A Fresh Look At Online Auctions!	Visited: 2392 Not rated Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by A. T. Rendon October 19, 2003

In a recent report, Forrester Research, http://www.forrester.com/, has come up with some interesting figures on auctions online.

They are estimating that online auction sales will grow to over $55 Billion by the year 2007. If this estimate is even close to being correct it means that online auction sales will account for a whopping 27% of ALL U.S. online retail sales!

Perhaps NOW is the time to consider looking into online auctions as an excellent vehicle to power your own sales online no matter what you are involved with.

Here is a short list of the most popular auction web sites currently doing business on the Internet:

eBay
http://www.lycos.ebay.com

eBay was founded in September 1995, and is the World's Top Online Marketplace for the sale of goods and services.

The eBay community includes tens of millions of registered members from around the world and it is the most popular shopping destination on the Internet.

"Our Marketplace On any given day, there are more than 12 million items listed on eBay across 18,000 categories. In 2002, eBay members transacted $14.87 billion in annualized gross merchandise sales (GMS, the value of goods sold on eBay).

People come to the eBay marketplace to buy and sell items across multiple categories, including but not limited to:

antiques and art, books, business & industrial, cars & other vehicles, clothing & accessories, coins, collectibles, crafts, dolls & bears, electronics & computers, home furnishings, jewelry & watches, movies & DVDs, music, musical instruments, pottery & glass, real estate, sporting goods & memorabilia, stamps, tickets, toys & hobbies and travel."

New to selling on eBay?

No problem!

Just look for the 'SELL' button at the top of their Main web page and it will SHOW you exactly HOW to make sure you do the following:

· Learn how to sell on eBay
· Review the seller's checklist
· Create a seller's account
· Learn about selling fees

uBid
http://www.ubid.com/

"uBid is a leading retail auction and e-commerce site. At uBid, you'll have the opportunity to purchase a wide range of brand name merchandise, up to 70 percent off retail, through live-action bidding.

Huge Selection of Brand Name Merchandise! At uBid, you'll find a rotating selection of more than 12,000 brand name products, including:

Compaq, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Sony, Micron and more! In addition, we have 16 different product categories, including computers; computer peripherals; computer components; home office; housewares; sports and hobbies; jewelry and gifts; accessories; off-lease computers; consumer electronics; digital cameras and video; apparel and linens; home improvement; travel and events; collectibles; and everything else."

Personally, I have found them to be more of a 'dumping ground' for obsolete merchandise rather than a true auction site like eBay.

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Yahoo Auctions
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

Click on the 'Sell Stuff' link next to the Advanced Search link and it will walk you through the selling process, one step at a time.

Although Yahoo Auctions is growing by leaps and bounds, they are not near eBay's league.

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Amazon.com Auctions
http://auctions.amazon.com/

They are in the same boat as Yahoo, growing but Not yet the giant that eBay has become. They do offer a wide range of items up for bid.

Click on 'Seller Account' to learn 'HOW TO' here.
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Auction Port Online Auction House
http://www.auctionport.com/

Click on, 'see how to get started' and it will walk you through the process whether you want to Buy or Sell.

"Auction Port features free image hosting and hit counters, Live Chat, Books, Appraisals and no auction insertion fees! Registration is not required to browse the community..."

They even offer Live, in real-time, auctions.

Browse and enjoy.

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These are just a few of the MANY options that are currently available to anyone interested in Auctions.

And, by all accounts, these are the big league players where you will find more registered users and more items that are available to draw people to the site.

However, before you do anything with auctions, I do recommend that you check out the Federal Trade Commission web site which offers a short but detailed no-nonsense guide with auction tips that will make your online auction experience more profitable and less costly:

Internet Auctions: A Guide for Buyers and Sellers http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/auctions.htm

"Internet auctions have become one of the hottest phenomena of the web. They offer buyers a "virtual flea market" with an endless range of merchandise from around the world - and they give sellers a "storefront" from which to market anything and everything from sports memorabilia to computer systems to millions of international buyers.

Now is the time to start doing the learning curve on auctions so that as the industry grows over the next few years into the 'Billion Dollar' sales avenue that is predicted, you will already be positioned to take advantage of this new wave of revenue.

Going, going, gone!