No slowdown in sight for Onsale

Online auctioneer Onsale will continue to see rapid growth in sales and customers, chief executive Jerry Kaplan predicted today at BancAmerica Robertson Stephens' New Millennium Conference in San Francisco.

"We are continuing to grow our core business segments while expanding into new ones," Kaplan said in a statement. "We are experimenting with new business formats, like vertical business-to-business trading communities."

Onsale's growth comes despite intense competition from eBay (which recently filed to go public), Internet Shopping Network, Auction Universe, and First Auction, to name only a few. In addition, Web portal Excite has announced that it will use recently acquired Classifieds2000, an online classifieds listing service, to conduct real-time bidding for merchandise such as computers, toys, and collectibles.

Last week, Onsale posted a second-quarter loss of $4 million, or 21 cents a share, greater than the loss of $226,000, or one cent per share, it posted for the like quarter a year ago.

The company surpassed First Call's revised earnings-per-share estimate for its second-quarter earnings, based on analysts' expectations. The research group had updated its consensus of analysts' estimates for Onsale's second quarter from a 20-cent-per-share loss to a loss of 22 cents per share.