MP3 of the Day

On this day in 1995, eBay was founded in San Jose, California, by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb, part of a larger personal site. The very first item sold on eBay was a broken laser pointer for $14.83. Astonished, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to ask if he understood that the laser pointer was broken. In his responding email, the buyer explained: "I'm a collector of broken laser pointers." The frequently-repeated story that eBay was founded to help Omidyar's fiancée trade PEZ candy dispensers was fabricated by a public relations manager in 1997 to interest the media. This was revealed in Adam Cohen's 2002 book, The Perfect Store, and confirmed by eBay. Today we have the song Heat And Panic by THE MANHATTAN LOVE SUICIDES from the CD Burnt Out Landscapes, a collection of singles, compilations, and radio shows out on Magic Marker Records.