by Andrews Victor

Created on: November 09, 2011   Last Updated: November 11, 2011

In a smart and timely marketing move just ahead of the “season of giving” holiday, the most popular online auction marketplace eBay has launched eBay.com/Celebrity – a unique shopping address that aims to cash in on the celebrity craze by blending celebrity experiences, memorabilia and products with humanitarian causes.

The new concept, whose tagline reads: “Stars making a difference with eBay”, was perhaps inspired by a series of celebrity auctions that generated quite a buzz this year.

* In March 2011, a lock of teen singer Justin Bieber's hair was auctioned for $40,668 for the Gentle Barn Foundation, a California-based animal rights organization;

* In June 2011, in the 12th annual charity auction an anonymous person pledged a record $2.63 million to join billionaire investor Warren Buffet for a steak lunch!;

* In September 2011, an auction of 1,500 pairs of Nike MAG self-lacing shoes – similar to the ones featured in the 1989 sci-fi film Back to the Future II – raised a whopping $5.6 million to support the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.

Combining charity with commerce was perhaps a logical move for eBay which celebrities for many years have been using as the platform of choice to raise funds for their favorite charities.

"We know that our customers have been coming to eBay specifically to look for and connect with their favorite charities and celebrities," Richelle Parham, chief marketing officer of eBay North America, said on the occasion of the launch of the new site.

"Only eBay has the innovative technology and large portfolio of tools to combine celebrity, charity and commerce to engage consumers with the causes they care about most," he added.

eBay.com/Celebrity is part of the largest online auctioneer's charitable platform eBay Giving Works which has this year alone raised $51 million and more than $278 million to date for various charitable causes.

However, eBay has said it would not be taking a percentage of these charity auctions. So, what’s in it for eBay?

Maybe nothing directly but the benefits it will indirectly reap from the traffic such auctions will eventually generate will be well worth the gamble. For instance, the Bieber auction more than doubled searches for Bieber on the site and boosted revenue for Bieber-related merchandise by 36 per cent.

At the launch of eBay.com/Celebrity celebrities included Brad Pitt, Katy Perry, Christina Aguilera, Sienna Miller, Jeff Bridges,

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