Announcing Bidsquare, the First Online Bidding Platform Created for Collectors by America's Leading Auction Houses

NEW YORK, Aug. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- In an unprecedented move, six renowned auction houses have joined forces to launch Bidsquare, a new online bidding platform. Bidsquare will provide access to a huge variety of top property from the country's leading auctions on an intuitive, easy-to-use website and – for the first time ever – allow collectors and auction houses to do business directly in an online forum.

The site, created by Brunk Auctions, Cowan's Auctions, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, Pook & Pook, Inc., Rago, and Skinner, Inc., is a bidding platform where like-minded competitors are coming together for the good of buyers, sellers and auction houses alike. It is backed by the reputations of these prominent establishments and their well-respected specialists. What's more, Bidsquare delivers a vast array of exceptional property, from fine art to estate jewelry and from high design to historical artifacts, all vetted by America's foremost auction houses, much of it unavailable elsewhere. The easy-to-use site also boasts a free, searchable database of over 600,000 auction records – and counting.

Brunk Auctions, Cowan's Auctions, Rago, and Skinner, Inc. also provide appraisers who appear regularly on PBS's Antiques Roadshow.

"The founding members of Bidsquare saw a real opportunity to create a site friendly to both buyers and auction houses," notes David Rago, Founding Partner of Rago. "We came together to fill a void – to provide a trusted platform that offers thousands of choice items at auction."

Bidsquare is a one stop shopping experience where prospective buyers can find and win the items they most desire. Here, they can easily search by category or auction house, preview sales, create watchlists and share discoveries with friends, family and other enthusiasts via social media, and work directly with auction houses and specialists.

For fellow auctioneers, Bidsquare is setting a new standard for what is expected of an online marketplace. In addition to the stature of being in the company of esteemed colleagues, auction houses that join with Bidsquare immediately gain new prospective clients from the Bidsquare customer database while paying fees lower than those of competing sites. Bidsquare is the only platform that provides all auctioneers free and fair access to their own data on bidders and underbidders, as well as a shared databank of non-paying bidders and the promise to go after these individuals. It also offers auctioneers many ways to use its services, including listings, a flat-rate and percentage-of-sale fee for timed or live auctions, banner ads, e-blasts and more.

"Bidsquare is a game changer," explains Karen Keane, CEO, Skinner, Inc. "We're providing an unmatched selection of items chosen by leading experts in the field. We are also offering auction houses the opportunity to join an esteemed consortium on a platform that was designed for both quality and transparency. It's a win/win proposition for the marketplace as a whole."

To learn more, please visit www.Bidsquare.com to sign up for information about upcoming sales, search inventory by item, category or auction house.

SOURCE Bidsquare