Meg Whitman, the lady that was the force majeure at eBay in making it the biggest, bestest site in the entire world, is stepping down, heeding her own advice that a CEO should never stay at a company more than 10 years.

It may not really mean much to the antiques industry, any more than what he's already meant, but an awful lot of us can point to her vision as the reason that we make a decent living, or supplement our day jobs. She is to be thanked for taking Web commerce to the next level.

It should be noted that iCommerce has slowed a bit in recent years, but that is across the boards as the lessons gleaned from eBay's rise have filtered down into the broader marketplace(s).

Here's to you, Meg! Best of luck for the future. Click on the link above to read the article.

Here's a sneak peak at what we've got coming up for the Feb. 6 issue of Antique Trader. Notice the subtle changes - besides to this blog - with two features up front, news on the right and more emphasis on nuts and bolts antiques and collecting. Let me know what you think.

After six months of wrangling and re-doing, the new Antique Trader blog is up and running. Soon to follow will be a total site re-build that will bring you the best of Trader, in an easy to navigate format, with this blog to let you sound off on whatever antiques-related issue you want. We might even be willing to run with a few peripherally related issues as well. This will be a place to post and discuss and latest antiques news, as well as reports on shows, shops and auctions. Also, if you have any questions for me, or about Trader - just about anything you'd want to know - please post away. The only way we can make both our site and our publication better will be through user-generated ideas that give you what you want from Trader. Plus, as editor of such a venerable publication, I really want to know how to best serve you. Let me know, and thanks!