Now everybody's an online wheeler-dealer

The online auction site Trade Me, which sells everything from lollipops sucked by film stars to used British police helicopters, will soon become New Zealand's most popular website.

Internet researcher Nielsen NetRatings says present champ Xtramsn had 1.97 million unique visitors in May, but Trade Me was right behind with 1.94 million.

And Trade Me is growing faster, at 14 per cent each month compared with Xtra's 4 per cent, which means it's only a matter of time.

Why is a site that allows people to sell the junk in their attic so popular? I decided to jump in and see what all the commotion was.

I decided to sell something. A colleague at the Herald volunteered a solid silver ring with a skull-and-crossbones motif, a relic from days when his hair was a little longer and his music collection a little heavier.

I dislike filling out forms, so it was a pleasant surprise to find the only trick to registering on the site was choosing a trading name. With more than 1.1 million traders registered, finding a unique nickname, however, was a game for the stubborn. "Scribe", "scribbler", "paperboy" and "delboy" were already taken, and I decided there was nothing cool about being "delboy28".

Many attempts later, my Canadian editor suggested Rushfan, based on the world-famous rock band Rush, from his homeland. My Kiwi colleagues laughed as "rush" is also apparently slang for a muscle relaxant associated with an intimate pastime between consenting adults.

But it was too late - I was registered. Being British, what did I know? So in the end, "Rushfan" was wanting to sell a skull-and-crossbones ring. Sales could be slow.

Listing an item was simple: select the category for your item, include a description, set your starting bid and duration of auction, and away you go. You can also set a reserve price.

Although basic listing is free, $10 must be credited to your account to cover account setup. Additional costs of listing an item for sale, including use of photographs, premium placement and successful sales fees, are deducted from this account.

The auction began and the tension was palpable, but where was the stampede of bidders? Probably looking at one of the other 60,000 items listed on Trade Me daily.

Eventually, bidding began - $20, $25, $26, and the auction was closed. Not the frenzied auction I had hoped for. The bidding didn't reach my reserve of $50, so the ring was not sold. Through Trade Me I emailed the bidders offering to sell it for $50, and got a sale.

Parties can exchange money and goods through a number of options, including bank deposits, credit cards and even cash. They also have the option of using SafeTrader, which acts as a go-between - the online service holds the money until the goods are sent to the buyer by registered delivery. On receipt, the money is forwarded to the seller.

The experience was smooth and simple, which explains why Trade Me auctions have more than doubled in the past year to an annual rate of more than 19 million.

Business manager Mike O'Donnell says there are three reasons why Trade Me is grabbing the nation's attention: it keeps transactions simple, it builds an online community that people want to visit - there are more than 2000 chatroom threads running - and it gives Kiwis a bargain hunt.

It's as much a place for the savvy seller as the bargain hunter. North Shore resident Keith Hooper says he couldn't give his firewood away before he listed it on Trade Me.

"I put it on Trade Me because I just wanted to get rid of the stuff, so I put it on for a dollar. To my amazement the auction went up to $95."

Trade Me isn't the only auction site to try its hand in New Zealand. US-based global giant eBay started up a New Zealand site in 2001, two years after Trade Me, but it never really took off. Observers say eBay's failure and Trade Me's success is because of New Zealanders' perception that it is safer to trade on a locally owned site.

"In the back of your mind there's that notion that legal recourse is available if things go wrong," says David Harris of the internet governance group InternetNZ.

So what are some of the weirdest things sold on Trade Me? O'Donnell has seen most of them - a Mickey Mouse-shaped toasted sandwich, a $400 lollipop half sucked by Orlando Bloom at a Lord of the Rings premiere, and a $7500 cigarette butt said to be the last legal cigarette smoked in a Wellington pub.

But O'Donnell says his team cannot view all 60,000 items listed daily, and often it is the media who make the amazing finds. That includes a used British police helicopter listed for $810,000 or nearest offer.