How To Win Penny Auctions: Tips For Success On Penny Auctions Sites
Updated on February 2, 2012
What is Penny Auctions?
If you ever try to find cheap deal on line then you probably heard of penny auction. You see advertisement of an iPad sold for 50 dollars or an PS3 sold for 10 dollars. These are not scam but there is a catch to them. Penny auctions are not like eBay, you have to buy bids. You buy the bids in bundle: an example is 50 bids for 25 dollar. Essentially, each bid cost 50 cent to a dollar. Auction usually starts at 0 and increase by a penny every times someone bid. Here is the tricky part, there is essentially no time limits to this auction. There is a clock but every bid add in 10 second or so. People keep bidding until everyone runs out of bids or gets tires. Tricky right!
Tips To Winning:
There really is no trick to winning a penny auctions sometimes it comes down to pure luck. You enter the bids right at the moment where everyone else runs out of bids. But there are ways to increase your odd.
-
Research: This is really important. You need to know how much an item sell for and at what time. The timing of the day determines the number of bidders. If you bid on Tuesday afternoon, you face less competition than you would on Sunday night.
-
Go in with the mindset that you will buy the item for full prices: There can only be 1 winner and it is unlikely that it will be you unless you have a huge number of bids. If you go in with the mindset that you will buy the item at full price, you will never lose (penny auction subtracted the actual price of the item by the costs of bids you used in that auction, that way you would not lose everything).
-
Do not go into a bidding war, especially with an automatic bidder: The best way to blow off your bids is to enter a bidding war with someone. If you see two people constantly bidding, let them and enter the bid when they run out of bids. Just do not let the clock run out.
-
Do not jump into the popular items with a small number of bids: A lot of beginners jump into penny auction and immediately go into the popular items. Best way to lose your money. Do not jump into popular items without having enough money to buy it if you lose.
-
You can scare other people: I believe it is call power bidding. Essentially, you buy a lot of bids and you keep bidding. This shows other that you are serious and will not back down causing other people to back down. That is why penny auction limits the number of wins you can have in a month.
These are simple tips to increase your odds. It is by no mean a guarantee and it is recommended that you do not participate in this type of auction. Although it is not an scam, it is tricky. I have tried this type of auction myself and it feels like gambling. It is very addicting but will just lose in the long run. But if you just want to try it out, try going to Quibids.