The Franklin Mint Teams-Up With eBay to Offer One-of-a-Kind Collectibles On-Line

    FRANKLIN CENTER, Pa.--May 8, 2001--The Franklin Mint continues to entice and excite the collectibles market with innovative new products designed solely to touch the hearts of collectors.
    The Franklin Mint will offer one-of-a-kind collectibles drawn from its vast archive of product development drawings, studies, sculptures and prototypes on eBay, the world's online marketplace. A Certificate of Authenticity attesting to the fact that the product is drawn from the archive and is one-of-a-kind will accompany each product.
    The first offering is a handmade, pre-production, scale model prototype of the 1998 Indianapolis 500 Corvette Pace Car. Engineers and designers at The Franklin Mint invested hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars to create this prototype that served as the standard for production and appeared in brochures and advertisements.
    It has an engraved plaque, permanently mounted to the chassis, which verifies its special one-of-a-kind status and it comes to you in a handsome, fitted display case.
    eBay (www.ebay.com) is the world's largest online trading community. Founded in 1995, eBay created a powerful marketplace for the sale of goods and services by a passionate community of individuals and small businesses. On any given day, there are millions of items listed on the site across thousands of categories.
    eBay enables trade on a local, national and international basis with local sites in 60 markets in the United States and country specific sites in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
    With the acquisition of Half.com in July 2000, eBay's community now benefits from a market place combining traditional auction-style trading and Half.com's set-price trading.
    The Franklin Mint, the world's leading marketer of fine collectibles and home decor products, shares its passion for collecting with collectors around the world in retail stores, through brochures and catalogs mailed to your home, and on the Internet at www.franklinmint.com.
    Official photography of any of our featured products is available. Press inquires should be directed to:

Michelle Dooley The Franklin Mint 610-459-7665 mdooley@franklinmint.com