You may have come through life, so far, without feeling the overwhelming urge for an enamel Brighton Butlins badge from 1954.

Perhaps you have kept hidden, until now, your desire for a copy of the programme for Dora Bryan's show, Here's Dora, at the Brighton Hippodrome.

And it may be that getting your hands on the Albion's 1983 FA Cup Final record The Boys In The Old Brighton Blue - and its B-side, The Goldstone Rap -

would only bring back unhappy memories.

Yet the chances are, someone, somewhere in this world, wants them - and can find them on www.ebay.co.uk, the country's leading internet auction site.

Hundreds of Sussex shoppers are getting stuck into the January sales and getting shot of unwanted Christmas presents without leaving their living rooms.

These are the Del Boy Trotters of the 21st Century.

Just like the wheeling and dealing market trader of the hit TV series Only Fools and Horses, scores of them spend hours trawling through an odd array of goods on the internet hoping to find a bargain.

This time next year, they could be millionaires. Or maybe not.

However, anyone venturing on to the site for the first time may be amazed by the flotsam and jetsam floating about in the sale rooms of cyberspace. They may be surprised by just what can be bought, or perhaps more bizarrely, sold via the world wide web.

Just a few clicks of the mouse have enabled a strong community of small-scale Sussex entrepreneurs to gather in the virtual market place.

In recent weeks, some eBay traders have sparked anger by rushing to offer shattered pieces of the collapsed West Pier.

While critics, including city council leader Ken Bodfish, believed it was tasteless profiteering, traders such as Gloria Lewington defended offering people "a piece of history".

Dealers hooked on sharing their wares with the world offer browsers an unlikely-looking marketplace of miscellany.

Lucy Dobbins, who is selling shards of the West Pier for a charity tackling homelessness, checks the site every day for updates.

She admits to being "addicted" to eBay but has found it a useful way of earning extra spending money.

Lucy, 31, of Lorna Road, Hove, said: "If I feel a bit skint at the end of the month, I look around my home and see what I don't really use any more, like videos."

The rewards are there for the canny entrepreneur - on a visit to an everything-for-a-pound shop, Lucy found videos promising to stimulate lazy cats.

She said: "The music and the psychedelic colours are meant to encourage cats to play and be more active. I bought them for a pound, and people paid me up to £12 for copies.

"I even had someone from the Graham Norton show on TV contacting me for a video.

"Overall I don't think I really make any money. I spend as much as I save, although I do try and keep track."

The site will even play a key role on her wedding day in April, after Lucy snapped up a tiara for £15.

She said: "It would usually sell for about £45. It looks lovely and sparkly, I am really looking forward to wearing it."

Among the delights under the virtual hammer this weekend was a souvenir egg cup from the Fifties, bearing the slogan A Present From Brighton - a snip at a starting price of £3.

The bidding started at £2.50 for an 1845 book with a title page reading Sermons, Preached at Brighton by the Rev C E Kennaway, MA.

The next page reads: "To the congregation assembling at Trinity Chapel, Brighton, These sermons are inscribed, by their affectionate pastor and friend, the author."

The Coventry-based seller tells potential buyers: "The cover is a bit dirty and faded, but otherwise the book is in good condition."

Dealers can also do a roaring trade in concert tickets whether usable or useless.

Tickets for the sold-out forthcoming Brighton Centre shows by Liberty X and The Streets are available for upwards of £55.

A lot cheaper, starting at £2.50, is a prized ticket for last month's Oasis concert in Brighton.

Clearly someone saw the value - a couple of rival bids hoisted its price to £3.21. Throw in the band's setlist, as another trader has done, and the price soars to £9.99.

A Crawley trader has aimed for a very specific market by pitching two wing mirrors for a Rover P6.

A set of ten bullet heads, possibly dating back to Napoleonic times and dug up on Winchelsea beach near Rye, were on offer at a starting price of £4.99.

But the values start rising with prizes such as an Edwardian mahogany inlaid dressing table from 1905, pitched at £250.

A pair of World War One naval officer's binoculars were available at a more modest £45.

Etched on the back of the binoculars are the details of the original owner, Sub Lt EE Constable, Colgate, Horsham, Sussex.

Purchasers with a bit more money to throw about may be tempted by the promise of "UK land for sale with development potential".

A site measuring 0.133 acres in Pottery Lane, Brede, near Hastings, described as "prime pasture land", can be bought over the internet.

The buyer was offering opening bids of £4,000.

Veteran eBay users become used to siphoning the authentic, individual dealers from the professional firms using the site as a handy marketplace.

Many users have a cautionary tale to tell.

Matt Goodman, 19, of New Barn Close, Portslade, was fleeced of £90 by a rogue trader offering a phoney mobile.

Matt trustingly sent off his money after winning the auction for a Nokia 6210 phone last April, and heard nothing more until December. Even then, it was not the seller getting in touch but South Wales police, who revealed he had been taken for a ride by a known con merchant.

Now he takes more care to only deal with people who have a catalogue of approving comments on display from previous customers.

The site and others like it, seems to suggest that everything has a price, monumental or trivial, new or old.