Are Penny Auction  a scam or a bargain?

Conceptually Penny Auction sites are very smart money makers which will probably be only gaining more popularity, or notoriety in the future

10 ways Penny Auctions are  Different than EBay’s
Bids cost from  .60 to $1.00 each
The site admin controls supply and demand
Product price increases .01 cents per bid / to .10 cents per bid
Products start at $.01 to .10
Placing a bid at the last second resets the timer 10 to 20 seconds
‘Bid Butlers’ can be used to automatically place bids within certain price ranges.
Bid butlers not allowed in nail biter auctions
If another bid butler matches your bid butler’s price range all bids are automatically placed and auction time is extended significantly (usually) as all those bids add 10 – 20 seconds each.
beginner auctions allow you to compete with only people who haven’t won an auction
One auction site swoop bug.com offers several options that are much different from the traditional penny auctions. Swoopbug along with the buy it now option also offers a bid til you win option ( members with paid bids get to bid on auctions and if the member fails to win the auctions the bids are returned to that members account until such time as the member has won an auction ) this option does not apply to the nail biters or non profit auctions.
Speaking of non profit auctions Swoopbug also offers a free service to registered non profit or charitable organization. All proceeds minus the cost of the item being auctioned is sent directly to the Non profit.( No administrative fees or deductions ) Continue Reading

Can you imagine the excitement of surprising your wife or husband with an all-expenses-paid vacation to the spot that they have always dreamed about? Think that it’s just too expensive? Think again! What if I told you that you could get the vacation that you’ve only dreamed about for just pennies? Now, you might be thinking that you could never in your wildest dreams afford a vacation to Hawaii, Tahiti, Europe, or the beaches or Brazil and that I must be crazy or running some sort of scam in order to get you a vacation for just pennies. Let me tell you my secret.

To get you started, go to one of the penny auction sites such Nitrobids. Don’t waste your time searching for one of the “top” penny auction sites such as Swoopo; there are too many people constantly on that site which will keep you from scoring the deal you’re after. Stick to one of the newer sites in order to increase your chances of scoring that vacation package.

Once you’re on the site, go and register for an account and collect your free bids. If you don’t see the vacation package you’re after when you first visit the site, just be patient. These sites are constantly being updated with the new products and packages and if you wait, you’re bound to find the vacation package you’re searching after.

After registration, some sites will require you to buy a bid package. These package run anywhere from $5 to $250 depending on the site and the amount of bids you purchase. Buying a larger bid package will dramatically increase your chances of winning big. If these big bid packages are out of your price range, go for one of the smaller ones. You still have an excellent chance of winning even if you only purchase 10 bids.

Once you’ve registered and purchased the bid package that’s right for you, sit back and enjoy the auction. The item that you’re searching for might not appear immediately, but if you watch the auctions, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for.

When the vacation package you want appears on the screen, wait a second and see if someone else is going to bid on it. If no one enters a bid, submit yours. Many items will sell for only $.01 because everyone else is too preoccupied watching the other auctions to notice the amazing vacation package selling for just a penny.

If you are outbid, wait until the timer is just about ready to run out. By doing this, you let other potential bidders use up their bids without having to use any of yours. Hopefully, the other bidders will either use up all of their bids or move on to another item and leave your vacation package alone. Once all the competition is either distracted or out of bids, place your bid and watch the timer run out. If no one outbids you—you win! Now pay for your deeply discounted vacation package and surprise your loved one with that second honeymoon and make the memories that will last a lifetime and draw you closer together.

While online penny auctions and traditional auction websites, like eBay, both occasionally offer a Buy-it-Now feature, they differ in terms of the time limit system, payment process, and entertainment value. In short, penny auctions are more intense versions of sites like eBay.

Time Limit Rules: Traditional Auctions

Traditional auctions, like those available on eBay, often drag the auction experience out to a week or more.  When the time runs out, whoever bids highest wins.  For instance, they may auction off an iPod for 1 week with a minimum bid rule of $20.  However, there will be stiff competition to get such a low price on the item.  After a whole week of everyone trying to outbid each other, the item may sell fairly high, close to the retail price, or even higher.

Time Limit Rules: Penny Auctions

The time limit system on penny auctions is much shorter and more intense, by comparison.  When the clock dips below a certain time (some sites make it 15 seconds), the auction will end if no one bids again.  However, if someone else bids the clock will reset (to 15 seconds again) and keep  resetting until no one else bids and the clocks runs down to zero.  This makes penny auctions so thrilling that they are now commonly referred to as, “Entertainment Auctions,” whereas traditional auction sites like eBay do not offer that fast-paced level of experience.

Payment Process: Traditional Auctions

In traditional auctions, if you bid the highest amount by the time the clock runs out, you pay that amount plus taxes and the shipping and handling fees.  So if you won an auction where you bid $5 on a book and taxes and shipping and handling fees added up to $3.50, in order to claim your item and receive the book you must pay $8.50.

Payment Process: Penny Auctions

The main difference between penny auctions and traditional auctions is that in penny auctions, you pay for the auction end price in addition to bids you have placed plus shipping and handling.  For example:

There is an iPhone auction with bids fixed at 75 cents each, and price increments of 1 penny per bid.  One person bids once and you win by also bidding once, just before the timer runs out.  When you win an auction, you pay for your bids (1 bid of 75 cents in this example) and the total number of bids in the auction times 1 penny (2 bids x 1 penny = 2 cents).  So in this example, you won a brand new iPhone at a penny auction for only 77 cents.  Even if you won the auction but bid 10 times (10 x $0.75= $7.50) and there were 100 total bids (100 x $0.01), you still won a brand new iPhone for $8.50!  That is the same price for a book in the traditional auction example!

The Buy-it-Now Option

Some traditional auctions and some penny auction sites have a Buy-it-Now option.  On eBay, you can forgo the usual bidding process and immediately buy the product for retail value.  Penny auctions also have this feature, which is convenient if you don’t win.  The money you already bid in the auction counts towards part of it, and you simply pay whatever’s left.

Penny Auctions vs. Traditional Auctions

The best penny auction sites couple the risk-free, Buy-it-Now option with an intense bidding experience with an unmatchable entertainment value.  As opposed to traditional auctions which often use hidden fees to even out the seemingly low price, auction winners can save up to 90% with penny auctions.

Savvy shoppers seek penny auctions with bid prices under a dollar and price increments at a penny.  The largest discounts are most feasible on the newest sites, because less people know about them they have much less competition, and therefore, are easier to win—and most importantly, win without too many bidders jacking up the price like in traditional auctions.

For those of you interested in electronics discounts up to 90%, check out one of the newest risk free penny auction sites (75 cent bids and 1 penny increments):   OneCentCity.com

Bidray user “thomas2″ with his cheap iPod for less than $5! www.bidray.com

One of the latest penny auction websites to hit the United Kingdom is Bidyell.com

Some of the graphics used on the site are okay which probably stems from the fact that BidYell is part of T-Enterprise a Scottish Games Design & Development Company although I must say considering their forte in hindsight I am probably a little disappointed in the appearance of the website or maybe it’s just another one of those off-the-shelf penny auction websites from our friends at Sonik Technologies that we featured recently.

Regardless of appearance the website itself is very easy to navigate around and seems to have a few innovative ideas like the ‘Knockout Auction’ which seems like a great idea although I personally being a lightweight boxer would not want to find myself up against a Super Heavyweight with his massive arsenal of bids if you get my drift.

The website is relatively new so it is hard to gauge feedback although BidYell does have a forum which attracts transparency and gets the big thumbs up from us. There were a few negative comments in the forum about shipping times but hey I am sure that will be sorted in due course.

On to the technical aspects of the website. I discovered that the website is quite slow and counters are not smooth enough. There is a very good reason for this in that every second the website sends a request of about 20 – 30 KB to its server which updates the clock counter and other stuff on website. The size of request is way too big if you compare it with other websites like Swoopo (1KB), Madbid(1-2 KB), Redbread (1-2 KB). so you could say that this websites bandwidth requirements are 15 – 30 times greater compared to other websites. This website sends data of about 2-3 MB per minute which is HUGE

Has anyone tried this website in FireFox? I tried it on 2-3 different computers and sometimes the website did strange things in Firefox. If anyone else has experienced problems in Firefox we would love to hear from you. The website also has a few JavaScript errors which can affect bidding. Please check the screenshot below.

Share your experiences with this website here.