Much to my surprise, my professor in class today brought up PEZ dispensers. My surprise was partially due to the fact that it is a digital products class.
He brought up that eBay was founded by a guy who wanted to buy and sell PEZ dispensers. I did some digging and it turns out that this is nothing more than an urban legend.
The site eBay was originally founded as AuctionWeb and the first item sold was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. The founder was surprised that it sold for so much and contacted the buyer to make sure he knew that it was in fact broken. The buyer acknowledged that and noted he was a collector of broken laser pointers. And thus eBay was born.
In 1997, an eBay PR manager came up with a story that the site was started to help the founder's fiancée trade PEZ dispensers for generate media buzz. And thus the PEZ myth was born.
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