ebay

1995 – The online auction site eBay officially was founded on this day by Pierre Omidyar, but it was known back then as “AuctionWeb”. The first auction was for a broken laser pointer. It was sold for $14.83.

Makes me wonder how much that laser pointer would be worth if it went back up on the auction block.

Since then the company has grown to a juggernaut in the online Auction business. They even have an ebay slot machine. Just like the auction site, I personally didn’t do too well in profiting from it…

This Day in Tech History podcast show notes for September 3

• Lotus ships “Lotus 1-2-3“
• HP acquires Compaq
• Hubble photographs HUDF

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Tagged as: aggregator, auction block, auction business, compaq, day in tech history, ebay, hp, hubble photographs, juggernaut, laser pointer, lotus, lotus 1 2 3, online auction site, pierre omidyar, Podcast, ships, slot machine, technology history

Article by Jeffrey Powers @geekazine

Jeffrey has written 381 awesome articles for us at Day in Tech History