ebay

[Goodsoulette]

what was the first item sold on ebay? Does that differ to the first item auctioned?

[kempie]

The name �eBay' comes from the domain Pierre Omidyar used for his site. His company's name was Echo Bay, and the �eBay AuctionWeb' was originally just one part of Echo Bay's website at ebay.com. The first thing ever sold on the site was Omidyar's broken laser pointer, for which he got $14.

[Mattk]

wasnt the echobay domain already gone so he called it ebay instead ?

[kempie]

It appears that echobay.com was registered by Echo Bay Mines of Colorado on 27-Oct-1994, 9 months before Omidyar registered ebay.com on 04-Aug-1995.

The first auction was meant to be during the Labor Day holiday of September 1995 but the announcement of this new site on a Usenet newsgroup was delayed because the moderator was on holiday (doh!) and so the first auction attracted no visitors.