Miss X is in the top 10 "most watched" items on eBay - the mechanism that allows sellers to monitor the scale of interest in their wares.But as well as questions, Miss X has fielded death threats. This is the reason, the company says, why it goes to great lengths to preserve real identities and addresses until the transaction is complete.At 1.08pm, a seller who calls herself littlemissshopaholic from Addlestone, Surrey, closes the deal on a Schiaparelli hat She is parting with the 1920s designer headgear for £30. She has taken the liberty of advertising on behalf of her friend Adam for a woman to accompany him on a date to this summer's T In The Park festival in Kinross. The website displays a blurry image of an 18-year- old music student who is seeking a date with a "lady between 17-20". An MRI scanner recently fetched $100,000.At midday Miss X checks her e-mails at a secret location in Scotland. Eminem's Detroit Studio 8 that he used to record The Slim Shady LP was put on eBay for $215,000 last year.

One in three of the items sold is now offered at a fixed market price MRI scanners now sell alongside music studios. Yesterday the site offered 1,345 different Star Wars-related items ranging from action figures to jigsaws. Many of the items command very low prices - the Hoth Wampa fetched only £2.91.The most expensive item ever sold on eBay was a Gulf Jet Stream private jet which achieved $4.9m In Britain, Lady Thatcher's old handbag fetched £103,000. Regular traders can build formidable reputations.At 11.20, the virtual hammer falls on a reproduction of Hoth Wampa - the snow monster who nearly kills Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back eBay is a vibrant market place for such memorabilia. The seller from Stevenage, Hertfordshire has a feedback score of 160 with a positive feedback rating of 100 per cent.

In other words she has a good reputation among the eBay community.Honesty underpins the eBay concept - the assumption is that those who participate are basically straight. The feedback rating is achieved by compiling the satisfaction marks given by the buyer and seller at the end of each transaction. It comes complete with labels and designer wooden coat hanger. "I always wanted to work for myself and this was the best way of doing it." Two years later she has bought a shop to accommodate her online selling which accounts for 90 per cent of her turnover. In a good month she can make as much as £3,000.Each day there are more than three million live listings on eBay in 13,000 different product categories. At 10.04am a Pashley Princess Retro bicycle reaches the end of its auction time. Ten years old, with a sit-up- and-beg frame, it has reached its reserve price on £100 in just two bids.