Ruby Lane is home to more than 2,000 active shop owners who sell over $125,000 worth of merchandise daily. There are over 1M visitors every month viewing over 15M products. Ruby Lane's inventory consists of antiques, vintage collectibles, vintage fashion, jewelry, dolls, and art for retail sale by independent member dealers. Ruby Lane shops sell items at set prices rather than in an auction format and the company does not take commissions from sales. Each Ruby Lane shop is pre-screened by an in-house team of art and antiques professionals, and must meet specific standards before opening for business. All open shops are required to follow an ongoing, standard set of quality guidelines to help ensure that all items buyers see for sale are genuine and accurately represented. All items are sorted into the following “Lanes” or categories: Antiques & Collectibles, Dolls, Art, Furniture/Lighting & Rugs, Glass, Jewelry, Porcelain & Pottery, Silver, and Fashion. Along with GoAntiques, and TIAS.com it is considered one of the three major online vintage and antique marketplaces. As of February 2020, the site lists more than 575,000 items from more than 2,000 dealers around the world.
History
Ruby Lane was founded by Tom Johnson and Jim Wilcoxson in 1998 and named in honor of Johnson's mother, Ruby. In 1998, Tom was collecting 1950's dishes and found it cumbersome to complete a set. As the Internet was in its infancy, searching shops online was difficult and often proved fruitless. From there, the idea was hatched to create an easy-to-use online community of shops that showcase quality, pre-screened, antiques and collectibles, finally allowing consumers to find the unique items they sought with ease. In 1999, Ruby Lane along with BiddersEdge and AuctionWatch, were involved in a notable disagreement with eBay over 3rd-party sites indexing eBay listings. In 2005, Wilcoxson departed from the company leavingJohnson as President and CEO. In 2019, Ruby Lane won best Communications, Customer Service, and Most Recommended site. Additionally, the site ranked 2nd Overall in 2019. The ECommerce Bytes Sellers Choice is voted on by over 11,500 online sellers. The tagline “Vintage Begins Here” was introduced in 2013.
