Sun Microsystems announced it has broadened its eBay presence to include a series of new auctions. Sun launched sixteen auctions on eBay Wednesday for its product line based on the Solaris operating system, AMD Opteron processors and SunSpectrum Silver support services; each auction will a starting bid of one cent, no reserve.

According to Sun Microsystem president Jonathan Schwartz in a recent Blog entry (http://tinyurl.com/52lz2), Sun is running the auctions for several reasons. "First, to get an unvarnished view of the "market" price for our systems (where system is defined by hardware, operating system and service contract,..." and, "Second, to start working out the kinks in selling our systems as a web service."

But Sun is including its reseller partners in the process: "We connect them directly into the supply chain, so they know about the orders before we do - they're in the pole position to manage the customer experience, and systems arrive with their branding at the customer site."

Sun Microsystems is using ChannelAdvisor to manage the eBay listings. "We're pleased to see Sun continuing their innovative use of the eBay channel and to be supporting them in their efforts," said Scot Wingo, president and CEO of ChannelAdvisor.

http://www.ebay.com/sun