eBay

 There is an interesting article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about the power of online auctions and eBay in particular. It brings home how fast things are happening in the virtual world. You can read it all HERE.

This June there is 104,002 antiques for sale on the UK eBay site. That is a rise of 37% against the same month last year, although it is down 14% on May this year. There is still no way of getting a total figure for what is for sale on eBay.com, but I have to believe that the figures probably reflect the performance of the UK site.

I continued to be amazed by what is going on over at the UK eBay site. This month there are 120,553 ‘antiques’ being offered for sale. In May last year the number stood at 74,497 items, so this year's massive number is a rise of around 62% year on year. In April this year the figure was 103,136 so that is a rise of around 17% month on month. It also represents the single largest number of antiques that have ever been offered for sale on the UK eBay site.

Antique and collectable buying and selling is alive and well. What would be fascinating to know is how many of those items that are offered for sale actually sell. Clearly if people are offering things for sale then things are selling. Anecdotal evidence is strong that in certain categories there is a good deal of trading. Quite naturally certain areas of collecting do not lend themselves to the eBay model, having said that other areas are ideally suited to on line selling.

This month on the UK eBay site the number of antiques offered for sale stands at 103,136 which is  about 8% down on March.

In April 2009 there were a little over 70,000 antiques listed on the UK site which means there is a healthy 50% increase in the number of items offered for sale.

On the subject of eBay there is an interesting article in the Antiques Trade Gazette about eBay buyer power in dealing with people who are offering fake goods. You can read it HERE