The online auction market Pierre Omidyar launched in September 1995, two months after Amazon, as one section of his personal site. The first thing it sold was a broken laser pointer. It became eBay in 1997, and the old name went. The record's entry for the site that taught the internet to bid.
The record notes the broken laser pointer sold for $14.83, and that Omidyar is said to have checked the buyer knew it was broken. The buyer collected broken laser pointers. The internet was already like this.
AuctionWeb, 1995–1997. Died of a rename in September 1997 when the site took the name of the domain it lived on. Survived by eBay, by every 'buy it now' button and by the laser pointer, presumably still broken.
Seen in the gallery: AuctionWeb described as the site that changed transactions, in an entry three sentences long. The record considers the laser pointer the important sentence.
What does it mean? Write it the way you would say it out loud.
