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More than 300 sellers are set to participate April 27 in the first online auction in which all transactions will be guaranteed by surety bonds. Dealers in antiques and collectibles will sell their wares during the auction, scheduled for April 27-May 2 at BondedSale.com, a site jointly sponsored by online antiques dealer Tias.com, e-commerce company ePier, and buySAFE Inc., an Alexandria, Va.-based company formed last year to address the problem of fraudulent auction transactions on the Internet. Through an arrangement with Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., BuySAFE allows sellers to display a seal certifying that the seller has met qualification criteria set by the company. Hartford issues bonds to these sellers guaranteeing transactions against failure by the seller to ship the goods, refund money, or otherwise meet the terms of the sale. For the upcoming antiques auction, the bonds will cover sales up to $10,000. BuySAFE claims its program with Hartford is the only one so far to guarantee online transactions with surety bonds. The online antiques auction, in which buySAFE says all sellers will be bonded, is “an important milestone for the online auction world,” Jeff Grass, chief executive of buySAFE, says in a statement. The Federal Trade Commission reported 51,000 consumer complaints about online auction transactions in 2002.
