We don't have a collection, so we haven't used eBay for acquisitions.
But, we have used it for fundraising, through an auction of art earlier
this year.  As a college, our target audience was alumni, and the
auctioned works were donated by the widow of an esteemed instructor.  We
had the auction up for one week, and netted $17,000.

Rather than simply place the items on eBay and send people there, we
built our own "portal" site, with information about the artists and the
auction event.  From there we linked to the specific pages at eBay where
the items were featured.  It worked so well we're thinking of doing it
again.

You can see the site we built, at http://www.artcenter.edu/dwightsite

Stephen Nowlin




>Dear Colleagues:
>
>I am interested to know whether museum staff are using eBay or similar
>online auction sites to acquire objects for their collections. I'd like to
>hear museum professionals'  thoughts about these sites. I have listed a few
>specific questions below, but I welcome all comments relevant to the topic
>of how the Internet is affecting object acquisition in museums.
>
>Questions
>
>1) Are museums/historical societies purchasing through eBay and other
>auction sites? Why or why not?
>
>2) If so, are museum staff finding material they might otherwise never see?
>
>3) Are online auctions curbing donations from individuals to museums? Do
>curators fear that objects will leave the public domain because private
>collectors are buying them online?
>
>I appreciate your input.
>
>--Amanda Kraus
>Publications Department,
>American Association of Museums
>
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