The sold-out eBay Live 2006 may start officially Tuesday morning, but at Monday night's 4th annual "Meet 'n Greet," sponsored by BuySafe, eBayers were already chatting each other up like crazy. Most of them were decked out in colorful beach clothing, in keeping with the bright eBay logo colors as well as the name of the venue (The Beach). Parrots perched atop hats, many men sported floral Hawaiian shirts, and ladies wore anything from grass skirts-n-coconuts to crazy rhinestone sunglasses.

eBay Powerseller and author Skip McGrath, who along with his wife Karen run Auction Seller's Resource (www.skipmcgrath.com), was there. Karen said she was getting excited about meeting the many customers they hear from throughout the year. As for Skip, "I look for new business opportunities - that thing I can do that no one else is doing." He said the year before last, it was "the whole consignment thing," which Skip embraced, and also led to his book "How to Start and Run an eBay Consigment Business." Skip will be giving presentations at the Alibaba event at the Border Grill restaurant during the conference.

Many eBayers were attending eBay Live for the first time. Amy, ladybug_designs on eBay, a seller of fabric and makeup, said it was her first eBay convention. She and her friend Annmarie were looking forward to "just meeting a bunch of people."

While some people said the Las Vegas venue was a big part of the reason they were attending (one seller gave that a as the sole reason he was here), to others it was just a bonus. "It could be anywhere," said one eBayer, who said his buddy built a high-speed tower so he could "get his business off the ground."

Lorena Patzer, "espressobooks" on eBay, was also attending the conference for the first time, with her friend, "outstandingbooks." She sells books, and her husband sells taxidermy. Lorena financed her eBay trip by - how else? - holding some garage sales of her slower-moving book merchandise.

Jami Cullen, "jgoldilox" on eBay, bought her whole grass-skirt-and-coconut-bra outfit on eBay...where else? She sells vintage and Victorian jewelry.

"This is a lot bigger than the first," said Earle Levine (ESL721 on eBay), whose only other eBay Live was the very first one, in Anaheim. "Some of the people here weren't even born then," he joked. "Some of the people are so excited coming..their feedback is like 10!"

AuctionBytes.TV was filming the event as part of its coverage of the eBay Live convention. Footage from the event will be seen on the Internet news site (published by AuctionBytes.com) this week.

The legendary "JimWarden" was also there. "eBay's emphasis on policy violations is a real plus for the eBay community, to make the buyer's experience better and reduce fraud. Hopefully they will tackle excessive shipping," he said.

Throughout the night, the emcees called out winning raffle ticket numbers. There was a huge table filled with prize bags, and people came up throughout the night as their winning numbers were called.

Things really got into gear when the hula dances started. Male and female contestants alike tied on grass skirts and got up to the stage to showcase their moves. A whole posse from BrightBuilders/Hammertap (makers of the DeepAnalysis research tool for eBay sellers) took turns getting on their hula groove: Ken Kirkland, Greg Cole, Danny Brown, and let's not forget Eric and David (maybe it's best to leave their last names out).

BuySafe's Josh Anderson and Patrick Mersinger were there, among other BuySafers. Mersinger was excited about their BondMyWebsite service and getting the word out about it on eBay Live.

Nearby was Overstock auctions' own J. T. Stephens, who could have a second career as a young Frank Sinatra impersonator. "They best thing about the conference is learning about the unique business," he said. Diversification for sellers is a good idea, added Mersinger, referring to Overstock's site.

Once most of the raffle ticket prizes had been given away, it was time to announce the winners of the trivia contest. It seems no one in the room knew the answer to every single question. But the two people who got closest were "SueBee" and AuctionBytes' own Julia Wilkinson. (Yes, yours truly). The prize was a swag bag filled with eBay merchandise such as pins, trading cards, a mug, and more.

The party wound down around 10 p.m. The eBayers walked out into the balmy Vegas evening...it would no doubt be a busy day ahead.

---
Julia Wilkinson is author of "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks" (Wiley, 2006) and "The eBay Price Guide," (No Starch Press, 2006), and publisher of Yard Salers and eBayers (http://www.yardsalersebayers.com/). You can find Julia's blog, "bidbits," at http://blogs.gowholesale.com/julia_wilkinson