Old And Sold Auctions

Based in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, Old And Sold Auctions went online in November, 1999. Their goal has been to provide quality antiques and collectibles, while maintaining a user-friendly and community oriented site. In June their site topped out at over 100,000 visitors. Moving at Internet speed this family based company, is rapidly meeting those goals.

Backtracking a little here, the concept of Old And Sold was begun by Brenda Eilers, an antique dealer and her nephew Eric Stajda. Brenda has been collecting antiques for over thirty years, and has her own antique shop in Mt. Dora, Florida. Eric, a computer programmer by trade, was approached with an offer to form a partnership, and their concept came into being.

Eric and long time friend Steve Baker, developed the site and continue to deliver technical support. Without them the site would not exist. Eric's mom, Sharon Stajda, a part-time registered nurse, is the sites's Marketing Director and maintains excellent public relations with their users. Liz Byers is Auction Manager for the site, answers user email, provides technical support and oversees the day to day operation.

As a first time experience with an on-line business, this family operated staff works twelve hours a day from their home offices, constantly promoting their site, answering their email and making technical changes.It is their policy to keep their site "free of charge" for users to auction their items. "Featured Dealers" pay a small commission, but, only if their items sell. Quoting Liz, "We are confident this combination will keep buyers and sellers coming back auction after auction. We want people who come to our site to feel as though they are part of a community, and we feel this sets us apart from other auction sites."

"We have seen many interesting antiques posted to the site. When the site first started, we had a gentleman from India post a 1500 year old Koran, worth about $100,000. We typically don't deal in such hi-end items, but it is interesting to see what people have and what they are trying to sell. We also recently had a gentleman interested in selling a watercolor by Paul Cezanne on our site."

Liz further states, "Our users come from all over the United States, and we have many International users as well. Popular items on the site include, Staffordshire, Flow Blue, and ethnographic items, although we have just about any type of antique and collectible you could think of. For instance, one of our featured dealers specializes in waxed dolls. She crafts the wax dolls herself, and has even invented a formula for wax which resembles a child's skin tone. Another dealer, from Australia specializes in ancient artifacts and aboriginal art. The variety of items on our site is one of our strongest auction features."

As a registered user and featured dealer myself, I was amazed at the ease of use on Old And Sold. Each month features a different collection, with an Antique Digest, full of antique-related articles, a wish list, that will send you notice if an item you are looking for comes up for auction, and a nice presentation of Collector Books, that can be purchased. Don't just take our word for it though, click on over to Old And Sold and see for yourself! We promise you won't be disappointed.