Re: auction running on ebay...

That's right. But first of all, to be fair, I'm not sure you'd find all the other franchisers' names if you search for them in ebay trading assistants. It may be they just list the names of individual trading assistants, and companies such as AUML are called "trading posts".

Here's a general article about them:

www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m01/i28/s01

And here's yet another franchiser, PostNet, announcing its intent to expand from to 100 drop-off storefronts:

www.dmnews.com/cgi-bin/artprevbot.cgi?article_id=30016

Again, this is not to "bash" AUML, just be be as clear as possible about it, and to help newbies understand and be careful of its volatility. Can you imagine how many might have paniced & sold last week when it plunged from high of $1.15 down to what, 35 cents? Then charged up to $1.00 on what, the announcement of a higher target price? For somethat that's produced nothing yet?

For sure, that's the way OTC trading works. Let's just be wise about it.

Re: rpt - "I'm not the least bit concerned..."

Sure.
I probably wasn't clear enough. It's not simply that AUML isn't original, it's that

- they have lots of competition in most localities, also offering franchises, and already in operation. Even if their execution is better than most or all, the winner won't necessarily be the cleverest or best. Remember Betamax vs. VHS.

- the first thing they did was issue stock. There are so many OTC companies like this it's not funny. And they chose the least regulated OTC, the pink sheets. It's a formula for taking your money. You don't know who owns the stock, who's buying & selling for whom, etc.

Again, these are warning flags, not indictments of AUML.

bluestrato...

You might want take out your original investment.
Whether or not you do, why not set a stop loss so if it tanks while you're not watching, you won't lose much of your gains.

did you read my post,
http://investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?message_id=3790548

I don't know what makes them unique either, might be totally legit, might not, just don't know.

This week's huge decline, and almost equal rise perhaps means most of the stock is held by MMs.

Not at all, I made a bit of change.
But for the reasons cited, it's kind of risky, especially for newbies, of whom there are a couple here.
To call caution bashing is just inaccurate.
That's all.

Concerns about AUML

It is NOT a new or unique concept. There are already many such businesses, in the US, Australia and London. The largest may be AuctionDrop, affiliated with UPS, so you can drop off items at local UPS stores across the USA. AuctionDrop received several million in venture capital.

Other US-based eBay trading assistant companies have done such things as develop their own software for coordinating auction information with eBay, notably,

www.numarkets.com

which has 6 locations in Georgia, N. Carolina & Tennessee, each listed with phnone numbers and email addresses, and was also begun with venture capital.

Another prominent player: www.quikdrop.com, has far more extensive explanations of its franchise offerring than does AuctionMills.

And look at this:
---------------
from: www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m04/i01/s01

e-Powersellers Sells Drop-Off Store Franchise on eBay
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
April 01, 2004
e-Powersellers is selling an eBay drop-off store franchise on eBay for $14,995. Drop-off stores sell items on eBay on a consignment basis for consumers who drop the items off at retail locations. There's been a steady increase of stores opening since 2003 in the U.S., with a concentration in California, as well as locations in Germany and some planned for Australia.

e-Powersellers also announced agreements in place to allow franchise in five states, Oregon, Utah Colorado, Arizona & Nevada, with opportunities to follow in May 2004 for California, Washington, Hawaii, Texas, and New York. e-Powersellers already has offices located in Oregon and California.

"Since opening in December of 2002 we have had an overwhelming interest in e-Powersellers.com franchises," said Craig Solomon, founder and CEO of e-Powersellers.com. e-Powersellers Web site has been working as a third party eBay support forum, chat room and auction support site for the last 2 years.

---------------

These are just examples, with many more to be found at www.auctionbytes.com. If you examine the site, you'll see AuctionMills is one in a million, so to speak.

AuctionMills intends to compete with numerous companies that have selling track records on their own turf. These companies have also been getting great interest in their franchises. If you go to one of their two stated locations, in Dallas or McKinney, would they be able to take your items?

The other companies put their effort into actually making valid, operating businesses. AuctionMills has nothing but a pretty website, with no information on the company's managers. The other companies have not issued any stock, they've convinced investors with their business plans put into operation. AuctionMills has sold nothing yet but stock, and that on the PinkSheets, where regulations are next to nothing. It could be that somebody has made a great deal of money on something that's not there when you look closely.

Everyone be very, very careful.

Re: flycutter...bid/ask...

rpt's direction is excellent.
Once you're read it, you'll see that not knowing the bid/ask is really to trade blindly.

BE CAREFUL!

Re: "Penny stocks under $5 dollars dont show the bid/ask..."

Thanks, but yes, they do. I watch many OTC BB stocks on ameritrade, for free at finance.yahoo.com and on this site. For almost all, there are Level II. At ameritrade if you subscribe, and here, 15 or so minutes delayed.

AUML is a pink sheet stock, that is, it's OTC, but not OTC BB or bulletin board. Nevertheless, I've seen the Level IIs for some other pink sheets, both on ameritrade & on the free sites, even for stock under a penny.

It must have something to do with AUML, or at least the Market Makers.

When I find out for sure, I'll post it here. Knowing the current bid/ask would be invaluable for this.

Hello all,

I'm new to this board, having just bought into AUML yesterday, 8/4.

Does anyone know why one can't see the current bid/ask anywhere?

It's not on Yahoo, not on any free, delayed Level IIs, and it's not on Datek/Ameritrade, which I use.

Does the company have to subscribe to some service to have it's bid/ask displayed? You can't judge what's going on witht the MMs, and this may account for the odd trades earlier this afternoon, 8/5, where you had odd sequences such as:

400 @ 1.03
5000 @ 1.08
1000 @ 1.07
500 @ 1.01

etc.