Tamebay lost a dear friend a few days ago, Uncle Joe Adamson of Uncle Joe Radio had a mission to “help others succeed by helping them help themselves to success”.
Uncle Joe was a PowerSeller on eBay for as long as I can remember, he was always at eBay Live! events in the US, was inducted into eBay’s Community Hall of Fame, an eBay Certified Education Specialist and more recently a Top-rated Seller.
After careers in sales, computer network design, and mass communications (photography, broadcasting, journalism, public relations), Uncle Joe faced problems when his health declined – how does someone unable to sit down and perform start-to-finish linear work ever get anything done? His solution was to live in a virtual world where in his own words “gaps in time aren’t such a big deal”, and Uncle Joe not only made it work but became one of the best known eBay sellers on the North American continent.
With time on his hands Uncle Joe made it his business to know everything about eBay, how it worked, how to run a business on eBay and how to make selling on eBay easier and more profitable. Not only that but he made he was also known by everyone in eBay from eBay execs down to his local eBay seller Meetup Group in Oklahoma City.
Uncle Joe was a prolific sharer of information, not only on his own radio show, but eBay radio and many other eBay focused radio shows in the US and he always knew the right solution to any eBay problems – again in his own words he often said “My advice is free, and worth every darn penny, too!”.
We’ll miss Uncle Joe, it’s hard to find the words to say goodbye to an old friend so rather than try here’s Uncle Joe telling a little of his own story. Seeing how enthusiastic he was about the very latest technology and how he made it work for him is what made Uncle Joe an inspiration to everyone he met.
11 Responses
Not meaning to sound cruel or anything but I have never heard of the guy……
The only thing I have found with a lot of these ebay cheerleader types is that the people doing the cheering are actually ebay employees.
Just look at the ebay yahoogroups….embarrasing….
Joe was an ebay cheerleader, certainly not in the way implied. Ebay was his chosen team, just as in football. Do you swap teams in mid-season when on a losing streak – no, you cheer them on to better days. He was there for you – even at his worst of times, and will be fondly remembered by all whose paths he crossed.
Sounds like a really motivational story!
Joe – you will be sadly missed!
Being involved in eCommerce since the early days people like Joe are what is great about online trading.
When one story ends another starts – who’s going to pick up Joes baton?
RIP Joe
Chris, I enjoy hearing you on eBay Radio and especially appreciate your posting this salute to our dear Uncle Joe. You have given him a well-deserved, honest tribute. It is hard for someone who never met him to conceive of such a person. eBay was at his heart and the eBay seller was his deepest concern. He never met a stranger and was quick to give of his time and knowlege to anyone who needed it.
Thank you for introducing him in the UK. I hope your readers will Google search on his name and listen to some of his youtube videos. They will be amazed.
I received my eBay Hall of Fame award the same year as Uncle Joe. We were already friends before that eBay Live and I have enjoyed our many talks through-out the years. He was a wonderful person inside and out. I will miss him very much.
Kathie
I have been involved in an eBay group in which I was lucky enough to meet and talk to “UJ” a number of times.
The funny thing is I can hear him laughing from above at the thought that he was an eBay cheerleader. The times I think of the major issues he brought up and ideas as well as time he disagreed, I would call him a “people leader”.
Two things I will take away from my experiences with him 1) the pink heart tye dye shirt he game me at eBay live years ago, and 2) telling me when I said sometimes I didnt think I could keep up with folks like him who had so much eBay tech knowledge. He said “you are smart and I always know you have good questions”. He didnt have to say that.
Thanks for posting this.