RALEIGH — Auction sites have been around for about three years, but the recent success ofeBay, the largest auction site, is drawing millions of bargain hunters to hundreds of sites.

This is a positive trend for Triangle-basedOpenSite Technologies. The three-year-old company is the world's leading developer of software for auction sites.

Auction web sites offer sellers and buyers a quick and dynamic way to do business on the internet. Users can sell, or buy, most anything. Popularity is driven by dynamic pricing.

"A buyer can go into an online store and they can actually purchase something at the minimum amount of money that they're willing to pay," says OpenSite founder Michael Brader-Araje.

OpenSite Technologies writes and markets the software powering more than 50 percent of auction sites. Auction entrepreneurs have become wealthy.

"Hobbyists, collectors that have a passion for what they were doing and decide they wanted to start an online action, can do very, very well for themselves," Brader-Araje said.

More than 200 OpenSite clients have paid from $5,000 to $50,000 for full-featured software.

"And then we have the larger, publicly traded companies that are starting to use our software," Brader-Araje said. "TheSharper Imageis one household name that is using our software."

Brader-Araje says when companies must clear warehouses of overstocked products online auctioning is ideal.

"Auctions are just becoming a natural extension of the eCommerce initiative," Brader-Araje said.

A growing number of auction sites urge users to bid and if they do, they will likely be doing so with the help of a Triangle company.

OpenSite expects to grow quickly and will be taking major step soon that will help auction users more easily find what they want.