Another place to buy and sell control components … and they gift wrap

Last month I mentioned an e-Bay like site called ClassicAutomation.com where people could buy and sell industrial control components. Last month's e-newsletter had been out less than an hour when I heard from Rick Zabel at AutomationTechies.com.

By Control Engineering Staff November 20, 2003

Last month I mentioned an e-Bay like site called ClassicAutomation.com where people could buy and sell industrial control components.

Last month’s e-newsletter had been out less than an hour when I heard from Rick Zabel at AutomationTechies.com . Rick said e-Bay has an Industrial Supply, MRO presence on its site. While I was taking Rick’s advice and nosing around the e-Bay site, I heard from Laurence Toney, the e-Bay Industrial Supply, MRO site manager.

Laurence says that based on Q3 2003 data, the e-Bay Industrial Supply , MRO site will have annual gross merchandise sales of over $55 million, is doing over 10,000 transactions per week, and currently lists over 22,000 items for sale.I took a quick look and found several new Rosemount transmitters, 813 Allen Bradley items, and several GE Fanuc and Modicon entities.

However, what really caught my eye was on the left side of each e-Bay page is a place where you can specify gift-wrapping and gift shipping. I don’t know about you, but my holiday shopping is going to be much easier this year.

—Dave Harrold, Senior Editor, Control Engineering, dharrold@reedbusiness.com