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Auction house trades paddles for PCs By PAUL FATTIG GRANTS PASS -- When you think auction, chances are you're thinking of an auctioneer speaking faster than a turkey can gobble. And you're probably thinking of a packed place where an innocent scratch of the ear can make you the stammering owner of a 400-pound green granite frog. Think again. Participants in the global Internet auction at the Grants Pass-based Fainco Inc. Web site simply click onto www.faincoauction.com and bid away -- or post items -- in the peace and quiet of their homes. "We used to have a big auction and bring people to Grants Pass," said Valerie Fain, secretary and treasurer of the firm. "But this way you don't have to go anywhere and you are in control of your own auction," she said. Although Fainco opened its Web site to browsers only two months ago, it is now hosting about 1,000 auctions on its site, which is visited about 15,000 times daily, she said. Fainco is a cyberspace spinoff of Fain & Co., a firm founded by Valerie Fain and her husband, Chris, the chief executive officer of Fainco Inc. It operates out of a facility in Merlin. The Fains are avid antique collectors and longtime auction buffs who wedded the two hobbies into a successful business. But, until this fall, most of their auctions were traditional, complete with an auctioneer, she said. In fact, they once sold more than a million dollars' worth of items at a large auction at the Josephine County Fairgrounds. That auction, which included such unique antiques as a vampire-killing kit, drew telephone bidders from throughout the United States and overseas. Yet they have also been offering limited Internet auctions for the past two years. The problem, she said, is that the firm had to perfect the software. Using an interactive on-line auction system, they are now offering cyberspace auctions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. To place an item on the cyberspace auction block, sellers take photographs of their items, describe them in their own words and offer them for sale. The seller pays from as little as 25 cents or as much as $50, depending on how it is packaged. Fainco earns its keep by charging the seller a percentage of the closing price. Buyers are not charged for using the site. As customer bids are received, the system is updated with the latest high bid, Valerie Fain said. The entire auction process is automated, from posting the items through notifying the high bidders and bil-ling them, she added. "We really believe this is a wave of the future," she said. "For twenty-five cents, you can list an item and have it sold anywhere in the world. "We're reaching people in Japan, in Europe, all over," she said. "There are people registered right now from Italy, Singapore, New York." In fact, most participants are not from Oregon, she said. Fainco is not the only firm offering on-line auctions. The eBay company is by far the largest out of about 100 Internet auction sites, grabbing about 70 percent of the business. The company hosts about 850,000 auctions visited about 13 million times daily, according to the Fains. But the Fains, who are offering a classic 1967 Rolls Royce to an electronic auction participant as part of a grand opening prize next month, intend to become the pre-eminent Internet auction company in the nation, Valerie Fain said. "There are unlimited possibilities for Internet businesses," she said. It also allows them to base their business in Southern Oregon, where they prefer to live, she observed. "We know there are a lot of people who like to go shopping on their computers, some at 3 o'clock in the morning," she said. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA