In the 30 years since eBay was first launched, the auction site has made people millionaires. But it's had quite a few unusual listings in that time...
17:36, 02 Sep 2025Updated 12:59, 03 Sep 2025
Its first sale was a broken laser pointer which went for just over a tenner (£11.06). Since then, eBay has exploded into a global auction site, with 134 million active users globally.
Marking its 30th anniversary on September 3, the little website that first launched as AuctionWeb now boasts 2.4 billion listings and has made thousands of ordinary people millionaires - including more than 1,000 in the UK.
Starting life as a giant garage sale, eBay’s budding entrepreneurs quickly spotted retail opportunities for all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff.
The auction site's early days coincided neatly with the mid-1990s Beanie Baby craze.
Collectors flocked to the site to buy and sell their rare examples - with Beanie Babies accounting for a tenth of eBay’s 1997 listings.
Founder Pierre Omidyar became a billionaire just three years after launching eBay, when it went public.
And, in 2023, he was named the 245th-richest person in the world. Not bad for something he started “as an experiment, as a side hobby basically, while I had my day job”.
Omidyar remembers being baffled by the site’s first sale, but was assured by the buyer that he collected broken laser pointers.
The name eBay was actually Omidyar’s second choice - his first, Echo Bay, was registered to a Canadian mining company, so he dropped the ‘cho’ and registered ebay.com instead.
The site went from strength to strength, acquiring other platforms - including payments firm PayPal, Craigslist and Gumtree - during the next few years.
And still businesses using eBay are thriving. Yeovil-based MD Racing Products is a family business that makes over a million pounds on eBay each year.
Marian Doble, 38, is the daughter of founder Malcolm, who launched the company in 1983 from his kitchen table, fuelled by his passion for motocross racing. “Most of our weekends were spent by the race tracks,” she remembers fondly.
The most popular items sold by the motocross retailer are the Sidi Motocross boots and MX plastics. “Basically, any part of the bike that breaks easily,” Marian laughs, adding that Brexit has been the company’s biggest challenge - hugely impacting their exports to the European continent.
MD Racing Products is far from the only company to see its fortunes changed by eBay. Mark Radcliffe became the UK's first eBay millionaire at the age of 30.
Realising internet users were seeking better value, he set up a mobile phone accessories business from his parents' garden shed in the late '90s, then founded online bathroom retail business Victorian Plumbing in 2000 - working from 7am until midnight in the shed to get his businesses off the ground.
"From the age of 18, I used to say to my mother, 'By the time I am 25, I will have a Ferrari,'" he revealed. "When I bought my Ferrari I had just turned 26. My motivation to work hard as a teenager was to acquire a quality car!"
Geoff Rosenbloom, a former RAF pilot, was crowned the oldest UK seller in 2016. His 79th birthday that year coincided with his 100,000th sale, after first setting up a business selling phone accessories, electronics and workwear in 2004 as a hobby to make "pocket money".
His company became so successful that he had to buy a house for all his stock. "I love being busy. The idea of sitting at home and withering away just never appealed to me," he said at the time.
"My eBay shop only started by accident, when I had one of the old PDA phones. Friends would see them and want one. So I bought them online and sold them to them. Soon it took over my life. The house was full of stock and I had to buy another house just to keep it all and use as an office.
'My wife thinks I'm mad. But it is a phenomenal business that I enjoy running every day. Thankfully I still find time to babysit the grandchildren!"
Eve Williams, eBay UK's general manager, adds: "For 30 years, eBay has helped shoppers find things they love and sellers turn passions into professions. We're obsessed with giving consumers new and better ways to shop, from celebrating the potential of pre-loved fashion to introducing innovations like 'Authenticity Guarantee' and AI-powered listings.
"I'm excited by our focus for the future: helping sellers succeed and giving shoppers greater value and choice as the trusted marketplace."
Most unusual eBay listings of all time
- Among the more unusual listings that have come up for sale in the last 30 years are locks of Britney Spears' hair after her infamous impromptu head-shaving moment of 2007. Spotting a golden business opportunity, hairdresser Esther Tognozzi gathered the hair together after Britney left the salon and auctioned it for over $5,000.
- In 2004, 18-year-old student Rosie Reid made headlines for attempting to auction her virginity on eBay. “Never lost it due to lesbianism. Will bung in free massage if you are any good. Picture on request,” she wrote in her listing, which was taken down after three days.
- Police were called to investigate a slew of listings in 2016 after rare items stolen from the British Museum three years previously popped up on eBay. Ancient jewellery dating back to 1,500BC, including a Roman onyx piece valued at £50,000, appeared on the platform with a minimum price of £40. No bids were made for the treasure.
- In June 2005, the wife of British radio DJ Tim Shaw listed his Lotus Esprit sports car for a Buy It Now price of 50p, after hearing him flirt with model Jodie Marsh live on air. The car was snapped up within five minutes.
- Victoria Beckham's diamond tiara also found itself up for grabs on the site after her and David's lavish 2003 wedding. The crown, made in 18-carat yellow gold and studded with 240 glittering diamonds, was put up for sale with a starting price of £100,000.
- Perhaps most unusually, a bottle of Manchester city centre smog raised £3.22 after being auctioned off in December 2004. "Your one chance to get the one and only bottle of Manchester Smog," the listing proudly proclaimed.