eBay users in ND may need auctioneer licenses

• BISMARCK, North Dakota (AP) -- To sell things over eBay, Mark Nichols may be required to take instruction in rapid-fire speaking, breathing control and reading hand gestures, even though the transactions are done by computer keyboard and mouse.
• North Dakota's Public Service Commission is exploring whether people like Nichols, who runs a small consignment store in Crosby, must obtain auctioneer licenses before they can legally use eBay to sell merchandise for others.
• Regulators in other states are also eyeing similar restrictions or preconditions, moves prompted by the growing popularity of online auctions.
• To get a North Dakota auctioneer's license, applicants must pay a $35 fee, obtain a $5,000 surety bond and undergo training at one of eight approved auction schools, where the curriculum includes talking really fast.
• In Tennessee, trading assistants and stores that sell consignment goods on eBay must obtain an auction "gallery license," which costs $100 a year and requires the holder to undergo 30 hours of education and establish a bank escrow account.
• North Dakota's PSC already licenses auctioneers and is asking the state's attorney general for a legal opinion about whether the definition of an auctioneer covers eBay sellers.
• Hani Durzy, an eBay spokesman, said the company believes state laws regulating auctioneers should not apply to eBay sellers.
• Although eBay is often called an online auction service and uses many traditional auction terms, its sales are technically not auctions, Durzy said.
• For one thing, he said, eBay sales give buyers a fixed amount of time to bid for merchandise, while a traditional auction is held open as long as there are bidders.
• Nichols runs a consignment store called Variety Marketplace and said he has occasionally sold goods on eBay for customers.