Rummage Monkey Isn’t Monkey Business
02.22.07 By Deanna DahlsadJeff Scanlon read ’somewhere’ that the average American household has $2,500 of unused items, and it piqued his interest. This figure was in contrast to the current online marketplace movement which was/is heading more & more towards selling new product, but the figures stuck in his head.
The ’somewhere’ he read those figures was likely a news story regarding the 2004 A.C. Nielsen survey which stated that the average American has $2,200 worth of unused goods lying around. The $2,200 price tag was the purchase price, so the secondhand value is likely less than half of that — but that was 2004, and this survey didn’t include all the used but saleable items, the vintage and antique collectibles either. So we can forgive Jeff (or the report he read) for the $300 bump rounding the number. There’s a lot of stuff in our American homes.
And now more than ever we’re willing to sell, swap, barter and buy it.
In fact, the author of FutureShop, Dan Nissanoff, says, “Society is moving from an accumulation nation into an auction culture. It’s a philosophy that recognises temporary ownership as a more effective way to own things.”
Ebay is the world’s biggest online auction site with 180 million registered traders and a turnover of $44 billion, so obviously the big piles of stuff we Americans have are big money. No wonder Jeff was interested. But the question was, “Did the world really need another online marketplace?”
Gripes from buyers and sellers alike about eBay, it’s fees, policies, and monolithic stance that they were the only option, are bountiful on the Internet and in the press. And while there’s no denying eBay’s huge, estimates place eBay’s figures as representing only 5% of the available auction market. So no matter how you look at it, yes, there’s room. Jeff must have done his research and decided that there was Opportunity O Plenty. Rummage Monkey was born and I got an email about it.
Being a naturally curious and talkative girl, I contacted Jeff.
Jeff and I talked at great length about eBay’s history, including how the giant built itself on the backbone of collectors, dealers and the collectibles market itself but has certainly moved away from these ‘notions’ (which is a euphemism for members). ‘Abandoned’ was my word. Jeff agreed but was kinder in his word choice — however, he still laughed loudly when I referred to eBay as “the Wal-Mart of medium navy blue sweaters.”
Of the many things eBay has done to abandon or disenfranchise collectors at eBay, the most noticeable to all was the recent ‘It’ campaign. According to CNET, this campaign is “a play on the cultural zeitgeist created by the annual mad dash by consumers to get the newest, hippest products, like Furby, for example.” (Notice the link to You Can Get ‘It’ On Ebay; it’s no longer a website — can’t eBay afford $5 for a domain name & the extra shekels for hosting?)
Where once eBay was The place to go for the rare, the unique, the hard to find, now they steer members towards the latest trends that, in my opinion, you can find in your local mall or nearly any online store. Things as common as medium sized navy blue sweaters, even if they have the hot ‘n trendy designer labels.
Was Rummage Monkey going to focus on the new, the like new, and eschew the charm of collectibles?
Jeff not only said he’s in favor of supporting the collectibles market, but he completely understood that a seller of collectibles has more work involved than that DVD guy who uploads one listing with 35 copies. “You have a lot more work put into each listing for these rare one-of-a-kind items,” Jeff said. Ah, Jeff gets it, gets us. And at that moment I knew there was something special about Jeff the businessman. I hoped it would mean that Rummage Monkey would be different too. Could Rummage Monkey, still in Beta, become a haven for buyers and sellers of collectibles?
Stay tuned and see. The full interview with Jeff and his Rummage Monkey partner Gary Lagastee will be published on Monday, February 26, 2007. Come back and get the inside scoop as the site’s being built.
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Article Tags: fees, Rummage Monkey================
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