作者: Patti Louise Ruby

Marsha Collier spends most of her time on things related toe Bay. She”s a charter member e Bay Power Seller, as well as oneof the original instructors for e Bay University. As a columnist, anauthor of four best-selling books on e Bay, a television and radioexpert, and a lecturer, she shares her knowledge of e Bay withmillions of online shoppers. Thousands of e Bay fans also visit her Web site, www.coolebaytools.com, to get Marsha”s latestinsights on e-commerce. Out of college, Marsha worked in fashion advertising for the Miami Herald and then as special-projects manager for the Los Angeles Daily News. She also founded a home-basedadvertising and marketing business. Her successful business, the Collier Company, Inc., was featured by Entrepreneur magazinein 1986, and in 1990, Marsha”s company received the Small Business of the Year award from her California State Assemblymanand the Northridge Chamber of Commerce. Bargains drew Marsha to e Bay in 1996, but profitable sales keep herbusy on the site now. Marsha applies her business acumen andphotography skills to her e Bay business — and in this book, she shares her knowledge about what makes good, profit-promotinglistings on e Bay. Patti “Louise” Ruby, an Indianapolis native, was born to work on a computer. In junior high, she took a class inthe programming language Fortran. She excelled and enjoyed theclass: The die was cast. Patti went through several jobs as aprogrammer and then became a consultant. In the late “90s, Patti was part-owner of an antique mall, and coincidentally found a Web site called Auction Web (the original e Bay). She was fascinatedby the concept, and began selling on the site. She also became anintegral part of the chat rooms, which initially served as loosecustomer support where users helped other users. Patti”s easewith computers helped many a new user feel comfortable on theboards — and with using the Auction Web system. In February 1997, Patti was hired as Auction Web”s second Customer Support Representative. In this position, she became themain interface between the engineering staff and the usercommunity, where she communicated members” “bug”reports and suggestions for site enhancements. When Auction Webbecame the new e Bay site in the fall of 1997, she headed up a”live” question-and-answer board that was set up tohelp members make the transition between platforms.