NEW YORK - With eBay Live Auctions now a distant memory, LiveAuctioneers' bold concept of a no-commission, free-enterprise policy toward auction-house clients is proving a solid winner, with Q2 statistics rolling over 2008 comparables.

Since eBay's Dec. 31, 2008 closure of its Live Auctions division - with which LiveAuctioneers had enjoyed a successful six-year marketing relationship - LiveAuctioneers has operated as an independent entity with its own live-bidding platform.

"What makes our business model unique in the marketplace is that we charge no commission to our auction-house clients and do not restrict them by requiring contractual exclusivity," said LiveAuctioneers' CEO, Julian R. Ellison. "Auction houses that use LiveAuctioneers' services have told us overwhelmingly that our free-enterprise approach works for them and is creating a stronger marketplace overall for antiques and fine art."

In its second quarter of operation as a stand-alone online-bidding platform, LiveAuctioneers.com recorded a 123 percent increase in site visits over the comparable quarter of 2008. By the end of Q2 2009, the Manhattan-based company also had signed its 832nd auction-house client.

Ellison said LiveAuctioneers continues to record an impressive number of new-user sign-ups, as well. "An average of 3,179 new bidders per week signed up during the second quarter, and going into July, our new-bidder sign-ups are coming in at a rate of around 4,000 per week."

In Q2 2009, LiveAuctioneers attracted more than 3.1 million site visits. "This is an increase of 123 percent over the comparable quarter of 2008 when we were in partnership with eBay Live. Even we are surprised by that," Ellison remarked.

Statistics are equally compelling with respect to page views: 25.5 million in second-quarter 2009, a 103 percent increase over Q2 2008. The number of unique visitors to LiveAuctioneers' Web site during Q2 jumped dramatically to 1,994,785 - a 149 percent increase over the comparable quarter of a year ago.

The most dramatic increase noted was in traffic referred from search engines, which leaped to 1,975,473, a 255 percent increase compared to Q2 2008.

"Our auction-house clients worldwide are already discussing their fall and winter events with us, and we've never seen a more exciting lineup of sales in all categories," Ellison said. "We won't be surprised if auction records are broken this year as investors continue to shift their assets into tangibles like fine art and antiques."

Founded in November 2002, LiveAuctioneers.com provides real-time Internet bidding capability to more than 800 auction houses in a dozen countries. LiveAuctioneers.com has opened up once-exclusive sales to the cyber community worldwide through online publication of auction catalogs, and its Internet-bidding platform. For further information, log on to www.LiveAuctioneers.com.