Another new recruit to the United Kingdom penny auction market in recent months is plbid.co.uk

For the last couple of months I have been trying to write a review about plbid.co.uk. However it seems they have problems because for the third time in as many months the website has been ‘temporarily’ closed the latest being for security reasons whatever that entails!

We will keep our eye on plbid.co.uk and when they get a few months under their belt without a significant closure of their website we can perhaps put a worthwhile review on line.

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.

Continuing on from my last post regarding penny auction website software ….

I decided to continue my research to try and ascertain what organizations are using the software provided by Sonik Technologies (as featured in my last post). The first website we are going to feature in this series is GoCrazyBid.com.

If you check WHOIS data and search for gocrazybid you will find, by huge coincidence, that the registration service is provided by Sonik Technologies PVT. Contact: +91.9928988554” . This is the very same Indian company that we featured yesterday who sell software containing dummy bidders.

You may recall that from the chatroom transcriptions they stated that all of their penny auction software has Dummy Bidders(Robots). I think there is justification is stating that GoCrazyBid also have this Dummy Bidder option within their admin panel.

Whether GoCrazyBid use this function or not is difficult to prove we but we know for definite that they have the Dummy Bidder option contained within their software. So bidders beware, it may not be just Jon from Houston or Steve from London that you are bidding against but also Rob Ot from Sonik Technologies too. Do take a minute to check the following screenshots….

To discuss more about GoCrazyBids, join MAW Community.

Biddango.com is a new penny auction website with a nice and clean design (still needs Browser compatibility).

biddango review

This website is hosted on Dedicated server. I wonder why they hide their identity using proxy server while registering their domain name.
This website is new and does not offer much variety of auctions. they have 4-5 live auctions but I expect more in the near future. They do not have SSL implemented on their website like Swoopo, redbread and madbid. But in their Privacy Policy, they have mentioned that :

“We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by those authorized with special access rights to such systems, and are required to�keep the information confidential.”

I do not see SSL Implemented on Login or Register Page. Not even on Change Password Page.

Once you are registered with them, you can not change your account detail. they are doing this to stop abuses. BUT there should be option to change delivery address. I didn’t see that option when I logged in as member.

You can see your remaining bids at top of the page which is nice.
Overall website looks nice and worth trying. and I hope in near future they will take care of above mentioned issues. Cheers..

Registered by
BidMyDreams
Cerritos
Cerritos, California 90703
United States

This website is hosted on Shared hosting on GoDaddy.com.
Shared hosting for a penny auction website is not good idea as there are 5030 more websites hosted on same server.

I have checked code of BidMyDreams.com and Guess what .. It is using same script as SellMoo.com just with different look and feel.
They have same problems as i mentioned in my last post.

BidMyDreams review

Here are problems with website..
1. They do not have SSL implemented on website, which they should.
2. Just like SellMoo, they have information visible in server response. so your personal information like email, phone number, username can be viewed and misused.
3. Website is hosted on Shared Hosting which is not a good idea for Penny Auction Website.
4. Not Secure to use.

I hope their developers Could fix these issues ASAP.

Sellmoo.com is a penny auction website born Mid 2009. This website has a nice and clean look which could be better but hey who cares as long as you are winning..

This domain is registered by
Kolb Internet Holdings LLC
PO Box 110223
bradenton, Florida 34211
United States

And is hosted on dedicated server.

I Checked its Source code and its server responses so that I can write technical review about this website.

I have checked their Privacy Policy and according to them

Security Procedures

We have adopted state-of-the-art Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology that encrypts all information you logged in before it is sent to us. Moreover, all the customer data we collect is protected against unauthorized access. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure correct use of information, we employ best available Internet security methods and technologies. Please note, Sellmoo will never ask for your password or other personal information in e-mails that you receive unexpectedly or that you did not request.

BUT I do not see SSL implemented on that website. to check SSL, the URL must start with “HTTPS:// ” not with “HTTP://”. even on login page and on my account page, I do not see any SSL.

They also mentioned in Privacy Policy that User’s personal information like email address is not visible to public. BUT I doubt that. If you bid on that website, your email address is visible to someone with a little knowledge of programming. So spam bots can get your email address and can use it for spamming. People will be selling VIAGRA to you lol.

Here is the proof of what I am saying.

Other issues are :
Their server response time is also too high which is because of unwanted data in their JSON response.
website is naked when you see their response from server. every detail is visible.
They do not show how many bids I have in my account on homepage. I have to go to my account page to see that.
Website is not SEO friendly.
Layout is not browser compatible.

They have to talk to their developer to fix all these issues so that users could feel safe when they are bidding on that website.