Alibris said its revitalized Rare and Collectible page has seen a big increase in people seeking and purchasing rare and collectible items. The page received 450% more visitors than visited its collectible-items page a year ago and received a 300% increase in purchases from a year ago. On the UK site, the numbers were even higher, with more than 800% growth in traffic and sales from a year ago. Alibris said it recently experienced a $10,000 sale of a signed first-edition of Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father. "While such sales aren't typical, interest and sales for rare and collectible items is rising," it told sellers, and reminded them to use its "Collectible" flag when listing and/or editing antiquarian inventory.
Atomic Mall has added Amazon Payments as a new payment option on its marketplace. Sellers who choose to offer the payment service will have the Amazon logo included in their product pages and allows buyers to use their pre-existing Amazon.com account information.
eCrater merchants submitting product feeds to Google Base can have their Google Checkout badges appear next to their listings in Google Product Search (Shopping). eCrater also released December traffic data for its storefront service. During December, traffic reached 120,000 unique visitors, and the month was the strongest in terms of sales and traffic in its history.
Etsy is going global and asked sellers to complete a survey focusing on issues unique to international sellers. The survey is open through January 23, 2009. Etsy also said it recently completed beta testing of Etsy Web Analytics (provided through Google Analytics). Sellers may now enable the feature to help them measure traffic to their listings.
Manion's International Auction House passed its 2-year anniversary of offering eBay-style listings by third-party sellers. The online auction site said it has 1,400 registered users, well over $200,000 in sales, and thousands of current listings. Manion's CEO Jody Tucker said, "We realize this is pocket change to eBay and other mammoth operations. But Manion's List it Yourself is a brand new service dedicated exclusively to collectibles - no consumer goods are allowed." The auction house, which has provided collectibles consignment services since 1970, has been online since 1995.
Wigix is running a contest to encourage members to refer friends to the site. For each referral, members will receive two free transactions on Wigix, and those signing up as part of the referral will receive $5 off their first purchase of $25 or more. The member with the most referrals through February 28th will receive a free Wii from Wigix.
