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Larry and Marianne Sasak think eBay, the global Internet market, might be the place to sell authentic ranchwear during the off-season.

The Sasaks own Steam--boat Westernwear, a business unknown to their friends and neighbors because they have no store, no catalog and no Web page. But that doesn't mean they don't do good business.

"I hit the road every November to sell at stock shows and rodeos," Marianne Sasak said. "I'm on the road from Thanksgiving Day to Valentine's Day."

During that four-month period, every day is like the day after Christmas, Sasak said. When she returns to the Yampa Valley at the end of the season, she stores leftover inventory in a semitrailer and shuts down for the spring, summer and fall.

"I don't want to operate a retail store, and selling on my own Web page is too complicated and expensive. And I don't want to have a lot of employees," Sasak said.

She was one of more than 25 people who attended an all-day workshop this week at Colorado Mountain College dedicated to effective eBay selling strategies. The workshop leader was Terry Dowling, an eBay-trained educational specialist from Glenwood Springs.

He sells on eBay, marketing his personal items and items on behalf of clients. Dowling said the market at the online auction site is growing explosively. The company has passed the 1 billion listings mark and has more than 120 million registered users.

"A digital camera sells on eBay every minute, and a forklift sells every four hours," Dowling said.

One's reputation as a seller and purchaser on eBay is vital to uphold, Dowling said. The people eBay-users do business with are invited to post feedback about a seller's business practices or buyer's reliability, and those remarks go into a "feedback rating."

To build credibility, Dowling urges eBay neophytes to deliberately buy and sell some straightforward items of modest price -- books, for example -- to build a positive feedback rating. That track record is posted for buyers to see and will establish confidence that the seller is reputable.

Dowling is a firm believer that an eBay auction will find the true value of an item, and he urges sellers to set their opening bid requests low -- perhaps no more than 25 percent of the estimated value of the item.

The idea is to encourage interested buyers to become involved in competitive bidding to build up the sale price.

"Until that process starts, you've got a dead item," Dowling said. "You want people to think, 'They took away my item! I want it back!'"

Setting the price too high to begin with puts a damper on bargain hunters and defeats the purpose of listing items on eBay, he said.

"If you're trying to go for gold right at the start, you won't get much action," Dowling said. "You've got to think like a buyer. You're trying to create action. The system will tell you what an item is worth."

Dowling said the more experience he gains selling on eBay, the more he's convinced that $9.99 is an effective opening asking price for many items.

owling said he has found some of his best eBay sales items at garage sales and flea markets.

"I went to my son's graduation last June, and I had an hour to go to a five- to six-block garage sale," Dowling recalled. "I came across one couple -- he had a bunch of die-cast toys. He wanted $5 apiece. I got six of them for $23. He kept two for himself, and had I known what I know now, I would have tried to get those two from him. I sold them as a group of three and a group of two and kept one for myself. I sold them all for $655, and I paid for my trip to Chicago."

Sasak said she's optimistic that eBay will allow Steamboat Westernwear to tap into markets in Asia and Europe that are wild for authentic western clothing. Who knows? People in Steamboat might even discover the local company.

She also hopes eBay will provide her with a way to provide longtime customers with better service while easing the burden of storing inventory during a down period that lasts seven to eight months every year.

"We have some very loyal customers, but right now, they can't buy from us because they can't find us," she said. "I have nothing to lose here."

-- To reach Tom Ross call 871-4205

or e-mail tross@steamboatpilot.com