Worthpoint told its 1,300 GoAntiques dealers it was exiting the online auction space as of June 1, 2009. The marketplace for art, antiques and collectibles had been using the eBay Live Auction platform to allow its dealers to run "live" auctions of their GoAntiques inventory, but switched to the Proxibid and LiveAuctioneers platforms this year after eBay shut down Live Auctions in December.
Worthpoint founder and CEO Will Seippel sent a letter to GoAntiques dealers on Thursday saying it was a difficult decision to make, but, he wrote, "Quite simply, online auctions are not simple to execute well and are best provided by organizations whose primary focus is auction-based transactions."
At WorthPoint, our focus is providing you with the best tools available to value your items, market your business and facilitate transactions should you wish to buy or sell. Today, we simply do not have the resources to deliver on this promise and provide a quality auction platform all at the same time. Therefore, we believe it is in your and our best interests to stop doing what we are not presently equipped to do well and focus on what we can do well to serve you best.
The heart of WorthPoint is providing data and information to customers, Seippel told AuctionBytes, and that's where the company will focus its efforts. He said the company was working to link up to other auction services that GoAntiques dealers could use and receive a discount.
Worthpoint acquired GoAntiques last October, which had been run by Jim and Kathy Kamnikar, who stepped down in March of this year.
http://www.goantiques.com
http://www.worthpoint.com
