When I lived up in Indiana I had an antiques and collectibles store. By the end of the first year I was also taking some select donations, cleaning out garages and barns in exchange for the merchandise, etc. In the back of the place was a very large room with shelves, microwave, tv, sleeper sofa, fridg, and.......a desk and computer that we lovingly called, "the ebay center", a long workbench next to it that served as the shop shipping department. NOTHING of potential value made it to the floor without being fully researched on ebay first, countless items never even made it to the showroom floor because they were sitting on shelves in the back awaiting the end of their ebay auction. And I also had a relatively long list of buyers that I routinely called whenever I got hold of something that suited their desires, just another reason why many items never made it to the floor. While I was operating this business I came to know several people running Goodwill and Thrift store type operations, "Nearly all of them were operating in much the same fashion." There were several regulars that came in once or twice a week with their cell phones with the intention of buying merchandise for other collectors and resellers, middlemen if you will, whenever they saw an item that they though a client might have interest in they would send them a picture and a text and then wait for the return call, these folks always got discounts. I really miss that business but circumstances involving family illness caused me to close shop and relocate, but given the opportunity I would dive right back into that very same business again. Every day brought something new and interesting into the shop, met a lot of good and interesting folks, also a lot of unscrupulous cut throat types as well, but that was just part of the business tradeoff. So will this new show have a drastic effect on things? In some ways yes, and in some ways no. The idea is nothing new and it's been trending that way for a long time now, so nothing new or earth shattering there. But you will see more people trying to get into the game, but this is a game that has already been well established.
