News-Antique.com - Jun 06,2011 - ATLANTA, June 6, 2011 – WorthPoint®, the world’s leading provider of valuation and associated services for art, antiques and collectibles, today announced the first of several new product introductions for 2011.
WorthPoint Forums provide both free and paid members with access to expert opinion and debates regarding the most topical issues in the world of collecting.
Unlike other antique and art forums on the Internet, the WorthPoint Forums are integrated with the company’s vast price guide, Worthopedia™, which contains more than 90 million items. This encourages discussions that are item specific but range across a wide array of collectibles.
“We’ve built up a useful compendium of price data and related information through Worthopedia but wanted to extend what we provide by embracing what collectors and consumers have to say about their items; friends’ items; their likes, dislikes and so forth. It will be a truly open forum to share knowledge of collectibles, advice and concerns, including things we can do better to serve our members. We think this is a great way to engage and expand our community,” said Maggie Turnipseed, Chief WorthPoint Worthologist.
Forums will be moderated by Turnipseed and fellow Worthologist Rebekah Kaufman, who is a subject matter expert on vintage Steiff and other European plush collectibles. She is also a dedicated blogger (My Steiff Life at http://mysteifflife.blogspot.com); author (contributing to national as well as international print publications); and an online resource (Collector’s Weekly). In addition, she has worked with Christie’s auction house in London to distribute information regarding vintage Steiff items to U.S. audiences.
Following the Forums, WorthPoint additions scheduled in 2011 include:
• Vastly expanded price guide (Worthopedia™) to more than 100 million items, including new European data through an expanded licensing relationship with Terapeak, which has been providing U.S. eBay transaction data to WorthPoint since 2009. Now it will provide global data as well.
• Native iPhone®/iPad™ application enabling a full range of search and analytic functions for members when attending auctions, trade shows, estate sales and other remote locations.
• International web sites featuring local content and Worthologists, beginning with the UK, Canadian, Australian, French, and German sites.
• A comprehensive upgrade of sister site, – GoAntiques.com, the oldest virtual antiques marketplace on the Internet.
“I am extremely excited about the new products we are bringing to market in the coming months. We think they will help make WorthPoint a ‘must have’ resource for anyone who wants to learn more about their items or collecting in general. It will also help position us for future innovations such as value indices and a robust taxonomy structure for uniquely identifying items,” said WorthPoint CEO Will Seippel.
About WorthPoint
Founded in 2007, WorthPoint is an international, online information and media company that has quickly become the world’s largest resource for researching art, antiques and collectibles. It helps people accurately value, preserve, buy and/or sell items. The company’s core feature is a vast database of sales records aggregated from eBay, virtual marketplaces and leading auction houses. This repository
