Cumberland store recognized as eBay Family Business of the Year

RHODE ISLAND INTERNET CONSIGNMENT AND SALES, an eBay store based in Cumberland, has been named the family business of the year by the website in its inaugural SHINE Awards for Small Business. / COURTESY EBAY
RHODE ISLAND INTERNET CONSIGNMENT AND SALES, an eBay store based in Cumberland, has been named the family business of the year by the website in its inaugural SHINE Awards for Small Business. / COURTESY EBAY

CUMBERLAND – Rhode Island Internet Consignment and Sales was recognized as the family business of the year at eBay’s SHINE Awards for Small Business this week.
The business is operated by William Wolstenholme and his family.
A single antique sale – a $100 tin toy that sold for $500 – led to the formation of Wolstenholme’s online business, in which he sells about $10,000 of antiques a day while employing two of his daughters and a son-in-law. His story stood out among 1,300 submissions and two other finalists to win eBay’s inaugural national seller recognition program in the family business category.
According to his bio, Wolstenholme started selling on eBay 17 years ago: “eBay has completely changed and re-shaped our family’s life over the past 17 years, bringing us closer together. My wife and I went from not knowing if we were going to be able to pay our rent or feed our children to supporting ourselves and five other families with our flourishing eBay business,” he wrote.

He said his proudest selling moment came when a neighbor who was struggling financially came to them with a box of Transformer toys from her mother, who worked at Hasbro Inc. in the 1980s. They listed the collection, and over three months, were able to give her $100,000.
It “changed her life, and we were so proud to have been able to help her,” Wolstenholme wrote.
The award ceremony was held Thursday night in Las Vegas during eBay OPEN, eBay’s seller celebration event. Awards highlight success and efforts of entrepreneurs around the country and recognize contributions of small businesses on eBay to the U.S. economy.
A small business of the year was recognized, and winners also were recognized in categories of woman small business owner, growing business, global business and charitable business. Category winners were awarded a $5,000 cash prize, as well as marketing tools and services to help grow their eBay businesses.
The eBay SHINE Award winners were selected from more than 1,300 submissions that came from across the United States.
The eBay community had a chance to vote on 15 selected finalists for category winners: three in each of the five categories. Nearly 40,000 votes were cast for the category winners by more than 18,000 voters across the country.
The Small Business of the Year, the grand prize winner, was selected by a panel of expert judges including eBay representatives, a past winner from eBay’s Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year program, eBay’s Open for Business podcast host and entrepreneur, John Henry, and administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration, Maria Contreras-Sweet.

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