Once a shining example of the potential for online profit, auctions on eBay may now be a dying breed, according to an interesting BusinessWeek story out Tuesday.

I never really got into auctions myself, but I remember working in offices in the 90s when coworkers eagerly scoured auctions and monitored bids in the hopes of scoring a low-priced deal. Stories left and right chronicled yet another lucky Joe who left his unfulfilling job to make a living selling gems, junk or both via the definitive auction site.

Now those auctions are losing out in favor of fixed-price sales, according to the story. eBay auctioneers are up in arms about fee changes from January that favor the faster, set-price sales, which the story says are growing quickly on the site. 

So will auctions fade away to niche-y sales of memorabilia and collectibles, while traditional straight sales reassert their dominance in the new digital businessplace?  The BusinessWeek story makes it seem like that could happen.  There's also commentary on the Rough Type blog (found via Techmeme) on the topic that suggests the same.

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