Yesterday I had an interesting phone conversation with the CEO of Worthpoint.com, Will Seippel. Will confided to me that Worthpoint intends to acquire the Ohio based GoAntiques and has plans to merge the two as an eBay alternative.
Jumping in the same marketplace as eBay takes no small amount of ambition, but Mr. Seippel is well aware of this has some great ideas that may just work well in territory where so many others have failed.
Will is a long time antiques guy, and when I mentioned that it was invigorating to talk to someone that really "gets it" as far as the angst of eBay sellers, the convesation got very interesting.
He gave me some insight into how GoAntiques and Worthpoint will dovetail nicely to build a site that will give sellers the most important features they used to love about eBay. I'm not going to get into too much detail about the plans, but here's a teaser: think antiques and collectibles, think auctions, think real online auctions, think old school.
There have been a lot of sites that have tried to take on eBay, none with any serious amout of success. Remember Wagglepop?
That said, there's a chemistry of this merger that just might make for seller goldmine, for example:
- GoAntiques already has 350,000 members it will be bringing to the table who are selling on the site already. Worthpoint has 50,000, and its present model is that of a social network for antiques and collectibles people. While these aren't eBay type numbers, they're not chump change either. Both companies are lean, and chomping at the bit.
- Upon the merger, the plan is to carry over the entire GoAntiques staff including President Jim Kamnikar and his wife Kathy Kamnikar who founded GoAntiques. Call me crazy but, I like it when a company that buys another company has enough faith in the purchase to honor what they've bought. That's just good old common sense.
- There has been a reaching out to the movers and shakers in the antiques/auction ciruit for input and it hasn't gone un-noticed or unappreciated.
What impressed me most about my convesation with Will Seippel was that he was able to make this new venture sound great on its own merits. He was genuine, confident and just a nice guy. We talked about eBay's seller problems and never once did he feel the need to build up Worthpoint by trashing eBay. That to me shows strong leadership.
Maybe the new Worthpoint won't take down eBay, but that's not what sellers need to be happy. They just want an online place where they can sell their goods for a fair price, on a stable platform, with reasonable selling fees. I think they're going to get it this time.
I know there are going to be a million questions, so I've invited Will and he's agreed to be on an upcoming episode of The Auctionwally Show. I'll also be having a meet with him in early September at the Brimfield Antiques Show. Stay tuned.
Thanks for reading,
AW
Comments
We're VERY EXCITED about this prospect! The news has already been posted on ebay Discussions "Seller Central".
HURRY, Wally!! We need you & and your site YESTERDAY (or ASAP)!
Hello, I guess you are excited! I would love to become part of this some day, but this is not my site. I'm just reporting on it.
I have gotten some feedback and email though, and it would seem there are a lot of people looking forward to this.
Auctionwally, It's a pleasure reading your articles, they are informative and wise.Being an old antiques dealer from a family of antiques dealers, it's very appropriate to have good honest reviews that we can count on, rather than the propaganda that gets fed to some of us on the censored ebay forum boards.
I have been searching all over the net for the best news and info, and I think this is it! I love Ina's blogs too! But one is not enough for me, I like to have a few, so I don't get bored (you know us dealers are always looking for more good finds!LOL)
Anyway, I was hoping to find a nice big forum for just the sellers on GoAntiques and maybe for the Worthpoint folks, since their board seems to be mostly for appraisals, I'm looking more for seller 's experiences and tips for listing, things that sell well on GoAntiques, that might not have sold well on ebay...you know..the practical support type of thing.I can't seem to find a board or forum like that. On PSU hardly anyone knew what the site was, so I was hoping maybe you knew of the best support board for this particular group of sellers? Maybe you could suggest it to someone you know who sells on their site?? So far I met one person and she is very nice, but we are all going to want to talk to each other, after all, the listing service is different and "foreign".LOL! Hope this isn't too long winded!
There are two sites that fall into the category of being helpful to antiques that I like to use.
The first is http://theauctionrebel.com where my friend Gary Hendrickson Blogs and then there
the http://31corp.com
Also watch out for up and coming in the ranks,
http://thevintagelist.com this is a site where dealers can get together to network and help each other.
Good luck and come again.
Sorry, I don't know anyone at PSU, I'm not a member...yet.
AW
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