NZ site beats American giant to online Cup auction rights

By ADAM GIFFORD

New Zealand online auction site trademe.co.nz has won the right to conduct "The Great Team New Zealand Auction" to raise money for the America's Cup defence.

Last Thursday, American online auction giant eBay invited the media to the launch of "a very special online auction which will be held on eBay.co.nz".

The invitation was withdrawn the next day, and Trade Me emerged as preferred auctioneer.

The fundraising project is a joint promotion by Team New Zealand and Bayleys Real Estate, which has its head office on the Viaduct Basin.

It comes days after Team New Zealand said it would not run a "red socks" fundraising initiative, as a mark of respect for Sir Peter Blake, the former team head, who devised the original sock campaign.

Trade Me general manager Nigel Stanford said his firm was invited to put in a bid last week.

Businesses and individuals will be invited to donate items, which will be auctioned online. Stanford said the three-year-old site would be able to cope with any extra traffic.

"We are New Zealand's second largest site, handling a million page views a day.

"I am confident we can cope," Stanford said.

Bayleys managing director Jeff Davidson refused to give details of the mechanics of the auction before the official launch today.

But he said the change in auctioneer came down to choice.

"eBay doesn't do trades in New Zealand dollars so that would be confusing for a large number of the people we want to attract for this," he said.

"Trade Me is also New Zealand-owned, which is very significant."