Silicon Insider: The eBay State

July 30 -- You may be surprised where eBay goes from here.

Lately, there's been a burst of coverage about America's favorite flea market. Newsweek, for example, had a cover story on the company. And there is a new book, The Perfect Store, by Adam Cohen of the New York Times, which has already received considerable attention for uncovering that eBay's founding story about Pez collecting is, in fact, a myth.

Why all of this sudden attention? One answer may be that eBay is among the few dot.com success stories — and the only one that has held onto most of its valuation through the crash. Another possibility is that discount deals are a popular subject during hard times — and eBay has become the nation's rummage sale.

But the most likely reason is that eBay's time is here. With millions of Americans doing tens of millions of transactions on eBay every month, the company has become a part of our culture.

Even more important, the intelligentsia has now adopted it, buying collectibles on the site with the same abandon as the folks in the fly-over states they hold in contempt … and we all know what happens then. Suddenly, this campy site for trailer park collectors of Hummel dolls suddenly becomes a refreshing new post-modern tool for purchasing old Citroen posters.

Less noticed in all of this hoopla were two important and telling events in the eBay story. Both happened the same weekend. First was a gathering in Southern California of eBay major sellers, the first of its kind. CEO Meg Whitman, among other eBay executives, was on hand for the kumbaya.

The second was the announcement by the company that it would soon begin offering insurance, at low rates, to company "power sellers," the elite among its legions of private sellers.

In those two announcements lies a glimpse of the eBay of 2010.

Following the Plan

Let me explain.

[Full Disclosure: As you may know from my past writings — and conflict of interest disclosures — I was involved in the founding of eBay. To be precise, I was among the first dozen shareholders, having been awarded them by the two founders — Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll — for, among other things, helping them develop the company's long-term business strategy. As a side note, it was Mary Jo Song, the PR lady credited with inventing the Pez myth, who introduced me to the company].