Jim Griffith - The Official eBay Bible: The Newly Revised and Updated Version of the Most Comprehensive eBay How-To Manu

I would like to thank the following: Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll for throwing me that lifesaver back in 1996; my esteemed eBay colleagues Henry Gomezwhose support was crucial in getting this project off the groundand Brad Williams for his guidance; Lisa Shotland and Jim Davis; Joni Evans and Jay Mandel at William Morris; Lauren Marino, Erin Moore, Jessica Sindler, and William Shinker at Gotham Books, for showering me with their expertise, advice, and counsel; my friends Patti Louise Ruby, Matt England, Rodney Hill, John Tillinger, Chris Byrne, Rob Stanger, Joan Wing, Mary Lou Song, Marsha Collier, Michael Kaiser, and Josh Lewis for their support and encouragement; Mike Winslow, for standing by me during the rough and lean early days. Howie Miller, George Morgan, and Michael Johnson, for their friendship and support during the creation of this third edition.

Very special thanks to the following eBay members who contributed their tips, tricks, and stories: Craig M. Keller Sr., Craig Knouse, Tim Heidner, Tom Reddick, Tim Burnett, Julie Douglas, Pam Withers, Heather Luce, Mike Ford, Leah Lestina, Karen Gray, Anita Leather, Melissa Fiala, Brenda Bienlein, Robert Sachs, Barry Lamb, Peter Cini, Deanna Rittel, Keri Lyn Shosted, Classic Moments Video, Dave Rayner, Mike Driscoll, Chris Spencer, Pat Fulton, Peter Becker, and Erik Holcomb.

On the morning of May 10, 1996, a friend sent me an e-mail. At the time, I was living in Vermont, dividing my day between administrative duties for a nonprofit arts organization known as The Carving Studio, some residual mural painting left over from my once-flourishing decorative painting business, and buying, building, and reselling computers.

I was going broke.

My online friend knew I was searching for a hard-to-find memory chip. He had just stumbled upon a new Web site called eBay, where he had discovered that the very part I needed was for sale there in an auction format. I immediately clicked the URL he had copied into the body of the e-mail and found myself at a plain, gray-background Web site with a logo on the top of the page that announced AuctionWebeBay Internet.

With a little easy searching, I soon found the chip and put in a bid of $15. (Two days later, I would win the auction for $10a bargain.) I had finally found the part for which I had been looking. Excited by my find, I was soon exploring the rest of the site, looking for more treasure on which to bid, when I came across a page called The AuctionWeb Bulletin Board.

The original eBay chat board was nothing fancyjust a simple message board where anyone could submit a text-only post for the rest of the world to read and to which anyone else could post a response.

I watched for a few hours as new eBay users posted their questions and a few regular eBay experts provided answers. Here were a group of friendly buyers and sellers having a grand time chatting and sharing expertisea genuine online community! Unable to resist the fun, I jumped in and started posting my own eBay-related questions, making the acquaintance of other regular posters and learning a lot about buying and selling on eBay. Within weeks and with the help of generous eBay chat denizens, I had mastered the finer points of buying and selling and started answering questions like a seasoned eBay pro.

The ultimate pro, AuctionWeb creator Pierre Omidyar, usually stopped by the chat board in the evenings to say hello and chat about new features he was considering for his hobby site. He would even answer a few queries about listing procedures or policies. I was immediately struck by Pierres good-natured chatting style, encyclopedic computer knowledge, and genuine concern for eBay users.

During the next few weeks, inspired by Pierre, I slowly patched together my own online persona, Uncle Griffa hybrid of Miss Manners, Dame Edna Everage, and Maude from the 1971 cult film Harold and Maude , along with a bit of Norman Bates thrown in for balance.

Uncle Griffs primary mission on the chat boardbesides chewing the online scenerywas to establish and maintain decorum and civility by dint of his own exemplary online behavior and slightly weird sense of humor. With the torch of his perfect manners held aloft, Uncle embarked on a valiant crusade to lead the huddled eBay chat board masses out of the darkness of messy, tear-ridden misunderstandingswhich often escalated into all-out flame warsonto the lofty plateau of polite and productive eBay discussion.