Cool!!! Were you working at ebay? Because I don't believe they took public registrations until about December 1998... I was working at one of the first "Web" design firms in the country and was lucky to get early invites to a bunch of stuff. Including gmail via my little brother who got one of the very first invites since he was doing some programming/consulting with Google at the time. Not that I'm trying one up you! Shhhhh don't tell anyone...I'm trying to one-up you lol!!!
No, and I'm pretty sure I remember deliberating a while before I signed up. My brother, though, signed up earlier -- in the AuctionWeb days, I think. He actually got invited to participate in the IPO, but didn't, to his lasting regret. Don't worry, you'll have plenty of opportunities.
Update.. The listing was ended either by ebay! A new listing was recently created With his ridiculous statement.. This a two thousand Denver minted error coin that I had listed earlier before ebay mistakenly ended the auction questions 3037753250 .. More like it was probably reported!