The Cost of Having Fun - Online Auctions

One popular way that Americans purchase collectible items is via online auctions. The leading auction Web site, eBay.com, has grown rapidly since it was founded in 1995. By mid-2004 eBay had sixty-five million registered users in the United States, along with thirty million more internationally. Of the ninety-five million users who were registered, 41.2 million had bid, bought, or listed an item for sale during the previous year.

During 2003 eBay users purchased $20 billion worth of goods at auction from an estimated 160,000 sellers. Items listed for sale numbered 971 million, up 52% from the 638 million listed in 2002. The top ten categories, in terms of dollar volume, were: vehicles, $7.5 billion; consumer electronics, $2.6 billion; computers, $2.4 billion; books/movies/music, $2 billion; clothing and accessories, $1.8 billion; collectibles, $1.5 billion; toys, $1.5 billion; home and garden, $1.3 billion; and jewelry and gemstones, $1.3 billion. Other companies also operated online auction sites, and many vendors of collectibles sold items through their own Web sites as well.