A WEBSITE aiming to rival eBay has launched in the Tees Valley enabling users to buy and sell almost anything.

The site - www.buytees. co.uk - has been set up for people in the Teesside area to trade goods easily and quickly, without having to pay an expensive postage.

It also features links for businesses and services, property and holiday homes and jobs.

Buy Tees has been launched by mother and daughter team Carol and Samantha Nicholls and technical manager Steve Graham, who together have invested more than £60,000.

Miss Nicholls, 25, who studied business management at the University of Teesside, said: "We are still very new to the market but the response from buyers and sellers so far has been phenomenal.

"We hope to replicate the idea so that Buy Tees is the first of a chain of similar online facilities across the country. To do that, however, we will need further investment.

"We envisage providing a local service for local people, but one that can also be accessed by anyone with a PC through the web.

"At low cost and minimal effort, anyone will be able to buy and sell a whole variety of items from houses through to motor vehicles and clothes.

"Our success so far has demonstrated that there is a market niche for a local facility of this nature and we're very pleased with the response from the residents of Teesside in using this new and innovative concept."

The site generates revenue through advertising and has featured a huge array of goods, from a four-poster dog bed, to a Lithuanian incense burner and a wooden farm gate.