Celebrity auctions swish exclusives with all money going to the celebrity's selected charity. For example, Brad Pitt is auctioning a private meet-and-greet and tickets to his gala benefiting Make It Right, a non-profit helping rebuild homes in New Orleans.
The celebrities will auction fan experiences as well as personal memorabilia. Some other auctions include Katy Perry selling a stage dress to benefit the American Red Cross, meeting Christina Aguilera backstage at a taping of The Voice benefiting World Food Program USA and purchasing paintings made by Jeff Bridges to benefit Share Our Strength -- No Kid Hungry.
The launch of eBay Celebrity is another feather in eBay's charitable cap. The online marketplace has been donating to charitable causes through eBay Giving Works. In 2011, Giving Works has so far raised more than $51 million for charity and more than $278 million to date globally since the program started in 2003.
"We know a lot of these charities have celebrity ambassadors and we wanted to give them even more of an opportunity to raise money," says Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for eBay. "So many of these celebrities were coming to us to raise funds, but we didn’t have one place where consumers could come and engage."
What's interesting about eBay Celebrity is that celebrities gets their own mini-profile where they can leave messages, post content, promote their auctions and the charities they benefit. There's also a quasi-awkward feature where celebs can share shopping-search habits. Turns out Katy Perry has a thing for Jonathan Taylor Thomas memorabilia, Brad Pitt needs a framing hammer, Troy Polamalu is into surfboards and Robert Duvall want's Martha Stewart's cookie cookbook.
The auctions range in price quite a bit. Pitt's starting bid is $10,000, though others are less, like Sienna Miller's leather jacket is at just $15.50 after four bids. Users choose to sell their own items for the celebrity charities, or they can donate directly to the causes during checkout or through PayPal.
eBay has a reputation as an odd "black market" for celebrity memorabilia and autographed images. Celebrity is a way of collecting all those random and often illegitimate items and for a good cause. To wit, eBay says it will not take any percentage from the sale of Celebrity auction items.
It's potentially a win for everyone: Celebrities get to raise more money, fans get exclusive deals and charities get some serious spotlight from their celebrity ambassadors. The benefits also extend to eBay which, after auctioning off a Justin Bieber item for charity, saw a 107% increase in searches for "Justin Bieber" and a 35% increase in sales for unrelated Bieber memorabilia. The Celebrity vertical could help boost eBay's collateral sales while doing some good.