[wikibob]

Yep.

eBay started as a website to sell Pez dispensers for the founders girlfriend.

https://time.com/4013672/ebay-founded-story/

[delouvois]

Yeah. That really was some PR story, completely fake. Omidiyar admitted it later on. I think the first thing to ever be listed on eBay was a broken laser pointer.

[wikibob]

How interesting! Thanks for posting, I had no idea and bought it even though I've been aware of other similar sorts of submarine PR stories.

Do you have a link to the debunking?

[delouvois]

Sorry I don't often go on HN. I believe this was in an interview of Pierre Omidyar, although it may unfortunately be in French. He has not done much of these, so I think I may be able find it, I'll check.

[delouvois]

https://www.achievement.org/achiever/pierre-omidyar/

This is it, a link to the video and the transcript, just type laser on the and you'll find it !