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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Penny Auction Winning Strategies for Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner, and a lot of shoppers are looking for the best online deals for their friends and family. Of course, penny auctions are a great way to start off this search.

However, penny auctions aren't all a bed of roses in that you cannot really know whether you will win or lose. Thus there is always an element of risk involved in any penny auction bidding. You, as a bidder, need to make sure that you minimize your risk and maximize your winning chances.

There are several penny auction strategies that I discuss throughout this blog. However, I wanted to write something specific for Christmas.

Lets take a look at HappyBidDay, a fast growing penny auction that recently completed 1 year of service to penny auction bidders. If you are bidding here, how do you win?

One common mistake is that you like a particular product, like Kindle fire, and start bidding on it. This is a bad strategy!

The reason is simple - there are too many bidders involved and even though you might win this for cheap, it is not a guarantee and you are up against some more experienced bidders. Instead, from my research, the best way to win on HappyBidDay is to bid on gift cards. You can then use these gift cards and buy whatever you want from these stores. See the two auctions below, both ending at 1 bid only (rare for good penny auctions, but still an occurrence at HBD).



Both these auctions are for gift cards - Amazon and Walmart, and both ended after just 1 bid! (HBD has prices start from $1.00, so $1.01 means 1 bid win). Isn't this better than battling for your favorite electronics item with 10 other determined bidders? What's more, HBD actually gives free bids along with most gift cards, which is all the more reason to like them! In addition, for Christmas, you can get 20% off your bid pack purchase and also get a winning guarantee for higher bid packs - totally worth it! Check out the HBD Offer of 20% Discount and Win Guarantee.

Monday, December 5, 2011

3rd Party Audit of Quibids

Looks like it is time to separate the wheat from chaff when it comes to penny auctions. They have gone out of their way to establish stricter rules regarding how they operate and Quibids now has a 3rd party independent audit report. You can read the Grant Thorton Quibids Report. This is an audit from a certified CPA which should help Quibids try to project a better image of itself.

Quibids has been an industry leader among a lot of things, and this is just another of those. Quibids however isn't the only penny auction to do this. However, it is definitely a step in the positive direction, especially at a time when people wonder if Quibids uses bots or other methods to cheat the customers. A lot of aggressive strategies look like bots but are actually humans.

The penny auction industry needs better controls in terms of authenticity and not scamming customers. Quibids is taking some steps towards a more open environment. After all, it is in their best interest - if people don't trust penny auctions, companies like Quibids suffer.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Penny Auction Raises $1 Million!

Here is some interesting news that I wanted to share with you all - looks like penny auctions are going truly global. The site sold.sg is a Singapore based penny auction site that raised $1 Million in funding! This is a huge amount for a penny auction which isn't based in US or Europe. Read the news item.

This means penny auctions might soon become more and more mainstream. Of course there is a certain need for regulation in terms of false advertising, bots, untimely shipment, etc. These issues should evolve and become better over time as more and more people join these sites and demand better quality.

What are your thoughts about this?