In the Spotlight: Michael Dearing
by Jenna Jayroe
eBay Staff Member

Everyone who uses eBay regularly has a story to tell. Michael Dearing, Vice President of Marketing & Merchandising, has plenty of stories to tell, including a story about the "one that got away".

Dearing was selling a telescope for a friend, and started the bidding at one dollar. He was thrilled when a bidding war began between three telescope aficionados.

"It turns out that the winning bidder knew what I didn't," explains Dearing. "The telescope User Guide had been autographed for my friend's mom by the inventor of this entire family of telescopes. For telescope-heads, this was the equivalent of a light bulb signed by Thomas Edison!

"My high bidder turned around and relisted the item, called out the very rare signature on it and sold it for 3x what he had paid me the week prior," Dearing says with a laugh. "Gotta love that!"

Introducing people to the unique marketplace on eBay and its member Community - complete with stories like that one - is what Dearing and his team is responsible for.

The Marketing and Merchandising Department (or M&M in eBay-lingo) is responsible for all the marketing content on the general pages of the site - including the eBay Home Page. The group also creates many of the emails that eBay sends to new users, buyers and sellers, and manages such programs as eBay Stores, Seller Features (such as Buy It Now and Gallery) and eBay Rewards.

Dearing was introduced to eBay when he began listing from his footwear and apparel stores in California on the site. Unfortunately, he was selling the inventory because he was shutting his business down!

"The most remarkable thing about the experience was actually the people I met," he says. "I connected with some other small business owners who had fallen on hard times, too, and they gave me moral support during a very tough time in my life."

Although he counts himself lucky to work at eBay, Dearing is also an avid fan of the site, and both buys and sells. Most of his feedback, he says, comes from buying.

"I have bought shampoo, lamps, dog beds, stamps, Christmas ornaments, a miniature coffin made of balsa wood, a railroad lantern, magazine subscriptions, a Nikon film camera, picture frames, B&W film, baskets, old magazine ads, CDs, videos, posters, prints, calendars and a whole bunch of other stuff, too!"

When asked what he thinks makes eBay so special, Dearing says: "eBay changes peoples' lives in a fundamental way. I think it is among the most powerful forces for change in consumers' lives since Industrialization."

He also admits that his "guilty pleasure" is reading the Discuss New Features chat board, where he often chats with regulars.

"I simply cannot get enough of the regulars!" he says.