ESCAPE WINTER WITH AN AUCTION

Do you have the wintertime blues? I'm tired of the snow and cold weather, and I'm ready for a little excitement.

Where can you find some fun at your fingertips? Online auction sites, of course.

Whether you're going to bid or just gawk, these online auction sites are great places to hang out without having to worry if you scratch your nose or raise your hand.

Of course, the most well known auction sites is one of the biggest.

www.ebay.com

What I find interesting about the auction world is the self-regulated by buyers and sellers themselves. If you have a high approval rating, people will buy from you. If you have negative feedback, forget it.

Of course that doesn't mean buying and selling online is risk-free. There are con artists everywhere and the Internet is no exception. But eBay does offer a fraud protection program for items priced at $200 or less. Founded in September 1995, eBay bills itself as the world's largest online trading community. In 2000, the eBay community transacted an amazing $5 billion in gross merchandise sales.

Users on eBay represent more than 150 countries, which underscores the Internet's standing as a global community.

And it's not just garage sale junk. Earlier this month, eBay rolled out eBay Premier, which caters to premium art, antiques and rare collectibles.

I have been amazed at how eBay has changed over the years. I like to browse through the used children's clothes, doll clothing and quilt auctions.

And there's little doubt that eBay is home to the oddities. For example, late last week the black Lexus that country singer George Jones crashed in a drunken-driving incident was posted on eBay. The owner hoped to sell the car for up to $150,000.

Please.

But while eBay might be one of the better known auction sites, there are many more off the beaten path. Next stop: AuctionWatch.

www.auctionwatch.com

This site originated in July 1998 as a message board by an auction enthusiast. He felt auction users could benefit from a central Internet destination where they could discuss their experiences and learn from each other. Thus was the basis for AuctionWatch, which incorporated in early 1999.

You can find lots of tools and tips at this site. AuctionWatch also offers its own search technology that allows buyers a convenient way to locate and purchase merchandise on the Internet.

This site boasts of more than 4 million unique visitors per month, and more than 100,000 searches every day.

Registration is free and takes only a few minutes. They they'll help you build an eye-catching auction ad and list it to one of the three major auction sites: eBay, Amazon or Yahoo.

For buyers, you can take advantage of "Track Auction" that imports auctions that interest you, "Universal Search," which finds a particular item over 300 sites or "Control Panel," which oversees all your bidding activity on different sites from one location.

Make sure to check out their "Beginners Guide to Online Auctions," which was very good. It includes tips on rules, etiquette, formats and even auction lingo.

www.biddersedge.com

This auction portal helps buyers to buy smarter on auction sites.

They boast of providing tools and services that give bidders a competitive advantage in the online auction process.

With Bidder's Edge, you can customize your searches to find items fast; you can use their Personal Shopper to launch automatic searches or their Auction Tracker will track the items you want. And you can also get notification alerts when the item is found through "PingMe!"

Bidder's Edge covers more than 200 of the leading online auction sites.

That's certainly better than visiting all these sites yourself.

What's the market potential? Bidder's Edge points out that person-to-person auctions such as eBay now account for 70 percent of the auction market and that merchant auctions represent 30 percent. But some industry experts look for the merchant auctions to grow tremendously over the next few years. And that could be a boom to auction-savvy surfers.

One neat service of the site is called "Price History." Pick your items and it will offer you the price high, low and last bid, to give you an idea what to pay. It's really fast and informative.

If you search by categories, you can sort by all auctions, person-to-person, retailer auctions, group buys or even fixed price.

www.webcharity.com

For a different kind of Web site, check out WebCharity.com. It has been around since July 1998. They bill themselves as "the most efficient place on Earth to transform in-kind gift donations to cash for nonprofit organizations." Nonprofit groups can also use the site as a "thrift shop" and hold charity auction events. To date, WebCharity has raised more than $150,000 and has more than 600 nonprofit members.

Here's how it works: individuals and companies can pledge new and used items to their favorite cause, which will be sold via an auction or retail sale format. They say 100 percent of the donation goes to the nonprofit beneficiary. WebCharity is also fee for nonprofits to use.

While the notion is great, it's pretty slim pickings not quite 100 as to items on the auction block.

www.collectorsuniverse.com

If you're a serious collection, you might enjoy a stop by Collector's Universe. These people take their auctions seriously.

The categories are divided into coins, currency, sports, autographs, records and stamps. They bill themselves as the largest provider of grading and authentication services, in-depth price guides, lingo , news and information, offering more expertise than any other collectibles company.

This site combines such information as price guides and message boards with places to buy and sell collectibles. These include auctions, e-shops or more traditional dealers.

This looks like a lot of good information to help you get the best price when you're buying or selling collectibles.

I wouldn't be surprised if more and more retail Web sites embrace the auction format. When I was on the JCPenney Web site over the weekend, that they had added a "JCPenney Red Alert," for clearance and auction items.

www.jcpenney.com

The bidding starts at $1 for lots of things and it looks like fun. And at these retail sites, you don't have to worry about the quality of the merchandise or if the items you buy will really arrive.

You can bid in an auction or you can buy right away or wait until the prices fall.

I predict that these name-brand sites will be popular in the future. What's your favorite auction site? You can e-mail me at jonia@sehosp.org.

See you in Cyberspace.

Joni Adams is the Webmaster at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, wwwsoutheastmissourihospital.com