Archive for the ‘eBay Insider’ Category
December 16th, 2009
If you have noticed that we’ve slowed posts on the Insider it’s because we launched a new, shiny site, The Inside Source. You must check it out–it’s chock full of great shopping and lifestyle tips an stories. To whet your appetite, here’s a video with the Source’s Editorial Director, Meredith Barnett talking about hot holiday gifts!
Posted in 
November 24th, 2009
Jennifer Lopez may do for Christian Louboutins what she did for Manolo Blahnik Okla boots almost 10 years ago. The top pop entertainer (who, I might remind you, is an accomplished dancer) was mid-way through her new song entitled “Louboutins” last night on the American
Music Awards when she fell on her butt. The tweets started within five seconds of her fall and 10 seconds later she was a trending topic.
Despite highly-anticipated appearances by megas like Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and limelight-moth Lady Gaga, who is everyone talking about today? Lopez…and her Louboutins. Of course, she deliberately fell!
Fashion has always been Lopez’s aide de camp in promoting her career and she’s done it again with the performance of this song. However, while her shimmery outfits did not outshine her smoldering beauty, they did zip for her style quotient.
However, it’s not a total washout, she has inspired my style tip of the day: If you’re curvy and on the smaller side, add heels (preferably Louboutins, but any good heel will do) to elongate the leg. The dress (or shorts) should either be super-short or just a few inches above the knee. The lengths chosen by La Lopez for her shorts and her gold dress were unflattering.
*Photo licensed to: Photorazzi.com
November 10th, 2009
October 31st, 2009
This is BANANAS! I think Kelly’s Taylor is even better than her Rachel.
October 29th, 2009
Halloween is just around the corner and I’ve picked out a few goodies for the kids in your life.
The number one priority for us parents is to keep the little ones safe while running around in the dark – so lighting is key. Of course flashlights are an easy way to let people know you’re coming, but now there are all kinds of cool looking ones available like little kitties, flower wands and even tigers (some of which are below). Kids can even light up those little fingers with cool finger lights or add reflectors to costumes.
Now that they’re all lit up, let’s keep track of ‘em. We can keep tabs on their whereabouts a few ways, both include attaching a device to the child. The first is called the Loc8tor and it’s a tracking device for household items like keys, the remote or your cell phone. On Halloween night you can take one of the 4 tabs and attach it to the child’s costume. If all of the sudden you notice someone’s missing simply press the location button for the assigned tab on the handheld device and the screen will show an arrow pointing towards the tab. A beeping noise along with the arrow will lead you to them. If you’re not the parent walking with the kids but still want to know where they are? A child locator GPS enabled device will allow you to pull up an online map and literally watch where the kids are scoring their loot.
Lastly here are a few more cool treats for the scariest night of the year.
A hot glue gun that casts webs while decorating. It instantly adds that spooky feeling to any home. If you’re looking for a quick fix to get the decor up in a hurry or don’t want to hang anything, check out a decoration projector that flashes spooky images on the side of your house. Having a party? These Jello molds are shaped like different icky looking body parts and once you add different colored Jello to them they make the perfect trick or treat!
Here are some links to examples of ghoulish goodies – have fun!
Finger Lights
Kids Flashlights
Flashing mouth lights
Costume reflectors
Child Location Devices
Webcaster Gun
Decor Projector
Jello Molds
October 17th, 2009
Have you ever wondered how fashion editors are able to identify trends before they become mainstream? Many do it on instinct alone, but imagine if they could tap into a community the size of eBay’s to see what people were searching for and buying to back up those instincts? It would certainly be an innovative approach. Makes you wonder why no one has done that yet. Come to think of it….
October 13th, 2009
When the Kindle hit the market two years ago people went nuts. The concept of being able to pick numerous ebooks from a bank of over 350,000 titles and store them in a single book looking device that has a paper-esque screen was pretty awesome to book worms. Several manufactures wanted in and Sony came out with a version right away. This started the 
eReader version 2.0 war.
Both manufactures added in tweaks like larger capacity, easier uploading , bigger libraries of content to choose from and price reductions, but people wanted more. In fact, about a year ago I spoke with Doug Belgrad, Co-President of Columbia Pictures, one night backstage at a Chris Rock show. He told me that he wanted to turn all of his top producers on to the devices to help reduce the 30lb piles of scripts. However, the ability to read a .PDF (the main format for scripts) was not available at the time, so he wasn’t into it. He wasn’t alone in his needs; manufacturers listened and this is no longer the case. Now eReaders are almost perfect, are more user friendly and are gaining speed towards appearing more frequently under Christmas trees this holiday season. The two companies are still neck in neck in terms of popularity and have both been busy adding in all kinds of cool features like the ability to read .PDFs, content upload via Wi-Fi, larger capacity (the Kindle can hold over 3,500 books), longer battery life and quicker refresh rates (a.k.a. page turns).
On eBay you can find eReaders from Kindle, Sony, Hanlin and iRex, although the most popular is the Kindle. In the past 60 days, there were over 23,000 Kindle listings with the average selling price around $113. So definitely check one out for a good read!
Photo credited to: Kindle
October 13th, 2009
As many of you know, country is cool. Country music superstars like Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Sugarland, and my personal 
favorite, Taylor Swift are bonafide chart toppers. But did you ever think that country and couture would mix—and I don’t just mean embellished outfits with sequins and rhinestones. Well, Mr. Karl Lagerfeld certainly does. At the Chanel show in Paris last week Kaiser Karl had his models do-si-do down a hay-laden runway to a soundtrack sung but Lily Allen. The models seemed to like the motif except when their heels slid on the dusty floor. Icons of pop like Prince, Sean Lennon, and Rihanna were in the house. Think that they’ll get twangy on their next release? Well, if Karl says hoedown then maybe so. Banjos aside, at least the duds will elicit a hearty yee-haw!
*Photos licensed to: Photorazzi.com
October 9th, 2009
Ever tried wearing the same dress in a week? How about the same dress every week, or every day? That’s the challenge Sheena Matheiken set for herself earlier this year to bring attention to and raise money to educate disadvantaged children in India.
Sheena, a charming advertising worker by day/fashion activist by night, also wants to bring attention to how we consume and recycle fashion and how art emerges at this confluence.
In May, she asked her friend and designer Eliza Starbuck to create a black dress she would wear every day for a year. There are a few different ones. Sheena is never wearing a dirty frock. She accessorizes the dress differently every single day. (Hollywood stylists could learn a thing or two here).
Well, you know how we at eBay have three true loves – fashion, the environment, and the charity cause? Sheena embodies all three so when our eagle-eyed exec Alan Marks read about Sheena’s work which, she calls The Uniform Project, he knew the community would love her idea. He asked us to get in touch with Sheena right away and see how we could support her effort.
Our collaboration with The Uniform Project kicked off this week.To read, look, donate, be inspired or even grouse about my leaving out eBay’s fourth true love, check out FASHION ACTIVIST
Our collaboration with The Uniform Project kicked off this week.To read, look, donate, be inspired or even grouse about my leaving out eBay’s fourth true love, check out /www.ebaygreenteam2.com
October 6th, 2009
One last note on London. If you’re ever in the city, you must visit Dover Street Market.
A shrine to edgy and ironic fashion, it’s a five-level shop put together by Rei Kawakubo. As such it features all of 
Kawakubo’s Comme des Garcons lines and designs by her protege Junya Watanabe. It also gives ample voice to collections that deserve to be seen but are not available everywhere (except here maybe!). Britain’s new it boy Christopher Kane, who’s show was part of London Fashion Week’s 25th Anniversary, is featured. So are Azzedine Alaia and Lanvin. There’s a vending machine where you can pop in 25 Euros and buy a t-shirt, balls of rope you can use as a door-stopper,
handbags and jewelry. Men, women and a little bit of the kid in you are well served.
It’s a cultural stop and a consumer moment all in one.
Yours in fashion,
Constance
