230 Inverting the Paradox of Excellence
products for sale and upload photographs and add or change information to the listing. Buyers were
able to take advantage of the services that are now offered in what is called MyeBay; buyers can now
keep a list of watched items so that over the life of a particular auction they can see how the price
of a product has changed and how many bidders are interested in it.
By creating and then continually improving its easy-to-use retail platform for sellers and buyers,
eBay revolutionized the auction market, bringing together buyers and sellers internationally in a
huge, never-ending yard sale. The rst-mover advantage eBay gained from Pierre Omidyar’s auction
software created a nonassailable business model ...