Yellowknife (Jan 19/05) - So you're looking for the interesting and unusual to satisfy a post-Christmas shopping urge?

Online auction marketplace eBay may be the answer and you don't even leave home to face-off against like-minded shoppers.

Hundreds of millions of buyers and sellers use this international Web site in search of treasures great and small.

But what about searching for items or artifacts which, in some way, are related to Yellowknife or the NWT?

A recent search of the site revealed somewhat scant results for items related to the diamond capital. Postcards, a Yellowknife-opoly board game and collector pins are up for auction, but nothing that would get a museum curator's interest.

Charles Arnold, director of the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, said he and his staff keep an informal watch over eBay. While nothing has been added to the collection, should an item of interest go up for auction it would be bid on, he said.

"We've had a few items brought to our attention by outside callers," Arnold said, but thus far they pose more hassles than anything else.

The problem with purchasing old photographs, for example, is that the copyright is needed before they can be displayed, he said.

Joanne Bird, curator of collections at the museum, said she would question the authenticity of anything found on eBay.

"It would depend on a lot of variables," she said of the origin of any items of interest and whether or not the museum would consider purchasing them.

But while true artifacts may be few and far between, Arnold said one thing the museum is always on the lookout for is recording equipment used to reformat old tapes.

"It's a handy source," Arnold said of the Web site.