well it's that time that I look at buying my first home and what a duanting task that is.

First you have to decide where - what suburb, what do I want to be close too, Am I prepared to travel a long distance to work for the right house etc.

Then how big, what will the future bring, should I buy a large house now to save the upgrade later?

Then theres the home loan, another mass of research...

Recently I wrote about the looming competition heading e bays way and recently came accross this article:
The Score

It notes some of the competitors and there rising market share.

Whats really interesting is some of the demographic data, I'd say very useful for those selling via auction.

Car Auctions
Car auction information and resources
Computer Auctions
Laptop computer auction information and resources

Ever Hear of US Gov't GSA Public Auto Auctions??

Although you may not have heard of this type of auction before, GSA
auctions have been around for a while and are a good place to get a
great deal on a vehicle.

GSA stands for General Service Administration.

It is an agency in the US government that, according to acting
Director David Bibbs, "is to help other US agencies better serve the
public by meeting … their needs for products and services, and, to
(help) simplify access to government information and services."

One of the services they provide are auto auctions.

So why does GSA sell vehicles?

GSA purchases vehicles "in bulk", i.e., it purchases "bunches" of
vehicles at once and then leases them out to different government
agencies. When the lease expires, these vehicles are sold to the general
public at GSA auctions, which allows the GSA to re-coup some of their
expenses and re-invest in more vehicle purchases.

Benefits of purchasing a vehicle at a GSA auction:

1.) American made vehicles - trucks, cars, SUV, police car, buses
and many other types (approximately 40,000 vehicles to choose from
per year)

2.) Vehicles are generally well maintained (by the US Gov't). These
are not specialized vehicles or repossessed.

3.) Vehicles generally have low mileage

4.) Vehicles are generally 3 to 5 years old

5.) Vehicles generally sell at or around wholesale prices with no
extra buyer fees.

All in all, if you are in the market for a great used vehicle at a
great price, check out GSA public auctions.

To find out where you can get more information on GSA auctions and
other vehicle auctions, simply send a blank e-mail to
gsaaa@GetMoreInfo.net

Bruce Dinger is a budding entrepreneur and is the author of many articles on
a variety of topics.

http://howtosavetimeandmoney.com

Competition for ebay's slice of the pie is truly heating up and the heat is being felt.

Quarterly profit at eBay has risen 53 percent in the past four quarters comparing to 2002 profit boost of 235 percent. Their stock price has dropped on investor concern about slowing profit growth and increased competition.

Google has recently launched Google Base where users can post classified ads and job postings for free. Pressure could also be felt from Googles popular adword system. Apparently development is also underway for an online payment system and with Googles brand trust this would be a huge threat to the ebay owned Pay Pal.

Speculators also ponder whether Google Base is the precurser of a complete online auction system. Hmmmmm....

At Amazon.com they now have a Marketplace where you can list used items for sale at no cost until sale. Amazon collects the payment and sends the profits to you - Simple.

Add to those two the vast amount of auction centres going online and it's easy to see that ebay needs to throw down some more of it's marketing genius.

Auction snipering is gaining popularity at online auctions with companies now offering snipering services.

Snipering is the process of watching an auction and waiting for the very last minute to place a bid. Companies are now offering services that are synchronised with the online auction centres clock and tied to computer systems that at the very last possible moment place the unexpected bid usually the winning one.

This can be a downside for sellers as they are not part of the bidding prior to the auctions close time.

Some of the auction sniping sites charge a monthly fee and for as little as ten dollars you can get a months sniping. Some pogramming savy bidders have also coded there own programs to run on their home systems to take care of the sniping. This also has another benefit that you dont have to be sitting around waiting and watching.

Some online auction centres are curving this by a policy of last minute bids extending the auction giving the opposing bidder an opportunity to counter bid.

Other systems being discussed are a 'sealed bid option' where the bidder can lodge in advance there maximum bid which remains unknown to the rest of the world.

Still early days for this technique and im sure it will bring on change.