AUCTIONHUNTER, the Wirral Globe's newest online service brought to you through Newsquest's network of regional 'This Is' websites, enters its third month of operation with a catalogue of successful sales already chalked up.

Bidders from as far afield as London and the South West joined the rush to bid for a Dinky model fire engine which sold for £20. Elsewhere, the scramble for a number of mint condition Beanie Babies netted one person significant profit over their original purchase price.

Britain's first true Internet Auction, AuctionHunter puts buyers and sellers in touch with a national and international audience, 24 hours a day, from the comfort of their own home.

A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words - and that is especially true of AuctionHunter.

No matter how detailed the description of an item is, a photo is the only way to get the point across precisely, especially for unique pieces. A picture shows potential buyers exactly what they are bidding on, which will increase their confidence and most likely their bid.

With AuctionHunter, including a picture is quite simple. It is essentially a two part process: Getting an image in digital form, and posting it on-line. To get the digital image, there are three choices - scanning the item directly, scanning a photograph of the item or taking a picture using a digital camera.

If your object is small and appropriately shaped, experiment with scanning. Scanners have dropped considerably in price since they were first introduced, and are now quite affordable. The majority of scanning systems include software that lets you size and preview the image on screen and save it as a JPG. You should always try to reduce the file size of the image as much as possible (see your software manual for tips on this) to keep the download time down - if it takes too long to open your photo, potential buyers may give up in frustration.

If you're using a black and white image, save it as grayscale to make the file size even smaller.

If scanning directly doesn't do your object justice, or it's just too large, a photograph is your next option. Again, you have a couple of choices for turning your film into a digital image. You can go traditional and have prints made before scanning as above.

Or, you can have the developer provide the digital version. Many companies now offer scans or photo discs - CD-ROMS featuring your pictures - for a nominal fee. Investigate the options.

Finally, you can skip film altogether and use a digital camera to shoot your object. Save the output as a JPG and upload it directly to your computer. For unloading to a server and linking your item listing to it, you'll need to arrange for service space - the on-line auction service hosts only the listing; the photos are pulled from another source. Follow your ISP's instructions to upload your images, and make a note of the URL where they end up.

Now you're ready to add the photo to your item description. On the on-line listing form, there is a line beginning http:// with a blank space for where the link the photo is to be pulled from. Add the complete line, not just a link to the site unless you want to irritate all of your potential buyers.

It's a simple process to post images and site statistics prove that illustrations deliver results. Buyers like to see just what it is they are bidding on.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.