The Perfect Store - by Adam Cohen (Paperback)

About the Book

In this engaging chronicle of one of the most stunning success stories in American business history, Cohen takes readers inside eBay the corporation, revealing the many surprising ways in which eBay's "virtual marketplace" has changed the face of American business and the American cultural landscape.

Book Synopsis

When Pierre Omidyar launched a clunky website from a spare bedroom over Labor Day weekend of 1995, he wanted to see if he could use the Internet to create a perfect market. He never guessed his old-computer parts and Beanie Baby exchange would revolutionize the world of commerce.

Now, Adam Cohen, the only journalist ever to get full access to the company, tells the remarkable story of eBay's rise. He describes how eBay built the most passionate community ever to form in cyberspace and forged a business that triumphed over larger, better-funded rivals. And he explores the ever-widening array of enlistees in the eBay revolution, from a stay-at-home mom who had to rent a warehouse for her thriving business selling bubble-wrap on eBay to the young MBA who started eBay Motors (which within months of its launch was on track to sell $1 billion in cars a year), to collectors nervously bidding thousands of dollars on antique clothing-irons.

Adam Cohen's fascinating look inside eBay is essential reading for anyone trying to figure out what's next. If you want to truly understand the Internet economy, The Perfect Store is indispensable.

Review Quotes

"eBay's story is amazing, and Mr. Cohen's enthusiasm carries you along.... His prose is brisk and cheerful as the blue-red-gold-etc. of the famous eBay logo."

"A fly-on-the-wall look at how eBay got to be eBay, how a company unlike any other oozed into our consciousness and into our lives and, amidst all the lousy gunk on the Internet that failed, managed to not only remain standing (which, given the Internet bust, would have still been a feat in itself) but profitable."

"Cohen is a thorough reporter who skillfully synthesizes the story of eBay's corporate evolution with profiles of more peripheral figures (e.g., the Indiana housewife who started off pedding old videogames but quickly became the biggest supplier of shipping materials to other eBay sellers)."