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Quote:A tiny Montreal tech firm, hoping to take on Internet mammoth eBay, might have found the giant's weak spot: faster response time and lower fees.

MightyBids.com, an online auction house based in St. Laurent, has seen its sales triple in the last quarter, even though it's been in business for four years...

About 300,000 items are listed at any given time, with 500 new users added each day. The founders declined to give revenue figures, but said the company is currently profitable.

Unlike eBay, MightyBids only charges the seller once a sale is made; it's free to list items. The company also gives five per cent of proceeds to ecological charities, which has attracted the occasional green seller, Michaud said...

Quote:Montreal online auction site MightyBids marks fourth anniversary in December

Four years ago, Peter Michaud was running MightyBids.com, an online auction website, from the basement of his Montreal home.

Now, the 34-year-old businessman has a staff of 20 employees in a suburban industrial park with more being added as traffic increases...

Tim Richardson, who teaches e-commerce at the University of Toronto, says he finds MightyBids interesting but isn't ready to declare it a serious challenger to industry dominator EBay

Richardson pointed out that EBay, Ubid.com and Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) are still tops among online auction sites...