I received an email today from QXL today announcing that our very own homegrown online auction house is shutting up shop in the UK on the 30^th May.

This is quite a nostalgic moment, as when Quixell opened doors in 1997 (the brainchild of former FT journo Tim Jackson) it really caught the imagination of how us Brits could use the web as a cash generating swap shop – something that in those days we weren’t quite so ready to accept from the overly US centric eBay phenomenon. I Feel a tiny bit bad that I haven’t used them more in recent years….

After floatation in 1999 the dotcom boom saw QXL reach a valuation of over £2bn, but since that 2001 peak the company never really managed to differentiate itself in the UK market. In 2007 the Times reported that QXL had received an approach from aggressor Ebay but nothing more ever seemed to come of those discussions – probably due to the ongoing wranglings with managers in Poland.

Whilst the UK may have not cut it (and putting Poland to one side) QXL has made good inroads in to Eastern and Mainland Europe, so it’ll be interesting to see how shutting down the UK offering will enable the QXL team to focus on these buoyant markets... and I'm sure no one will be watching more closely than eBay.