Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a safe and exciting holiday. We sure did - blowing our noses, coughing and taking plenty of cold medication. We're such the exciting bunch here at ECommerce Guide.
Now that that's all behind us, a new year is upon us and we're looking forward to what 2006 is going to bring us. Of course, the kids over at eBay are hoping this year is a bit less shaky than last year. As such, not much has come out of Camp San Jose this week.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe has been a hit in theaters and, apparently, a hit on eBay. According to Terapeak Marketplace Research, a research firm specializing in the eBay platform, reports that The Chronicles of Narnia jumped 51 spots to number one on their Hot 100 eBay book list. The firm says in all, 893 copies of Narnia books (paper, audio, and box sets) were listed on eBay the week of December 10th to 16th, with an average price of $28.24. During the last week of October, there were only 213 Narnia listings on eBay, and they had an average price of $22.48.
It seems other hit movies based on books have seen similar success, according to Terapeak. "You may be wondering how sales of other novels were impacted by the big-screen versions this holiday season. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has already grossed more at the box office than the previous two Harry Potter films, but sales of the novel have been consistently strong on eBay. All six Harry Potter books (plus the box set and audio versions) are currently in Terapeak's Hot 100, with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince leading the way at #3."
In fact, there is a signed copy of The Half Blood Prince going for £3,100.00 (or $5,482 US). Shazaam!
Boonjam on Your Toast
A new online auction trading assistance company called "Boonjam" was born this week with a promise of becoming the leading source as an eBay gateway.
According to a company statement, the concept behind Boonjam is to "Create a brand that anyone can identify with," said Gene Kupfer, founder of Boonjam. "We don't want to be yet another "sell your stuff on eBay, drop off location. We want to be a fun, trendy place that people can go to, to enjoy a part of their day that will result in adding time back into their lives, while earning some extra dollars."
The idea that there can be a better approach to helping people auction their assets online reportedly came to Kupfer after being a long time member of eBay and watching the development of various trading assistant businesses and realized that "they are just a cookie cutter copies, all wanting to sell your stuff online." Kupfer says he spent the last year closely watching the market and preparing the release of Boonjam.
"How much is your time worth? That is the questing we want people to think about when they are considering an auctioneer." Kupfer said. "While at the root our most basic function is to help people auction their assets online, that is not what we want to impress on the community, what we want people to understand is that our primary goal is to add time back into their lives."
Boonjam's features include monthly subscription memberships, free listings, overstock services, corporate liquidation and fundraisers.
According to Kupfer, Boonjam will also be offering franchising opportunities in the near future and "will become a household name for everything that you want to Boonjam on eBay."
We wish Mr. Kupfer luck.
iSold It, 'Ol Chap!
Speaking of auction assistance companies, we reported yesterday the global expansion of the popular U.S. franchise iSold It into the UK market.
The U.K.'s master franchisee, Phillip Molloy, will reportedly be opening the U.K.'s first iSold It store in the Birmingham area in the spring of 2006. He is already in discussions with a number of interested franchise candidates to join him in developing the U.K. market, with stores planned across the entire British Isles.
"The eBay drop-off store concept has been eagerly awaited here - it's just what the U.K. market needs. I've already had a tremendous amount of interest from people who can't wait to use the store to sell on eBay, plus entrepreneurs interested in the chance to be one of the first to open a store in their market," says Molloy.
Meanwhile, British eBayers told ECommerce Guide they remain skeptical about such a business succeeding in the UK.
|
Auction of the Week — BaBaBooey to You All
Some of us here at ECommerce Guide are anxiously awaiting the King of All Media's debut on Sirius satellite radio next week. It also appears that our fellow Howard Stern fans have been busy on eBay this week, taking advantage of the hype. In fact, our auction of the week is a one-of-a-kind talking bobblehead Howard Stern doll.
"Sculpted from Sculpey Clay, hand painted with acrylic paints and coated in a durable clear gloss finish. Made with real doll hair, real cloth t-shirt, jacket, and blue jeans. Removable sunglasses and sits on a black base, which contains a sound unit and features 16 actual sound clips of Howard. Sound recorded direct from radio & TV for highest sound quality. Play, fast-forward, and rewind buttons are exposed for playback of the sound clips from the small speaker. The sound unit's 'record' button was removed to avoid recording over the clips," says the seller.
Bids are only up to $31 as of press time, so we're tempted to bump that up just a bit.
|
Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
