Tuesday and walked into the door fairly early. And to my surprise, there's an old friend of ours and an old friend of the podcast, Diane Lassand and her daughter Jen, and they were there registering attendees as they arrive.
Griff: And here's Diane Lassand and she's doing the introductions to everyone who comes in through the door.
Diane: Hi everyone. How are you doing?
Griff: How are you doing, Diane?
Diane: I'm here. It's a wonderful thing.
Griff: It is a wonderful thing.
Diane: And I have blue hair that they can't see, but I have blue hair right now.
Griff: It is pretty cool.
Diane: And I have hair .
Griff: Well, we're glad to see you healthy.
Diane: Yes.
Griff: And you're manning the door.
Diane: I am. I didn't know that I'd be able to. I didn't know that I would even be here at this conference. And not because I didn't want to be, but because my health issue and I have been granted another time to see all my eBay family.
Griff: That's excellent.
Diane: I thought I was saying bye to them all last year when we left here and to be able to have this gift to work here. And I just love it. And if people don't come to these things, they don't know what they're missing. You meet so many fabulous friends and it's just a great place to feel comfortable. People have the same problems as you just in a different body and you sit at home thinking, I can't do this. But they can do it if they just get up and put a little effort into themselves. And for some people it might just be taking a shower, right? Like they can't get up to go do the event because they feel like they can't even do their regular things at home. You just need to give yourself props for all the little things and then the little things turn into the big things. And then you're here at this conference with all of us hanging out.
Griff: Diane, she's a trooper.
Brian: She is. I mean you couldn't have had two better people greet you that as you walk in the Blind Center that day.
Griff: Absolutely. Absolutely. I was glad to see her. I was surprised but delighted because she's had some serious health issues. I mean life-threatening health issues. So to see her in great spirits and better health there at the event was a real love.
Brian: And especially as, I mean she contributed to that event as well. Not just like at the registration desk, but she had a silent auction upstairs for the Blind Center to award scholarships to people who go to the Blind Center who are visually impaired. And she gave away two scholarships totaling over $8,000 this year t. o people who attend the Blind Center. Incredible. In addition, most seller events start off with greeting and introduction from the event organizers and the organizers of the event last week are Katy Silverberg, Victoria Egan, and Theresa Cox. When we sat down in the big room, Katy was already greeting the crowd.
Katy: Welcome everybody. So how many of you guys are have been to the remix before? How many people are here for the very first time? (crowd cheers) Awesome. That's awesome. That's a lot. Awesome. Thank you guys. Uh, we are so excited to have you all here and uh, we're just gonna go ahead and introduce ourselves. First off, I am Katy Silverberg and I'm a reseller. I've been selling for almost 10 years now. I mainly sell men's vintage streetwear. I'm one of the three co-founders organizers of this event and I'm gonna let them introduce themselves.
Vikki: I am Vikki Silverberg, her other half and I've been selling online since 1998. This is my 26th year on eBay. I sell a little bit of everything, but I do specialize and focus on women's vintage clothing. We love reselling and we love teaching about reselling and we're very excited to have all of you here. I know a lot of you guys have been here supporting us since the first year people that watch our channel or in our Facebook group and really appreciate your support year after year. And to those of you that don't know us, watch out because you're gonna know us by the end of the week. So we're happy to have you here as well.
Theresa: Hi, I'm Theresa and I have been on eBay since 95 and I've met a lot of you last night and even today. And I am excited that there are a lot of you in there that are very new to eBay. And I am an eBay girl and I love to help newbies. So if you are a newbie, you come see me because I think I'm going to end up doing a little class on Zoom or something 'cause there's so many of you. So, um, I'm excited that you're all here. I think it's great that you came to this conference to learn about it. And we will, I hope you will learn a lot of stuff. We will help you along your journey and we're happy that you're here. ( crowd clapping)
Brian: The eBay speaker for the event this year was none other than General Manager US Markets, Adam Ireland, who was joined on the stage with seller Anna Packer.
Griff: Let's give a listen to that.
Katy: I am gonna introduce our first speakers of the day. We're very honored to have the VP US General Manager, Adam Ireland, join us today. And as a surprise bonus we have eBay seller and owner of Anesthetic Miscellaney Anna Packer. (crowd clapping).
Anna Packer: So thank you so much for the introduction and for having us. I'm very pumped to be here this week and like she said, I'm Anna Packer and I've been selling on eBay about six and a half years. My store is Anesthetic Miscellaney. Both pronunciations are correct. And as that name suggests, my inventory is very miscellaneous. My top two categories are typically fashion and collectibles, but I do sell a little bit of everything. This is my second eBay Open and it was awesome. I had so much fun being involved with some of the content. So if you were tuning in for that, you might recognize me from some things. I can't wait to meet all of you in person. I'm just so excited to be here. But today I'm so excited to be here with Adam. And so Adam, would you introduce yourself and also tell us a little bit about what you buy and sell on eBay.
Adam Ireland: Thanks Anna. Thank you all. It's great to be here today. So for those of you that haven't met me yet, I'm Adam Ireland. I'm the Vice President and General Manager of eBay here in the US. I've been with eBay for about 12 years now and have had the fortune of doing a lot of different stuff for my time there. I started out in corporate strategy and then went over to Europe for a little bit. I swapped the accent, but that's where home is. I spent some time in Customer Service. And then in the last year and a bit, I have been fortunate enough to have the real privilege of, of running the US eBay Business. I'm also a passionate eBay user as well. So that definitely is another piece that makes makes the job fun. My backyard is my happy place. It's where I go to relax. So tons of tools get purchased, tons of seeds get purchased if you have raccoons digging up your lawn, beneficial nematode is the way to go . So that's one of the ones.
Anna: Pro tip.
Adam Ireland: Seriously is.
Griff: Now Adam and Anna spoke for about 30 minutes and we're just going to hear an excerpt of this specifically a question that, one of the questions that Anna asked. Adam.
Anna: Another thing I wanted to ask you about was specifically about focus categories in the chats. I see a lot of, let's call them inquiries about why we should care so much about sneakers or parts and accessories or trading cards or like specifically sneakers. So I just wanted to throw sneakers at you and let you run with it, but why do we care so much about sneakers?
Adam Ireland: Great question. I did promise Anna she was allowed to ask me the hard ones and I think that goes right to it. You know, some of this is the reality, but like some of these are really, really big categories for us. And so even if you don't sell trading cars or you don't sell car parts, like there are actually hundred thousands, probably even tens of thousands of sellers that do. But beyond that, there is a reality of kind of, this is where we have moved the strategy too. We deeply believe in it and we deeply believe it's working. And so why is this? So what we've realized is that when we are able to take a category and really deeply focus on understanding what the customer needs are, and that's both the buyer and the seller in that specific category, we're able to get to better solutions to support the buyers and sellers in that space. Great. But then how does that help everyone else? Well, the benefit thing is that we really do actually discover learnings that then extend across the whole of the rest of the platform. So it sort of becomes a rising tide that lifts everyone as opposed to sort of if you try and create a horizontal solution that just sort of meets the minimum bar 'cause you're trying to solve for everybody at one time. And so that's kind of like a part of why we're doing the focus category strategy. Now why sneakers specifically ,really that's just sort of like that was the original place where we started. And so we've got a few more examples of where is there and why it works and how we see the benefits. So a couple of pieces that come out of that, for example, so when we started looking at what the sneaker buyer really, really needed, the biggest thing that came to life was around trust. We really had to raise our game on eBay around the trust of the experience when you were buying a pair of sneakers. And that was where the Authenticity Guarantee Program came from. But of course, once we'd done that for sneakers, we've also realized, hey, there's a whole bunch of other categories that look and feel quite like sneakers. And so the authentication program rolls out, goes from sneakers to watches and watches to handbags and handbags to trading cards from trading cards to jewelry, et cetera, et cetera. Now streetwear. And so you take something that was specific to a very small and meaningful category, but then you start to stretch it horizontally across the platform. And that's exactly one of these scalable solutions that Jamie talks about. But it even goes further than that because in those learnings as we've been doing that we sort of saw the benefits of the business of when we were able to put a step change in the amount of trust that people have in the platform. And so then you start to ask the question, well how do we do that even further? And so you take something like electronics and refurbish electronics, which are nothing like the sneakers category, but we ask the same question of how do you if we know that trust is a really important lever for us, how do we drive greater trust in that category? And then we sort of again, go deep and understand the needs of the buyer in that category and we listen to them and they say, okay, well we need to understand better the types of categories that we've got within that. Is that a really fair condition or is that a excellent condition? Is it certified by the brand? And so we're able to get more specific about those conditions within refurbished goods, put a warranty behind that. And again, we see the step change in trust and the business really takes off. (crowd clapping) Thank you so much for having me. By the way, I have actually with me, this was a promo for the new podcast. , This was actually from Anna's store and that was the piece, the thing that I bought that got me my 1000th piece of feedback. So thank you.
Anna: And he earned it too. He was a wonderful customer. Thanks so much for having me.
Adam Ireland: Thanks for doing this with us. (crowd clapping)
Griff: That was a conversation that was really well received. Were you in the audience for that?
Brian: I was. It was really well received and I love the fact that Adam and Anna kind of flipped roles with Anna asking the questions and Adam answering as opposed to the other way around.
Griff: She's a pistol that Anna Packer.
Brian: She is, and she didn't hold back on the questions like around unpaid item and things like that. So worth a listen. So for the next three days, as Brian was schmoozing and greeting and glad handing with the crowd, I'm carrying a our little trustee zoom recorder and wandering around the event and in the vendor hall and outside during lunch and grabbing time as I could with a few of the, let's say 200 plus event attendees to ask them about their expectations and hopes from the event.
Event Guest- Jay: My name is Jay LeBlanc Williams and I'm Flipping Jaybird on Instagram, which is not very active. I just started a YouTube channel. Not too long ago. And that's Flipping Jaybird as well.
Griff: What do you sell Jaybird?
Event Guest- Jay: Well, I want to sell wholesale lots to other resellers.
Griff: Oh, I like that.
Event Guest- Jay: I did that a little bit, because right before I moved here I had a huge storage unit full of inventory and I sold it to lot. A few really like three or four resellers that bought all of it and I really enjoyed that. So I want to continue that. My YouTube channel has been about buying storage units, so I've bought a couple since I've been here. I actually just won an auction today. .
Griff: Alright. Yeah.
Event Guest- Jay: Thank you. So I"m gonna go check that out after this tonight. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to unboxing that tonight. There was some artwork and stuff.
Griff: Ooh, how exciting.
Event Guest- Jay: I want to put some art on my walls at my new place, so I'm excited about that.
Griff: New place. You just moved here?
Event Guest- Jay: Yeah, we moved here in April. My partner is on the autism spectrum, ADHD as well. And so in Eugene, Oregon where we moved from, there weren't a whole lot of resources so that was kind of one of the things that drew us here was that Melissa was able to find like a meetup group and she's met some other folks like herself. So it's kind of cool because I'm here to meet my resellers, she's here to meet some other folks like her. And so yeah, we both, I was surprised that she was as willing to move here as I was. That was really cool.
Griff: And moving across the table, please introduce yourself.
Event Guest- Sharon: Sure. We're Sharon and Gary Plinus and we're from Funsational Finds. We have been resellers on eBay for almost 20 years.
Griff: And what do you hope to get out of your trip here to the Boss Reseller Remix?
Event Guest- Sharon: Obviously we live in Vegas so we didn't have to come very far. Just, just like our friend here. This is our third year also at the Boss Reseller Remix and we like to interact. We're interacting more and more with other resellers. At the beginning we probably were more hiding out and not not interacting as much.
Event Guest- Gary: Yeah. I mean we're a little bit introverted a little. We work with each other every day so we're kind of in our little box so it's nice to get out and mingle with other people because it's kind of hard working with the same person day after day after day.
Griff: Well thank you both. Thank you all three of you.
Event Guest- Gary: Well thank you.
Event Guest- Sharon: Thank you Griff.
Brian: eBay had a booth in the vendor hall. Well we actually had a whole corner and it was kind of a whole corner. It was a really great setup for us, especially given who was there. We had several employees on hand to answer seller questions and advice from our Growth Advisor Team led by Casey Yardley and Nick Brown.
Griff: Yeah. And I didn't get a chance to talk to Nick, but I did spend a few minutes talking to Casey.
Griff: Standing next to me is Casey Yardley. Hey Casey.
Casey Yardley: Hey, how's it going Griff?
Griff: So what do you do for eBay besides maybe some day being a host on the podcast?
Casey Yardley: I work as a growth advisor helping folks with understanding the account health that's required to grow accounts sustainably.
Griff: So what's the most challenging part of your job?
Casey Yardley: Yeah, the most challenging part of my job often is understanding the time that a seller really does have and their ability to invest that time in building and improving their eBay store. Because a lot of times we'll come in and we'll say hey here are these opportunities and I've had to learn to scale down my opportunities to like smaller, more digestible bite-sized things so that people can be successful and maintain their high enthusiasm for growth. But also being able to say, here's an opportunity and educate you and teach sellers correctly and not give them the spark notes Casey 101 of that thing and giving them the full story in a palatable way that helps them take action. That's the most challenging part to me, to be honest with you.
Griff: You're giving a lot of advice to sellers. What about the seller who couldn't come?
Casey Yardley: Yeah. For the seller who couldn't come to the Reseller Remix or any events that their growth advisor attends, honestly I would say, hey, if you wanted to partner with a growth advisor and you needed help growing our job is to literally help you to identify opportunities which could be looking at sales and promotion offers, a listings health and the value of it and how to recreate that through multiple seasons and experiences as so many things fluctuate. Our job and our goal is to make sure that you have a positive and successful experience using the eBay platform in the long term.
Griff: Do you get feedback from people you've helped?
Casey Yardley: I would say yes. To be honest with you, I actually met a seller here today who I haven't spoken to since before. My son was born in January and she literally said, what you helped me do was amazing then you disappeared. And I've done better than I did before but I want the next steps is what I get a lot of feedback on. And it made me realize that there is value in the meeting and people being enthusiastic about it and me doing my job, investing the time. So I have got a lot of positive feedback and just one feedback that I did was like that a lot of people know is Lori Wong. Oh yeah. I went to the Atlanta eBay Open studio session and I was just standing in the back, literally scarfing down some food in between when I was talking to people and she goes, everyone should go meet with a growth advisor. Casey, I've been on the site for like 20 plus years and he taught me one tool that I wasn't aware of and it's helped me so much like you guys should go find him. And I was like, well that's great feedback. But I was trying to eat really quickly so I'm like raising my hand and mouthing. But so it's been a positive and rewarding experience overall. I do get feedback from people that say it's valuable and has helped their business.
Griff: Well Casey, thanks.
Casey Yardley: Thank you Griff.
Griff: That Casey is an interesting guy. I want to have him on the podcast.
Brian: He really is. And you know, at the very end of the show on the Thursday, he grabbed me and said, Hey, can you like do a quick announcement and tell people if they didn't get a chance to talk to us and they want a session with us in the future, we can do it. So I went down and they had a little QR code where people could go in and schedule like a week down the road or two weeks down the road some sessions with them to hear about kind of their business and their efficiency.
Griff: They are all about getting sellers to grow their business and they have the insight and advice and strategies to do so.
Brian: Yep. And also on the eBay side was Kayomi who's on my team from the Community Team, Jonathan Chard and Chuck Van Pelt from Seller Insights and they were getting feedback from sellers
Griff: And what was really cool is they had the table set out and any seller could come up and write their suggestion or comment.
Brian: Or even like what even what they liked!
Griff: Yeah. Or what they liked. And it was all compiled and it's going to Adam and then eventually to the person who asked for this input, which is our CEO Jamie Iannone.
Brian: And I think it's important for our listeners to understand that the CEO of our company wants to hear from sellers on how do we make the marketplace better.
Griff: Hey, you know who I was really happy to see at the event from the eBay side in that corner?
Brian: Who?
Griff: Our good friend David Bernstein.
Brian: Yes.
Griff: So David is our go-to guy for all product questions. You may hear us mention him on the podcast whenever I need an answer I always go to him. And I was able to grab David for a few minutes to ask him about his role at the event and what he was hearing from sellers.
Griff: One of the things we talk about occasionally on the podcast is, I don't know the answer to that. We better ask Dave. We are gonna go ask Dave. So Dave is here at the event.
David Bernstein: Here I am.
Griff: So what's your title and and what do you do?
David Bernstein: Okay, so I'm a Manager of Product Management in the Seller Experience Team.
Griff: Our guy.
David Bernstein: So I have other product managers that report to me as well as I work on features myself. We're responsible for the listing management experience. So this is where if you're using the native app or My eBay or most sellers using Seller Hub these days where you go to manage your active listings or your drafts or your unsold listings. So those pages we're responsible for, we wanna make it easy for you to find your listings, make adjustments to them so they can sell faster. We built flows like send offers so we're making it easier for you to find listings that have interested buyers so you can send offers and make the sale. We're working on some new features to make it easier for you to put listings on sale, in sale events directly from the active listings page. Be on the lookout for that. We also look after the order management experience. So for example, on My eBay it's sold and Seller Hub, it's called orders. But that's the place you go to see everything that's sold and we want you to ship out the right item to the right person on time. So we help with that.
Griff: Has anyone here brought up the idea of a new field on reports for cost of goods sold?
David Bernstein: That's another thing that's on my wishlist is we currently have just that single custom label SKU fields. Which unfortunately we kind of have to over overload it. As a seller, we might put how much we paid for the item. We might use it for cost of goods. We might use it for who listed it or who I'm doing consignment for. Or where it's located in my garage, it's in Bin G, number 23.
Griff: A lot of sellers use it. David Bernstein: So it's just one field for all those. So I would love to provide the ability for sellers to add custom tags, private tags. So if you wanted to name a custom tag, I don't know Griff.
Griff: Well no, no one's gonna want to do that. But what they will want is like location, where is it? Where did I buy it and the date I purchased it. That's another one I use. And then how much I paid.
David Bernstein: Exactly.
Griff: But you said an interesting one. Some people want to know the name of their consigner if they're doing a consignment business.
David Bernstein: Yes. I was just talking to a couple of sellers about that. And in fact I talked to one seller and I was very intrigued. They actually used their custom categories for their store to, to create a category with the initials of the person they're consigning for so that they can have that person go to their store and look at all the stuff they listed for them. But then also when they look at some reports, if they can get that they were asking for that category to actually show up in more of our reports. Which is a great idea.
Griff: See sellers are nothing but enterprising if they're not, I mean they'll figure out a way if we don't give it to them.
David Bernstein: Exactly. I am always amazed at the resourcefulness of the sellers if we build something for one purpose and then they start using it in a different way. Like that is fascinating. I never thought of that.
Griff: Well thanks Dave.
David Bernstein: Thank you so much Griff. Pleasure talking to you.
Griff: He is one of a kind.
Brian: He's so knowledgeable and he wants to understand what the seller's issues are and he has the ability to influence stuff.
Griff: Yeah, he does. And he gets stuff done.
Brian: He does.
Griff: I know that he heard a few things at the, and I won't say what they are but I think he was a little horrified that some of the statuses of some of the features that sellers use and I think we're gonna see some changes.
Brian: I agree. And it's because he really cares about what's the experience that the sellers are having. I was really glad to see him there as well.
Griff: He looked like he was having a great time.
Brian: He was, we spent a lot of time talking at the very end on Thursday afternoon as we were breaking down the booth and everything. And he and I had a long talk about it. It was an insightful three days for David. Well Griff, one of the highlights for me was the early morning tour of the Blind Center that we did that I kind of dragged you out of the bed at, so that you could get there. I didn't literally drag Griff out of bed, but we just had to get there about eight.
Griff: Yeah. And we did. And it's, it's not, it wasn't that early for Griff or anything. I don't think I would've gone on that tour if you hadn't dragged me there. So I have to thank you for that and I'm glad I had my recorder on.
Brian: Yeah, and I'm glad you brought it as well.
Griff: I did get the Director of the Center, Ryan Wilson, I was able to get him aside at lunchtime and we had a little chat about the eBay business. They have selling refurbished electronics for their charity.
Griff: So can you talk a little bit about your history with the company?
Ryan Wilson: Yeah, so I was hired at the Blind Center, to help with our eBay business and our electronics operation, which is about 70, 80% of our funding here for the Blind Center, which all goes back to our programs and resources that we provide for blind individuals. We've seen a lot of growth. We've built our eBay store up to give people an opportunity. Our eBay has, I would like to say flourished, but it's a lot because, we've got better at what we've done. eBay has been very helpful in that and given us an opportunity to provide jobs for individuals who are blind. And through that we've been able to provide more resources, more programs for blind individuals here, if you want to check us out, it's Blind Center NV on ebay.com. We sell electronics, laptops, computers, tablets, cell phones, you name it.
Griff: You are part of the refurbished program.
Ryan Wilson: Absolutely. Yeah. We, we do a good job at trying to provide a high quality product based on you guys' standards. I would like to say, because we deal with individuals who are blind or are disabled and we treat them with kindness, respect, and we give them that respect for their lives. We do the same thing with our customers on eBay as well. So if you come to us, you're gonna get good customer service. We don't want to be hypocrites in that. When we can can show that that level of care that we show the same level of care with with our customers on eBay as well. I'd like to say, we are really fast. You'll get the stuff really quick. Very quick. So we try to provide just overall service so that people can have a great experience with us and then everything that they buy goes back to a good cause. So that's just really like cherry on top and, and it really impacting lives when they shop with us. I mean, it really gives people hope when they come here that, hey, I have something to come to. I'm gonna feel included. I'm not gonna feel left alone. I'm gonna have people who support me here. It's a good place to be. I appreciate your time, honestly. I really do. You have given me an opportunity to speak about what we do.
Griff: My pleasure.
Ryan Wilson: And to see it is different, you know? It's really different than to hear about it, but I appreciate it.
Griff: Thanks Ryan.
Ryan Wilson: Absolutely. I appreciate you coming down.
Brian: Well Griff, it was really interesting to hear from Ryan and I spent some time with him a little bit earlier on Tuesday as well and just kind of getting to know him and his story and I'm just so impressed with what that Blind Center does and the facility that they have and the services they offer the visually impaired. It's incredible.
Griff: Yeah, it was pretty cool. Hey, the other thing that I was able to talk about with some of the attendees were, and you know this 'cause we've been watching this phenomena, there's more and more sellers that are starting their own podcast and their own YouTubes. And I think that's totally cool. And in fact, over the coming months we want to talk to a lot of these hosts and bring them on the podcast so we can get to know them better. But more importantly, we can help leverage our audience to get them to start listening to their podcasts. The thing being you tune into the eBay for Business podcast that's less than an hour a week. You've got a lot more hours during the week you could be spending listening to other podcasts as well. So we want to familiarize you with some of the podcasts that are out there and hopefully you can add them to your playlist. So look for that to be happening. And I talked to a few people and I think you'll know this person. I goes without any introduction.
Ken Gaitano: Ken, The Hustle Bee.
Anna Packer: And Anna Packer.
Griff: What do you do besides sell on eBay, Ken?
Ken Gaitano: We have a podcast called Seller Club Podcast.
Griff: And you're both involved?
Anna Packer: We are. We are two of the three co-hosts and we like to say it's an exclusive club. But you are invited.
Ken Gaitano: We have a new episode every week and you will get notified through our Instagram account called Seller Club Podcast. We do all our announcement and information there. So follow along. And the Instagram again, Seller Club Podcast.
Griff: You want to listen to it.
Anna Packer: Absolutely. We'll see you in the club.
Griff: I'll join.
Anna Packer: Yay! You're in.
Ken Gaitano: You're In.
Anna Packer: You're like already in.
Ken Gaitano: Well I think it's wonderful, like you said, Griff, that others are doing and my attitude is the more the merrier, right?
Griff: Absolutely. And each podcast is different and each podcast host approaches the subject of running a business on eBay or any other platform, not just eBay in their own way. They have their own insights and they have their own personalities. And I think that's what makes it very interesting. We don't want you just to listen to this podcast. We want you to listen to all the podcasts that are out there and we want you doing it 24 hours a day. Well, you can take a nap or sleep, but we would like you to listen to more podcasts.
Brian: Maybe we should have some of those podcast hosts on as well to talk about their pod podcasts.
Griff: Oh no, we're going to do that in then in the coming months. Yeah, we're gonna do that. Now at the end of day three. Everyone was excited but a little bit fatigued. It's been a long three days and we didn't even go out to the parties. So a lot of the attendees spent a lot of time going to these events that the three event organizers planned. And I hear that they were out very late.
Brian: Yes. Especially on Wednesday night.
Griff: As everything was being torn down and we're coming towards the end. I was able to grab the three event organizers for this event, Vikki, Katy, and Theresa. And we had a little chat about the event, but more importantly I wanted to get their insight on why they do the event. And maybe it can be something that you're listening to this now and you're wondering, I want to attend an event or if there's none around, I want to start one. Let's listen.
Vikki: Hi, I'm Vikki Silverberg. I am one of the co-founders and co-hosts of the Boss Reseller remix. I've been selling since 1998 on the platform and full-time since 2009. Sell a little bit of everything and I love being a part of the eBay community. And my user ID is LV Pink Peacock.
Katy: I'm Katy Silverberg. My eBay username is A Boutique For Him. I sell vintage men's streetwear mainly. And I am married to Vikki and we put on this event together with our friend and business partner, Theresa.
Theresa: And I am Theresa Cox and my eBay ID is Club Red 97. And I sell all kinds of things, but mostly clothing and shoes. And I am the other third of the founding group of the Boss Reseller remix.
Griff: So can you talk a little bit about what Boss is?
Vikki: So BOSS stands for Business of Online Selling Success and Theresa loves an acronym that's where it came from. And that all started with, with the creation of the Facebook group. And she then brought Katy on to help run it with her. And then I kind of came as part of the package and we have a Facebook group called Boss and we decided within our community to expand that brand and that name.
Griff: Uh, this is the third year that you've done the event. What's it like having to put together a roster and an agenda of this type?
Theresa: I think it's a piece of cake because Katy does it all.
Griff: Oh, passing the buck, okay.
Katy: Well, you know, when it comes to content, the first year that we put on this event, we hadn't done it before and so we really didn't know how we were going to pull it off. And so we really kind of cashed in with all of our friends who have big social media followings and we knew that they would draw people in. And so we were kind of like, Hey, do you think you could come to Vegas for a week and do this thing for us?
Vikki: And we can't pay you.
Katy: Yeah. And they were, they were like, well, we don't know what it is. We don't know if you know what you're doing, but we'll do it for you because we're friends. And so we had some of them return last year and had some other speakers last year, but this year was the first time where we were like, we want a completely new roster of speakers. And so we actually put out a call and we had people applying. And so it was really interesting because it was the first year we were like, we don't know a lot of these speakers. We don't know them personally. We don't have relationships with them. And we were just going off of their proposals and we were really blown away by some of the, the content that came out of that.
Vikki: And we have so many people have so many different skills and insights into different platforms and how they sell and where they sell and how they acquire the things they sell. And you never know someone's story until you give 'em a chance to tell it.
Theresa: And the big perk about this is that now we have a whole addition to our group of friends because, you come here and you meet them and you become friends and you talk business and it's just, you just find like these people are our tribe.
Griff: This is a great testament, I think to anyone who's considering starting a seller event group.
Theresa: So I started a local eBay sellers meetup group in 2015 and just kind of advertise it in Facebook groups. Hey, if you're in the Gilbert Phoenix area, this is where we're meeting and so on and so forth. And we would have topics and that grew. Then I moved and somebody else took it over. And when I came back to the area, one of our sellers had a big enough home and was centrally located. And we ended up having 30 to 40 people every month that committed to come. And we would learn from each other and share things. And we have a Facebook group for our meetup group and we start sharing information about local community garage sales or where do you get your boxes from or Hey, I have all these extra flat rate mailers. Does anybody need them? And it just creates a, a local group of sellers that we can lean on or rely on that you can't do when you have a virtual group of friends.
Vikki: Start small of course. Look and see if there is a local meetup in your area. Join in, meet people, meet your community. It's very important to have local people to talk to, to share your pain points with, to help you overcome and learn things. We can all go on Facebook groups. We all know how to Google, you can figure some things out that way. But start it. Start in your own living room. Meet at the Starbucks down the street. If it's two people constitute a meeting, grow from there. It doesn't have to be complicated. Maybe you just wanna talk to each other about shipping. Maybe you wanna exchange shipping supplies and you can't find them and you need something. That's how it's going to start. And you can see from there where you want to grow. It doesn't have to be that you have to be giving an in-depth training session once a month on everything. You don't have to be an expert on anything. In fact, you can be an expert on nothing other than saying, hello, how are you? Where do you live? What do you like to sell? And go from there.
Katy: I think whether you are starting a meetup group or you wanna do an event, a small event, a medium sized event, look at your resources around you, financial resources, look at your friend resources and how they can support you. Looking at like finding a place to meet at. Like what connections do you have? Who do you know? We knew about the blind center before we ever wanted to do our own event because they have this huge eBay operation here. And so when we started thinking about doing our event, they weren't even in our mind right away. And then all of a sudden it clicks like, oh, we know about this space and their eBay sellers and they do events. Let's go check them out. And so it turned out to be a great connection. You never know because if you're not thinking about an event at the time, you may not even know what resources you have.
Griff: Well I want to thank you all very much. This has been a great event and I'm so glad I was able to come this year and I'll look forward to 2025.
Theresa: Yeah, we, we will see you in 2025.
Griff: We'll see you there.
Griff: Yeah, those are three smart women right there.
Brian: They really are. And think about how much energy it takes just to run their businesses on eBay. So they do that and then in addition, they put on a three day event for hundreds of other sellers around the country. There were sellers from Florida all over the place.
Griff: Now we use them as an example. Not everyone who's considering an event is gonna jump right in and create a three-day event in their local area.
Brian: Nor should they.
Griff: Nor should they. But I think you can take a lot from Vikki and Katy and Theresa about in the inspiration and aspiration area where it's not that difficult to get started. As Katy and Vikki said, it's just a matter of, even if you're starting off with meeting one person at a coffee shop, and that's how a lot of these seller meet ups start.
Brian: Agreed. It's how most of them start with a small group of folks who start to connect on a regular basis.
Griff: It could grow if you want it. If you don't want it to grow, you can reach a certain level. Like Steph, we heard a little bit from Steph, she's the original, seller event person with the eBabes and eMales.
Brian: And I'm reticent to say the year, 'cause I always seem to get it wrong. So I think, I'm gonna say 2002.
Griff: I think you're right.
Brian: It might have been 2003. But she'll listen and she'll send me a note.
Griff: Our point with this, uh, with this entire episode was to get you thinking about either looking for an event in your area or if there's no event starting an event. There's so many benefits to doing this
Brian: And there's kind of like almost this ancillary benefit of you end up meeting some friends. You also connect with people who are in a similar field to you. And so you can share ideas and the transfer of knowledge when you're in person can happen so much more quickly than say on a discussion forum or you know, on a Zoom call. And so I'm a big, big proponent of these and and it's why eBay supports them.
Griff: Some of us, you know, we work alone day after day and it's not healthy. Humans aren't necessarily built to be solitary creatures.
Brian: Boy, the last three days showed that.
Griff: I had a great time. I've been solitary for a long time working at home and doing the podcast from home and it was great being in a community of peers. Even though I work for eBay, I also sell on eBay. And that I think makes it very important and interesting for me is to hear what other sellers are saying. And because I'm selling too, I know exactly right what they're going through.
Brian: You're experiencing the same thing they're experiencing. Well, Griff, like you said, someone doesn't have to start this with a three-day event like we just attended. I mean, there's a lot of work that goes into them super worthwhile. But if a seller's out there that's interested, they can go to ebay.com/sellermeetings or go to the community site and click on the events tab and then go to the Seller Meetings tab and you'll see about 20 events that are up right now in different locales around the country. And these are events that are being hosted by fellow sellers in order to get sellers who are in their locale to connect and just share ideas, share best practices. And so I encourage anyone check those out. And if you want to get started, there's a link at the top of the events page that says you want to start. And that goes actually to Kayomi who's on my team. And she'll get back to you and, and tell you how we can start a chapter for you and then you just take it and run with it. And the thing that I really like about these seller run events, each one has their own little unique feel and some aren't so little. And the personality of the sellers themselves comes out in the meetings. That's what makes them attractive to other sellers. It doesn't cost the sellers anything to, to create a chapter and get the promotion off of the community site. We're actually gonna be doing some additional promotion around the seller meetings via seller news and the banner in the community site. And even in Q1, we're going to try and do a little broader email to try and get additional traffic to the seller meetings. We provide eBay swag, which our sellers always like swag.
Griff: Oh yes.
Brian: And then on occasion, depending on the size of the event, or the seller meeting, we will have an eBay staff member attend. And so we'll explore additional things on how we can support them, including content and other ways that they want to be supported.
Griff: Yeah. And at the core of all these events, they have to be fun.
Brian: And if you want to join the fund here on eBay for business, call us on (888) 723-4630.
Griff: That is (888) 723-4630. . And you can call that number anytime of the day, any day of the week. Leave your question or comment and we'll put it on the air.
Brian: And if you're not a call on the phone person, you can email us at podcast@ebay.com. That's podcast@ebay.com.
Griff: And now your slightly changed format for the Three Point Podcast Weekly Checklist. Check the Announcement Board at ebay.com/announcements for up-to-date seller news every day.
Brian: There may be a seller meeting already happening in your area. You can find out at ebay.com/sellermeetings and searching the existing events for your location. And if you don't find one, maybe consider starting one.
Griff: You need to review anything in this episode. Oh, it's so easy. Check the transcript for this and all the episodes for follow up on what you've heard and find the links that we often reference during the episode. And on our next episode, by the way, Brian, we're gonna talk with eBay seller, Mayumi Rome, who has an unusual hybrid consignment business and it's located not too far from Disneyland.
Brian: We'd like to again, thank all the folks at the Boss Reseller Remix event who took the time to speak to us last week.
Griff: The eBay for Business Podcast is produced and distributed by Libsyn and podCast411.
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The eBay for Business podcast is published every Tuesday morning and is presented by eBay, Libsyn and Podcast411.
