A message on the Payingfast home page states, "We are temporarily not taking new orders due to technical difficulties. All previous orders will be sent and serviced in a normal fashion."

But a search on eBay reveals the site is for sale. The service, which launched in January 2001, allowed consumers to purchase money orders using a credit card. The service focuses on eBay payments and claims to be second largest seller of money orders for auctions on eBay, processing about 250 money orders a day with 200,000 registered users.

The eBay auction for Payingfast states the domain name is for sale, with a starting bid of $5,000. "We will also sell the whole website for the right offer," the seller states in the auction. "You must get your own merchant accounts." The 5-day auction on eBay ends March 8, 2004.

Payingfast president and founder Scott Rand responded to inquiries by email. "We are in the position that we need to sell very quickly because of other business ventures," Rand wrote.

"This is what you get," Rand continued. "Over 200,000 registered users; Our banner in over 125,000 auctions; steady approved orders of around 250 a day; programming that we spent of over $50,000 on program that automatically prints the money orders; transferable leases of 2 stamp machines and 2 envelope stuffing machines; Dell server that Payingfast runs on; Contact info and introduction of programmer that built Payingfast Website; Training on how to use website; Payingfast Branded name; Payingfast Domains."

"This is what we want for this: $50,000 cash or $25,000 and us keeping 30% of the company on a sale."

Some customers were concerned because news of the sale had come without any prior notice to registered users, and raised issues of privacy. Payingfast collected eBay User IDs and passwords for sellers who wished to display the Payingfast logo in their eBay auctions. Rand explained, ?The registered users have not been informed because we will be running the site and taking care of any issues users may have.?

Rand declined to say whether eBay User Names and Passwords that were collected on the site would be sold, and if so, whether users would be able to opt-out from having their names and passwords be transferred.

Online payment services are commonly used because many online auction sellers don't accept credit card payments. Payment services like Payingfast and its competitor, Western Union Auction Payments, offer buyers the convenience of ordering a money order from home. Once a money order is purchased, the service sends the seller notification that the money order has been mailed, so buyers may get quicker delivery of their items purchased.

Payingfast charged $1.95 for transactions up to $10, $2.95 for transactions between $10 - $20, $3.95 for transactions between $20 and $50, and $4.95 plus 2.25% for transactions over $100. There was a limit of $500 for online auction transactions and a $75 limit for non-auction transactions.

PayPal, acquired by eBay in 2002, continues to dominate the online payment field. Last year, eBay closed its BillPoint service, and CitiGroup closed its c2it service, explaining it was attractive only in the auction space, "a niche that c2it chose not to pursue and has not marketed to for more than a year." Other payment services still operating and serving online-auction users include Western Union Auction Payments, CheckFree and ProPay. Meanwhile, eBay continues to integrate PayPal into its site and heavily promote it to its users.

eBay auction for Payingfast.com: http://digbig.com/3wbd

Payingfast Web site: http://www.payingfast.com

Update: The original auction was removed by eBay. The seller has relisted the auction, and is now selling the Payingfast domain and web site for a starting bid of $20,000: http://digbig.com/3wdc