Full Steam Ahead
Stan Bunger, Jan Boyd

Munjal Shah's desk at Santa Clara's Andale is cluttered with model trains. Might be a nice way for a CEO to take a break from the fast-paced world of startup life. But the N-scale boxcars and locomotives represent more than a hobby for Shah. This is business.

"I got a box of trains that I bought for 147 bucks," says Shah gleefully. "I've now made about a thousand dollars off that box!"

Shah, like every employee at Andale, is required to place items up for sale at online auction sites such as eBay and Yahoo. It's a form of market research for Andale, which is targeting the estimated 400,000 "power sellers" who clear $75,000 a year and up working the online auction game.

Shah hopes his toy train arbitrage will help him get inside the heads of people who have turned online auctions into a way of life. "It's a great way for me to really feel like the user and say, 'What's it like to try to run a business? What's it like to sell 50 items at a time?'"

Andale offers a package of Web- based business management tools to these serial auctioners, who can be overwhelmed by their cottage businesses. The tools allow a seller to create better ads for auction items, keep tabs on an unlimited number of open auctions, and manage payment and shipping functions when the auction ends.

For now, the services are free, although Andale intends to begin charging fees by next spring. In the meantime, Shah plans to keep busy, looking for his next big kill in the miniature train business.