Internet watch 3-01

March 2001

multipage

The Real Deal

OnlineAssetExchange.com seeks to bring pricing transparency to the business of used equipment.


Looking for a used six-color Komori? Need additional bindery gear to fulfill a contract? Then logging onto OnlineAssetExchange.com may be a way to quickly solve an equipment crisis.

Launched in March of 2000, OnlineAssetExchange.com began as an online exchange and auction site dedicated to selling industrial equipment. In just under a year, it has become the largest seller of secondary assets in the used industrial equipment space with 200,000 line items, which is comprised of about $14billion in assets, according to the site's co-founder Norm Bastin.

With its success in the industrial equipment space, OnlineAssetExchange.com is now expanding into 14 other vertical markets, including the printing industry.

Bastin recently shared with Printing Impressions OnlineAssetExchange's mission, how the Website sees its role within the industry and the value proposition it believes it can bring to the table.

PI: What value does OnlineAsset-Exchange believe it can bring to the printing industry?

Bastin: In the past, there has never been a viable market to move assets that have come off-line. So what happens is that you have thousands of brokers and used equipment dealers that buy a company's assets at 20 cents on the dollar, and then sell it at 80 cents on the dollar.

The result: They are adding no value to the transaction other than their fee. They make their money by not having pricing transparency.

If you are looking for a used, six-color Komori, then you may call your local dealer. He may have one or two presses available. He'll set the pricing for you, but you don't have any place to look up and see 40 such Komori presses along with their pricing. We enable you to do just that.

PI: So, in essence, are you removing the broker from the equation?

Bastin: We are providing end-to-end services for everything second tier and lower printers might need.

What makes this unique is that, in the past, a dealer or broker made all the money. They are the hidden millionaires. There are more millionaires per capita in the used equipment business than there are on Wall Street. We're putting the money back into the seller's pocket, not the broker's pocket.

We're also providing printers the ability to find the printing equipment that they need, when they need it. I have a friend who owns a large printing company in San Diego. A few years ago, he was trying to find a UV flexo machine so he could fulfill a major contract.

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