ECOMMERCE
Heads up, eBay - this summer Sotheby's is taking the field. The New York auction house that put Jackie O's humidor on the block will auction off the world's largest private collection of baseball memorabilia, says executive VP David Redden - and it'll do so exclusively online.
Sotheby's baseball cache, called the Barry Halper Collection, is an auctioneer's dream - almost 1,000 uniforms and 30,000 baseball cards, as well as Ty Cobb's dentures and Mickey Mantle's first signing-bonus check. But it's not just the quality of the Sotheby's collection that makes eBay look like the minor leagues - it's the deep pockets the auction house attracts. In 1997 Sotheby's cleared $1.84 billion in sales, and last year it took in $33 million for a single Monet. By comparison, eBay's sales from its '95 launch through Q3 '98 were just $34 million. The upstart competes with its seasoned antecedent in sheer volume, however: Last year, Sotheby's put 150,000 lots (of both single and group items) up for sale; eBay posts 150,000 new items a day.
But whether or not the old-timer can match eBay's pace - or its technology (Sotheby's first venture online was markedly primitive) - it can still boast trust. With a name like Sotheby's, you don't expect your clientele to suffer crooks. So while eBay doesn't see the goods, leaving buyers at risk of paying for items that are never delivered, make a purchase at www.sothebys.com and you'll know that bat is already in-house.
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