Roscoe you are awesome and all. But .....
He doesn't have to be different then other websites, people can just be just SICK of ebay's BS that they just want to go some other place.
He might be the next ebay out of the UK only! Who knows, it's all it takes right?
Christfo - To the OP I wouldn't spend too much time on TV and news papers, maybe just the sunday paper and get front page conver only very sunday with hot deals going on. Write something like "50% off DVDs" Just to target people to come on the site to look at other deals! Attraction! You might have a better chance of doing RADIO with the same thing!!!! A lot of other people in this world came up with ideas that when you seen them you said "Now why didn't I think of that?" They had no plan, no money, not a lot, no ads, but it sold. Think of Coke, Weed, Sex, Drugs, Coca-Cola. These don't really need ads and they sell! Think postive man! I mean look at twitter, facebook, and all the other online businesses, some business hit CNN and then they get so popular it's unreal! You don't need billions, or millions! Start of small. Maybe get DVD's at dirt cheap prices and sell them for no profits on the website just to get people to come! Even if you, yourself make .10 cents per DVD at least you got traffic coming in and they'll see other deals on the side bars with ads of other people.
NO MONEY REQUIRED!!!! The best ideas are the ones with no money, people spend so much money on ads and get 0 results at times. I look at it as a postive way, add facebook as a group for your business, and tell people to add it for hotter deals seen daily and that they can follow up on it. etc. And post pictures of things + deals daily. Who needs billions! You don't see Tabasco sauce doing ads do you? Yet people still buy it. What about toilet paper? Tooth brush? Tooth paste? I mean a PEN! No one does ads for pens yet people still buy them cause we need them! Soxs, Shoes, Pans, regardless people still need things, there are so many things in the house that were not on tv for ads yet people buy them anyways. If they need it, they'll be buying it.
Roscoe don't hate me for it! I am kinda of a jew when it comes to spending money! BIG TIME! lol.
Also Christ, there is a company in Colorado USA! That has a cell phone service that pays $40 a month unlimited use within that area! They are only in that location! It might be something that you will do that is only for the UK location! Target UK first, the major cities! Then once you've done UK target other countries slowly!
Like Roscoe said here, start an FB page, Twitter, and other social media sites for FREE! Get the word going.
Find a location on the high way to post up a big poster of your business with prices *starting at .99 cents* deals daily something just anything. Look how the big boys did it. I remember ebay started off with radio ads 15 years ago. It's how I heard of them.
Thinking of starting a new online auction site.. 
That 30 minutes or less was not the only way. 
