Bill would give fans the right to resell on auction sites, and the old guard isn't happy

By Jeremy Mullman
A bill just passed by the Illinois General Assembly could jolt the secondary market for sporting and concert tickets here.
The bill, now awaiting action by Gov. Rod Blagojevich, would make it legal for any Illinois resident to sell tickets for more than face value through a licensed Internet auction site, such as eBay. Currently, selling tickets above face value is legal only for the 38 ticket brokers licensed by the Illinois secretary of state's office.

 
Gov. Blagojevich has not yet decided whether to sign the bill, a governor's office spokesman says.
Advocates of the measure say it would lead to greater competition and lower ticket prices for consumers — and for businesses, which are heavy users of ticket brokers for client entertaining.

Opponents say it would expose ticket buyers to more potential fake-ticket scams and also deprive the city of Chicago of revenue from the 4% to 8% amusement tax that licensed ticket brokers are required to collect and pay.

 
"It's not a level playing field," says Barry Fox, president of the Central States Ticket Broker Assn. and owner of Barrington-based Tickets & Co.

Critics of the bill also say it would embolden more people — and venues — to try to sell tickets for a profit, driving prices up.

In fact, what may prove to be its most controversial provision would permit sports teams and other event organizers, as well as Ticketmaster, to operate their own secondary-market online brokerages. They could do so as long as they made the same tickets available to the general public first.

Calls to the Chicago Cubs — which already owns and operates its own licensed ticket broker — White Sox, Blackhawks and Bears weren't returned. The Chicago Bulls decline to comment.

BROKERS FOUGHT BILL

Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest concert promoter, actively opposed the bill, fearing online auctions would drive up ticket prices and damage an already depressed concert industry.

"This system is just going to drive the prices up even further," says Carl Adams, Midwest chief operating officer for San Antonio-based Clear Channel.

Counters a spokesman for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay Inc.: "This law should mean lower prices for consumers. The ticket brokers who are upset about this mainly just want to protect their monopoly."

Passage of the bill was an interesting spectator event itself. The bill was largely championed by eBay and California-based Ticketmaster, but it faced stiff opposition from the state's small but politically effective ticket broker industry.

The battleground for the bill was the Illinois Senate, which passed the measure May 20 on a 31-to-21 vote. Interestingly, the free-market-oriented Republicans sided with the ticket brokers while Democrats sided with eBay, whose auction site is widely seen as the ultimate free-enterprise marketplace.

 
"I'm not opposed to the sale of tickets on eBay, and I have no love lost for ticket brokers, believe me, but I think a sophisticated corporation like eBay (should) collect taxes like Illinois brokers do," says Sen. Kirk Dillard, R-Westmont, who voted against the bill.

The Democratic author of the legislation, Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, says the individual sellers, and not a marketplace like eBay, are responsible for paying the tax. He says he wrote the law to break the ticket broker "monopoly" and to keep up with 39 other states that have passed similar laws.

WIDESPREAD PRACTICE

In addition to making online sales legal, the bill also would require Web sites to carry insurance that would provide money-back guarantees to anyone who pays for fake tickets, similar to a requirement placed on licensed brokers.

If signed by Gov. Blagojevich, the bill would legalize and increasingly popularize an already widespread practice of selling event tickets through online auction sites.

Sites like eBay and StubHub are flooded with local event tickets for sale. According to the eBay spokesman, more than 3,400 Illinois tickets are already available on the auction site, many of them being sold for more than face price by unlicensed sellers — often at lower prices than available from brokers.

For instance, lower-deck tickets for an upcoming Rolling Stones concert at Soldier Field cost $383.33 each on eBay and $520 apiece on a database used by broker Web sites. (The broker tickets were four rows closer to the stage.)

STEVEN SPIELBERG has banned a British judge from seeing his WAR OF THE WORLDS movie before its official release - despite the judge having paid $2,368 (GBP1,300) for a private preview at a charity auction.

JUDGE CARL TEPER was ecstatic to have cast the winning bid in aid of children's charity SPARKS (NOV04), and planned a lavish party around the screening of the TOM CRUISE blockbuster, which he scheduled for 24 June (05) to coincide with his 50th birthday.

The star-studded guestlist included BOY GEORGE, actress BARBARA WINDSOR and columnist MATTHEW PARRIS.

But three days ago (27MAY05), Teper was mortified to receive an email from UNITED INTERNATIONAL PICTURES, who had donated the impressive prize for auction, saying Spielberg has refused permission for the preview.

Teper has slammed the company for what he describes as a "fundamental breach of contract".

An online auction site run for and by Australians since the start of the year says it is banking on a slow build-up to profitability.

OZtion wants to keep its operations confined to Australia, a move managing director Philip Druce says will help engender consumer trust.

OZtion has a verification system to reduce the possibility of fraud. "A verified user is one who has provided OZtion with a valid email address or credited his or her OZtion User account or completed OZtion's address verification process," Mr Druce said.

Non-verified users are not allowed to sell items free. Additionally, any transactions which fail, due to either the goods or money not being received, cannot be reported to the site operators.

Mr Druce admitted that there was a trade-off involved in keeping the site restricted to local users - it often meant that goods, particularly electronic items, which were released in countries like the US or Japan before they came to Australia, would not be obtainable on OZtion.

Membership and basic listings are free. Sales are free until July 15 after which a small fee would be introduced, Mr Druce said. There are fees for more specialised listings.

Sales and purchases of any items are monitored, and Mr Druce said there had so far been few disputes, all of which had been sorted out.

"We have 2000 members and a little over 9000 items for sale. We need more members," he said.

So it's not really worth two-thousand dollars, but the
Lawrence family calls it "The two-thousand dollar French fry," because
that's exactly what it's worth to them.

A couple of weeks ago, 19 year-old Andrew had to work late at McDonalds, and he got an order of fries for the drive home. "The fry fell on the floor," Andrew explained, "so I picked it up and didn't see the stop sign there and smack right into the car." It was his mother's car and it was just a couple of days after Mothers Day. "It was the worst call, 'mom, I wrecked your car,'" he said. Mom's reaction?

"Oh Andrew!," Marti Lawrence said laughing. She rushed to the accident
scene and saw no one was hurt. The bad news, though, the insurance would only cover the other drivers damage. The bills for the towing, the repairs to get the car drivable again, and the final cost to fix the damage all came to two-thousand dollars.

So his mother made the plaque for Andrew, featuring the two-thousand dollar French fry. "I made the plaque for him as a reminder to never take his eyes off the road," she said. Then a friend gave them an idea. "Maybe we could sell it on E-bay." So it's there now, up for bids. "Right now it's not going for much," Andrew said. Marti says her son isn't trying to skirt his responsibility, he's going to pay for the damage. But maybe some kind soul out there knows what it's like to be a teenager, and make a mistake.

After all, he's learned his lesson, "don't drive through stop signs and watch where you're going on the road, that's generally a good idea," he says chuckling. And next time, hold the fries.

To check out Andrew's auction, click on the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&" title="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&" target="_blank"http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayIS...;item=5584064853

ATHENS: Olympic silver medallist Adam Nelson (pic) of the United States wants a sponsor so badly, he put himself up for auction. 

The shot-putter is offering a one-month sponsorship on eBay, promising to wear thewinning bidder’s logo and make an appearance on behalf of the company. In his listing, Nelson lists his credentials, photos and the meets he will compete in before the US Championships start on June 23. 

Bidding reached US$3,700 as of Saturday morning, and closes on Wednesday. Nelson, who lives in Athens, had his sponsorships with Visa and Nike expire after the Olympics last year. Though he has gotten some offers, he hasn’t accepted any. 

Nelson even wore a “Space for Rent” T-shirt at the US Indoors in Boston earlier this year hoping to lure sponsors. When that failed, he turned to online bidding. – AP 

Wine Retailer Withdraws $11,000 Bid

A 21year-old college business major in New Jersey has proved a basic lesson of marketing: Sex sells.

Here's another incredibly ridiciculous item on eBay that someone is trying to retire on. The question is will Goldenpalace.com bite?

We bring you "The Original Tape Man"

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&" title="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&" target="_blank"http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayIS...;category=1469&item=5 583205695&rd=1&ss PageName=WDVW

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The Toasty Golden Palace

As you all have heard about the #1 Internet Casino

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I thought to myself how great it would be to make a

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&" title="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&" target="_blank"http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayIS...;item=5582756348&rd=1 &sspagename=STRK%3AME SE%3AIT&rd=1

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) -- An online auction format that puts sellers into competition for individual buyers has attracted a quarter-million postings on eBay since its introduction in December, the Web marketplace said on Tuesday.

The success of the "Want it Now" feature, a reverse auction format, has led the company to explore moving the feature to its non-U.S. Web sites, said Bill Cobb, the president of North American operations for eBay Inc..

"Its initial success in the U.S. is attracting interest from our international markets," Cobb said, speaking on the sidelines of an investor conference.

Ebay has introduced features such as "Want it Now" and a haggling feature for fixed-price auctions to try to attract new buyers and sellers and grow trading volume. The company faces investor concerns that its primary markets -- the United States and Germany -- are heavily saturated and will be difficult to grow.

The reverse auction format has proven particularly successful in attracting new business, Cobb said. Half of all "Want It Now" postings have been matched up with sellers, he said.

Ebay introduced "Want It Now" in December, ahead of the holiday shopping season. Shoppers post requests for specific items, and sellers browse those postings, which have included everything from novelty T-shirts to a San Francisco-area strip mall.

Even with 250,000 postings, the feature remains a small fraction of eBay's total business. The auction site hosts an average of about 30 million items for sale at any given time.

Ebay has 147 million registered users, split about evenly between the United States and non-U.S. markets.

Click Here for more WPVI.com Entertainment News

The six puppets, with pictures of key players taped to sticks, were sold on eBay to raise money for charity.

The winning bidder was the online casino GoldenPalace.com, which also recently bought what is believed to be Britney Spears' used home pregnancy test.

Nick Calamos needs a rebound in Internet-related stocks, such as Amazon.com and eBay, to propel the Calamos Growth Fund past the Standard & Poor's 500 Index for a seventh straight year. He's counting on one.

"We have some of the core companies in that space that we think are going to do extremely well," Calamos told investors in a recent conference call.

This year's losses in their shares are "a short-term blip," he said.

Seattle-based Amazon, the world's largest Internet retailer, and eBay, the Web's largest marketplace, are among Calamos' top holdings.

Shares of both companies have tumbled this year in response to disappointing forecasts, spurring a 10 percent decline in the $13.9 billion fund as of April 26.

This year, the fund is ranked 238th out of 257 similar funds and has lost more than twice as much as the S&P 500. The group's best performer is the Hennessy Focus 30 Fund, which had gained 6.2 percent through late last month.

Calamos Growth, co-managed by Calamos and his uncle, John Sr., has ranked in the top 16 percent of its class every year since the streak began in 1999, according to data tracked by Bloomberg News.

"They make savvy bets, but they could be caught leaning the wrong way," said Kerry O'Boyle, an analyst at Morningstar, a research firm in Chicago. "We still like the fund, but such a streak is harder and harder to maintain. I wouldn't be pounding the table telling people to buy this fund."

Rising assets

The fund surpassed 85 percent of U.S. growth funds, which favor stocks most likely to increase sales and earnings, in the past five years. Its annualized return of 3.2 percent compares with a negative 3.1 percent for the S&P 500. Forbes magazine gave the Calamos fund a No. 1 ranking in its 2004 Honor Roll.

Money has followed the performance. Assets have swelled 64 percent, from $8.5 billion a year ago, and have more than tripled during the past two years. Calamos Asset has also benefited, as total assets under management as of March 31 had climbed 32 percent from a year earlier, to $38.2 billion.

Stakes in Amazon, eBay and Yahoo!, the owner of the most-visited Internet site, account for 8.5 percent of Calamos Growth's assets. The fund holds 175 stocks.

Similar to Legg Mason

Amazon and eBay were also among the 10 biggest holdings of Bill Miller's Legg Mason Value Trust, which has surpassed the S&P 500 for a record 14 straight years, as of Dec. 31.

Fourth-quarter rallies in the two stocks allowed Calamos and Miller to beat the benchmark in 2004 and keep their funds' streaks alive.

Miller wrote in an April 15 report on Legg Mason's Web site that he is "drawn to some of the more venturesome areas of the market — including selected technology and Internet-related stocks."

"He has a unique way to look at businesses," Calamos said during the interview.

"He sees the big picture, and I think we do, too. E-retail is on a pretty high-growth track," he said, referring to electronic retailing.

Legg Mason is one of three U.S. mutual funds that have longer streaks of beating the S&P 500 than Calamos Growth, according to Morningstar. The others are the Quaker Strategic Growth Fund and the AIM Leisure Fund.

Calamos Growth benefited last year from a jump in shares of Apple Computer, the maker of the popular iPod digital music player.

The company's shares more than tripled amid surging demand for the devices.

Apple, which became the biggest holding during the first quarter, is the only one of its 10 largest investments to rise this year.

The Rascals, the professional independent minor league baseball team located in O’Fallon, Missouri, began play in the Frontier League in 1999. Mark Schlemeier, one of the owners of the team, came up with this ingenious design to raise money for the United Way. Ecstatic about the results of the auction, Schlemeier asked, “Who would ever thought that $10.20 would generate this much interest and publicity?”

The Rascals listed their auction on the evening of April 28, 2005 at $999.00. As word of this exciting auction disseminated, the organization began receiving national media attention. At the peak of the sale, the Rascals’ listing was receiving 300 hits a minute. The auction ended at 66 bids, with Skorlich at the head of the crowd.

Skorlich, will become a River City Rascal for a day, and will star in the team’s preseason game against the Gateway Grizzlies on Friday May 20, 2005 at 7:05 pm CST. Skorlich’s one-day professional contract will include: a guarantee of one at bat, at least a half inning in the outfield, a jersey, hat, and bat, as well as 20 tickets for his friends and family.

Skorlich, 41, will be outfitted in a #00 Rascals jersey. Upon receiving notification of his winning bid, Skorlich told Assistant General Manager Allen Gossett, “I can’t wait to start working out with the team.”

Cheapestees.com is an online company featuring “The lowest-priced, name brand t-shirts on earth.” In addition to his dreams of a grand slam and a web gem, Skorlich hopes that his time in the limelight will prove to be advantageous for company sales.

In the event that the game is rained out before Skorlich gets to play, he will join the Rascals the following evening against the Grizzlies at GMC Stadium in Sauget, Illinois.

A man who auctioned off a slice of toast carved with his drawing of the runaway bride feels burned because the winning bidder has refused to pay for the item.

Perry Lonzello, 48, of Stillwater, used a piece of toasted Wonder Bread as the canvas for his rudimentary portrait of Georgia bride-to-be Jennifer Wilbanks, and posted it at the online auction site eBay on a whim.

The auction debuted with a bid of $1.11 on May 1, but that amount grew quickly after the item drew national attention. And when the auction ended Sunday, Lonzello said a California man had submitted the winning bid of $15,400.

Lonzello — who has said he planned to donate money from the auction to charity — was prepared to hand over the toast on national television today, only to learn that the buyer had a change of heart.

"The purchaser reneged on the sale,'' Lonzello told The Star-Ledger of Newark, adding that the man was no longer returning his calls. "He said he was goofing around. I think some legal action will be coming out of this.''

In a case of dueling promotional pitches between rival minor-league baseball teams, chalk one up for the Rascals over the Grizzlies.

The River City Rascals' online auction of a "one-day professional contract" — a half-inning in the outfield and a chance to bat during a May 20 preseason game against the Gateway Grizzlies — proved to be a home run, drawing a leading bid of nearly $10,000 by the time the Grizzlies opted to join the fray Friday.

The Grizzlies put out an eBay listing of their own, selling for at least $500 a chance to be the pitcher against whoever wins the turn at bat for the Rascals in the game in the independent Frontier League.

The Rascals cried foul, pressing that the bidder of $9,700 to be a Rascal for a night perhaps had the expectation of being tested by a professional pitcher's steaming fastball or looping curveball — not potentially a stand-in hurler with marginal talent.

After the Rascals politely voiced worry that the bidder in their auction benefiting the United Way might withdraw his or her offer, the Grizzlies relented and pulled their eBay listing.

"Cooler heads prevailed," Allen Gossett, assistant general manager of the Rascals of O'Fallon in suburban St. Louis, said Saturday. "It was just that nobody would want to pay $10,000 to face their neighbor down the street. You could do that at a park or something."

The Grizzlies' general manager agreed.

"The bottom line is that the guy paying 10 grand deserves to face a professional pitcher, and that's what they'll get. It's their night," Tony Funderburg said. "The last thing we want to do is hurt charity. There's something there we can all learn from."

The wannabe Rascal with the highest bid as of Saturday afternoon remained identified only by his eBay user name of "taborjay07," unreachable for comment.

The Grizzlies had said their auction of a chance to pitch in the game would benefit St. Louis' Children's Hospital — before the Rascals protested.

"I don't want to call it a sibling rivalry, but it's something similar to that," Gossett said. "It's one thing to be competitive with us. It's another thing when you're talking about charity."

As part of the Rascals' offer that runs through 8 p.m. CDT Sunday, the winning bidder at least 18 years old gets 20 tickets to the game, at least one trip to the batter's box and will be furnished with a uniform, with the jersey — No. 00 — and hat theirs to keep. The player supplies his or her own glove, shoes, transportation, meals or any housing.

If the game is rained out, the winner will play with the Rascals when they again face the Grizzlies on May 21 at GMC Stadium in Sauget.

Jennifer Wilbanks' extravagant wedding plans now appear to be toast.

So perhaps it's appropriate that a New Jersey man chose a piece of toasted Wonder Bread as a canvas for the runaway bride's portrait, now selling for more than $16,000 on the auction Web site eBay.

While 48-year-old Perry Lonzello reportedly carved the Georgia bride's likeness into the toast and posted it as a joke, his artwork has been making some serious bread. Lonzello, who has been keeping a log of the resulting toast frenzy on the eBay listing, said he plans to donate the money to charity.

As of noon Pacific Time Saturday, 116 bids had been made on the toast, with a top bid of $16,100. The week-long auction started at $1 and closes Sunday morning.

Lonzello's called the auction item "Jennifer Wilbanks found on my morning breakfast toast."

"I still think her fiance did it," he continued in his description. "This is the one and only toast depicting the scam artist of the year, Jennifer Wilbanks. Look at the eyes, it's her. Don't be fooled by others."

Those commenting on the auction item couldn't help but be, well, "punny."

"No matter how you slice it, I think what you are doing is crummy," one respondent wrote. "I don't mean to sound stale but you should try to do more with your time besides loafing off at your computer."

One of the interested bidders, Lonzello said, appears to be GoldenPalace.com, which earlier this week bought Britney Spears' alleged home-pregnancy test for $5,001, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. Golden Palace's other recent acquisitions include a grilled-cheese sandwich that purportedly resembles the Virgin Mary's face and a Doritos chip that looks like the pope's hat.

A knock-off piece of runaway bride toast has also been posted and is going for just $19.99. But it doesn't have any bidders yet. Someone else has posted a runaway bride sticker with the description, "I just want to enjoy this ride."

Wilbanks disappeared for three days last week, shortly before her scheduled 600-guest wedding, triggering a nationwide search. Family and friends said they were afraid she was the victim of foul play. In the end, Wilbanks said she had run away on her own, fleeing by bus to Las Vegas and eventually to Albuquerque, N.M.

The online casino firm, Golden Palace.com, confirms that it won the auction and has purchased the 1999 Volkswagen Golf from Benjamin Halbe, a 21-year-old German man. Mr. Halbe bought the car for a little less than $15,000 in January, knowing nothing about its previous owner.

It was only when he received the Volkswagen's registration papers that he learned it had once belonged to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the German cleric who became Pope Benedict XVI last month.

Golden Palace.com calls its winning bid "one of the most phenomenal events in Internet history."

The online company also placed the winning bid for a grilled cheese sandwich said to show the image of the Virgin Mary.

A Volkswagon Golf car that was once owned by Pope Benedict XVI has been put up for auction on eBay.

Bidding has already reached 40,000 pounds and with two more days to go , the price is expected to go up.

Before he became the Pope, cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had sold his car for 6,800 pounds to 21-year old Benjamin Halbe in January this year.

According to Annanova, Halbe realized that following the election of the cardinal as Pope, there could be a market for his "pre-Pope mobile". He also produced papers to support his claim that the car once belonged to the Pope.

The metallic grey coloured car is said to be in a good condition and has never met with an accident.

The union has given permission to the charity Kiwi Can to auction the tickets to the second test in Wellington on July 2. Bidding had reached $1169 yesterday. The auction closes on Tuesday.

The tickets were given to Kiwi Can by its main backer, Telecom, which as a corporate sponsor of the All Blacks has an allocation of Lions tickets.

Kiwi Can organises motivational training for primary school pupils. Telecom spokeswoman Sarah Berry said the union had agreed to the auction because it was a "good cause".

She said Telecom was well aware of the scalping issue.

"We're not scalpers, we went through a legal sign-off process with the rugby union."

The Kiwi Can auction features in the same line-up as a multitude of scalpers, who have been warned they are breaching the terms and conditions of the tickets by selling them at a premium and could be banned from games.

A potential buyer posted a message on the auction site: "How can you sell at a premium with the blessing of the rugby union?"

Kiwi Can replied: "As a proud sponsor of the All Blacks, Telecom has rights to tickets and has decided to utilise two of these tickets to support Kiwi Can. This is with the full support of the NZRU as all proceeds will be given to charity."

Scalpers on TradeMe say the rugby union is stifling a free market and is hypocritical.

The union has also posted Lions ticket packages on TradeMe at a fixed price to try to preempt the scalping market.

It is concerned scalpers will sell their tickets to Lions fans, diluting New Zealand's home ground advantage.

Union deputy chief executive Steve Tew said the go-ahead was given because it was for charity. He compared it to tickets being auctioned at a charity dinner.

Tew said allowing the auction was "not entirely consistent" with the union's stance on ticket trading, but "I'm happy to stand by the decision."

* Wellington mother-of-two and rugby fan Jennie McInnes is the winner of the Steinlager song competition, and wins two tickets to the All Blacks v Lions.

McInnes, who was at the Hurricanes v Brumbies Super 12 game last night, was delighted with her win. This is her song, to the tune of "Ten Guitars":

Verse 1:

The All Blacks are a mighty team

And we know they are the best

Tana, Ritchie and the boys

We think you'll win the tests

Cape Reinga to Stewart Island

We'll come to watch you play

And as you run onto the park

You will hear us say . . .

Chorus:

Go-oh BLACK, BLACK, BLACK

World champs are on the run

Mr Woodward, don't you wish you'd never come?

Your days as champions of the world are done

Go-oh BLACK, BLACK, BLACK

You're number one

Verse 2:

If you think you can come down here

And show us how to play

You're more barmy than your army boys

But please, enjoy your stay

At the lineouts, scrums, rucks and mauls

We'll have you on the run

And our high scoring backs

Will show you how it's done

They should rename it the Instant Auction.

After 37 years, WCET-TV's "Action Auction" moves from the TV to the computer screen with a 40-day online auction starting today.

The same variety of vacation packages, art, antiques (a cool carousel horse!), jewelry, furniture, Reds tickets, collectibles and restaurant gift certificates will be available through the station's Web site, www.cetconnect.org.

But now buyers will have a better - and faster - chance to purchase items. Gone are the days where viewers had to watch TV for 10 straight nights and wait for an item to be showcased.

Now buyers can log on and look at more than 1,100 items in the catalog, and bid instantly on them.

"The auction will be open 24/7. If people prefer shopping at 2 a.m. in their bathrobes, they can," says Pam Byrne Riley, Channel 48 development director.

The online auction and two June parties are part of the station's 50th anniversary celebration. As with eBay, the Massachusetts cMarket company conducting the auction lets participants set a maximum bid for an item, e-mails updates if the bid is topped, allows bidders to watch prices for a multitude of items throughout the month, and accommodates last-second bids.

Gone are the days when the two-minute TV auction ticked by as volunteers hand-wrote callers' bids, which another volunteer ran across the studio to where they were posted on the big board.

"When we did it manually, we had no way to tell callers if their bid was the best or not. In a way, it was a crapshoot," says Glenn Petrosky, a Channel 48 volunteer from Clermont County's Miami Township.

"Now people will put in a bid, and it will be posted instantly so everyone will see it," says Petrosky.

Bidders also have the option to exceed the value and "buy now," which they couldn't do on TV.

"You might be able to get it for less. But if you really want it, you can get it right now," says Mary Beth Lacy, Channel 48 events director.

While preparing for the golden anniversary, Channel 48 executives decided to reinvent the "Auction" for the 21st century.

"In the past, the station would almost shut down for a month to pull off a 10-day auction," says Susan Howarth, Channel 48 president and CEO. "We're excited about the changes. When the auction began 38 years ago, there was no eBay and no home shopping channels."

The six-week Web auction may tap new financial resources here, and far beyond the reach of Channel 48's TV signal.

"You might not want an item, but you may send an e-mail to someone out of town who does. It's amazing how quickly word can travel by e-mail," Lacy says.

After the auction closes June 9, the station will throw a party the next night for young professionals. The anniversary celebration concludes June 11 with a Music Hall gala, which will include a live TV auction with upscale items.

"A TV auction is our tradition," Riley says, "so we're trying to serve people who don't have computers."

Home Sweet Home is expanding its 2-year-old eBay sales program to offer an Internet Consignment Shoppe to the public.

Customers will get 65 percent of the sale price; Home Sweet Home would charge a 35 percent commission that would cover eBay fees and raise money for the agency that serves the homeless and low-income people.

"It's a great fund-raiser and much less hassle than garage sales," said Sabrina Burkiewicz of Home Sweet Home's marketing and community relations. "It will be a great service to a lot of people."

The Internet Consignment Shoppe will operate out of the former Finnegan's video store, 1301 Morrissey Drive, Unit 2, Bloomington.

Home Sweet Home eBay manager Lloyd Wiesemann said the shop will begin taking consignments May 31.

"We have a research tool that shows us what items typically go for," Wiesemann said.

That information will be shared with the owner to determine if the consignment is agreeable before a contract is signed, he said.

Auctions on eBay last a week, Wiesemann said. If the item is not sold the first week, it will be listed again for another week. If it doesn't sell during the second listing, the owner can either pick it up or donate it to Home Sweet Home.

"There's no charge if it doesn't sell," he said.

The shop will not take offensive items or items on eBay's "illegal" list, such as drugs and currency. Wiesemann said the items also need to be small enough to ship.

Home Sweet Home has sold more than 10,000 items on eBay in two years. Wiesemann said some people have specifically donated items for the "virtual mart" while others came from general donations to Mission Mart.

"We have received 99.4 percent positive feedback on our eBay sales," Wiesemann said. "We know what we're doing."

The consignment shop still will take donated items for Internet sales. All of those proceeds go directly to the mission.

The agency also accepts a variety of items to sell at Mission Mart, a discounted second-hand store. All proceeds benefit Home Sweet Home ministries.

Burkiewicz said there will be a grand opening celebration at the consignment shop on June 18.