Keeping track: Internet auction sales

Maybe the popularity of baseball cards and Beanie Babies at online auctions doesn't seem so strange.

But more than $14 million worth of Rolex watches in just two months?

"From Reno, Nevada, to Rio de Janeiro, Rolex is one of the most well-known signature brands worldwide," explains Kenneth Joyce, managing editor of San Francisco-based worthguide.com, the company that conducts what it calls the only regular survey of Internet-auction sites.

Mr. Joyce says that the pricey watches may be gaining wider use as an investment commodity.

The following are the top 10 items in Internet auction sales for January and February 2000, in US dollars.

(c) Copyright 2000. The Christian Science Publishing Society