ATLANTA -- Have you ever considered bidding on an original Marc Chagall lithograph, but felt intimidated by a live auction?
Or perhaps Austin Powers' psychedelic Volkswagen Beetle was the very thing you wanted for Christmas, but you didn't know where to find it?Now these things are available for purchase in the comfort of your own home.
The venerable 255-year-old auction house Sotheby's has formed a clever partnership with Amazon.com. Now you can buy fine china or diamond brooches from Tiffany &Co. with the click of a mouse.
Amazon.com, considered by many to be the most successful online retailer, sells music, books, electronics and a variety of other items including toothpaste and electric drills, many at a discount from offline retailers. Sotheby's dwells in a different world, dealing in expensive and rare items such as art deco furniture, Mongolian rugs, antique baseball cards and vintage American quilts.
But Sotheby's doesn't deal in bargains. The auctions will carry price tags ranging from $100 to $100,000 and up.
The Sotheby's site on Amazon.com is quite different from "person to person" auctions like eBay and Amazon's other auction site, where you place your bid and you take your chances buying something from another individual out there in cyberspace. Sotheby's is very much a professionally run business. Every lot, or item up for bid, on the Sotheby's site is guaranteed for authenticity and condition by either Sotheby's experts or one of the 4,500 dealers it has preselected.
Victoria Pickett, general manager of sothebys.amazon.com, says the new area is very different from the type of retailing Amazon has tackled in the past. "It's a whole new way to buy fine objects online," she says.
"Sotheby's and Amazon need each other," Pickett says. "What Sotheby's brings to the table is 255 years of sourcing and authenticating fine objects. While Sotheby's auctions have always featured some of the finest objects in the world, the company is hoping that its presence on Amazon.com, one of the Web's most trafficked sites, will bring more visibility and bidders. Sotheby's acknowledges that many potential bidders are intimidated at the thought of bidding at a live auction, but aren't shy at all about online shopping or online auctions."
The Amazon deal also gives Sotheby's the online electronic expertise and technology to help facilitate the bidding process.
Amazon understands that any bidder about to type a number followed by a bunch of zeros on the Sotheby's site needs to be sure the site is secure, the goods for real and delivery prompt.
Pickett also thinks the high-end credibility of Sotheby's offerings will drive traffic to the company's "person to person" auction area. "You may come to Sotheby's to buy china or a Persian rug, but then go to the other auction area to buy a Beanie Baby for your child. We think they are complimentary, but quite different."
Big ticket bidders on the sothebys.amazon.com site will have a special one-click payment screen that will explain the cost of the item plus shipping, insurance, taxes and other charges, such as buyer's premium. The Sotheby's area will give users the opportunity to pay by wire transfer, a special function for Sotheby's customers not available anywhere else on the site. Pickett also says that the sellers will never see the winning bidder's credit card number, for added security.