
The untold origin story of eBay that I lived (2018) - GoRudy
https://www.cake.co/conversations/VXHSjBG/the-untold-origin-story-of-ebay-that-i-lived-and-the-times-that-could-have-killed-it
======
jedberg
It’s funny how Amazon feared eBay, and then failed to beat them — in 1999.

But when I worked at eBay in 2003, they had the mailroom put a sticker on
every amazon box that said “Next time get it on eBay!”

And now the tide is swinging back a bit as people get fed up with fakes and
commingling at Amazon. At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting
is actually from the seller you bought it from.

~~~
kirse
_At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the
seller you bought it from._

The likelihood is generally higher, but I've received drop-shipped items from
eBay that come directly from Amazon & Walmart warehouses. Took me by surprise
at first, but it was still the lowest available price. Unsure if they are
still cracking down on that.

eBay has always been fantastic for used/refurbished electronics compared to
anything else.

~~~
vageli
> At least with eBay you know the product you’re getting is actually from the
> seller you bought it from.

> The likelihood is generally higher, but I've received drop-shipped items
> from eBay that come directly from Amazon & Walmart warehouses. Took me by
> surprise at first, but it was still the lowest available price. Unsure if
> they are still cracking down on that.

> eBay has always been fantastic for used/refurbished electronics compared to
> anything else.

This is a method used to cash out stolen credit cards as well. Buy the item
with a stolen card and ship to the unwitting purchaser. This is why they can
afford to sell at a perceived loss.

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>This is a method used to cash out stolen credit cards as well. Buy the item
with a stolen card and ship to the unwitting purchaser. This is why they can
afford to sell at a perceived loss.

Also a method used to make a few % margin on a discount code. Amazon and
Walmart don't give out re-usable flat X% discount codes (AFAIK) though so that
isn't the case for when something is drop shipped from those sellers.

But yes, this is a common method used to liquidate stolen CCs info.

------
GoRudy
"In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its
first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns
out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would
help his new auction site get off the ground."

wow. Seems relevant today.

~~~
mapgrep
I thought that was a typo and that he meant “20 years before the second major
outbreak...”

But no, there was an Ebola outbreak in the mid 70s. Kind of scary to see a
disease that can keep popping up.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ebola_outbreaks)

------
fit2rule
Amazing to see the picture of the BEST Internet server facility .. that was
certainly a pivotal and interesting company in the history of the Valley.

I worked there on contract a couple of times, got to know some of the folks -
and it sure seems like it was a breeding ground of interesting Internet ideas.
Matt Dillon, who has clearly proven his mettle in the time since, was
developing his keen sense of social stewardship by keeping BEST's internet
services up and running - I'll never forget the shock of discovering that they
ran the entire thing on a database system Matt had developed himself...

I wonder what other things came from that incubator. It was a wild scene,
indeed.

~~~
michaelwilson
Smugmug was also there around that time.

------
blahyawnblah
I thought the guy built it for his wife to sell pez dispensers? I seem to
remember hearing that 20 years ago.

~~~
sireat
I was a tiny tiny competitor to eBay some 20 years ago and the pez story was
pure BS.

The reality is that eBay (that is AuctionWeb) got its initial traction from
spamming Usenet as the story correctly states.

Very quickly they moved from spamming themselves to letting their users spam
Usenet.

This is the "growth hacking" model still followed today by many. The question
is there any moral middle ground?

If you can search Usenet archives you can find remnants of that AuctionWeb
spam and people complaining. Soon others tried to copy them but it was too
late.

This was in mid 90s after the first mass spam from
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Canter_and_Martha_Sie...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Canter_and_Martha_Siegel)
.

~~~
XaspR8d
Being "born from spam" really explains a lot about how most eBay sellers
communicate to this day.

~~~
redis_mlc
Never seen that over the past 20 years (I have 3,000 feedback, so I would
know.)

However:

\- You can sign up for a store newsletter

\- in the past few months, ebay is sending auction time notifications, and
pinging sellers to offer discounts to viewers. That's the only thing that has
the spam smell, but the discount offers do help distinguish who wants to make
a deal :)

~~~
XaspR8d
To be clear, I didn't really mean "spam proper", moreso the flea market /
carnival barker language, eg "REAL 100% HD VIDEO BRAND-NEW CANON REBEL 5T
QUICK SHIP WITH ORIGINAL LENS KIT", that often obstruct the info I'm actually
searching for.

I'm sure folks who use the platform consistently either know how to avoid that
content or are much more efficient at sifting through it (or my anecdata of
its frequency is way off!). I agree in my limited experience there isn't much
in the way of "true spam" itself.

------
aluminussoma
eBay is a fascinating story for their early impact to the commercial internet.
It is also fascinating to see how they've fared: it is still around but now it
is being eaten up by competitors like Facebook Marketplace in the US,
MercadoLibre in Latin America and others.

PayPal is on a somewhat similar trajectory.

The lesson here is to keep your customers happy or someone else will.

Also found it interesting to read about the people and companies who thought
eBay wouldn't work for various - good - reasons. You can always make something
work!

~~~
stickfigure
_keep your customers happy or someone else will_

That seems trite. Why couldn't ebay/paypal keep their customers happy?

It looks to me like these companies epitomize the management philosophy of
"software doesn't matter". Having established a lucrative niche with strong
network effects, they offshored their software development. The CEOs are pure
managers without software backgrounds; they could just as easily be running
Proctor & Gamble. And so they run it like Proctor & Gamble.

Stripe, Amazon are run by people with software backgrounds.

~~~
aluminussoma
eBay has not added many new features in years. There are problems with the
platform, like auction sniping, that they have not addressed.

PayPal as well to a similar extent. There are a litany of problems that its
users have been complaining about for years that have not been addressed. I
see PayPal rolling out certain new services but ignoring existing services. If
PayPal was ahead of the curve, there would be no need for services like Venmo
(now owned by PayPal!) Or even Stripe.

------
nullc
I wish ebay wasn't so buggy. Mysterious failures, absent error messages-- both
as a buyer and seller.

Aliexpress has much better software in my experience. :(

~~~
myself248
Yeah, the shopping cart performance has gotten so slow lately, I've gone
_days_ without being able to complete checkout. Or some items would complete
and others would still be sitting there, lather rinse repeat, and some simply
vanish without actually being purchased. Some get purchased twice...

If I were buying anything expensive, I'd care, but it's still better than
Amazon for many things.

~~~
redis_mlc
ebay doesn't have those problems in California, aside from adding items to the
watchlist sometimes.

You might want to try:

\- using 8.8.8.8 for DNS

\- a different browser in case there's a plugin problem

\- traceroute

\- a different location in your city, like an Internet cafe

~~~
nullc
I've experienced some those issues in California, though not quite as severely
as it sounds the prior poster has experienced them. I've never had a doubled
order, that I've noticed, but things silently disappearing the carts without
being purchased at purchase time seems pretty common to me (and not due to
items being sold out).

It's been compounded by the sales that force use of the shopping cart when I
otherwise might not use it (because the discount is one time).

------
windyfly
But at this stage, I feel Shopify has better chance than eBay on branding...
The long term value and potential scaling effect is still the mainstream
before we live under universal basic income era.

------
toohotatopic
I still don't understand why eBay hasn't leveraged eBay, Skype and Paypal into
something like WeChat.

~~~
redis_mlc
Microsoft bought Skype, and Paypal is independent now.

~~~
toohotatopic
Indeed. Yet they had everything in their hands to create something big. With
their accounts and profiles, they could even have become something like
Facebook.

I am fascinated by how many key technologies they had without those parts
being integrated into something bigger than their sum.

------
windyfly
eBay has its chance. It should help build the tool for the community to
provide customized service easier and cheaper.

Marketplace is also based on the abundance and quality of contents
(merchandise). Scale effect is good at the globalization period but not sure
for the next era.

------
nullc
<3 portmasters

------
vilen
I liked the original title of the story for what it is worth.

As Chris MacAskill wrote:

In 1995 the ebola virus had its second major outbreak, 19 years from its
first, and I discovered a fascinating website about it called eBay. It turns
out Pierre owned it and wrote the ebola information. The traffic it drew would
help his new auction site get off the ground.

------
jt2190
Actual (and better, IMHO,) title:

> The untold origin story of eBay that I lived...

~~~
dang
We've reverted the title. Submitters: " _Please use the original title, unless
it is misleading or linkbait; don 't editorialize._"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

(Submitted title was "The untold origin story of eBay and Ebola that I
lived...")

