How to submit?

Finding Your Favorite Collectibles Just Got A Whole Lot Easier

Startup founders have a lot in common with collectors. They both have passion (or what is more accurately described in many cases as life-consuming obsession) and insatiable curiosity. They both delight in challenges and discovery, and they connect their pursuit to a personal journey.

 

So, it comes as no surprise that entrepreneur-collectors would come along and fuse the two preoccupations together. This is exactly what’s happened in the case of Collexion, a social search engine for collectors and this week’s Best In Beta pick.

 

The Collectible World In One Place

Collexion creates a single destination for finding and buying a wide range of collectibles – stamps, cars, trading cards, clothing, coins, furniture, you name it. Collectors can search for items and make purchases in just a couple clicks. Besides connecting buyers and sellers, Collexion also has social features for building a community of collectors, where it’s possible to share knowledge and passions, and, of course, show off collections.

 

collexion landing

 

Previously stars at Webmetrics (an external monitoring and web performance testing company acquired by Neustar in 2008), Peter Kirwan and Doug Taylor, along with Matthew Waclawik, are the collectors-in-charge behind the startup.

 

Peter, a collector of vintage typewriters and vinyl records for over 40 years, explains on the website that collectors on the hunt must investigate multiple, scattered marketplaces. Searches are inefficient and often fruitless. Collexion fixes these problems by allowing collectors to zero in on treasures quickly.

 

Shared Passions

Figurines, art, wine, antiques – from the occasional hobbyist to the full-time, serious gatherer, almost everyone can relate to the collector’s appetite. The collection industry is huge, and Collexion has tremendous possibility to grow a unique, fun and lucrative market.

 

Antiquarian and Collexion member Adam Irish says, “Collecting means to me: curating my life, going out into the world and finding things that are meaningful and important to me – and express who I am and, perhaps even, in a grandiose sense, the kind of world I’d want to see.”

 

 

collexion samples

 

 

In the end, isn’t that the shared drive behind all collecting – to discover and examine both pieces of ourselves and our notions of a more beautiful, more intimately-known and more relatable world?

 

It certainly helps to understand the tenacity of startup founders’ efforts. How else to explain such devotion to unpredictable causes? New businesses, new revenue streams, are enticing, but the opportunity to explore the character of individual and company – to experience what emerges in the light of discovering solutions…

 

That, friends, is a kind of Collexion worth living for.

 

Which startup is going to be the next big thing? Investors, bloggers, job seekers, and inspiring entrepreneurs everywhere are dying to know. Hundreds of startups enter private beta each month, and that’s far too many for any one person to keep up with. Fret not! Each week, I share one of the hottest new startups in this column, Best In Beta. Let’s discover the next big thing together!

 

Photo Credits

Collexion

Vote on recent startup submissions:

Monthly Sponsors

More Stories