What do you do when your frustration level with eBay is at an all time high? When most of us reach a boiling point, we pass the time smacking the computer or kicking a nearby chair. But if you are like Eric Kobylarz, you explore alternatives until you simply create your own auction site.

Kobylarz appreciated the need for eBay, but envisioned a site with a more user-friendly interface & ease of navigation for both buyers and sellers. In January 2002, he launched QuickBid4u. His friend Scott Suckley was launching his own online auction site, so the two decided to collaborate on developing something special. Kobylarz set himself us as the Web site design guru, while Suckley's experience is in marketing and promotions.

The foremost goal for the two isn't what they can accomplish as much as it is to offer an alternative. Suckley claims, "For an average person with little Internet experience, eBay is very hard to navigate. And eBay has high listing fees. If you only do one or more items it doesn’t seem much, but if you have several, the fees add up very quickly. Also, I believe everyone should have an equal opportunity to expose their item as much as possible. Such exposure is possible with the Feature Auction option, Category or homepage feature auctions that give such exposure."

One of the perks the men are proud of is the real time counter. "eBay doesn’t have a counter that counts down live to the end of auction. This makes the user keep having to refresh the screen until the end of the auction."

The Music category had by far the highest number of auctions going (87), but there were no bids. QuickBid4u has been advertised locally, and Suckley and Kobylarz hope to reach a national market in the near future. They've given themselves 2 years as a target for reaching success. Since they developed the site themselves, they haven't yet had to seek venture capital and are using the infant stages to tweak the system and smooth the rough edges.

While it's not a hot venue for moving merchandise as yet, it is worth a look to see what can be done when the virtual nose is pressed firmly against the grindstone. http://www.quickbid4u.com?ab