This week on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly, Trish and Doug recap eBay Open 2023, including the List Perfectly sponsorship, the In-Studio events, the virtual portion, and more! Tune in if you were there, or to see what you missed out on!
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
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Episode Links
Transcript
Intro
Trish: This week on The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly, Doug and I are recapping eBay Open. We talk about the in-studio events, the virtual open, the List Perfectly booth, and everything else!
eBay Open 2023
Doug: What’s up, Trish?
Trish: What’s up, Doug?
Doug: Another eBay Open has come and gone.
Trish: eBay Open Doug, 2023. How was it for you, my friend?
Doug: It was good. It was fun. I always enjoy eBay Open, but I don’t want to address the…elephant in the room, but I do miss the big show.
Trish: You miss the big show. Okay. So for anyone who doesn’t know eBay Open for a long time was a really big deal in Las Vegas. How many people attended that, Doug? Do you have any clue? Thousands?
Doug: It was two or 3000. And then a few hundred eBay employees as well.
Trish: Yeah, so it was really big, and it was like in a large convention center and there was big, large, grandiose, the stage, the lights, the everything. There was marching bands and clapping tunnels and, food galore, ice cream given out, and swag everywhere. It was… A really big undertaking and it was really fun. I had a great time, there that I went in, 2017 and 2018, I believe, or 2018 and 2019. I don’t know.
Doug: 2019, Trish.
Trish: So it was great, and it was really fun, but since then they’ve had a little bit of change in leadership, and they just don’t do it that way anymore.
Doug: It’s very expensive to do something that big. It was like you said, it was crazy. It was grandiose. Not only did you have the official events, but you had sellers doing their own stuff. And having meetings all over the place, meetings in hallways, meetings in rooms, and…
Trish: Meetings in bars. We went to a lot of bars.
Doug: Yeah. And you’ve heard the story. It ties into the lore of List Perfectly as well. What was it?
Trish: Absolutely, yep.
Doug: 2019 they went and that really helped boost up the exposure to List Perfectly.
Trish: Catapulted them.
Doug: Catapulted them, yes. Into the stratosphere.
Trish: Into the stratosphere and the lore and the truth. It’s not folklore. It’s true. They didn’t have enough money for two tickets. They only had enough money for one. So Amanda went inside, and Clara did guerilla marketing on the outside.
Doug: I’m pretty sure I met Amanda in passing via Theresa Cox, which is interesting. She introduced me to some lady really quickly.
Trish: Some lady. Your future boss. Some lady. So it was great. The eBay of now is different from the eBay of yesteryear. I suppose the eBay Open of yesteryear, but eBay Open now is, they have a smaller in-person event before the virtual and then a huge virtual event.
And the good thing about it is it’s basically free, whereas before ticket was like 350 bucks. And it was in Vegas. You had to get yourself there and everything. So this is a much less expensive option. So more people can participate. And, they did have four in-person events the night before it started virtually. And so they had one in Chicago, which is where I was. They had one in Philadelphia. They had one in Phoenix and Doug was in…
Doug: I was in Atlanta.
Trish: In Atlanta. So Doug, tell me about your experience at eBay Open in person.
Doug: So went out to Atlanta, Danna Crawford was there too. And then Brian Hargis and his lovely wife Suzanne. And then Rachel…
Trish: I do not know how she puts up with him.
Doug: I know, we can barely put up with him.
Trish: Brian, you don’t mean that.
Doug: Rachel Bagnik, RBagnik, who has a new last name now. She was there as well. We showed up, we set up the booth. On the way over, we were stopped by a police motorcade, and Trish, I did think it was because they knew I was going to be there and wanted to give me a proper police escort.
Trish: I wanted to just set this up. I am in a car with Chris and Julie Brown, Diane Lassonde, and Becky Park. The phone rings and it’s Doug and he says to me Hey, now I’m like, why aren’t you at the fricking place? Like I’m like in my head, I’m like, why aren’t you not setting up my booth right now? So I go, what’s going on? And he has a little bit of a problem. What do you mean by a little bit of a problem? And he goes, Evidently, the president’s here and I can’t get down the street and…
Doug: Vice president.
Trish: Cause then somebody said something and you go yeah. The vice president. And I go, Kamala, what? What? The roads shut down. And I am like, I literally can feel my heart start to beat like, Oh my God, what does this mean? They can’t get there. What’s going to happen? There’s going to be no, I do not know why I was so worked, but I’m like okay. Let me know what happens. And so what happened?
Doug: So we drove around a while and Danna was driving and we tried to get back and we kept doing big circles and it was still blocked off. So finally we drive back through this we’re like, let’s go all the way around So we’re driving back through this neighborhood and there’s like houses and like people walking their dogs and school buses dropping off children looking like it’s fall. And then these little police motorcycles zoom by and it’s Oh, there they go. I saw some police escorts. I missed; she zipped through.
Trish: So you got in, were other people late too?
Doug: so we got there, obviously we went early to set up. Got in, set things up, and saw some old eBay friends that I used to work with. Bumped into the Hustlebee. HustleBee and met Anna Packer, the new eBay it girl.
Trish: Exactly. that’s what you and I coined her when we were at Boss, the new eBay it girl.
Doug: So I met her, met them, talked to a bunch of people, it was the soft launch of the Pro Plus plan. So we did that, and we did some giveaways. We did some promos. We were hopping. How was Chicago?
Trish: So Chicago was, interesting because where it was really outside the city center. And there was no parking, and it was on a street that was like an elementary school getting out and so we pull up and there’s people yelling and I’m trying to get suitcases out the back and the guy with the thing on is yelling, and whistling for everyone to move and I was like what is going on?
You had to park pretty far away. There was no parking. But it was cool. It’s a cool space. Industrial so it was me, Becky Park, Diane Lassonde, and Bailey, who works for us. She was great. That was the first time I ever met her, other than on, Zoom. She was awesome. She was really good. Jumped in, and talked to everybody. Just was really personable. Really very good at this.
Doug: She seems like a delight.
Trish: She was a delight. She really was. And then we just started and I think they probably all were similar in that, they all had a little bit of programming, which was they interviewed a seller from the area. In Phoenix, Teresa Cox was the person being interviewed on stage.
So mine was separated. There was a curtain in between and I stayed on the other side, and just finished setting up and everything. And everybody went in there and, listen to the programming and then they had food. The food was really good. How was your food?
Doug: It was good. They said to eat. So they kept bringing food out. Like they’re like light appetizers. No, this was like…
Trish: I know they said light appetizers, but it wasn’t. The food was really good. They had growth advisors there. They had different, vendors there, but then they had a lot of eBay vendors. So as in like eBay had their own spot. So there were growth advisors, there was somebody from the shipping team, somebody from payments. It was great. I thought it was really fun.
Doug: Some of the stuff that was announced. Talked about some new seller tools, right? They gave a bunch of metrics, how many buyers, how many sellers they do, all that. They talked about their pillars, experiences, scalable solutions, and magical innovations. So they’re calling the new AI integration magical. Reworking the website a bit, updated the search a bit, and doing some new stuff with payments. Expanding authentication, new shipping stuff.
Trish: Expanding authentication I think is interesting because as somebody who, Doug, I know this is going to be shocking when you hear this, but I really love a pocketbook. I know it’s shocking to you because I hide it so well. I love a pocketbook, and I love an expensive pocketbook, and I love buying them second-hand because I’m not going to spend thousands of dollars on a bag. I look forward to the expanded authentication, because I, Used to own a brick and mortar. I don’t know if you know this Doug, but it used to own a brick-and-mortar consignment store. So I am pretty good I feel like at picking out a fake, if you’re going to spend real money, you’d really someone else to check it out. So I’m looking forward to that.
Doug: They also talked a lot about sellers, the seller community, and connecting to your community. They always emphasize using social media. That’s something that I think always needs to be pushed. We push it a lot. It’s nice to see eBay pushing it more. A lot of seller involvement now. I know they have a lot of sellers. We know some sellers that are doing content for eBay now, our friend, Anna Packer, new eBay it girl! And Ken, The Hustlebee of course, doing some content for eBay.
And I think across the board, they had teams represented. They had, shipping there. And like you said, growth advisors and just, all about connecting with sellers and getting together. As you said, those were the in-studio events. Those were cool. And they had those across the country and we were represented there. List Perfectly was one of the main sponsors of eBay Open 2023. So we were onsite at every event and then also, sponsor of the virtual experience as well.
Trish: And so that was really interesting to me because they haven’t used this platform before. They used to use another one called Bevy and so they switched to a different platform. So nobody was really a hundred percent sure. We had a few classes about how to use it Beforehand because we were a sponsor, which was great. I’m glad they did that for us. But, I thought the virtual was really good. Actually, I thought they did a good job of keeping the momentum and keeping people interested.
And we had a virtual booth. So there were a few of us from LP inside the booth all the time. So you would pop in, you could ask questions. We would talk amongst ourselves and, answer things. And so I thought that was really good. It was better than I expected, to be honest with you.
Doug: And it’s interesting cause it’s a challenge. And I saw this a couple of years back in another industry and it was like, Oh, we’re going to do, a convention and it’s going to be all virtual and it’s okay. So if you hear that, you expect that you’re going to be on Zoom all day, but it’s interesting because they try to emulate that connection.
So there are presentations and you in a way go back and forth on your computer. Different areas. They call it the expo hall. You go back and visit different booths and some of it is very zoomy, but there’s still a lot of interaction is still a lot of seller interaction you could have chosen to go off and to breakouts with, eBay employees focused breakouts or with other sellers. They tied it into, some swag too.
Trish: Which was great. So it was three days, not including the in-person if you include the in-person it’s four. So at the end of each of the days, the virtual days, they had a survey and if you filled out all three surveys, you got a chance to win an extra swag thing. Have you gotten any swag from that?
Doug: I’m very picky about swag, Trish.
Trish: Okay, Doug.
Doug: You didn’t know, I’m very picky about swag, so early on, I liked the hat.
Trish: I got the hat, and I got what the Brits would call a bum bag. A fanny pack, but I won all three days. I haven’t received anything else yet.
Doug: I did since get a package with a scarf.
Trish: You did. When did you get that?
Doug: Two, three days ago, scarves, poms, a little seller kit. And then a keychain.
Trish: How’s the scarf?
Doug: It’s all right. I’m not into Harry Potter, so I’m not going to be playing Quidditch.
Trish: Does it look like Harry Potter?
Doug: I don’t know. It’s around here somewhere.
Trish: Okay. We’ll put them on social media when we get them. When I get mine, Doug and I will take photos and we’ll put them on social media so you guys can see the scarfs. I thought the gamification was a good idea. Keeps people engaged. I do think it’s a great way to ask questions to eBay, ask your questions, and get them answered. I thought they did a really good job this year. I really did. There were very few hiccups. So I thought it went well.
Doug: Something like that is a challenge and they’re trying to do the best they can with offering updates and value and workshops you can do. And then that connection to where you can network and you had a couple of different choices, there was like a live event feed and each booth had its own comment feed and then, If you went into a breakout, you could ask questions in there and chat. They did a good job.
Trish: They did. We got some of the people who we always get. There were a few people who came over and over again, but there were a lot of new people and there were a lot of people who never even heard of us. There were a lot of people who had questions. I was really pleased with the whole thing. I thought it went well.
Doug: I think at our event in Atlanta, there were a lot of people who were new and very curious about what was going on. So we got to give the high-level overview and then talk about, Listing Party, talk about the referral program, talk about pro plus stuff, and a lot of interest. Also, talk to some sellers who have been using us for quite a bit.
And we’ll talk about other events over the next couple of weeks. But the other interesting thing is we get a lot of people that are like, Oh, I use it, but I need to be doing more.
Trish: I found that too. And what I like about that is that we do offer a very robust program, and there are a lot of different facets. And not everyone is going to want to use all of them or they’re not going to fit everyone’s business. What’s great about it is I do think it’s a tool that can grow with you if you’re a new seller you can grow into A very large, robust program that can take you to, seven figures and beyond. If that’s what you’re trying to do. And I do think that there are people who’re like, Oh, I like this. I only use this one section. And I’m like, okay have you thought about this? Have you thought about doing this? And they just look at you like oh, I didn’t know, I could do that.
So that’s one of the great things about Listing Party. If you have a subscription to List Perfectly, you automatically get a subscription to Listing Party. It’s the same exact credentials to get in, go in, make yourself a profile, and then join the events. It does lots of other things. You can put your listings in it. You can track goals. You can find people that you want to talk to. You can message me, but I think where everyone should start, and maybe just cause I love it so much is the events is the listing parties themselves. So you go into the events and you can see different ones. I do a mastermind every day Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern, we have a mastermind class.
And. It’s just about staying motivated and knowing the things and making sure you’re thinking about all of the things and, all the resources that you have and how much, and there’s a lot of tough love as in I want to be full-time, but I list for a day. That ain’t enough if you want to be full-time, so sometimes you just need somebody to say to you, no, that’s not enough if that’s what you’re trying to do.
So I think Listing Party is great, and I think that at eBay Open specifically, I got to talk a lot about that, especially the in-person so I was really happy about that.
Doug: There are all kinds of different types of sellers that you talk to. And I think that’s part of it is it’s some people only sell a little bit. They’re not going to use a ton of the features, but I think you and I were talking about how everybody wants to be the hustle bee.
He’s in Mastermind now. Everybody wants to be the hustle bee. And I’m looking at this message I sent him. I said, Hey, We’re having a chat about how everybody wants to be the hustle bee, but nobody’s going to put in the work that you do. And I said, listing four a day. And he responded, list 20 a day, source 20 a day, ship 20 a day consistently for one year, no vacations, no breaks, no holidays, no excuses, smiley face.
Trish: If you want to work for yourself and you want the freedom that comes with that, some of the freedom comes with sacrifice and some of the freedom comes with really hard work. And for years and years, I was a volume seller. I would list 50 a day myself. Nevermind what I paid other people to put on. 50 a day, seven days a week. Did I work seven days a week? Absolutely not. I would bank items. I built up a bank, so I always had two to 400 items available if something happened. And I also had people who could ship for me, my husband could ship, my daughter could ship, my husband could put away inventory. My daughter could put away inventory.
But I got into the groove where you just did this every single day. That was what I did. That was my work and you got faster and you got better and it became less time and less time. And it afforded me when my dad was very sick and dying. I could just move into his house for the last, six weeks and I could stay there and I didn’t have to worry about my business falling apart because I could set it up so that it could run for itself.
And so that is one of the great things about eBay Open is you go and you talk to people and you see how they run their business. Large sellers who are very successful and how they take care of the things and what they do and how they grew to the point where they are. And Ken’s a perfect example, is everyone going to do what Ken’s doing? Absolutely not. You need capital. It is a lot of shopping. It’s a lot of knowledge in a very niche market. If you’re interested in it, you might want to be the next Hustlebee, but what it shows is determination and hard work, no matter what category you’re in, no matter what you’re trying to sell.
Doug: Yeah, exactly. And it’s not for everybody.
Trish: No, absolutely not. It isn’t for everybody. There are some people who can do four a day, be a part-time seller, and make a nice little side income for themselves. God bless you. And I wish that for everybody if that’s what you want, but you’re not gonna become a millionaire on four a day.
Doug: It takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of dedication and so when you were talking about when you used to list 50 a day, that was back in the olden days before List Perfectly, right?
Trish: Yeah. eBay only. I was an eBay girl.
Doug: Exactly. Exactly. It’s interesting amongst the events that we did a lot of eBay people who want to expand their business and a lot of people who want to come to eBay, using or having used List Perfectly. So that’s always interesting too.
Trish: If you’re a reseller, Hey, if you’re just getting into this game, my biggest piece of advice is going to be to start on List Perfectly learn List Perfectly, but learn eBay first. eBay is a beast. eBay is the biggest beast there is. It is large. It is complicated. It is absolutely workable. I don’t mean like it’s too hard for anybody, but it’s the big dog. And if you get good at eBay, you can do any of the other platforms. It’s much, much harder to start up Posh and transition over to eBay. Much easier to go the other way around.
Doug: Definitely there’s that learning curve. But, like you just said, you learn there. You can do any of the others. If you’re using List Perfectly, start in eBay, import it in, and then go from there.
Trish: If you start in LP, it makes the eBay transition easier also. That is absolutely, in my opinion, true. It’s much easier, it’s a much easier program to list inside LP than it is in eBay, I think.
Doug: Yeah, exactly. Anything else, Trish?
Trish: No, sir. Just next year, if you’re somebody who is already a seller, wants to be a seller, thinking about being a seller. Sign up for eBay Open next year. You are going to get something out of it. Even if you don’t go to an in-person event, even if you just go to the virtual, it’s absolutely free. The in-person events were 20 bucks, but you got a $20 gift card when you left. So it’s a wash. But the virtual event is completely free and absolutely worth it. Definitely worth your time, even if you just have it on while you’re working. Absolutely worth it.
Doug: You don’t have to go to the in-person, you don’t have to go to all the virtual stuff just in and out, but it’s good to sign up and just, maybe learn some new stuff. They’ve always got exclusive announcements. For the past few years, they’ve done the virtual around this time of year. They used to do, the big Vegas show in July. So keep an eye out there, but they do a good job and it’s a good opportunity even virtually to touch base with other sellers to touch base with eBay employees, and touch base with us.
All right, cool. Thanks, Trish. Appreciate it.
Trish: Anytime my friend.
Doug: See you soon.
Trish: Bye guys.
Doug: Bye-bye.
Outro
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