A captivating moment was when I realized that people, including myself, were not saying, 'I just bought an item on eBay.' They were saying, 'I just won an item on eBay.' It was the thrill of the hunt. I bought a car on eBay.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
EBay gave me the framework to discover I was an e-commerce entrepreneur. I touched everything, from shipping to logistics.
When I started eBay, it was a hobby, an experiment to see if people could use the Internet to be empowered through access to an efficient market. I actually wasn't thinking about it in terms of a social impact.
Although eBay is a fantastic tool for collectors who want to buy or sell, you really have to have knowledge of items before you embark.
What makes eBay successful - the real value and the real power at eBay - is the community. It's the buyers and sellers coming together and forming a marketplace.
The first time you went to eBay, you probably didn't do a transaction.
In February of 1996, about six months after I created eBay, I started receiving a spate of complaints. Everyone was complaining about each other. I felt very much like I was a parent who had to adjudicate the brothers beating each other up.
When I found something I believed in and I cared about and thought I could market and sell and could be thought of creatively - the most important thing to me - I did it.
I buy when other people are selling.
I never felt hard done by and never wanted for anything, but I grew up in a wealthy area where I saw people being handed things on a plate. So it made me want to earn some money and be able to buy things for myself.
I remember one day, when things were going frightfully well, I went to buy myself a really smashing car. I asked them to show me a Porsche with an automatic gearbox, and the salesman called over all the other salesmen, and they stood around absolutely roaring with laughter.