People have been searching for treasures on eBay ever since founder Pierre Omidyar first opened its doors, so to speak, in September 1995. Today, the online retailer continues to stay true to its primary customers—fans of all things collectible. Jim “Griff” Griffith, dean of eBay education, recently shared with Playthings his insights into eBay's successful business model and how, if you take care to build a space where a community of passionate people can connect with others who share their passions, they will return as loyal customers again and again and again.

Playthings: How does eBay make shopping easier for all kinds of collectors?

Griffith: eBay provides an industry-leading finding tool with which any buyer or collector can quickly locate items they seek. We've also built an intuitive, easy-to-browse category structure for all our product categories, including antiques and collectibles. The actual list of sub-categories is continually augmented and enhanced based on the direct feedback of both eBay buyers and sellers. Together, our category structure and our finding tools make the discovery of collectible treasure on eBay easy and fun.

Playthings: How do you foster and support a thriving collector's community at eBay?

JG: Collecting is a never-ending journey of both acquisition and education. Our collector community on eBay pursues both! One of our strengths is education; on our community pages a collector can meet and share tips, advice and knowledge with—as well as ask questions of—any of the thousands of community-participating collectors or collectible sellers in one of several category-specific discussion forums. For example, members use forums to post photos of items for which they need to know an item's age, value or attribution. There are always knowledgeable eBay collectors who are willing to share their expertise with these members.

In addition to the discussion forums, there are over 1,000 member-created Collector Club eBay Groups covering just about every possible collecting topic, which any interested collector or collectibles dealer or seller can join. A few of the Collector Club topics are Antiques; Buttons; Textiles and Vintage Sewing; Coins; Comics; Dolls and Bears; Glass; Pottery/Porcelain; and Toys, Hobbies and Trading Cards.

Playthings: How strong is the collectibles business these days?

JG: The collectibles business on eBay has always been, and continues to be, strong as reflected by the numbers for the three top collecting categories on eBay—Collectibles, Antiques, and Coins and Stamps.

Playthings: What's popular in the toy categories?

JG: Right now, the most popular items in the toy categories are a mix of contemporary and vintage items. The current hottest selling contemporary toy items are Webkinz, Little Tikes, Transformers and Star Wars. The most popular vintage toys are anything from Fisher-Price, Marx and Tonka. Some categories cross over both contemporary and vintage; for example, anything related to Star Wars is still extremely popular with collectors. As of right now, G.I. Joe seems to be very popular on eBay, too.