Bidders flocked to a recent CatBecca auction in person, by phone and on computers. The 3-day auction was the Treasures of Fu-Ming-Fair estate of Florence Eleanor Ueltzen of Pennsylvania held earlier this month in South Carolina. There were more than 75 live in-person bidders and 3,000 registered online bidders, and there were more than 2,500 requests for phone bids.

Computers were available for pre-bidding via three online catalogs from websites in London, on the CatBecca website and on eBay Live Auctions. More than 65 percent of the items sold online; normally, online bidders account for less than 15 percent of the winners at major auction houses, according to Michael Whelchel, IT director with CBTechlive.com.

Auctioneer Phil Wolfe, CEO of CatBecca.com Auctions, monitored two to four phone bids, live bids, online left bids and online live bidding from catbecca.com and eBayliveauctions.com, all at once. Web hits exceeded 2 million hits over a three-day period on the CatBecca website.

Among the items sold was a Famille Rose Jiaqing Vase from China that sold for $264,000.Bidding on the vase was so intense that online bidders saw jumps from $100 to $10,000 to $100,000. Only two bidders ­ one online in China and one live in-person bidder from Hong Kong - remained after the price topped $150,000. The Hong Kong bidder won the piece for $264,000, with buyer's premium. Interestingly, the seller's wife noted that the rare vase had been sitting in her bathroom for years, used as a vase.

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