There was a time when Internet auctions were color, sweetness, and light. Those days, participating in the process was like attending a neighborhood garage sale, or visiting the flea market in Notting Hill. Some soccer Mom or quaint artisan sold you your kid's first bicycle or an interesting lamp. And the price was right. The sellers were glad to get it off their hands and you were ecstatic--hardly able to keep news of the bargain from anyone who would listen.

But Internet auctions have grown up. What they now lack in characther, they more than make up for in sophistication. True, you can still acquire bargains--many worth screaming about. But the days of innocence, when everyone played by the rules, have gone the way of bobby socks and hula-hoops. If you're going to participate in online auctions today, just keep one eye out for the lions waiting near the edge of the herd. They're looking for the unwary, inattentive, or inexperienced.

Understanding the general rules of the game is the first step toward avoiding those who would take advantage of it, or you.

Few processes could have been more perfectly modeled for the Internet than the garage sale, flea market, or swap meet. These icons of American culture are physical venues where people who wish to exchange goods can come together--with very little overhead and without the excess baggage of a storefront, advertising, or an anticipated long-range presence. These are temporary, brief excursions into the world of commerce for the purpose of selling or buying (usually at well below market value) just about anything.

The ganglia-like network of the Internet is the perfect virtual infrastructure for bringing together the informal (or formal) buyer with the informal (or formal) seller. The product, service or used item gathering dust can now be easily and quickly proffered to some like-minded or interested person. The new venue is not the garage, but popular virtual auction sites such as eBay, Amazon.com Auctions, Yahoo! Auctions, and others.

The Internet as a garage-sale infrastructure has become so sophisticated that it's now bringing together like-minded individuals buying and selling like-minded products and services. There are plenty of large, generic sites that auction everything--literally everything. But there are an increasing number of URLs that specialize. These URLs offer a virtual environment for buying, selling, or trading in every niche, including American pottery, diamonds, Swarovski Crystal, and American Civil War memorabilia.

Once you become a participant on an auction site, you can bid for items or offer them for sale. Some products require a lowest bid, while others can be acquired for any amount. The items are offered for a specific period of time. Once the bidding closes, the highest bidder-the buyer-receives an e-mail from the seller. That e-mail establishes contact between the buyer and the seller and begins to identify the process by which the seller can get paid and the buyer can receive his or her product.

The generic auction process contains plenty of opportunities for fraud and abuse, places where the unscrupulous (remember the lions) can take advantage of innocent participants. In the worst -case scenario, sellers can misrepresent themselves and abscond with a buyer's cash. Some sellers misrepresent their products, or inflate their true value. Others simply don't send a promised product (after receiving payment), or delay shipment by several weeks. And these are just the obvious potential types of abuse.

To give you an idea of the level to which these issues have risen, the Federal Trade Commission has issued some warnings and tips on how to participate in online auctions. More details are available in a February, 2000 edition of "Internet Auctions: A Guide for Buyers and Sellers."

The FTC's tips boil down to the following. Buyers, do your homework. Check (to the greatest extent possible) to make certain the seller is reputable, has good ratings, and so forth. Sellers, be prompt, courteous, and professional. Make arrangements as soon as the bidding ends. And ship the merchandise as soon as payment has been received. Internet auctions have the potential to make or save you a load of cash. Just make sure you keep one eye open for the lions prowling at the edge of the herd.

Selected Internet auction sites

The ease with which Internet auction sites can be located is a testament to their plentitude. If you want to be more specific, try a search coupled with whatever category of goods interest you. You can also find sites that provide ratings, or listings of top Internet auctions sites. A couple of examples include The 100 Top Auction Sites and the Auctions section of Choice4College.com. And finally, if you just want to find out if an Internet auction site is offering that 1954 Betty Crocker blue glass syrup dispenser, you might want to run a search through Auctionrover.com. This site claims to search over 200 Internet auction sites for whatever your heart desires. Our test search for "framed butterflies" came up with plenty of options from plenty of sites, all laid out in explicit detail in one large chart (including price).

The following are some examples of the large generic Internet auction sites--which can still be very, very useful--and a selected list of some of the more specialized types of Internet auctions.

If you want to get an idea of how auctions work, navigate to eBay.com, the cynosure of Internet auctions. eBay is to auctions what Amazon.com is to e-commerce and book sales. The first, the biggest, and--some would argue--one of the best. eBay's site contains over 2,000 categories of goods, and facilitates an astounding 2.5 million transactions per day. If you're looking to buy something--just about anything--visit eBay, where an easy to use and powerful search engine will walk you through the process of locating framed butterflies or a diamond ring.

Amazon.Com Auctions is one of the more recent in the continuing flood of Amazon.com sites. This particular site contains 17 major categories and hundreds of subcategories. Users can easily browse through categories, or perform a detailed search. And if you're curious about the details, Amazon has a very useful Help page that outlines the entire process for buyers, sellers, and others.

Some other large sites worth investigating include:

uBid.com

Most of what you'll find on this site are consumer electronics items, including computers and accessories. But uBid is not limited to one category of items. Plenty of categories introduce users to plenty of products, and a good search engine enables you to locate just about anything you want.

DealDeal.com

This site focuses on consumer electronics, but offers much more. This site purports to auction off closeout, refurbished, or surplus products from big-name manufacturers. An easy-to-use browse feature and full-text search engine makes locating products simple and fast.

Andy's Garage Sale

Andy's provides users with "great stuff, dirt cheap," according to its slogan. The site is included here not only because it can be used to buy or sell just about anything, but also because of its garage-sale flavor. Begun and managed by a couple of self-described garage sale junkies (Andy and Gertie), the site can be easily perused and searched. You can also join Andy's Bargaineer's Club, and be notified whenever an especially good deal is being offered for sale.

Specialized sites cover one product category in-depth. Increasingly, Internet auction sites are focusing on one distinct area of trade and merchandise. Here are some good examples.

Priceline.com.

Want to bid on anything related to travel? How about inexpensive tickets to Amsterdam, or a trip around the world? If you need to get there, Priceline.com might be your best source for keeping your costs manageable.

Sporting Auction.com

This site provides the athletic-minded with a place to buy, sell and trade those old weights, exercise bikes, baseball gloves, and everything else sports-related.

Winebid

This site conducts wine auctions in three countries: the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom. Winebid is the Internet auction site to visit if you want to buy wine, sell wine, or learn about it.

Cary Griffith is president of The Electronic Book Co., a Minneapolis-based new media company.