What was the first item sold on AuctionWeb, the site later renamed eBay?

The broken laser pointer was the first widely reported item sold on AuctionWeb, the site later renamed eBay.

Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb in California on September 3, 1995, initially as a hobby project. A broken laser pointer was listed and sold for $14.83, an unexpectedly successful transaction that demonstrated people would buy unusual used goods through an online auction marketplace.

Omidyar reportedly contacted the winning bidder to confirm that the buyer understood the pointer did not work. The buyer explained that he collected broken laser pointers, turning the sale into one of the internet’s best-known early e-commerce anecdotes. The story is memorable because the item’s defect was not hidden; it was precisely what made it useful to that buyer.

Strictly speaking, historical accounts sometimes describe it as “one of the first items sold,” rather than asserting an absolutely documented first sale. Nevertheless, “broken laser pointer” is the standard canonical answer used for this trivia question. AuctionWeb changed its service name to eBay in September 1997, taking the shorter name from Omidyar’s consulting company, Echo Bay Technology Group.