Up4Sale.com

Up4Sale.com was an online auction company based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was acquired by eBay on July 16, 1998, and subsequently integrated into the company.[1][2]The idea for Up4Sale dated to the early 1990s, when Rob Ratterman first noticed people using newsgroups to post electronic messages. The computerized message system was used like an informal classified ad. He noted what he saw in a journal, thinking one day it might provide the seed for a business. The whole Internet window was opening,� said Rob Ratterman, who taught himself the rudimentaries of computer programming and built the company's first server. By early 1997, Up4Sale was up and running. At the time, Chris Downie was 26 and Rob Ratterman, 24. Within a few months, Rob Ratterman and Chris Downie were able to convince their friends Wally Carroll and Tom Duvall to become partners in their budding venture. After the sale of UP4Sale.com to eBay Chris Downie became a Motivation Expert and founded the organization SparkPeople.