Internet Steptoe on a global cart

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Edward Buchanan has long been a dabbler in the antiques trade, but the eBay auction website has helped him to turn his hobby into a nice little earner.

"I do it full time now - it's fun and there is a living to be made out of it," says the retired land agent.

Mr Buchanan, who trades on eBay as lots2us, made his first online sale a year ago to a woman in Britain who took a fancy to a Carlton Ware cup and saucer he was offering.

Now, with more than 800 successful auctions under his belt, Mr Buchanan has become one of this country's busiest eBayers, dispatching around 30 shipments a week from his Sunnynook home.

But Mr Buchanan insists that he is no antiques expert and he happily refers to his stock-in-trade - anything from dolls and Doulton to medals and war memorabilia of all kinds - as junk.

"There's no shortage of junk here, that's for sure. Sometimes I think I'm saving our landfills," he jokes.

Mr Buchanan buys at local antique shops and auctions, and sells almost exclusively to overseas buyers, especially to the relatively junk-less United States, which accounts for around 85 per cent of his sales. The United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and South Africa are also good markets.

Mr Buchanan says one of the secrets to successful selling on eBay is not to specify a reserve or minimum bid. If buyers are able to name any price they like, he argues, someone is more likely to make the vital first bid that will get the ball rolling.

When buyers are looking through pages and pages of listings, most of which have no bids, their attention is immediately drawn to an item which has already attracted some interest.

If a seller is lucky, Mr Buchanan explains, a kind of buying frenzy may develop.

"People are like seagulls. I've seen an auction start with a few low bids, then suddenly two people start trying to outbid each other and the price goes through the roof."

Mr Buchanan cites the example of an old doll's chair he sold last year. The first bid was $US12 ($26.60), well below the $70 Mr Buchanan paid for the chair. But further bids soon piled up and it eventually sold for $US 382.99 ($850).

Mr Buchanan says eBay's 19.5 million subscribers are such a huge market that almost anything sells.

"What you buy is not as important as the price you have paid for it, and with the exchange being as it is, it's difficult to go wrong."

Mr Buchanan warns, though, that sellers stand little hope of making a profit on valuable items manufactured by recognised names.

"The really good stuff has been subject to international prices ever since the introduction of the fax. For example, an antique dealer only has to contact Sothebys or Christies to find out what something by Tiffany or Lalique is worth in London."

Mr Buchanan also stresses the importance of building up a good track record within the eBay system.

"A lot of Americans are terrified of international trading. There's no Consumer Guarantees Act in operation here, so everyone relies on each other being honest."

To help eBay users assess the trustworthiness of others, each seller or buyer is awarded a rating based on references supplied by people they have already dealt with.

Mr Buchanan has never had a negative reference and he enjoys a very high rating of 436 positive references, which have been earned largely by careful packaging and swift delivery.

But he admits his paperwork was not up to scratch in the early days.

"At that time it was winter in North America and a lot of packages were being held up in the snow. When the complaints came flooding in I had to look through mountains of receipts to find out what was going on.