http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080820/clw084.html
ATLANTA, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta-based WorthPoint ( www.worthpoint.com ), a Web 2.0-based data and media company that offers a vast database of sales records on art, antiques and collectibles, announced Wednesday that it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Dublin, Ohio-based GoAntiques ( www.goantiques.com ), an online network for buying and selling antiques and collectibles.
With 100 million avid collectors around the world and the global collectibles market estimated at $150 billion a year, combining two of the premier Web sites for art, antiques and collectibles was just common sense for Will Seippel, Founder and CEO of WorthPoint Corporation and Jim Kamnikar, President and CEO of GoAntiques, Inc.

Founded in 2007, WorthPoint has quickly become the largest social network for researching the worth of antiques and collectibles. More than 50,000 people registered as WorthPoint members in the company's first nine months.

WorthPoint offers a rich multimedia experience that helps collectors understand the worth of their items, and it provides expert advice from its team of Worthologists on how to preserve or sell antiques and collectibles. Members can also share their knowledge and create online collecting communities.

Founded in 1994, by Kathy Kamnikar, as Antique Networking, GoAntiques is the oldest Web antiques-and-collectibles site. It offers 600,000 items from more than 1,300 dealers in 31 countries and the world's largest antiques and collectibles price guide, PriceMiner®. GoAntiques logs nearly a million visits and thousands of transactions each month and has more than 350,000 registered members.

"GoAntiques is a perfect fit for WorthPoint," WorthPoint CEO Seippel said. "It is the longest-running and most experienced antiques-and-collectibles site on the Internet and has a great staff. Combined, we will have more than 1 million visitors a month to our Web pages.

"Our acquisition of GoAntiques will accelerate our growth by introducing the antique-dealer community to WorthPoint," said Seippel. "More importantly, it will introduce thousands of antique dealers to the thousands of homeowners who come to the WorthPoint site daily looking to sell some of their possessions."

GoAntiques' Kathy Kamnikar said she is thrilled to be part of the WorthPoint team. "Fifteen years ago my dream was to serve the antiques market. With Jim as President we've come a long way and now with WorthPoint we can go even further."

GoAntiques' Jim Kamnikar said: "This is a good match. WorthPoint will give us the added resources we need to expand our marketplace and provide additional value to our buyers and sellers. The people looking for assistance with estates and collections, who come to our site, will benefit greatly from having access to WorthPoint's rapidly expanding team of experts."

"WorthPoint represents the future of collecting worldwide, and we are happy to be part of that exciting future."


Steve Johnson, Corporate Communications, WorthPoint Corporation
Steve.johnson@worthpoint.com
(877) 734-7735 x9019
(703) 798-5236 (Cell)




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Source: WorthPoint Corporation

GoAntiques will be starting their own timed and live auctns next month. You can list your collectibles and antiques on there right now for $39 amonth plus 10% commission or on auctions they only take 5% commision. Compare that to eBays 12% commision or higher plus PayPal costs, and now having to almost give free shipping. I can see this as becoming a very large auction base with over a million customers already buying from them!

I think one thread for this would have been enough.

Patch Dog, I am sorry I offended you with my second comment. I think it is important for the ex eBay sellers to know that there are large online malls, that have been around for years and get many sales, instead of just the small altenative sites that are listed on the auction count on PSU. Why don't they included the big online malls for antqiues and collectibles, that have many sales and repeat customers, instead of these other sites, and sometimes start up sites that show 2 sales a month on them. There is much more out there on the Internet and sellers who do sell antique and collectibles and need to sell need to know there are many out there, like Ruby Lane, Tias, GoAntiques. These have been around a long time and I think people should know about them also , or give them a try. The best thing about GoAntiques is they were screwed by eBay just like us and will be starting their own auctions. I apoligize for offending you. When buyers wonts be able to use checks and MO on eBay they too will be going to alternative sites to buy, and will probably go to the long established sites such as these because they are not a small startup that might go out of business, but have a high reputation and know their money is safe there.

I wasnt offended.....but looking to the recent topics on the left and seeing basically the same thing listed back to back seemed redundant. You could have just added the new info to this thread or just stuck with the new thread...

Good luck
Ken

I really am not a computor person but try my best to understand forums like this, I do not understand that much about how to post on forums.

This sounds like good news to me. For the first few years of EBay I bought and sold collectibles. I even had a show case at an antique store. It was so easy and fun.

I decided to get back into it, but with all the changes, I just don't make the sales I made way back in the olden days. So hopefully the antiques and collectibles community will have a place to start selling their wares again.

I also noticed, swap meets and antique marts are returning back to the old ways b4 EBay, where you find a treasure in a pile of stuff. Then EBay came and everyone was selling high priced junk at the antique swap meets they couldn't sell on EBay.

Hopefully, this will be the great alternative. Fingers crossed.