Amazon’s Newest Venture: Sports Memorabilia

I suppose it was inevitable, really. According to a post on Mashable, Amazon.com, the company that started out as a threat merely to book stores, has once again expanded its reach into yet another corner of your shopping life. The company announced yesterday that its newest store would sell authentic sports collectibles, including more than simply team-logo-food-branders.

Where before Amazon’s sports collectible offerings were relegated mostly to jerseys and tchotchkes like bobble-heads, the new store actually sells autographed memorabilia, with items like signed helmets selling for thousands of dollars.

It’s important to note, though, that this new store is mostly a way for memorabilia sellers to reach a wider audience. These aren’t products that are being bought and resold by Amazon. Rather, this is more of a reflection of the kind of storefront that eBay became when it introduced its “Buy it Now” feature. The good news, though, is that unlike eBay, it seems like Amazon’s taking great pains to authenticate its offerings. While eBay has kind of a laissez-faire attitude toward people buying and selling whatever they like (as long as it’s not illegal), Amazon is trying to ensure that buyers actually get what they pay for by working with memorabilia sellers with expertise.

“The emphasis on authenticated selection, combined with our A-to-Z Guarantee protection on purchases, allows customers to shop the new store with confidence,” said Peter Faricy, the Amazon Marketplace’s vice president, in a statement about the new initiative.

Of course, just because you’ve got an “expert,” things can still go awry. But at the very least, Amazon as a company has a pretty strong reputation for making sure their customers are happy, so if a seller is found to have some shady dealings, it’s likely that Amazon would take a pretty thorough look before teaming up with them. Even still, collectors in general can be a tough crowd to please, and I have suspicions that this move might be more trouble than its worth for the online super-retailer.

What do you think? Will you start taking your collectibles-shopping to Amazon?

[Via Mashable]