As an example of the many ways that eBay Inc.’s mobile applications are used, in conjunction with the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas, the very first 2010 Hurst Camaro to be made available to the public was sold via a winning bid placed from the company’s iPhone application. Ernest Feist, owner of New Jersey-based civil engineering firm Feist Engineering, was the long-time eBay user who picked up the car for $61,900, following a series of competitive bids. The charitable auction contributed to the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund.
“I found about the eBay auction through a charitable web site that sent a link to it, and I got it on the day before the auction ended,” said Feist. “When the auction was ending I was at a local restaurant and bar, and it happened to be a Friday evening. I was there with a couple of friends, and I had been bidding during the day from the office. I was outbid, and got a notification from the app, so I started bidding right there.” Thirty minutes later, he got a notification that he had won the auction.
Feist had some experience buying a car on eBay. “I had bought another car on eBay about five or six months before the charity auction,” explained Feist. “I was looking for a 1979 TransAm. When I was in college in 1979 my parents had bought me a 10th anniversary TransAm, and I had sold it at some point to go back to college again. I was thinking about that car and found one on eBay. That was my first car purchase with eBay Motors.”
Feist has been a loyal eBay user since 1998, and his transition to using eBay’s mobile applications, including eBay for iPad, has been smooth. As for the Hurst Camaro, he singled it out as “a very unique car” and noted that it has won trophies at car shows.
eBay Inc.’s mobile applications are driving many new transactions. In 2009, the company’s mobile merchandise volume, the value of all goods sold, was more than $600 million. In 2010, the company expects that to grow to $1.5 billion.