For one auction, eBay’s top seller has broken its practice of starting the bid off at a penny.

Marie's CDs And Online Auctions LLC, formerly called 1 Cent CD, is for sale on eBay with a starting bid of $5 million. Husband and wife Jay and Marie Senese started the eBay business in early 1999 and have reigned as eBay’s number one volume seller for years, with over 166,750 unique feedback ratings to date. The Seneses, whose business is an institution among eBayers, believe the business is ready to grow to another level, and aren't sure they have the energy or resources to do it themselves.

"Marie and I grew the business to a certain size," Jay Senese said. "We have a million ideas, but they all cost money and time, and a commitment. It will take a capital investment and an investment in psyche that we're not prepared to make. The alternative may be to drift down the 1 Cent CDs path until it peters out."

The couple lives in Los Angeles and sells music CDs on eBay, all with a starting bid of one penny. They have an office, storage space and employees to help them fulfill the huge volume of orders they receive. According to Senese, the company's annual sales have exceeded $1 million for each of the last 3 years.

Currently, all sales are generated through the eBay.com Web site. Jay believes there is great potential to expand sales, including the development of a fixed-price ecommerce Web site. "In someone else's hands, it could run very well," Senese said. "eBay's focus in the years ahead may be for businesses with more capital and time than we are willing to invest."

According to the auction description, the business owns the domain name "www.jayandmarie.com" and a small amount of real property and inventory, valued at approximately $100,000. Leases are in place for the current business location through January 2005.

The Seneses launched the auction on March 23, 2004, during a special 1-day promotion in order to take advantage of a 50-cent listing fee.

eBay's commission fee would be about $75,000 if the business sells for $5,000,000. The auction ends on March 30. PayPal is not an accepted form of payment on this auction.

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