Ten minutes before my auction was due to close, everything fell apart. I was about to score a sweetheart deal on a brand-new, in-the-box 3D graphics card--and my bid of $50 was just sitting there.

Without warning, two other bidders swooped in and upped the price to $60. Panicking, I raised my bid to $65. No good. The price jumped to $70 ... $75 ... $80.

When the dust settled, the card went to "BD from Richmond, Virginia" for $95. I cursed him under my breath. Then I surfed off to see what other cards were up for bid, and the hunt began anew...--Diary of a Web auction bidder

Welcome to the wild world of online auctions. At its worst, the adventure can be hair-raising. But at its best, it can be an addictive way to buy high-quality products at bargain-basement prices. The range of items up for bid is nearly unlimited, from factory-fresh PC gear to toys like the ones Mom tossed out when you were a kid.

It's no wonder auctions rank among the hottest Web shopping sites. Even so, successful auction buying isn't a no-brainer. We speak as battle-hardened veterans of bidding at big-name sites (see "The Bidder Truth").

We began our quest with a wish list of 20 products, including a 333-MHz or better computer for less than $750, a $250 17-inch monitor, a $200 CD jukebox, an $80 golf club, and a $50 cordless telephone. Because collectibles today rank among the most popular of auction items, we also sought some special fare: a vintage copy of Stephen King's novel The Stand, a Mark McGwire rookie card, and a poster for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

Girded with credit cards, money orders, and determination, we went abidding. And we nabbed some real deals, including a Pentium II desktop PC with DVD-ROM for $770, and a notebook with a great active-matrix screen for $929. We snapped up the McGwire card for $120 and the Star Wars poster for $55. (We've seen these items selling elsewhere for $200 and $150, respectively.)

We didn't, however, come away from every auction we "won" feeling like winners. Some products were incomplete, and one never arrived at all. In addition, auctions don't come with all the standard assurances of retail buying: Return and warranty policies are often lacking.

On any given day, even the best sites may be awash in so-so deals. It all depends on what you're looking for. That makes the sites hard to rate, but two--EBay and Onsale--are standouts. Both have scads of items to choose from, well-designed interfaces that simplify buying, and plentiful help and tutorials. They're not the only auction sites worth a visit, but they're smart places to start.

No matter where you bid, arm yourself with thorough knowledge of the item you bid on, the seller offering it, and the rules of the game. Impulse bidders are begging to be disappointed--a fact we're embarrassed to admit we learned the hard way.

Ten minutes before my auction was due to close, everything fell apart. I was about to score a sweetheart deal on a brand-new, in-the-box 3D graphics card--and my bid of $50 was just sitting there.

Without warning, two other bidders swooped in and upped the price to $60. Panicking, I raised my bid to $65. No good. The price jumped to $70...$75...$80.

When the dust settled, the card went to "BD from Richmond, Virginia" for $95. I cursed him under my breath. Then I surfed off to see what other cards were up for bid, and the hunt began anew...

SITE	Auction type	Specialties of the house	What we liked	What needs work	Our take
Amazon.com Auctions	Person-to-person	Collectibles, flea-market fare	Nice look and feel, friendly atmosphere, $250 insurance against fraud.	Fewer products than EBay and Yahoo Auctions.	A good start, but needs more items.
Recommended EBay	Person-to-person	Everything under the sun, and then some	Vast trove of goods, easy browsing and bidding, free insurance, great help section.	Not much, but person-to-person auctions can be risky.	No other person-to-person auction compares.
Egghead Auctions	Merchant	Computer equipment	Decent--albeit slightly outdated--selection of PC hardware and software.	Clunky and confusing, no proxy bidding, so-so auction-tracking tools.	Not all it's cracked up to be.
First Auction	Merchant	Household goods, collectibles, jewelry	Best array of furniture, clothing, jewelry, food, and other noncomputer products.	No proxy bidding.	Like the Home Shopping Network, only online.
Recommended Onsale	Merchant	Computer and office equipment	Fine variety of items, efficient interface, extensive item tracking and help.	Proxy bidding could be easier.	Our favorite merchant auction.
UBid	Merchant	Computer equipment	Wide range of computer products, handy auction-tracking page.	Uneven item descriptions, proxy bidding not universal.	Try Onsale first.
Yahoo Auctions	Person-to-person	Toys, collectibles, flea-market fare	Slick user interface, easy browsing, range of merchandise second only to EBay's.	Fewer fraud safeguards than EBay and Amazon.com Auctions.	A worthy EBay alternative.

Nearly all Web auction sites (and their number is rapidly expanding) fall into one of two categories: merchant or person-to-person. Merchant auctions, such as Egghead Auctions, First Auction, Onsale, and UBid, deal largely in manufacturers' overstock and refurbished items. Except for the bidding, the purchase process works much as it does at any other e-commerce site. The transaction is highly automated, you pay with a credit card over a secured line, and you can choose from a number of shipping options, including overnight delivery.

At their most lackluster, merchant auctions are technology graveyards--stuff winds up there because it can't easily be sold by traditional means. Some items are new but a tad outdated, others have been returned by their original buyers and spruced up for resale, and still others are just plain used. During our bidding spree, for example, Egghead Auctions offered Epson's original Stylus Photo printer, released in 1997, and UBid had last year's Stylus Photo 700--both refurbished. But no auction had the Epson printer we really coveted, the new-and-improved Stylus Photo 750.

In contrast to merchant auctions, person-to-person sites such as Amazon.com Auctions, EBay, and Yahoo Auctions simply act as venues to bring buyers and sellers together. Most sellers are individuals, though small businesses also hawk their wares. You'll find some new merchandise on these sites, but primarily they offer used items and collectibles--almost everything imaginable, really. (In the market for a Geiger counter? EBay had more than 30 of them when we checked.) Bidding is similar to the process on reseller sites, but you and the individual seller arrange the method of payment and delivery. The site takes a small cut of the seller's proceeds but isn't otherwise involved. (Buyers pay nothing to the site.)

As we've said, the product selection at every Web auction is in constant flux. But it's not completely unpredictable. Onsale, for instance, had a stellar selection of desktop computers each time we dropped in--around 120 models, including lots of brand-name equipment (from Acer, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM, for instance) and up-to-date technology (Pentium III chips). By contrast, First Auction stocked only 40 desktops, chiefly from obscure vendors like Gazelle and QualityClick (who?). On the other hand, First Auction came close to being a virtual department store--we ran across Weber grills, Body by Jake hip and thigh sculptors, fancy Mickey Mouse watches, leather love seats, electric pet-fences, and tins of gourmet popcorn (just the sort of fare that you would expect from the online arm of TV's Home Shopping Network).

Among the person-to-person sites, there was no competing with EBay's ridiculously vast offerings--nearly 2 million items in every conceivable category were up for auction when we visited. About a tenth as many auctions were under way at Yahoo--still a formidable selection. Amazon.com Auctions was brand-new when we shopped there, so choices were noticeably sparser. Given the site's inviting design and Amazon's millions of book-buying customers, we'd expect the selection to grow rapidly.

All the auction sites we visited let you window-shop without registering--a good way to compare sites before you start bidding. To track down an item you're looking for, you can browse by category, search by keyword, or check out the featured auctions hyped on the home page. In our experience, browsing by category was the most efficient way to go; the only item we found with a keyword was a copy of The Stand on EBay.

Web auctions typically last somewhere between an hour and a week, though some can last longer. The norm is four to five days for person-to-person auctions, two to three days for merchant sites. You can enter the fray at any point--in fact, bidding often proceeds rather sporadically until an auction's final minutes. But before you place a bid, take the following steps:

Give the item listing a thorough going-over--including the fine print. What comes with the item and what doesn't? If the item is second-hand, is its condition clearly stated? Bear in mind that descriptions at person-to-person sites vary wildly--they're prepared by the individual sellers. If the description doesn't answer all your questions, phone or e-mail the seller before bidding.

Check the sales policies for the item. How much will shipping cost? Can you get your money back if the item isn't what you expected, or can you get it fixed under warranty? Don't be shocked to find your options are very limited: If merchant sites deign to take nondefective items back, they typically charge onerous restocking fees (First Auction charges 20 percent). Warranties on refurbished items often run for just 90 days, versus a year or more for new products. At person-to-person auctions, refund policies are entirely up to the seller, though pricey items often come with a money-back guarantee.

You can't make an intelligent bid unless you know an item's fair market value. (Don't count on other bidders to display any common sense--folks often bid more than they'd pay for the same items at nonauction sites.) The quickest way to check a product's worth: Consult a price-comparison Web site like Excite's Product Finder, which monitors prices at various Web merchants, auctions, and online classifieds. Also helpful is Bidder's Edge, which tracks past selling prices at a number of auction sites.

Here are some more ways to practice defensive shopping:

You needn't be an auction expert to grasp the basics of the process: The seller puts an item up for bid and sets a minimum price; buyers can then place bids according to preset increments. For example, a digital camera may have a minimum opening bid of $199, with bid increments of $10. (Minimums are sometimes eye-poppingly tiny--"Pentium-III PCs starting at $7!"--but only when the seller is sure that bidding will quickly drive prices up to a profitable level.)

Not all rules are obvious to the uninitiated. At most merchant auctions, for instance, the closing times are changeable--if a last-minute bidding war erupts, the auction doesn't end until 5 minutes after the final bid has been placed. This delay can push the auction's conclusion past the stated closing time--and it may shut you out of the running if you can't stick around to monitor the action.

Rules get hairy in multiple-item sales. For example, 20 identical bread makers may be offered at a single auction. You can bid for one or more of the items. At EBay's multiple-item auctions, every winning bidder gets the item at the lowest successful bid. In other words, you may end up paying less than the amount you bid. Other sites don't follow this laudable policy--at Onsale, we got carried away, overbid, and paid $210 for a CD changer that other buyers got for $145.

If you're bidding at a person-to-person auction, one more rule applies. If you win, you will probably find yourself sending a check or money order to a distant stranger, so stick to sellers with a history of honest transactions. All major person-to-person sites rely on a peer review system to encourage fair dealing, an approach EBay pioneered with its Feedback Forum. Buyers and sellers post public comments indicating whether they've had a positive or negative experience with a seller; these comments are reflected in the seller's "feedback rating" number. The higher the number, the greater the evidence that you're dealing with someone trustworthy.

The Feedback Forum is invaluable, but it's not foolproof--sleazy merchants have been known to pad their profiles with infusions of false praise they've written themselves or paid others to supply. Ultimately, all person-to-person auction transactions involve an element of risk (see "Buyer Beware").

Baby-sitting a bid from beginning to end is not much fun and sometimes just impossible. So most auction services offer automated proxy bidding, usually under a cutesy name such as BidBuddy, Bid-Click, or BidButler. You specify the maximum you're willing to spend; the service then monitors the auction, placing bids for you that are just high enough to beat the current top bid. You drop out of the action only when bidding surpasses your maximum, whereupon the proxy service alerts you via e-mail, in case you want to reenter with a higher bid.

We found a CTX notebook at Onsale which we decided (after a bit of research) was worth $1000. We could have placed a standard bid for that amount, but what if other bidders' offers never climbed that high? Or we could start with a lowball bid and inch up as needed, but that approach would be tedious--and could fail if someone outbid us at the last moment, and we weren't online to react.

So we placed a proxy bid with a $1000 maximum and sat back. When the dust settled, we'd won the laptop for just $929, well under our budget. Pretty nifty. As far as we're concerned, proxy bidding should be the default option for all auctions. But only Yahoo Auctions and Amazon.com Auctions adopt it as the standard system on all auctions. EBay uses it for all auctions except multiple-item sales. Onsale offers proxy bidding for all auctions if you selected the option in your customer profile. UBid permits proxy bids only on certain items, and Egghead Auctions and First Auction don't allow them at all.

If participating in one auction poses a challenge, managing several at the same time is tricky indeed, especially when you don't have a proxy system working for you. Every site we tested addresses this issue by providing bidders a personal page for keeping track of their auctions. EBay, Onsale, and UBid cover this beat particularly well, with password-protected pages that are chock-full of information. Amazon.com goes a step further, listing all of your active auctions on the home page every time you visit. Unfortunately, anyone with access to your computer and Web browser can see what you're bidding on. (Worst case scenario: Your coworkers discover your secret Beanie Baby fetish.)

Each auction site also e-mails you to confirm your initial bid and again to let you know when you win an auction. All except Egghead also send an e-mail when you've been outbid; this alert can be helpful when proxy bidding is not available.

Whether you shop at a merchant auction or at a person-to-person sale, the bidding process is essentially the same. But once you get an e-mail alerting you that you've won, the paths diverge.

With merchant auctions, the site already knows your credit card data and shipping address--you enter that information when you register. And when you place your first bid, you specify your shipping preference, such as next-day air.

So in theory, after you've won a merchant auction you don't have to lift a finger--the product just arrives. But a week after we won an Acer desktop PC for $547 at UBid, our personal page still said that the order was being processed. Customer support told us that the computer was on back order. Back order? It was there, we bid on it, we won it--right? Nope. The UBid representative said that occasionally a unit is found to be damaged, or UBid "can't get the system ordered." Customers of other online auctions have reported similar screwups.

UBid never charged our credit card for the missing-in-action Acer, but that didn't make the situation any less irksome. Nevertheless, being forgiving souls, we later bid on and bought a second system from UBid--this time without any hassles.

In person-to-person transactions, you and the seller arrange payment and delivery terms. The seller's policies should be listed in the item description. You may be able to pay with a money order, a certified or personal check, or sometimes a credit card. (Escrow services are another option--see "Buyer Beware.") Sellers who accept personal checks typically don't send items until the check clears.

Our purchases at person-to-person sites went off without a hitch, with one nasty exception: The gent from whom we bought an old Sony VCR on Yahoo told us to add $28 for shipping via the U.S. Postal Service. That increased our cost for the $110 tape player by 25 percent. (The seller attributed the steep charge to his cost for packing materials.) Lesson learned: Verify the shipping charge before you bid.

Generally speaking, the products we bought arrived reasonably quickly--anywhere from two days to two weeks after we made payment. As items hit our doorstep, we unpacked and inspected them, and in many instances we were pleased with what we found. Both computers--an IBM Aptiva desktop and the CTX notebook--looked good and worked perfectly out of the box. (We were unfazed by a small blemish on the notebook's case, since even brand-new laptops quickly acquire nicks and scuffs.) Other solid buys from merchant auctions included a color scanner from Onsale for $49, a Zebra golf putter from Egghead for $45, a cordless phone from First Auction for $45, and a handy-dandy Leatherman multipurpose tool from Amazon.com Auctions for $66.

On the other hand, the refurbished 17-inch ViewSonic monitor from First Auction came with two connector cables but no power cord. (First Auction told us it would refund the price of a cable if we bought it ourselves and then invoiced the site for the cost--what a pain.) A refurbished Epson PhotoPC 700 digital camera from Egghead Auctions came with rechargeable batteries but no recharger. (Egghead responded, accurately, that the item listing did not mention a recharger.) The new 3Com PC Card modem from UBid was brand-new and cost just $87, about half what we might have paid at a retail store. But it was just a modem--no driver disk, no phone cord, no manual, no nothing. (The item listing didn't promise that these extras would accompany the modem, but it never occurred to us that they might not.)

The moral of these stories: Before placing a bid, you should check, double-check, and triple-check the item description to make sure you're buying what you think. And even then, don't be surprised if something's amiss, especially if you've bid on a refurbished product.

We had a better batting average with items from person-to-person auctions. The Mark McGwire rookie card and a DVD copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey from Amazon.com Auctions, the Stephen King novel and a new graphics card from EBay, and the Star Wars poster and used VCR from Yahoo Auctions all lived up to their billing. So, at first glance, did the copy of Microsoft Office 97 Professional that we picked up for a mere $24 on EBay. Unfortunately, however, according to Microsoft, this copy of Office Pro was a forgery.

That revelation didn't stun us, given that Office Pro lists for $600--25 times what we paid. Illicit software may not be a bargain in any event: It's often buggy, virus-infested, or downright defective, and purchasers may be denied tech support and the ability to buy legitimate upgrades (see our December 1998 feature, "Is Your Software Stolen?").

Ultimately, buying at Web auctions is like being turned loose in a million-acre flea market. Spend enough time wandering the virtual aisles, and you'll come across good deals, so-so deals, a lot of junk, and the occasional bargain of the century.

If you're a businessperson who needs products right now, auctions don't make a whole lot of sense. Buying from a reliable retailer, mail-order merchant, or Web storefront is bound to be more efficient and less hazardous. But if you're looking to save money and don't mind refurbished or slightly outdated products, merchant auctions are definitely worth a look. And person-to-person sites are impossible to beat for rare collector's items.

Our bidding spree was frustrating at times, to be sure. But at its best, it was a blast--and the fun factor of auctions is a genuine point in their favor. As long as you start with a fair target price in mind and a knowledge of how the system works, the thrill of the hunt is undeniable.

Charlotte Culver's bid on a computer at EBay wasn't enough to snare the system. But she thought she'd lucked into a deal anyway when the seller said he had an identical machine for sale. Culver rushed him a certified check for $775. Then the Midland, Texas, resident waited--and waited. "I never received anything from that seller," she laments, "except the runaround."

Sad to say, she's hardly alone: According to the National Consumer League's Internet Fraud Watch, auctions were the source of a sky-high 68 percent of complaints about online scams in 1998. Most cons occur at person-to-person sites, where bad-apple sellers may simply pocket unsuspecting bidders' money. Others sell products under false pretenses (think fake Rolexes, or "antiques" that aren't). Some sellers use multiple accounts or accomplices to drive up bids with artificial bidding--a process known as shilling.

Though most sellers at online auctions are reputable, no person-to-person auction site guarantees that you won't be rooked. Heed the following common-sense guidelines to protect yourself:

Suspicious? Don't bid. If a deal seems too good to be true or a seller smells fishy, pass on by. With millions of items up for bid, there's no reason for you to take unnecessary risks.

Know thy seller. At person-to-person sites, avoid sellers with poor or skimpy feedback. Don't buy from anyone who won't give you a physical address, and check where the seller's located. "It can be very hard to go after someone in another country," says Susan Grant of Internet Fraud Watch. "It's hard enough filing a small-claims case in another state."

Pay with plastic. Credit cards are safer than money orders or checks--you can dispute any charges with your credit card company. Or you can use an escrow service such as I-Escrow. For a fee (typically 5 percent of the product's price), these services hold on to your payment until you've received and okayed the item.

Keep a paper trail. Retain copies of the item listing and all e-mail. You'll need them if you have to prove you got ripped off.

Report scams to the site. At the very least, it should boot out the con artist. EBay's free insurance covers losses up to $175, and Amazon.com covers most losses up to $250.

Call the cops. Charlotte Culver contacted the police in Pittsburgh, home to the person who had scammed her, and discovered that he was on probation for fraud. The bad guy went back to jail; Culver got her money back, and she remains an enthusiastic bidder and buyer at EBay and other auction sites.

By day, I'm a mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan computer magazine. But at night, I'm a merchant--thanks to EBay, where I'm not only a bidder but also an occasional seller. By auctioning off items, I've cleared my closets of clutter (er, rare collectibles) and made a few bucks in the process. My biggest coup: selling for $46 a movie poster I bought for two bucks--a 2300 percent return on my investment.

Along the way, I've learned a few lessons about successful selling at Web auctions:

THINK BEFORE YOU SELL: If you've spent more than a few minutes exploring EBay, you know that one Netizen's trash is another's treasure. With that in mind, it's okay to offer items of debatable value, as long as you place them in the appropriate category and describe them forthrightly (see below). But don't do what I've done once or twice--put an item up for bid, sell it, and then regret having gotten rid of it.

SET A REALISTIC PRICE: First-time sellers (and some veterans) often set minimum bids far too high. The typical result: Nobody bids, so the item goes unsold. To spur bidding on your goods, set attractively low minimums; the laws of auction economics will almost always result in a decent sale price. Remember, however, that most auction sites levy charges on the seller (typically a listing fee and a small percentage of the selling price)--make sure to factor them in when setting your minimum. Also, calculate how much the product will cost to pack, ship, and insure, and specify an additional charge for those services in your item listing.

SHOW AND TELL: Whether you're auctioning off a beat-up Timex or a mint-condition Picasso print, your item listing should be as complete and accurate as possible. Describe all flaws honestly, and for antiques and other collectibles, provide details on the item's age and origins. Perhaps most important, provide one or more photos of your item. Many buyers won't bid on an item unless they can see what it looks like. (And hey, now you have an excuse to splurge on a flatbed scanner or digital camera.)

BE PICKY ABOUT PAYMENT: Just as the online auction world attracts a few unscrupulous sellers, it has its share of sleazy buyers. Most sellers, therefore, accept only money orders and checks as payment, and wait for personal checks to clear before shipping merchandise. That's the simplest way to ensure that you get paid in full.

GUARANTEE SATISFACTION: Not every auction merchant would concur with this tip--in fact, many maintain a strict all-sales-final policy. But I offer a money-back guarantee on everything I sell. It shows cautious bidders that I'm confident in the quality of my goods, and I've had to issue a refund only once.

BE COMMUNICATIVE: If a prospective bidder e-mails a question, reply as rapidly (and courteously) as possible. Delay your response, and that bidder might lose interest in your item.

SHIP QUICKLY AND CAREFULLY: As soon as your payment's sitting safely in your bank account, send out the item. Pack it well, using a sturdy box and plenty of padding. (When an item gets damaged in shipping, everybody loses.) Ask your buyer to drop you an e-mail when the product arrives safely; once it has, post comments to the buyer's feedback profile and ask that they return the favor.

ENJOY YOURSELF: For me, auction sales are mostly a fun way to fund additional auction purchases. Almost everything I've sold has been something I'm actively interested in (collectible wristwatches, vintage magazines, and original comic art), and I've had enjoyable chats with people who have bought my items. So even though I'll never make a fortune at online auctions, it's a worthwhile pursuit.

The purchase: Refurbished IBM Aptiva PC at UBid with 350-MHz PII CPU, 96MB of RAM, 8GB hard drive, DVD-ROM drive. The price: $770 including shipping.

The alternative: New Packard-Bell PC from Circuit City with same CPU, less RAM, smaller hard drive, and no DVD. The price: $850 after rebate.

The upshot: It's not 100 percent new, and the 90-day warranty's short, but the Aptiva's still a lot of PC for the money.

The purchase: Refurbished 200-disc Kenwood CD changer at Onsale; holds 200 discs simultaneously. The price: $210 including shipping.

The alternative: New Kenwood 200-disc changer at Crutchfield Online. The price: $206 including shipping.

The upshot: We bid too much. The changer works fine, but who wouldn't opt for a new one for $4 less?

The purchase: Near-mint Mark McGwire rookie card at Amazon.com Auctions. The price: $120, no shipping charge.

The alternative: Same card from local sports memorabilia shop. The price: $200.

The upshot: Big bargain on Big Mac--Web auctions are a great place to find collectibles at way-below-retail prices.

The purchase: New 3Com 56-kbps PC Card modem at UBid. The price: $96 including shipping.

The alternative: Zoom 56-kbps PC Card modem at CompUSA. The price: $96.

The upshot: Usually we'd opt for the 3Com, but this one arrived buck-naked--no drivers, manual, warranty card, or box.

In 1995, a San Francisco Bay Area resident named Pierre Omidyar set up a little Web site to help his fiancée trade Pez dispensers with fellow collectors. That site quickly grew into EBay, and the phenomenon of online auctions was born.

Today, the Web boasts dozens of auction sites in almost every imaginable category. It also has sites about auction sites, sites that help you find items up for bid, and sites that handle online payment so you don't get scammed by a dishonest seller. Here's our selective, subjective guide to some of the major players.

The online bookstore's auction site is good-looking, intuitive, and well integrated with Amazon's other services. When we stopped in, the selection didn't yet compare with that at EBay or Yahoo, but Amazon Auctions could be a top contender over the long haul.

Operated by the folks who own Cars.com, this site offers lots of items in certain categories--we found more than 4000 baseball cards up for bid, for example. Selection in some areas is relatively sparse, though. For $20 a year, you can join BidSafe, an escrow service that lets you pay for items by credit card and check them out before sellers get their money.

The most popular person-to-person auction venue online, EBay typically has more than 2 million items up for bid at any given time. It's also a remarkably friendly service, and thorough tutorials make it a great place to get acquainted with online auctions.

Yahoo's auction services are as easy to use and familiar as the rest of Yahoo's many offerings. Although Yahoo usually has about a tenth the total items EBay has, that's still a lot to choose from. If you're a registered Yahoo user, there's no registration process.

The computer superstore's new auction site wasn't booming when we checked in--fewer than two dozen desktops, notebooks, and monitors were up for bid--but it may expand with time. The company plans to use it to auction off returned and refurbished computer items.

There's a nice range of items here, especially in the areas of used computer hardware and slightly older in-the-box software. But the site is hampered by poor design and a confusing interface.

The online arm of the Home Shopping Network, First Auction carries lots of collectibles, jewelry, and home furnishings. It's not as slick as OnSale atAuction or uBid, but it has the broadest noncomputer selection around.

OnSale atAuction was one of the first merchant auction services on the Web, and it remains one of the best. The site features a fast, efficient interface and plenty of name-brand items, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Sony products.

One of our favorite mail-order merchants now offers auctions, but the pickings were mighty slim when we visited--seven desktop PCs, none of which had received a single bid.

The uBid site doesn't offer quite as many amenities as OnSale atAuction (proxy bidding isn't available for all items, for example), but bidding is easy and selection is good, especially in computer-related categories.

An offshoot of the venerable mail-order computer dealer MicroWarehouse, WebAuction is yet another auction site focusing on computer hardware, software, and related items. A few other categories, including watches and jewelry, collectibles, and travel, round out the selection.

Probably the most popular category in online auctions, Beanie Babies have bred their own subspecies of auction sites. This is among the best, featuring upwards of 8000 auctions daily and weird category listings, including Teenie Babies and Meanie Babies.

CigarBid.com auctions off cigars--lots of 'em, plus humidors, ashtrays, and decorative boxes. Even if you're not a smoker, this is worth checking out just to gawk at the breathless, fetishistic devotion of cigar aficionados.

Coin-Universe.com offers continuous auctions with certified dealers, proxy bidding, fast directory and search options, and automatic e-mail notification for high bidders. The trick is that coin collecting is a fairly serious business, and this site is frequented by many professionals.

Got a spare $49,000? If so, you could join the bidding for a copy of Detective Comics #27 (Batman's first appearance) at this auction site for comic books. Thousands of comics from the 1930s to the 1990s are up for bid, but there are no search tools to help you winnow the selection.

This person-to-person auction site, devoted entirely to antiques and collectibles, doesn't rival EBay's scope, but there were well over 1000 auctions in progress when we visited. In addition, 16 antique dealers operate their own virtual auction halls at the EHammer site.

Golfpeddler.com's merchandise categories include Full Club Sets, Individual Clubs, Golf Bags, and Other Golf Stuff. The site charges sellers a 10 percent brokerage fee on all transactions, but also operates its own escrow service.

One of the few online auctions dedicated solely to books and related collectibles, Pacific Book Auction specializes in rare books, manuscripts, autographs, maps, atlases, prints, and photographs.

Run by an online book dealer, this page provides eminently sensible advice for auction buyers who send payment to sellers but never receive the items they bought.

A well-informed bidder is a happy bidder, so stop by AuctionWatch.com before you dive into the auction game. You'll find message forums, a search engine with links to dozens of auction sites, and links to articles about online auctions.

Bidder's Edge features a multiple-auction search engine for finding specific items, a My Auctions option for generating your own home page of categories you're interested in, and--best of all--a powerful price-tracking feature that provides information on the average price being paid for the items you're looking to buy.

BidFind features a Web-crawling bot that searches more than 250 auction sites to create a database of searchable listings. You simply enter a keyword or phrase related to the item you're looking for, and BidFind returns a list of matching items currently up for bid.

The Emazing AuctionBot will track up to three items you're looking to buy from the auction supersite EBay. Once activated, the AuctionBot will send you an e-mail each morning letting you know if anyone's selling an item matching your description.

This site features reviews, facts, and figures on dozens of online auctions, plus message boards where bidders can exchange opinions. Gomez also provides similar resources for other types of e-commerce sites, including online book stores and Web-based travel services.

A good place to get a sense of the scope of the online auction world, the sprawling Internet Auction List not only indexes hundreds of online auctions by category, but also serves as a resource page for aspiring auctioneers and bidders.

I-Escrow facilitates deals between buyers and sellers from third-party online classifieds, for-sale newsgroups, and Web auctions. The service holds payment until the buyer receives and is satisfied with the purchase. I-Escrow charges a fee of 5 percent of the purchase price, paid for by the buyer unless otherwise specified.

This service is similar to I-Escrow, although it charges both the buyer and the seller at lower rates (2 percent to 3.5 percent). Your first transaction is free.

Like I-Escrow, SecureTrades charges 5 percent of the item price for its service; for an extra fee, it will receive the item from the seller, affix it with an identifying label for tracking purposes, and forward it to the purchaser.