Newsweek magazine sent reporters to eBay and devoted this week's issue to reporting what they found out about the online auction site. The June 17 cover story is entitled, "The United States of eBay" and appears on newsstands today, June 10.

In the report, San Francisco Bureau Chief Karen Breslau, Technology Correspondent Brad Stone, and Correspondent Julie Scelfo examined how the eBay site has grown. In a 24-hour period in May, Newsweek correspondents stayed online at eBay's San Jose headquarters and at computers around the country, monitoring the flow of merchandise. Just over one million auctions were done, with gross merchandise sales of $26,422,255, ranging from a $53,100 coin collection down to $.49 for a set of Nascar matchbooks.

Last year, eBay users exchanged some $9.3 billion worth of goods in 18,000 categories which together cover virtually the entire universe of human artifacts, from Ferraris, Plymouths and Yugos to pocket watches and vintage Barbies. eBay signals the coming of age of post-modern, decentralized, virtual marketing. It's a step, says global marketing chief Bill Cobb, toward the creation of "the first worldwide economic democracy."

Collectibles, which amounted to two-thirds of the business as recently as January 2000, now are just one-third (although of a much larger whole), and cars grew from almost nothing to one of the largest categories on the site, Newsweek reports in

In addition, large corporations like Motorola, Sears and IBM now sell directly through their own "stores" on eBay's site. "The pie is looking much more like that of a mainstream retailer," Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Dutta told Newsweek.

"The eBay Way of Life," by Jerry Adler, Karen Breslau, Brad Stone, and Julie Scelfo Newsweek, 6/17/02 http://www.msnbc.com/news/763587.asp

"Meg Gets on the Line," by Brad Stone Newsweek, 6/17/02 http://www.msnbc.com/news/764160.asp

"How to Play the eBay Game," by Steven Levy Newsweek, 6/17/02 http://www.msnbc.com/news/764158.asp