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eBay is an amazing e-commerce platform. You can sell and buy things at the same site with just clicks. A fabulous online marketplace, it is no less than a treasure trove as you can find the weirdest and the fanciest of items on sale over here. This peculiar platform is truly one of a kind which sees millions of visitors every day with an equally large number of transactions taking place daily.
Therefore, if you scan the history of eBay, you will find a plethora of peculiar facts surrounding the company. So, here is taking a look at 30 amazing things you did not know about eBay.
1. eBay founder Pierre Omidyar became a billionaire at 31 - eBay was launched in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar in 1995. Three years later, the company went public and Omidyar became an instant billionaire at 31 years of age.
2. Pierre Omidyar wanted eBay to be called EchoBay - Pierre Omidyar wanted EchoBay to be the name of the auction site but it had been already taken away by a Canadian mining company. So, he had to settle for eBay.
3. Meg Whitman was the first CEO of eBay - Meg Whitman became the first CEO of eBay in 1998 and stepped down ten years later in2008.
4. The first transaction on eBay was a broken laser pointer - The first item to be transacted on eBay was a broken laser pointer sold for $14.83. Pierre Omidyar mailed the buyer to make sure that he was aware of the pointer being broken and the buyer said that he knew it and that he was a collector of broken laser pointers.
5. eBay sees 2 billion transactions every day - eBay is the hub of sale and purchase and witnesses 2 billion transactions per day.
6. Britain biggest buyer on eBay - Britain tops the per capita purchase on eBay.
7. iPhone 4 most searched on eBay - iPhone 4 has been found to be the item that most people search on eBay.
8. Nike Air Jordans most bought sneaker brand on eBay - One out of every three dollars spent on sneakers on eBay goes to Nike Air Jordans, the basketball sneakers bearing the hallmark of Michael Jordan.
9. eBay hosted 2,000,000 auctions in January 1997 - In 1997, the business of eBay witnessed major boost with the auctions listed on the site shooting to 2,000,000. In 1996, eBay could only manage 250,000 altogether.
10. Singer James Hillier Blount auctioned his sister off on eBay - British singer Jammes Hillier Blount auctioned his sister off on eBay to find out a way to help her travel to Ireland at short notice.
11. Justin Hawkins bought a leaked copy of his band's album on eBay - Justin Hawkins of "The Darkness" band bought a leaked copy of their album on eBay to trace the thief.
12. Majority purchases on eBay relate to new items - Though eBay is an auction site the majority of the purchases taking place on the site i.e. more than 70% relate to new products.
13. The town of Buford was sold on eBay in 2012 - Don Sammons sold Buford, a 10 acres town in Wyoming for $900,000. He put up the town on eBay for sale in 2012 and it was purchased by two Vietnamese buyers in only 11 minutes.
14. Bridgeville was sold two times on eBay - Bridgeville in California was sold two times on eBay.
15. The most expensive item sold on eBay was a yacht - In 2006, a huge 405-foot yacht was auctioned off on eBay for $168 million. It was purchased by Roman Abramovich, a Russian billionaire but technically the deal settled at $85 million.
16. The second most expensive item on eBay was private jets - Tyler Jet's Gulfstream II private jets were the second most expensive item sold on eBay- the winning bidder paid $4.9 million for the deal.
17. The most expensive item sold on eBay via mobile was an airplane - Mobile transactions have risen sharply on eBay in the recent times and a PA-46-310P Malibu airplane is the most expensive item sold through mobile. It was sold for $265,000.
18. A man sold his life on eBay - 2008 saw a man named Ian usher selling his whole life on eBay for just $325,000.
19. eBay owns multiple companies - eBay is also the owner of StubHub, PayPal, Shopping.com, and Half.com.
20. eBay acquired Skype in 2005 - eBay acquired Skype in 2005 for $2.6 billion and later sold 65% of its stake to Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. In 2011 Microsoft bought Skype.
21. Users objected when eBay changed the background colors of the site - The background color of eBay website was yellow and it was changed to white and the audiences objected leading to the reversal of the decision but gradually the color was played down to turn white once again.
22. eBay bars listing of things with no physical existence - eBay has a policy that disallows the listing of things that do not have any physical existence.
23. eBay has a list of items that are prohibited from selling - eBay has banned a list of items from listing and they include items like drugs, firearms, lottery tickets and many more.
24. The time between 6:30-10:30 p.m. is the best for selling on eBay - During these four hours, most people are relaxing with cocktails and browsing eBay simultaneously which makes it most profitable time for selling.
25. eBay helped the discovery of a new species of sea urchin - A new species of sea urchin was discovered when it was listed for auction on eBay.
26. eBay introduced seller rating in 2008 - eBay started selling rating in 2008 with buyers rating them with a score of 1 to 5 in four categories.
27. Gmail was auctioned off on eBay during beta-testing - In 2004, some of the eBay users auctioned off their invites to Google's email service for approximately $60.
28. eBay offers free co-branded boxes to its members - As a member of eBay, one can get free co-branded boxes through United States Postal Service.
29. eBay sees bidding on recipes - There is a section on eBay where buyers place bids on recipes.
30. eBay allows charity - eBay lets sellers donate a part of their earning to a charity of their choice through MissionFish.
eBay is truly enigmatic and interesting. It is a fabulous auction platform and after getting to know these amazing things, you are sure to find it even more exciting than you did before.
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