I got a good chuckle out of this little entry for Whine Seller Way Back Wednesdays. Originally posted on June 5, 2008 (which is shortly before I started The Whine Seller), this is right after they introduced all the new changes that, somewhat ironically, I’m actually all for today now that I’ve seen them in effect. But then, I was ticked.

Lesson to learn? Don’t assume change is bad until you’ve had a chance to try it, I suppose.

But in this post I was debating whether I should go to eBay Live or not. Considering it ended up being the last eBay Live ever, should I have gone? Well, considering, by all reports, it was an angry mod, I don’t think I really would have gained anything by going.

One thing I notice reading these old posts is that I am much less guarded. You guys may think I’m bad now but I’m downright passive in comparison to how I was on the old blog. So when you think I’m over the top, consider that this “tame Hillary.” 🙂

Anyway, here’s the original post (I took out all the links because they were all dead anyway):

eBay Extends the eBay Live discount deadline

This really makes me wonder if my theory on why eBay Live was canceled next year was correct. It really seems like they are having a hard time getting people to go. If you want to go, the $20 off discount has just been extended to June 21st. You can register here. They have never done that before so it just seems suspicious.

I am of two minds on eBay Live (though I am not going either way). My first thought is that we should go and tell the eBay staff, in person, how ticked we are and see if that gets results. If we are all too angry and stay away, I don’t want them to take our silence for compliance.

That said, maybe boycotting it will send the message loud and clear that we are ticked off. I am not sure which would work better.

For me, I am not going because, firstly, Chicago is too expensive to travel to for me. Secondly, while eBay Live was informative, its not worth the expense for me to go every year. (Mostly, all eBay Live did was convince me that I am doing everything right and inspire me to get on it). Thirdly, I am really ticked at eBay right now and I am slightly afraid I might punch people. This might embarrass my husband if I cold cocked the CEO or something.

Lastly unlike Orlando, Las Vegas, Boston and other past locations, there is no tourist draw to Chicago to me. I didn’t just go to Boston last year for eBay Live, I also went because we had been meaning to do the Freedom Trail and this was a perfect chance. No offense meant to Chicago-ians as I have never been there but what is over there? The best eBay can do to sell it on their site is to say that the first pinball machine was invented there. I just did a quick search about it and found an alarming number of sites that referred to it as the armpit of America. Granted, America has many armpits, but it obviously isn’t just me that finds that city to not be much of a draw since enrollment is that far down. If they had picked a better location, people would have been more likely to turn out.

I would love to know who is or isn’t going and why. Maybe I am just projecting my reasons onto other people and really it’s because 1 in 3 people are allergic to Chicago, or that the date they chose in unlucky in some religion or something.