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photo by Jim Craven Kristen Noveske of Internet MainStreet photographs a 1930s tobacco can with a digital camera for use on the Web during a workshop at the Southern Oregon Antiques and Collectibles Club's annual Spring Show and Sale. The show continues through Sunday at the Medford Armory. Using the new to sell the old Antiques dealers get short course in Internet sales By SARA MURPHY for the Mail Tribune In an age where virtual commerce is as real as it gets, antiques dealers and dot-com companies are merging the historic with the ultra-modern to make it easier to purchase pieces of the past. Representatives of four Internet companies are a featured presentation at the Southern Oregon Antiques and Collectibles Club's 28th annual Spring Show and Sale this weekend at the Medford Armory. Alongside antique clocks, collectible dolls and tables of treasured trinkets, the Internet experts are showing dealers and shoppers how to use computerized services to browse for bargains and make big bucks. "E-commerce is a lot of fun," says Ralph Goddard, vice-president and co-founder of tias.com . "I don't think it's going to replace (storefront) businesses, it's going to enhance them." Representatives say the Florida-based tias.com , short for The Internet Antique Shop, is the largest online, fixed-price antiques and collectibles site anywhere. The company specializes in helping dealers create online shops where Web surfers may browse door-to-door or search for specific items. "Think of us as a mall," says Jim Stewart, national sales manager. "You certainly want to be in a mall that has a lot of traffic. And that's what we do, we bring the traffic." Goddard says the site lists more than 250,000 items and brings in 32,000 shoppers a day. The success of online marketplaces like tias.com and eBay has other companies looking for a piece of the electronic pie. John Noveske, owner of the Grants Pass Antique Mall, says he sells more items online than at his "brick-and-mortar" storefront downtown. Now Noveske is helping other dealers improve their sales at main1.com, an online antiques and collectibles catalog. "We get calls almost every day now to make sites," he says. Representatives from tias.com and main1.com say their programs make it easy for dealers to set up shop online. "We know that the generation of antiques and collectibles dealers is not the generation that grew up using computers," says Goddard. "It's the generation that's being forced to use them." The key to selling products online is quality photographs, and lots of them, says Stephanie Knifong-Ryan, graphic designer for the Merlin-based onlineauction.com . "If they can't hold it and feel it, they want to be able to see as much of it as possible," she says. Sharon Grosswiler of New Castle, Calif., is an antiques and collectibles dealer specializing in art pottery. She used to worry that the Internet market would hurt trade shows, but says it actually has helped her business. On eBay, Grosswiler has sold items across the country and in Europe, sometimes at quite a profit. A box of old condoms in metal tins that her husband bought for $20 sold for $380 online. "If we would have brought it to a show, we would have never gotten that much money for it," Grosswiler says. The flip side, she says, is that bargains are getting harder to find in antiques stores. "It's like they're picked clean. All the really good stuff is gone." Grosswiler says she also has been disappointed with some of the business she's done online, warning that some dealers don't disclose defects and some buyers don't pay up promptly. But Grosswiler hasn't been burned by scams so badly that she isn't willing to try again. "We bought a motor home off of eBay," she says. "Nobody could believe we did that, but we got the best deal." For the bargain hunter who prefers to shop in person, Curt Griggs' new online company may be the middle of the road between the information superhighway and solid pavement. The Arizona-based antiquesonly.com offers a directory of 95,000 antiques and collectibles dealers, clubs and auction houses, as well as an extensive calendar of trade shows and events. "There's still a whole lot of people who want the touch, the feel, the hold," says Grosswiler. "And a lot of people don't want anything to do with the computers." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA