The Allsopp's Arctic Ale, brewed in 1852, also had an attached handwritten note from the early 1900s, which sealed the deal.

"When (the seller) e-mailed me the information on the card, I thought it'd be something interesting to have," Woodul said.

After winning the aged bottle, Woodul said he decided to appraise its value by re-auctioning it off this month. The winning bid would have been a world record for a beer bottle -- still wax sealed and full -- at $503,300.

"I just sat back and waited," he said. "You wouldn't believe all the e-mails I've received."

Woodul is not a full-time eBay auctioneer, he said.

He has sold items for far less than they were probably worth and doesn't pay much attention to his bidding and selling online.

However, the bottle that had him poised to make a half-million dollar profit brought a lot of interest, he said.

"The thing that really bothered me was people were contacting the original seller and basically coming down on this guy, calling him an idiot," Woodul said, noting that the original eBay seller had the bottle in his possession for 50 years. "Buying and selling is such a fickle thing. Sometimes you just don't have the time to research what something is worth."

Woodul isn't expecting to cash a half-million check anytime soon. The bidder, known as "v00d004sc0re" on eBay, called him the night the auction ended.

No hard feelings, Woodul said.

"I talked to him the evening of and he basically said he wasn't going to follow through," he said. "He came out up front and said it was a joke bid."

So, what will Woodul, known as "collectordan" on eBay, do with his antique, now sitting safely in a safety deposit box? He currently has no plans to sell it or even re-list on eBay, despite six-figure offers for the bottle.

"With all this fiasco surrounding this, I'd rather it just go to charity," he said. "It's taken too much time already from our overseas business ventures."

Woodul, chief executive officer of Sebis International, has been working with his company since his college days at the University of Tulsa. EBay has been and will continue to be a hobby, he said -- $503,300 richer, or not.

Althea Peterson 581-8361
althea.peterson@tulsaworld.com

Fun eBay facts

$4.9 million: The most expensive eBay item sold to-date, a private jet.

103.6 million: Worldwide eBay auctions at any given time, with more than 6 million added each day.

1.3 million: According to a 2006 survey, the number of eBay sellers using auctions as a primary or secondary source of income.

241 million: Registered users on eBay worldwide.