Published by Creative Education P O Box 227 Mankato Minnesota 56002 Creative Education is an imprint of The Creative Company www thecreativecompany us design by zeno design production by christine vanderbeek art direction by rita marshall Printed by Corporate Graphics in the United States of America Photographs by Alamy ICP Gina Kelly Gary Lucken NetPhotos SiliconValleyStock Varioimages GmbH Co KG Corbis Kim Kulish Julian Stratenschulte dpa Kimberly White Reuters Getty Images Daniel Acker Bloomberg Tony Avelar Bloomberg Vince Bucci William Thomas Cain Check Six Mikel Laburu Bloomberg Michael Loccisano David McNew Jason Merritt Jb Reed Bloomberg Kurt Vinion James D Wilson Liaison Agency Copyright 2012 Creative Education International copyright reserved in all countries No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher EBay and the products discussed in this book are either trademarks or registered trademarks of eBay Inc Trademarks associated with products of other companies mentioned are the trademarks of their respective owners This is not an official publication of eBay Inc and the views set out herein are solely those of the author library of congress cataloging-in-publication data for the hardcover edition Gilbert Sara The story of eBay by Sara Gilbert p cm Built for success Includes bibliographical references and index Summary A look at the origins leaders growth and holdings of eBay the online auction and shopping company that was founded in 1995 and today sells a multitude of collectibles and other consumer products ISBN 978-1-60818-062-2 hardcover ISBN 978-1-56660-032-3 eBook 1 eBay Firm Juvenile literature 2 Internet auctions Juvenile literature I Title HF5478 G55 2011 381 1770973 dc22 2010031226 CPSIA 110310 P01382 First edition 987654321 creative education
built for success the story ofeBay SARA GILBERT
Nr Wii Nearly 200 Knillion gift ideas isi I EB
the story of ebay Pierre Omidyar had bought the la ser pointer on a whim He used it to play with his cat for two weeks then discovered it didn’t work any more But instead of tossing it out he decided to use it as an experiment In the fall of 1995 Omidyar listed it on AuctionWeb a new part of his personal Web page under the heading Broken Laser Pointer A week went by with out any interest But then bids started coming in When the two-week auction period ended Omidyar was surprised to see that someone had bid 14 83 for something that didn’t work He contacted the buyer to make sure he un derstood it was broken I’m a collector of bro ken laser pointers the man replied Omidyar packed it up shipped it out and completed his first online auction sale built for success
