He may be best known for his humour, but Mr Jim Griffith, the principal of eBay university, was once so depressed he almost wanted to give up on life.

Jim Griffith, 52, eBay's first customer service representative who is now dean of eBay education. Photo/ Jessica Lim

Then, in 1996, he was on the brink of bankruptcy.

But it was these desperate times that drove him to the auction site that later became eBay.

He had gone to the site to buy a computer chip, but ended up becoming a mainstay on the site's forum where he participated as a cross-dressing character called 'Uncle Griff'.

That was when eBay's founder, Mr Pierre Omidyar, noticed him and offered him a job as the auction site's first customer service representative.

'I'm a ham, I like to perform so I created the character. It's (also) extraordinarily addictive when you know you helped someone and they're grateful for it,' said Mr Griffith about why he spent so much time providing help at theforum, for free at first.

In Singapore to conduct a half-day seminar on eBay trading, he also had a tip for people who want to provide good customer service.

He said: 'No matter how many times you have heard the same question over and over, it may be the first time that person has asked it, so you have to approach the person as if you're hearing the question for the first time.'

What is the attraction of online trading?

The appeal of eBay is that it is such an extraordinarily diverse marketplace where you can find not only just about anything you might be looking for, it's also the virtual equivalent of walking through the world's biggest, all-purpose department store with virtually anything you can think of buying.

For sellers, it's an amazingly simple way of putting anything that you want to sell to the biggest, widest...buying audience, instead of having to keep (goods) in storage somewhere or selling it in a localised market where there may be a limited number of buyers.

Jim Griffith, Dean of eBay Education and an eBay University instructor. Photo/ EBAY

Aren't people being gullible and too trusting when they buy things online that they can???t be sure they will get?

Ten years of success proves that eBay's founder's core belief 'that people are basically good' is absolutely true.

I believe that in any given situation, (most) people will always do the right thing, and this is what's happened on eBay.

I have been shopping on eBay for 10 years and I've had close to 2,500 transactions where I've bought things, and I have only had one transaction for an item I paid $20 for which I did not receive.

The rate of bad guys out there is less than 0.01 per cent, this is the number of transactions on eBay that result in some sort of dispute or claim of fraud.

It's important wherever you're trading to exercise good judgment. If you sense that a deal is too good to be true and maybe (that) something may be wrong, avoid it.

Can anyone set up an online business?

When you break down the personalities that succeed on eBay they're usually less risk averse than the average person; this is true in any business.

Not everyone in the world is going to be a business seller on eBay, but there are millions of people who have always wanted to at least try to have their own businesses.

The cool thing about online trading is you can start selling with minimal investment and very little risk, and use that as a way of determining whether or not this is the kind of business that will work for you.

What does it take to convert your eBay hobby into a job?

Usually you must have time. Selling on eBay as a hobby, as a casual seller may mean listing one or two items a week.

As a seller, before you know it, you're spending all night listing items after you come home from work.

Are eBay users here any different from eBay users elsewhere?

Unlike other places in the world, sellers from Singapore are uniquely positioned for this because this area of the world has always been a trading centre, so trade as a day-to-day component of life seems to be a built-inthing.

People here also do not have the same sense of isolation that maybe folks in the United States or even in Europe might have, where they view the rest of the world with a little bit of trepidation.

Here, people view the rest of the world as an opportunity, as a market place to be explored. That's what will give them a leg up.

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