Internet

ONLINE antiques and collectables mall GoAntiques.com have filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States.

Sotheby’s have dramatically scaled back their ambitious but costly Internet operation, announcing an end to all separate online auctions by early May.

THE Office of Fair Trading are investigating the activities of a London-based listings firm whose mailshots to the trade have sparked complaints.

For all those fans who ever longed to run their fingers through Elvis Presley’s hair, now there’s a chance. While locks or strands of Elvis’ boot-polished black hair have been sold in the past, one of more than 1400 memorabilia lots in a sale closing on November 14-15 on www.mastronet.com is something just a bit special.

The bane of the shop trade and the boon of auctioneers – the Internet has certainly transformed the marketplace and nowhere is this more true than toy sales.

THE Internet may well be gathering momentum as an effective marketing and selling tool for Herefordshire auctioneers Brightwells who now illustrate about a quarter of the catalogue entries on their website launched in February.

antiquestradegazette.com has received 1 million hits in a single week for the first time. The growth in site traffic to 1,200,000 hits in the week ending 8th September represents a significant jump over the previous week, which saw 848,000 hits.

ST James’s art dealer Peter Nahum is behind a website just launched specifically with the art and antiques trade in mind. Called Penseroso, it has taken Mr Nahum and his team three years to develop and although there are already website systems aimed at the trade he feels none has fully understood the specialist needs of a dealer.

THE State of Illinois is on the verge of introducing a new law to tackle Internet fraud that could lead the way for legislation elsewhere in the US and across the world.

A flat annual user fee of about £1100, private access to fresh-to-market high quality pieces, and no buyer’s premiums to pay. A pipedream? Not according to new venture Whozbuyingwhat.com, an antiques Website that is attempting to introduce a new concept in trading in the market.

Yahoo will close five of its auction sites in Europe and instead promote eBay’s competing auctions as part of an agreement the companies announced on last week.

A GROUP of investors has taken control of both Pittsburgh’s Dargate Auction Gallery and ewolfs, the troubled Cleveland-based dotcom enterprise.

THE trade will soon be able to scour museum collections all around the country from the comfort of their own homes.

FEARS that the UK arm of online sales provider icollector have gone bust are not founded, the company’s UK spokesman Mark Hill has reassured Antiques Trade Gazette.

THE influence of eBay in the online antiques trade has increased further with the announcement of an online deal with sothebys.com.

A NEW survey of US auctioneers shows distinct trends developing in online auctions that should help them establish their presence long term as part of the selling process for antiques.

Finelot chairman John Bly reassured investors last week that the on-line dealership, which made a loss of £1.44m last year, should make a profit by 2004.

First icollector close their London operation, now sothebys.com consolidate service in New York: Growing acceptance that the US antiques trade and collectors are happier to complete transactions online than their UK counterparts is illustrated by two major moves that have just been announced.

YAHOO have succeeded in their court bid to deny French government jurisdiction over the firm’s activities outside France.

Listed on eBay on October 15 with an opening bid of just $75, within seven days this gold plastic PEZ space gun dating from the late 1950s/early ’60s had attracted a final bid of $6262 (£4540). At today’s prices, that’s more than 22 times the cost of an ounce of real gold.