While there are still two weeks until eBay Live Auctions is retired officially, given that the Profiles in History “Hollywood Auction 34” ended over the weekend, for all intents and purposes for the original prop hobby, it is finished.
As first reported in April (see eBay Live Auction Format Being Retired at End of 2008), eBay Live Auctions – which provides real-time “live” bidding over the Internet – will be going offline on December 31, 2008. Based on cached content found at Archive.org, it appears that this ancillary service has been part of the eBay brand since 2000 (LINK).
It will be interesting to see what companies and offerings fill this space over the coming year, as online bidding capability is a very important aspect of auction house events.
Some companies have developed their own in-house solutions, such as Christie’s and Heritage Auction Galleries.
Based on reports from other collectors, Julien’s Auctions has found a great solution with Auction Network, which also includes streaming high definition video of the on site action. This company has also been chosen by PropWorx for their upcoming Battlestar Galactica auction event.
As reported in August (see LiveAuctioneers Positioning To Take eBay Live Auctions Business), it appears that LiveAuctioneers is positioning itself to absorb as much of the eBay Live Auctions business as it can, as exhibited by their high profile partnership in the two Profiles in History events last week.
Interestingly, there is a feature published today on the LiveAuctioneers.com “Auction Central News” website – LiveAuctioneers PR push gets national exposure for Profiles in History – in which they claim that LiveAuctioneers aggressively pursues “the sort of publicity that would cost millions of dollars if it were regular commercial advertising“.
However, as noted with regards to the two nationally televised interviews reported on last week (see ABC News Interviews LiveAuctioneers CEO… and Fox News Channel Interviews LiveAuctioneers CEO…), LiveAuctioneers CEO Julian Ellison made no mention of the company behind the auction events he was providing a service for – Profiles in History.
Conversely, in the “Hollywood 411” segment hosted in the same article, Profiles in History owner Joseph Maddalena uses the opportunity to give a strong endorsement of the LiveAuctioneers.com service:
Below is the second video from the LiveAuctioneers.com “Auction Central News” article:
Also on the site is a message from LiveAuctioneers CEO Julian Ellison about the retiring eBay Live Auctions as it relates to his ambitions for his own company and the future of live auction services:
Obviously, this transition period is the most significant window of opportunity for LiveAuctioneers to absorb as much of the eBay Live Auctions business as it is able to secure.
2009 should be an interesting year for developments in this business space. I personally feel that the most compelling feature of bidding online is the ability to see the action on site, in the room, via real time, high definition streaming video. I think among the competition for these services, the company that can deliver on video along with the basics of reliable online, real-time bidding should find some success among those auction houses that realize the importance of such features that go beyond the basics of what eBay Live Auctions offered.
Jason De Bord