nninet.stavka.ru — an online auction called "Nizhny Novgorod Auction" ("Nizhegorodsky Auktsion"), which operated in the first half of the 2000s. The home page presented it as the "Regional Auction of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast"[1]. The footer of every surviving snapshot carried the same line: "© 2000 «Nninet.Stavka.Ru». © 2000 Design by Shkarin-Art"[1][4] — meaning the site launched no later than 2000 and kept its original look until the end. Archived snapshots of the home page span from September 2001 to September 2004[1][4]. The site made it into our survey of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet via its listing in the nn.ru directory, where it appeared with the description "Nizhny Novgorod auction: cars and motorcycles, household appliances and electronics, children's goods, books …".

What the home page looked like

The top menu consisted of short items: "Categories | Sell | Buyer's Auction | Registration | Service | Cart"[1]. By August 2003 the "Buyer's Auction" item had disappeared from the menu, while the rest remained unchanged[2]. The center of the page held a category directory: in 2001 it had 29 sections, from "Cars and motorcycles" and "Household appliances" to "Hunting and fishing" and "Jewelry and watches," with the number of listed lots shown next to each section[1]. In later snapshots the "Hunting and fishing" section was gone, leaving 28 categories[2].

To the right of the category directory was a "Recommended" block — eight lots with prices, always in dollars: "Garmin GPS 12 XL — $280.00," "Windows Millennium Edition Rus — $20.50, Bids: 36," "Diamond ring, GML certified — $406.00," "Snaige 122 freezer — $175.00"[1]. Below that were a search box and a "Help" section with four guides — "First time here," "How to buy," "How to sell," "Bidding rules" — plus a news feed[1]. In the 2004 snapshots a "What people are searching for" block was added next to the search box, showing two live visitor queries: in April these were "Braun SI iron" and "Bread maker"[3], and in September "Discs" and "Synthesizer"[4].

None of the surviving home pages carried a postal address or phone number: the only means of contact remained a "Write by email" link at the very bottom[1]. The same spot kept a line clearly left over from the parent project: as the home page put it, this was "Your favorite Directory of Nizhny Novgorod and Russian Internet resources"[1] — a directory's phrasing, not an auction's, that outlived the site's change of purpose.

In the summer of 2003, a travel block titled "Off on vacation" appeared above the category directory, listing fourteen destinations — Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Tunisia, Morocco, Malta, France, Austria[2]. It is no longer present in the 2004 snapshots[3].

Lot counters: what was traded

The numbers next to each category are the only surviving measure of the platform's size, and they grew from snapshot to snapshot. The total across all sections was 215,450 lots in September 2001[1], 479,572 in August 2003[2], 593,507 in April 2004[3], and 706,575 in September 2004[4].

The largest categories throughout were books, computers, and household appliances. "Books, periodicals, printed matter" grew from 56,640 lots in 2001 to 144,033 in 2003, then shrank to 119,140 by September 2004[1][2][4]. "Computers, components, software" went from 46,015 to 131,242 lots, "Household appliances and electronics" from 30,691 to 169,472, "Jewelry and watches" from 1,475 to 44,534[1][4]. At the other extreme were categories that never filled up: "Real estate" fell from 31 lots to 8, while "Consumables" and "Leisure and entertainment" showed zero in all four snapshots[1][4].

The showcase assortment gives a sense of the price range: from a $1.57 lip balm and an $18.55 "Zenit" tripod to a LOEWE Avento\s 3770 television at $1123.50[2][4]. Dollar-denominated prices on a regional platform are a telling sign of the era.

Place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

"Nizhny Novgorod Auction" is known to us through the nn.ru directory listing; in the surviving vote-tally table of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day for 2004, the domain nninet.stavka.ru does not appear[5], and no votes for it are recorded in our data. In the surviving samples of the Counter.nn.ru rating, on which our Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating is based, the platform did not turn up either. Its audience therefore cannot be assessed — the only measurable trace left is the lot counters on the home page.

How it closed

The latest archived home-page snapshot in our sample is dated September 2, 2004; at that point the site was still fully functional — the category directory was filled in, the showcase updated, and the search box showing fresh queries[4]. No farewell notices or closure warnings appear on any surviving pages. By the time of our survey, a liveness check of the domain nninet.stavka.ru got no response: the address is no longer served.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2001 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2003 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (April) (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (September) (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — Voting results of the Day of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet, 2004 (archive)