08-21-2006, 02:25 PM
Quote:From time to time I see postings on eBay boards and elsewhere arguing about where and when the first online auctions were held. Some folks naturally think eBay (as eBay or AuctionWeb) was first, because it was the first auction of which they were aware.
Several other Web sites are suggested as candidates for having held the first-ever online auction, but the truth is that the first online auctions weren't on the Web at all.
As I mention in the Introduction to The eBay Survival Guide, major consumer online services such as CompuServe (nee MicroNET) and The Source were sponsoring auctions in the early 1980s. Specifically, Comp-U-Card Online/Comp-U-Store held weekly auctions for consumer goods like the brand-new Sony Walkman in 1983, and CompuServe's first eBay-style automated online auctions were held in 1982...
full article: http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y206/m08/abu0173/s04