The eBay Traveling Lab Coat

I originally published this at Practical eCommerce
Publish Date: August 31, 2007
(Removed from that site today and copied here)

This is the story about a special white lab coat that was worn at eBay live, 2007 in Boston. Anyone that may have attended eBay Live may have caught a glimpse of seeing an eBay employee wearing a white lab coat!

However, only a few delicately selected employees received the honor to wear these special coats!

Most eBay employees were wearing the official navy blue polo shirts with the eBay live 2007 logo.

There was a special section within the eBay Live platform called: “Help Hall.” Help hall consisted of a team of eBay Staff that were from a division within eBay called: “The Top Seller Account Management Team.”

The eBay employees wearing these “Awesome” lab coats were envied by many! eBay buyers and sellers were asking where they could purchase a lab coat? Even the general eBay staff wanted to know, “How could they get a lab coat?”

I spoke with Griff from eBay radio and he too wanted to know how he could get a lab coat. Lab coat envy was everywhere!

Meanwhile, the staff wearing the Lab Coats was respected by many. We all knew if we had a major question that it could be answered by going to “Help Hall” and asking a “Lab Coat!”

Once eBay live was behind us, many dedicated eBay fans will search eBay for a few key words: eBay Live 2007. This is the best way to find memorabilia from the event. I even sold a set of pins myself for charity!

I was searching eBay one day with those magic key words and I soon discovered one of the rare “Lab Coats” up for auction!

The eBay staff member had it listed as a 100% to Charity. He even had all the staff members that he worked with to autograph the lab coat. This made it even more valuable! I knew I had to have it and I placed a bid! I ended up winning the Lab Coat and I was over the moon! Yet, I felt bad for the very special eBay employee that not only parted with his lab coat but, the auction only sold for $5.83. I know it was LUCKY ME, but yet I felt bad that he didn’t get a larger amount since it was for his favorite charity: Primary Children’s Medical Center

After I won it, I then decided to come up with a plan to create a special auction! To go above and beyond the normal auctions! I felt this Lab Coat deserved special attention all in the honor of this special man that so graciously parted with his lab coat full of good intentions. He even has an eBay store you can visit:

Brandon’s Big Guy Stuff

Thanks to Brandon: The Official, eBay Traveling Lab Coat was born! Now you too can be a part of this awesome adventure!

How? There are two ways!

* Place a Bid and purchase the coat!
* Add it to your watch list and follow the progress!

The goal is to keep the Lab Coat Traveling around eBay and for each owner to sign it and re-list it back on eBay as a 100% Charity auction! A company logo can be added, an autograph, a patch, pin the ideas are endless!

I created a YouTube video and included it into the auction. This is another added bonus that eBay has allowed us all to do! To add video to our auctions, I will blog about that topic another time, for now I am proud to share with you: “The Official

Traveling Lab Coat, Charity Auction” @ eBay,


Item #150156342747.

Stay tuned, for this story is only beginning!