David wrote: Ebay started out small but with an enormous amount of capital behind it.

A few years ago I remembering reading a People magazine article about how eBay got started. The jist of the article was how they built the site starting with almost nothing into what it is today.

If memory serves, it is my understanding that a guy wanted to sell some of his wife's stuff (she might have been making some crafts or something) and came up with an online auction idea. Since they lived in the Bay area, he came up with the name of eBay and the idea/site just took off. After becoming such a hugh success, the company did go public eventually...

I did an internet search and found an online article about eBay. Sounds like the guy had a software background and his wife had a Pez collection which inspired him to build an ecommerce site to sell some items:

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/2127.html