Instead of putting it in the antiques mall where 200 people can see it, or a live auction with 300 people, you have 70 million on the Internet. People compete for these things. It's a night and day difference. All this makes collecting an even bigger pastime and business than it has ever been. Mobilia magazine's new site, charges only a small fee after a sale is made.
Auctions are a centuries-old tradition.
Moreover, sellers can list items on the Internet in less than an hour, compared with days or even weeks for a publication. My vision of the Internet is that it's going to basically eliminate the middleman and create a whole new level of competition based on an implosion of selling costs. All this is not lost on Sotheby's, which in July will open the doors of its high-end auction house to the ordinary collector sitting at the home computer. We are working on creating the highest quality auction site on the Internet. It will allow collectors to search through large numbers of items in a way that's hard to do by going to galleries and stores and catalogs.