1995 - AuctionWeb was started by Pierre Omidyar as part of a larger



personal site. He incorporated the enterprise and used the small

fee he collected to finance the expansion of the site. He added a

Feedback Forum (buyers and sellers can rate each other for quality

etc.). After finding the revenue from this auction site was more

than his salary at General Magic he started working fulltime for

AuctionWeb.

The first item sold was a broken laser pointer that sold for $14

1997 ? AuctionWeb was incorporated.

1998 ? Changed name to eBay. The site had more than a million

registered users.

1998 ? America Online and eBay America Online and eBay signed a

three-year agreement under which AOL received guaranteed payments

from eBay totaling $12 million. The new alliance secured eBay a

large potential customer base in the form of AOL members.

1998 ? Hired Harvard Business School-trained Meg Whitman CEO.

People spend more time on eBay than any other online site, making it

the most popular shopping destination on the Internet. eBay is

headquartered in San Jose, California and has a second location in

Draper, Utah

The largest site for online auctions is eBay, founded 1995, with

more than 50 million registered users.

The most expensive object offered in an online auction was a oil

refinery that was offered by eBay in February 2000. There was no

bid.

In October 1999 a Gulfstream V business jet, sold for US $40

million.

$10.7 billion worth of cars were sold on eBay between July and

September 2004.

A Ferrari Enzo, one of the world's most desirable and rarest cars,

became the most expensive ever sold on eBay Motors in Europe when

bidding closed on eBay's Swiss site for over US $1,000,000 in 2004.

A Gulfstream II jet sold for $4.9 million (the eBay fee would be

over $70,000)

A 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card sold for $1.65 million

A Diamond Lake Resort, western Kentucky: $1.2 million

A. Shoeless Joe Jackson's "Black Betsy" baseball bat: $577,610

A Round of golf with Tiger Woods: $425,000

Aug. 26, 1999: A human kidney is offered on eBay. Before the auction

is taken down, bids reach $5.7 million.

All sorts of human body parts have been put up for auction - and

taken down by eBay, which prohibits

such sales.

Feb. 8, 2001: Adam Burtle of Seattle sells his soul on eBay for

$400.

EBay has a policy of not allowing souls to be sold, but Burtle's

offer was undetected until after bidding closed. Burtle is suspended

from the site.

May 25, 2001: Levi's goes shopping on eBay and picks up a pair of

its own jeans - made in the 1880s - for $46,532.

June 23, 2001: Bob Dylan's boyhood home in Duluth, Minn., sells on

eBay for $94,600.

One of the largest items ever sold was a World War II submarine sold

by a small town in New England that decided it did not need the

historical relic anymore.

In eBay.UK Lady Thatcher's Handbag sold for ?103,000 and Jamie

Oliver's scooter sold for ? 7,600

A trading card is sold every five minutes

Three cars are sold every day

A bridal gown is sold every other day. The highest viewed item was a

wedding dress being modeled by the ex-husband. Over 17 million

people looked at it and it sold for over $US 3800.

Canada was up for sale on eBay.ca for 5 days but the highest bid was

by The Sun Newspaper - $2,000. There were 14 bids. The country of

Canada?Item #2913179800 was for sale under the category of

?Everything Else: Weird Stuff: Totally Bizarre.

These are a few of the interesting facts about eBay.