I’d never heard of Worthpoint until a couple of weeks ago when the news broke about them buying GoAntiques in a bid to become the newest alternative eBay site–what’s especially interesting to me about this latest attempt to chip into eBay’s market is the specialty, Antiques and Collectibles, ah, that’s my aisle of the shop!
I created an account that night, but didn’t do too much with it. Truth be told I found the site simplistic yet confusing and left hoping it was just the learning curve of a new site throwing me off balance.
Tonight I spent a half hour or so listening to Auctionwally, aka Walt Kolenda, talk with the CEO of Worthpoint, Walt Seippel, in an interview which you can find here. I must say I’m intrigued.
As a collector I’m seeing the potential for an incredible hub for all things collectible. Seippel made clear one of the goals of Worthpoint was to collate as much information as possible and make available on the site. It sounds like as much of this information as possible is going to be free, and already there are some very informative articles posted over there for a wide variety of collecting niches.
As a seller the major factor seeming to differentiate Worthpoint from other eBay-alt sites is they are looking for the listing fee and not taking a final value fee. Seippel explains that paying the fee serves a double-purpose in verifying sellers by credit card as well. He stated non-collectibles would be removed from the site (we’ll see how that plays out as sometimes there’s a very fine line between collectible and non-collectible, but anyway I imagine you won’t be seeing TV sets for sale at Worthpoint…well, maybe some black & white sets.) If the site is going to go I wouldn’t mind paying a fee as that’s going to stop non-dealers or dealers who aren’t very serious from listing on the site.
What I took away from the interview about Worthpoint itself is that this is a venue for collectors by collectors. Seippel spoke in a little detail about his various collections, I recall mention of some antique furniture and a high-grade coin collection, but what really impressed me as a collector was his 1952 Topps Complete Set.
As a seller of collectibles I like to hear this. I am very passionate about collecting and collectibles and it’s a breath of fresh air to hear the CEO of an online venue like this basically sound like me when talking about collecting. Let me put that another way, I’m not saying he’s stealing my shtick, what I mean is there’s a shared passion for collecting that only other collectors can understand. The touch of obsessiveness that makes you realize your family and friends think you’re a little nuts sometimes!
Anyway, I went back to Worthpoint tonight, played with my profile a little–had to e-mail support about not being able to upload a picture of myself. Found an item I was interested in, in what from what I can tell is a pretty limited group of listings thus far–couldn’t figure out how to buy so I e-mailed an inquiry to the seller (Who I’m pretty sure is Worthpoint itself). Pretty much kept my impressions from my first visit, but with a new bit of hope founded in a little connection through that interview…and it didn’t hurt that Seippel discussed a big upgrade coming soon with their tech!
So this little bit of hope inspired me to inquire about becoming a Worthologist and I even created a blog post on their site, both hoping to share and thinking it might stand as a writing sample. Now I can only hope I see reason to continue my involvement with the site. Crossing my fingers on that one.