A few years back a guy out of Boston set up an auction site, xbid.com. It was geared towards bicycle collectors, but it never caught on. He even put a better part of his collection up for sale to stimulate interest, but for some reason it still never caught on. Yahoo and others already have auction sites, but it never seems that I hear anything about them. Ebay does have the market cornered, but as far as I am concerned, it is the best place to buy and sell. The sellers fees are really minimal compared to running ads in newspapers and newsletters, and you have a result within 3,5,7 or 10 days. Ebay does a ton of advertising, and everybody with a computer knows eBay. I love to see a high ebay charge on my credit card each month, that only means that I have been selling lots of stuff.
IMHO, eBay is the best bang for the buck. Are there shill bidders out there, sure. Are there shill bidders on any auction website, and live auctions for that matter, absolutely.
The most important part of hosting a successful auction are keywords. Instead of just advertising Campagnolo, use Campy, Campagnola, Campag, etc. I also be;lieve that starting an auction with a low starting price and letting it creep up with lots of bids is a good idea. People see lots of bidders and think that they have to have that item as well.
On a side note with some classic content, did any Interbike attendees see Jeff Gromans documentary video on 6 day racing?
Scott McCaskey
Dalworthington Gardens, TX