--- title: eBay 20th Anniversary: First Item Sold description: First item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer when the site was called AuctionWeb in September 1995 canonical: https://time.com/4018841/first-item-sold-listed-ebay/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-02T18:51:02.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:31:52.325Z og:title: This Is the First Item Ever Sold on eBay og:description: First item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer when the site was called AuctionWeb in September 1995 og:url: https://time.com/4018841/first-item-sold-listed-ebay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a1fbf3ed0df9e1c/69885260e20a874283a8b9e2/gettyimages-461891242.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: eBay og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is the First Item Ever Sold on eBay twitter:description: First item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer when the site was called AuctionWeb in September 1995 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4a1fbf3ed0df9e1c/69885260e20a874283a8b9e2/gettyimages-461891242.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is the First Item Ever Sold on eBay > Sponsored content. 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It covers the reporting, scoops and conversations shaping AI and the decisions facing leaders. #### Where can I get reported AI news rather than commentary? In the Loop is TIME's AI newsletter, built on original reporting and access to the people building and governing AI. It publishes Tuesdays and Fridays and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes TIME's In the Loop? Harry Booth, a tech reporter at TIME, writes In the Loop. #### Is In the Loop free? Yes. In the Loop is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-loop-2026q3/newsletters?i=49b4850f-eddb-4163-8ed1-57bb1af22c98&cr=time-nl-loop-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Numbers Behind eBay [Watch (HLS stream): Numbers Behind eBay](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/b4CQxAAH.m3u8) (1:27)  _Published 2015-08-28. Numbers Behind ebay_  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 2, 2015 6:51 PM UTC Numbers Behind ebay  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 2, 2015 6:51 PM UTC In honor of eBay’s 20th anniversary Thursday, note that one of the most valuable brands on the Internet started with the sale of one of the least valuable items imaginable: a broken laser pointer. Over Labor Day weekend in 1995, the site’s founder Pierre Omidyar wrote code for “AuctionWeb” and launched it as a personal project out of a spare bedroom in his Silicon Valley town house. He had bought a $30 laser pointer with the intention of using it to make flashy presentations, but ended up using it to make his cat chase the red dot, according to _The Perfect Store: Inside eBay_, a book written by former TIME senior writer Adam Cohen. Omidyar decided to [list](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,992931-3,00.html) the $30 laser pointer, which broke two weeks after it was purchased, because “it would be a good way to test out AuctionWeb, he figured, and it would cost him nothing,” Cohen wrote. In the listing, he admitted the item didn’t work, even with new batteries. While no one bid on it for a week, a bidding war started the next week, and the product first listed for $1 ended up selling for $14.83. Four years later, Cohen wrote, AuctionWeb — known as eBay — had grown to be an “online retailer valued at more than Sears, or Kmart and JCPenny.” Today, [_Forbes_ reports](http://www.forbes.com/profile/pierre-omidyar/?list=billionaires) Omidyar’s personal net worth is $8.4 billion and [lists](http://www.forbes.com/companies/ebay/) the site as one of the “50 most valuable brands in the world. It boasts 157 million buyers, about 25 million sellers, and 800 million listings.” _Read Next:_ [_The 20 Weirdest Things Ever Sold on eBay_](http://time.com/4017026/ebay-20th-anniversary-weirdest-sales/?iid=time%5Freadnext) [_Download TIME’s mobile app for iOS to have your world explained wherever you go_](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/time-mobile/id328218429) ### See the Factories Where Amazon Can Move 426 Items a Second  Employees collect merchandise ordered by customers for shipment from the Amazon.com distribution center in Phoenix, Arizona, Nov. 26, 2012. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  A worker collects order items at the Fulfilment Centre for online retail giant Amazon in Peterborough, central England, on Nov. 28, 2013. Andrew Yates—AFP/Getty Images  Merchandise sits on shelves before shipment at the Amazon.com Inc. distribution center in Phoenix, Arizona, Nov. 26, 2012. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  An employee packs merchandise for shipment at the Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Phoenix, Arizona, Dec. 2, 2013. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  A picture shows the Fulfilment Centre for online retail giant Amazon in Peterborough, central England, on November 28, 2013, ahead of Cyber Monday on December 2nd, expected to be one of the busiest online shopping days of the year. Andrew Yates—AFP/Getty Images  An employee packs orders in the Fulfilment Centre for online retail giant Amazon in Peterborough, central England, on November 28, 2013, ahead of Cyber Monday on December 2nd, expected to be one of the busiest online shopping days of the year. Andrew Yates—AFP/Getty Images  Employee Maria Miller loads boxes onto a conveyer belt for shipping at the Amazon.com Inc. distribution center in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. on Monday, Nov. 26, 2012. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Interior view of the hall of a logistics center of the online shopping company Amazon, taken on March 26, 2014 in Leipzig, eastern Germany. Peter Ending—AFP/Getty Images  Packages sit in regional delivery dividers ahead of distribution at the Amazon.co.uk Marston Gate 'Fulfillment Center,' the U.K. site of Amazon.com Inc. in Ridgmont, United Kingdom, Dec. 3, 2012. Simon Dawson—Bloomberg/Getty Images ## Transcript [00:00] It's not the company, it's the 25 million active sellers [00:04] of small businesses, it's the hundreds of millions of people [00:09] that buy [00:21] products off Ebay. 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