Ebay

Dating all the way back to 1995 an early version of ebay surfaced called auctionweb.com. Created by Pierre Omidyar, auctionweb.com's first sale was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. When Omidyar contacted the buyer about his purchase, the man simply responded, "i collect broken laser pointers." Omidyar knew he was catching on to something, so he he secured his buisness by handing the company over to ebays highly qualified first president Jefferey Skoll. Both Skoll and Omidyar became instant millionaires when ebay went public in 1997. Since then Ebay has exploded to top 5 most viewed websites, and has become one of the largest online marketplaces in the world. Ebay is considered the search engine of shopping, because almost anything can be found and purchased on this website. It is apparently true that one man's junk, is another man's treasure. Some of Ebay's most outrageous sales include..

• Half eaten grilled cheese sandwhich with imprint of Virgin Mary
• A brussel Sprout that was cooked and frozen on Christmas
• A cheeto shaped like Abe Lincoln
• Brittany Spears hair from when she shaved it
• Human Body parts such as kidneys
• Ian Usher sold his entire life (house and all of his belongings, his job, introduction to all of his friends etc.) he was disappointed when his "life" sold for $384,000
• Heres a video of 10 more odd auctions

Today there are 212 million buyers and sellers, and sales have surpassed $11 billion by the end of 2006. Ebay has rewritten the ways of online transactions, giving the power to the common folk. In essence, ebay has become the worlds garage sale, and no matter what someone posts, there will always be someone to buy.

Some other random facts

• A piece of jewlery sells every 6 minutes
• Apparel sells every 12 minutes
• MP3 player sells ever 37 minutes
• Most expensive sale ever was $4.9 million
• Approximately 7.1 million new listings are added daily