eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) recently got a shot in the arm from the most unlikely of places: Lumberton, New Jersey.

Ever hear of Lumberton? Don't feel bad because most people in New Jersey haven't either. Until recently, the South Jersey town was best known for being the only New Jersey municipality with two airports. Then, eBay discovered that the town had the most buyers and sellers on a per-capita basis of any town in the U.S. When I first heard about it, I was thunderstruck.

Don't get me wrong, Lumberton is a nice place to live. It's a suburb of Philadelphia with a population of about 12,000 that until about 15 years ago was a quaint historic village surrounded by farms. There's nothing about it that screams "a center of ecommerce'." I live in a nearby township.

So, I first thought eBay had made an error. The company assured me that its figures were accurate and I wrote a story about this for The New York Times. This couldn't have come at a better time for the San Jose, Calif.-based company. If it needed to prove to a skeptical Wall Street that its auction business was still vibrant all it had to do was mention Lumberton.

The eBay sellers I met in Lumberton were the types of people that helped build the auction site into what it is today. They were small business owners selling their handicrafts, moms who wanted to dispose of clothing that their children no longer needed and people looking for a bargain.

I was reminded of what made eBay a success while I was reporting the story. First, it's still a very affordable way for many small businesses who don't want to spend the money on search advertising to sell their wares on the Internet. eBay also seems to be replacing garage sales as the means that people use to get rid of their junk. It also offers merchants low-cost credit card processing through PayPal. (My wife uses it for her business.)

Does eBay have its challenges? You bet it does.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is a looming threat and growth is slowing. Sellers get mad at eBay for raising fees and for taking them for granted. But I've always thought the "eBay is evil" crowd represents a minority of people who use the auction site.

EBay is a stock that people either love or hate depending on how the stars are aligned. Lately, eBay has been in Wall Street's good graces, gaining a respectable 12 percent this year. It reports quarterly results April 18.

You can bet that the name Lumberton will come up a few times during the earnings conference call.

eBay finds salvation in South Jersey originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 04 Apr 2007 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.