The Brill Report: eBay Still Sux and So Does the Potential Governor

By Bob Brill

Not only does eBay continue to suck but are you just tired of hearing how former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is going to fix California when she's elected governor and Arnie retires? Since I sit behind a microphone at the only all news radio station in Los Angeles at least 14 hours a week I have to listen to her commercials and hear her stretch the truth through her teeth while I watch the trading card industry suffer more losses due to the likes of eBay.

First of all let's look at "eBay!" When it first started it was a pretty good thing and became an industry standard. Then came their lack of policing autographs -- try looking for bad stuff and you'll see the same old guys selling the same old fakes. Over the years eBay did bring more collectors back into the market by putting a death knell on retail hobby stores. The stores were forced to play the eBay game right out of business.

Even today it's terrible although the overall economy hasn't helped, but eBay's policies are getting worse and worse. Why on earth can a buyer leave negative feedback for a seller, but a seller cannot leave negative feedback for a buyer? The only solution is to "not leave feedback at all" because it doesn't mean anything anymore! If all the buyer can get is a positive no matter what kind of malicious, perverted, demeaning, thieving, scumbag he/she is then what is the point?

And the value? Drop it off the edge of the planet Mac. For instance, this week I listed a 1955 Bowman Eddie Lebaron rookie card graded BVG 7.5. That is basically an 8 for a key rookie from 54 years ago and a HOF player as well. I started the bidding at $9.99 figuring it would go to about $40. It's real true value is about $60 and it should be $75. Well how does $10.50 sound? SUX to me but that is where it ended up and to think I once turned down $30 for it in my store when I had one.

Well enough of that and onto Meg Whitman. She left eBay as CEO and as one of the richest women in the world. Let me say that again "one of the richest women in the WORLD!" Does the word billionaire come close. Her reported NET WORTH is $1.4 Billion. That is right, "Billion" with a "B."

So now she wants to the Governor of California. Well la-de-dah. Her pitch is threefold. Here it is, via the radio commercials which I've heard ad nauseum.

1. Create new jobs because as she points out she created thousands of new jobs at eBay while she was CEO, creating thousands of new businesses. That is true, businesses with no benefits and thousands of new businesses who don't pay or collect taxes creating the largest underground economy in world history.

2. Government shouldn't spend more than it takes in so she will freeze spending, cut taxes and take those government service departments which are out of control and eliminate them and lay off thousands of people who are government employees. Wow! Talk to the state legislature about that before you do anything because that is what you have to. Let's see lay off thousands of state workers? Doesn't that kind of conflict with No. 1 above? Put more people on the street who are paying taxes and paying their bills. Hmmmm, now that sounds like a plan. Oh and getting rid of those departments which aren't paying their way? Schools, roads, the State Board of Equalization (the guys who collect sales taxes) and all those government watchdog agencies who keep an eye on all those oil companies and other large anti-green and anti-government oversight firms. Wow that will work. Cut taxes? How long do you want to stand in line at the DMV? The EDD? Or any other state required agency? Cut taxes, cut jobs and make lines longer and have services only available three days a week.

3. Schools. "We're going to give more choices to parents and reward better teachers by paying them more." So let's see that means school vouchers for private schools and home schooling (more money out of public schools) and Merit Pay for Teachers. All Merit pay does is create greedy money hungry administrators and teachers in the classroom. Merit pay works if your kids are widgets but they are not widgets. They are indivdiual learners who learn at their own pace and more often than not there is nothing any teacher can do which will make a slow learner, learn faster. Now you can get all the smart kids into a few classrooms and no matter who the teacher is they will perform better on those tests. That teacher will get more money because of the better grades.

Now here is something which might work. Teachers might go for it if you let them draft their kids just like NFL teams draft their players. Let's say you have three first grade classes in a school. Each teacher the first year draws their position from a hat. They draft from the upcoming 2nd graders in an even mannered order as in a Fantasy Football Draft, but the second year and from then on they draft in reverse order of finish. If teacher no. 1 has the best overall student test scores in year one, she drafts last the following year and so on.

You can even let the teachers trade kids. You give me two better than average kids for one dumb one and one highly intelligent kid. And there are some dumb ones just like there are intelligent ones. Now don't forget the Non English Speakers. We have to spread them out evenly which sounds a little like discrimination but hey this is corporation here, we can push that under the rug for now.

Under this system each teacher has a chance build a winning team to make more money. Otherwise, under the way it's actually planned, what is to prevent a teacher from offering half of his/her bonus salary to an administrator in return for stacking her class with smart kids. And if an administrator doesn't like a teacher what is to prevent them from stacking her class with dumb kids and kids who can't speak English at all? Nothing. This is why running a classroom is not the same as running a corporation. It only works with widgets and you may want widgets from your loins but my kids were never widgets.

You see what you will get for teachers in the future is not caring teachers who want to help kids. You will get greedy salesperson types who only care about the almight buck, not the kids. And why not? You are paying them more to get higher grades and getting higher grades is not teaching them to learn, it is getting them to get more points on a standardized test, biased test or not. Heck I might become a teacher. Show me the money! Who cares about those little brats? Whip them into shape, memorize things, reward them with candy, whatever it takes to get those little brats to get higher scores. Who cares if they learn anything? I don't. Just SHOW ME THE MONEY! Now for those of you who know me you know I'd never become a teacher under any circumstances. It's a very difficult job and you have to care, which is why Merit Pay does not work.

So Meg, yes you built up eBay, but let me ask you this. You keep saying cut taxes. If you are elected governor of  California are you going to go after all those new businesses you created via eBay and make them collect and pay their California Sales Taxes? Oh, that's right go to her web site and ask Meg? I'll wait until I get her on the air instead.

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Finally I can announce copies of my new book are on store shelves as we speak. I'm told sales are good for "Fan Letters to a Stripper: A Patti Waggin Tale." I will be signing copies of the book this Sunday afternoon at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., in West Hollywood. You can also see a video of the making the book on YouTube. C'mon out and pick up a copy. I'll also be in four northern California cities in coming weeks. The week of November 15th I'll be in Oakland, Chico, Sacramento and Bakersfield for signings with one coming up in Ventura but it's as of yet not decided regarding a date. You can read more at my website.

Tags: whitman baseball grading merit waggin don ebay lebaron rudolph beckett california patti pay football psa meg governor