Naxcom Contest Brings Dealers to Web Site
Online sports memorabilia broker Naxcom was looking for a way to build its vintage memorabilia (pre-1980) business and entice some of the best dealers in the business to sell through its Web site.
The Los Angeles-based company said it found the way to do it—an incentive-based tournament-style contest that pitted 32 dealers against each other for $10,000 and the title of Vintage Memorabilia Dealer of the Year.
The $14,500 Naxcom Vintage Invitational presented by Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA), which began in September, was structured as a weekly single-elimination tournament with dealers competing head-to-head. The dealers were invited to sell their wares on Naxcom.com and the dealer recording the highest gross sales advanced to the next round.
Naxcom spokesman Bill Elder said that participants were chosen from a list of top dealers who exhibit at the company’s memorabilia shows. He said only one-third of the contestants had used Naxcom’s online services before the contest, which created great awareness for the site.
The winning dealers kept advancing to another round until another dealer defeated them. The final two top-selling dealers are competing this week in the championship round, which ends Sunday.
“Our office is full of sports fans, but nothing compares to the excitement generated by March Madness,” Naxcom president Eric Beckerman said in a statement. “The one-and-done single-elimination Survivor-style format hooks people and does not let them out until the tournament is done. That was the exactly the type of promotion we needed to get vintage collectors to try us.”
Between the contest start date and Jan. 13, Naxcom said it saw a 200% increase in Web site visitors; a 200% increase in listings; a 600% increase in transactions; and a 300% increase in gross sales versus a year ago.
Elder said several of its top dealers declined to participate in the contest, but noted that many of them have approached him with an interest in participating if they ever run a similar contest. He said the company’s plan is to run another sweepstakes to coincide with the NCAA basketball tournaments in either March or April.
“A lot of the top dealers didn’t want to compete, but now they’re knocking down our doors asking us when the next contest is,” Elder said. “Even the first Super Bowl wasn’t the event that it is today. It took a while for the popularity to catch on.”
