As a member from 2001, the early years under Meg Whitman were fantastic. When Meg left and John Donahoe took over was the turning point. I remember a video of him saying corporate stuff like maximizing shareholder value. Then came the push to out-Amazon Amazon. My enjoyment of buying and selling has gone way down. Only reason I use them is they are a monopoly of sorts with no direct competition....unless they want to become Amazon which is beyond stupid.
Ha! I just posted this same sentiment almost verbatim in another D&S thread. I actually took a college accounting class back in the early 2000s, we had to divide into groups and choose a company that had impressive investment/ profitability numbers and look up SEC reports on it. My group chose ebay, in the early days of Meg Whitman. Unfortunately I believe that her later years with ebay were the actual start of the downturn, but I agree 1000% that once Donahoe took over was when it turned into a disaster.