eBay is 18 today. (Picture. AFP/Getty Images)

The founder of eBay Pierre Omidyar has been tweeting about how he founded the site back in 1995. He said: ’18 years ago this weekend I was not sleeping much and writing a lot of code for a new website. Now that it’s turned 18, I wonder if it’s time to kick it out of the house?’

Here are 18 things you probably didn’t need to know about the world’s biggest online marketplace:

1. eBay’s original name was Auctionweb and the service was just one feature of Omidyar’s website which also included a tribute to the Ebola virus.

2. The name comes from Echobay, the name of Omidyar’s company chosen because he thought it just sounded cool. That web domain had already been snapped up by a Canadian mining firm so he settled on eBay as second best.


Billionaire eBay founder, Pierre Omidyar. (Picture: Getty Images North America)

3. One of the first items sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer. Price? $14.83.



4. eBay floated on the NASDAQ back in 1998. Shares doubled in price during the first day of trading. Today, the firm is worth $65 billion.

5. On floatation, eBay’s 30 employees danced a conga line around the office to celebrate their new found wealth as shareholders.

6. The big winners were Omidyar himself who is estimated to be worth $8.7 billion and first CEO Meg Whitman who bagged $1.7 billion.

eBay’s first CEO, Meg Whitman. (Picture: AP)

7. eBay launched in the UK in 1999. The first item sold on eBay.co.uk was a CD single by the Skorpions.

8. British eBay buyers buy more than any other nation in the world by head of population. More even than the Americans, Germans and Japanese.

9. eBay doesn’t permit you to sell human body parts (except for skeletons and skulls for scientific study, provided they are not Native American in origin), enriched uranium, ivory, Nazi memorabilia, Cuban cigars or souls, ghosts or ‘items whose existence cannot be verified’.

10. But in 2004 the skeleton of a woolly mammoth did successfully sell for £61k.

11. The most expensive thing ever sold was a Gulfstream II Jet for $4.9 million in 2001.

12. A couple, Brad and Maggy, met on eBay and were married in New Orleans at an annual eBay conference in 2004 with eBay CEO Meg Whitman in attendance.

13. One third of eBay purchases in 2013 are made by smartphone or tablet.

14. Charles Fitch of Michigan USA is believed to be eBay’s biggest troll. Under the name ebayisajoke he threatens and ridicules successful eBay buyers and sellers.

15. eBay owns PayPal, Gumtree, Stubhub shopping.com and, between 2004 and 2009, also owned Skype before selling it to Microsoft. eBay Inc. holds a 25% share in Craigslist.

16. The eBay for Charity scheme in the UK has raised more than £50 million for good causes.

17. Famous eBayers include David Bowie, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Sally Bercow and Cherie Blair.

18. eBay generated total sales of $175 billion across the world in 2012.