Clark has had a love/hate relationship with eBay for a long time. On the one hand, he loves the deals he gets through the website. But eBay has been notorious for helping out fences and counterfeiters. So there are opportunities to save big, but there are times you may get burned too. Clark recently needed to purchase a smartphone after his was damaged during the Hawaii staff trip. When he called up his carrier for a price quote, what originally cost him $99 was now being priced at $599! So he went on eBay and found a nicer one for half the money. The risk is always that the seller gives you junk or doesn't deliver. But Clark had no such problems.

The level of savings you can get on eBay are not just anecdotal. Recent studies at the University of Maryland and a foreign university have found that consumers have saved a cumulative $19 billion (!) over the years thanks to eBay. Your typical eBay purchase is available at a discount of 30 percent versus the retail price. Not surprisingly, the greatest savings are to be found when the economy slows down and people have to dump new stuff they can no longer afford. Right now eBay is going through a midlife crisis. Their CEO is out, and eBay is lowering the costs of its items while raising commission on the sell. Clark thinks eBay needs to take a cue from Craigslist -- of which it owns a 25 percent share. Craigslist allows sellers to list their wares for free and not pay any commission when something sells. It's as if Craigslist is the new and improved eBay. The new CEO at eBay will be challenged with making a marketplace in which the counterfeiting is dealt with and people know they won't get junk.