eBay is getting back to the basics, collectibles, that is! eBay is holding a 3-day 50% off insertion fee sale for items starting at 99 cents or below in three categories: Collectibles, Coins and Stamps. Items listed in any of those three categories between October 7, 2003 and October 9, 2003, starting at $0.99 or below with No Reserve on the U.S. site, will have their insertion fee reduced by 50%.
eBay recently held a "Collectibles Summit," flying in editors and publishers from antiques and collecting periodicals to San Jose for a 1-day "information sharing" session. eBay listened to industry issues, including concerns about fakes and fraud, and it explained its PowerSeller co-op marketing plan to session attendees. (http://pages.ebay.com/services/buyandsell/powerseller/coophub.html)
eBay's success has been built on the collectibles market, though now the category is one of nine "billion dollar" categories, coming in number seven at $1.1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales. eBay does not release frequent performance details, so it's not known if the summit was an "energizing" session or more of a "resuscitation" for the category. Stay tuned. And pay attention to the details on this collecting promotion, it applies only to items under $1 in 3 categories only for 3 days only!
