The Age today starts its second bid2buy online auction promotion. The first was in November last year. These auctions use technology developed by CityXpress, a provider of event auctions, marketplaces and online classified solutions for newspaper publishers. It’s a good promotion in that it offers consumers, through the newspaper, an opportunity to access product at a discount, or perceived discount at least. I don’t see much long-term value in this type of promotion for the newspaper. Smart consumers will realise that using a newspaper to promote an online auction adds to the cost. Further, it potentially turns offline consumers online and runs the risk of diluting the value of future newspaper advertising by the companies supporting bid2buy. While bid2buy creates a buzz for the newspaper I cannot see it doing much more. Id like to see is Fairfax would run bid2buy if (when) they bring TradeMe to Australia.