eBay at 10: Boon and bane

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.--The first thing any visitor to Robert McKeown's home notices is the toy collection.

Vintage Barbies dominate one wall of the living room, with several rows of dolls showing her evolution from the mid-1960s. Action figures from the '60s television show "Man From UNCLE" stare patronizingly at the suburban icon. A Shadow Crime Fighter Detection Belt, a relic of an old radio mystery show, offers clues to "the evil in men's hearts" from a shelf nearby.

Close to 3,000 more pieces crowd McKeown's house. Many were bought on eBay, where he has been a regular since two weeks after the auction site launched. He and his wife, Deeann Little, who together run a business licensing and distributing independent films on DVD, have spent tens of thousands of dollars online and made thousands more reselling goods.

And yet, over a dinner in a Chinese restaurant in the suburbs near his home, the lanky, 39-year-old McKeown described decidedly mixed feelings about the auction giant's legacy as it nears its 10th anniversary this Labor Day. eBay is a force in the gray-market economy, of inestimable value to collectors like him, he said. But it has also helped destroy the cozy culture of antique shows and swap meets that once defined the collecting community.

"We've gotten a lot of stuff that I never thought we'd dig up," McKeown said. "But I almost think I'd trade it all to get the shows back."

eBay's disruptive influence on the traditional antiquing and curio culture is typical of dramatic economic change. New industries and marketplaces are born and flourish every so often--usually to the detriment of something many people loved.

Indeed, eBay has become an online economic superpower. The company says it has 157 million registered users, 75 million of whom are in the United States. It makes more than $1 billion per quarter, and supports auctions and other sales amounting to nearly $11 billion per quarter.

"From the very beginning, the power of community was something bordering on ownership."

--Bob Griffith, dean of eBay Education

"It has made a national market for many things that previously had no market or just local markets," said Harvard Business School economist Alvin Roth. "It makes markets where they didn't exist before, which increases economic efficiency overall."

Then there's the other side of the story, as told by people who haven't followed eBay onto the Internet.

"It's destroyed the antique business," said Steve Natoli, an antiques dealer in Eugene, Ore. "The shows are closing. It's very hard to make a living."

In the beginning
When General Magic engineer Pierre Omidyar coded and launched what was then called AuctionWeb in 1995, none of this was obvious. The site was to be no more than a hobby for Omidyar, who sold his first item--a broken laser pointer--for $14.

At the time, regional shows for collectors were common and well-attended. Many of the best were true communities, where regular attendees got to know each other.

A giant's growth

In a decade, eBay has gone from hobby site to economic superpower.

Sep 1995 - Pierre Omidyar launched AuctionWeb, later renamed eBay.
Sep 1997 - Officially changed name from AuctionWeb to eBay.
May 1998 - Meg Whitman named CEO.
Jul 1998 - Company filed to go public.
Sep 1998 - Shares rose more than 160 percent on first trading day.
Apr 1999 - eBay bought Butterfield & Butterfield auction house.
Apr 1999 - Whitman became first female high-tech CEO worth $1 billion.
Jun 1999 - Major service outages prompted re-evaluation of infrastructure.
Apr 2000 - Company launched eBay Motors, ultimately its biggest category.
Jun 2000 - eBay bought Half.com. (Oregon town retained Half.com name.)
Jun 2001 - Company added fixed-price storefronts.
Jul 2002 - Auction giant bought Paypal.
Jun 2005 - eBay acquired Shopping.com.

"The merchandise is in front of you," Natoli said. "You can touch; you can look. The person is in front of you. There is knowledge to be gained there. You can see lots of different things and see what starts to interest you."

In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, a show called the PMA filled three convention center buildings and spilled over into parking lots just a few miles away from eBay's headquarters.

PMA organizer Patrick Brogan said he even thought of allying with eBay briefly. The young online auction company had a booth at a 1998 PMA show, but when Brogan saw employees telling shoppers that they could stop paying to come to antique shows and shop at eBay for free instead, he quickly ended the relationship, he said.

The eBay executive who oversees collectibles said that event happened before his time at the company, but noted that the company has continued to sponsor and attend other shows. Later this year, the company is inviting a group of people from across the collectibles markets to the eBay offices to talk about working together more closely, he added.

"We're not trying to displace (offline sales); we're trying to offer another channel," said Laurence Toney, eBay's senior category manager for collectibles. "Our goal is reaching out to the community and understanding what it is that eBay can do to help keep interest in collecting alive. That's really important to us."

But even as far back as the late-1980s, parts of the collector culture were going electronic. Some companies, such as Toy Shop magazine, sponsored phone auctions. Sellers were also using the Internet's Usenet newsgroups, with people posting the equivalent of classified ads online, and experimenting with e-mail-based auctions.

The rise of eBay
Omidyar's AuctionWeb--later renamed eBay--was a quick draw for people like McKeown. The Sacramento toy collector heard about the new site just two and half weeks after it launched, and was

 

Correction: This story gave an incorrect first name for eBay's Jim "Griff" Griffith.

I never use eBay

Where I live we still have an old fashioned flea market every week, which seems much more human. eBay has become nothing more than a web based Walmart for used goods.

[Heebee Jeebies]

The problem is...

eBay charges too much and they have too many people selling the same crap. The same item is listed over and over and over again often from the same seller. Seller's rip you off with shipping charges. eBay's policies suck.

There is too much new stuff and not enough different and interesting used stuff. It has become a dumping ground for anyone with crap they want to unload instead of tossing in the trash.

Robert

[PCCRomeo]

And...

People are totally misleading buyers. I have been mislead many times. They will list an item as being one thing, but what you actually receive is totally different. eBay does not do enough to protect against fraudulant transactions.

[lingsun]

Can't imagine not finding what you're looking for on eBay

I've bought and sold a lot of used computers, laptops, and parts over the years on eBay. Each year when I get a better computer I sell the old one on eBay. It's also a great place to buy used CDs. I've found some great used books and records that I'd looked for for years before I found them on eBay. I shop eBay every day. I make a couple of hundred bucks each year buying stuff at thrift shops and reselling on eBay. It's also a great place to shop for a car. I'm still looking for that 1985 Delta 88 with 57,000 miles on it in mint condition. Trouble is, they're always in Florida!

Good ol' John

All his stories get corrected. There is a phrase for that. LAZY & IMCOMPETENT REPORTING.

Time to find a new job John..I am getting tired of your screw ups.....

(Go look up that in the Apple dictionary)

[micksmixxx]

eBay's legacy at 10

No wonder they've reached the ripe old age of 10 when they condone theft and fraud! When you ask for assistance they find any old excuse not to help. (PayPal were no help either!)

I agree with an earlier comment that sellers do rip you off with extortionate shipping charges, but that's not the fault of eBay.