Ruby Lane

Ruby Lane
S-Corp
Industry Retail
Founded 1998
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
 Tom Johnson, President & CEO
Products antiques, collectibles
Website www.rubylane.com

Ruby Lane is the world’s largest curated marketplace for antiques, vintage collectibles, vintage fashion, fine art and jewelry.

Business profile

Ruby Lane is home to 2,500 active shop owners who sell over $125,000 worth of merchandise daily. There are over 1M visitors every month viewing over 15M products.[1]

Ruby Lane's inventory consists of antiques, vintage collectibles, vintage fashion, jewelry and fine art for retail sale by independent member dealers. Ruby Lane shops sell items at set prices rather than in an auction format and the company does not take commissions from sales.

Each Ruby Lane shop is pre-screened by an in-house team of art and antiques professionals, and must meet specific standards before opening for business.[2] All open shops are required to follow an ongoing, standard set of quality guidelines to help ensure that all items buyers see for sale are genuine and accurately represented.

All items are sorted into the following “Lanes” or categories: Antiques, Vintage Collectibles, Dolls, Fine Art, Furniture & Lighting, Glass, Jewelry, Porcelain & Pottery, Silver, Vintage Fashion.

Along with Lilter.com, GoAntiques and TIAS.com it is considered one of the four major online vintage and antique marketplaces.[3]

As of July 2014, the site lists more than 528,000 items from more than 2,500 dealers around the world.

History

Ruby Lane was founded by Tom Johnson and Jim Wilcoxson in 1998[4] and named in honor of Johnson's mother, Ruby.

In 1998, Tom was collecting 1950's dishes and found it cumbersome to complete a set. As the Internet was in its infancy, searching shops online was difficult and often proved fruitless. From there, the idea was hatched to create an easy-to-use online community of shops that showcase quality, pre-screened, antiques and collectibles, finally allowing consumers to find the unique items they sought with ease.

In 1999, Ruby Lane along with BiddersEdge and AuctionWatch, were involved in a notable disagreement with eBay over 3rd-party sites indexing eBay listings.[5]

In 2005, Wilcoxson departed from the company leaving Johnson as President and CEO.

Ruby Lane was voted the top site to sell on in the 2010 ECommerce Bytes Sellers Choice Awards; voted third place in 2011, and second place in both the 2012 and 2013 surveys. The ECommerce Bytes Sellers Choice is voted on by over 11,500 online sellers. The same 2012 and 2013 surveys awarded Ruby Lane first place in both customer service and communication.[6]

The tagline “Vintage Begins Here” was introduced in 2013.

Ruby Read

Ruby Lane also publishes a digital magazine, Ruby Read. This online monthly magazine features articles on antiques and art, vintage, collectibles, and trending interior design, fashion and culture.[7] In February 2014, Ruby Read was awarded the Silver Addy Award for Creative Excellence in the category of Best Online/Digital Magazine from the American Advertising Federation (AAF).[8]

References

  1. ↑ "Media Kit".
  2. ↑ "Top Reasons to Sell on Ruby Lane".
  3. ↑ "Sell Your Stuff: Online Malls - TIAS, RubyLane, GoAntiques". Collectibles.about.com. 2010-06-16. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
  4. ↑ "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 1998-12-12. Archived from the original on December 12, 1998. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
  5. ↑ "EBay Warns Rival to Stop Bid Searches". Sfgate.com. 1999-10-05. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
  6. ↑ "ecommercebytes.com".
  7. ↑ "Ruby Read".
  8. ↑ "AAF".
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