Amazon.com, Sotheby's team up for auction site

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Jun 17, 1999 by BETH J. HARPAZ

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Amazon.com, the Internet bookstore that also auctions items like Beanie Babies, is going into business with Sotheby's, the venerable auction house that still boasts of selling Napoleon's library in 1811.

The two companies announced Wednesday they will start selling sports memorabilia, coins, and other collectibles on a new Web site called sothebys.amazon.com. The announcement was made by Amazon.com's founder, Jeff Bezos, a man who never wears a tie, and Sotheby's CEO Diana D. Brooks, impeccably dressed in a pink suit, pearls and black pumps. "We are a very traditional company," Brooks acknowledged. But she added that the world is "changing so fast we thought we ought to be partnered up with the best Internet company there is." Bezos also announced that Amazon.com Inc. is investing $45 million in Sotheby's. The stocks of both companies soared in a sharply rising market after the announcement. Bezos said his 5-year-old company could learn from the 255-year- old auction house. "Maybe we'll learn how we get to be an important lasting franchise, too," he said. The joint venture will kick off in September with an online sale of rare baseball cards, some of which also will be sold at a live auction at Sotheby's galleries on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Sotheby's also plans to launch a separate Web site in the fall, sothebys.com. The main difference between the sites will be the type of object offered, rather than their dollar value. All coins, stamps, baseball cards, entertainment memorabilia, fashion and other common collectibles -- whether they are worth a few hundred or a few thousand dollars -- will be sold at sothebys.amazon.com. Fine art, rare antiques and the like will be kept on the sothebys.com site.