ATR, WE'LL BE BACK SOON!

Dear faithful visitor:

We have been on a short hiatus for the past few weeks. Wish we had tales of sun-drenched beaches, hot women and cool drinks, but no such luck here. Truth is, we've got day jobs. Our "people" told us not to quit them until this venture was making money and, since we still qualify as a "non-profit" organization (alas), our exertions are sometimes needed elsewhere. But please visit us here as we relaunch AuctionTalkRadio with a new podcast and our updated website.

Thanks,

Chris & Frank

Yahoo to close auction site in US

Yahoo Inc, will close its online auctions site in the US after it failed to match the popularity of EBay Inc.

The site will stop taking listings on June 3 and the last day of bidding will be June 16, Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo said on Tuesday on the site.

Yahoo will continue to run auctions sites in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

The closure comes less than a week after Yahoo said it would shutter the Yahoo Photo service to focus on its faster-growing Flickr site.

Chief executive officer Terry Semel reorganised Yahoo last year into three units to make it a nimbler competitor to Google Inc. Yahoo executives have said the company has too many competing products.

Yahoo said it plans to close the site to “better serve our valued customers through other Yahoo products.”

EBay had more than 60 million US visitors in March, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, which tracks web use. Bidz Inc was second with 1.76 million users. Yahoo’s site had fewer than 3,30,000 visitors, the minimum threshold that Nielsen uses for its measurements.

Shares of Yahoo rose 3 cents to $30.41 on Tuesday in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. They have climbed 19% this year.

( Source ) Bloomberg

Cinco feliz de Mayo de radio
de la charla de la subasta


(We are so muy gringo,
but hope we've managed
to convey en espanol:
"Happy Cinco de Mayo from
Auction Talk Radio.")

United Arab Emirates Gavels Marco Polo Pearl...with COA!

Abu Dhabi jeweler says 575-carat pearl was gift to renown explorer from grandson of Genghis Khan

A 575-carat pearl once owned by Marco Polo is up for auction in the United Arab Emirates. The pearl's owner is an Abu Dhabi jeweler who claims he has a certificate proving that the grandson of Genghis Khan gave the pearl to Marco Polo as a present. The jeweler bought the pearl nearly two-weeks ago from an unnamed French person and said he is seeking around eight-million-dollars. The white pearl is three-point-one-inches long and has overtones of pink and brown. The Pearl of Allah is nearly three-times as long and is currently recorded as the world's largest pearl.

There's Just Gotta Be a "Dogs Playing Poker" Painting In Here Somewhere

One-hundred-mile garage sale open for biz this weekend

Garage sale fanatics have thousands of things to rummage through this weekend. One of the biggest garage sales in the world is the annual 100-Mile Garage Sale happening this weekend. It covers Minnesota and Wisconsin border towns along the Mississippi River. It runs from Alma, Wisconsin, on the southern end of Lake Pepin and follows Highway-35 north through Nelson, Pepin, Stockholm and Maiden Rock to Bay City. And then in Minnesota, it crosses at Red Wing and heads south on 61 through Frontenac, and Lake City, Wabasha, Kellogg and Winona. The 100-Mile Garage Sale runs through tomorrow.

Drop-Off Drama Update: "No Comment"

No, really, we're working on it...

In recent weeks we have promised to bring you more about the drama brewing in the online consignment store sector. Franchisees with all of the major players in the industry have experienced problems, including bankruptcy. A group of franchise store investors with the i-Soldit chain have experienced a great deal of problems, some of which have come to light via Karen McGinn and Gene Bowen at amitheonlyone.org.

After dealing in a general way with some of what the conflict here is about, our next step was to bring you details from all of the dramatise personae: the companies, the franchisees, the cheerleaders and the skeptics. Trust us, the script here could be used on "Boston Legal." Alas, just like in your favorite courtroon drama, however, a number of the principles here have "lawyered up." Ken Sully, CEO of i-SoldIt, gave us the official "no comment" on or off the record last week. Others involved have done likewise. Since it truly is our goal to bring to light a true representation of all the facts here, we're taking another crack at these folks before we bring you our report.