Timerless penny auctions are a sub-class of penny auctions which are quite different from traditional penny auctions. There are several formats, the best being of the category of 'hidden price auctions'. This means, the final auction price can be anything between two limits that are predefined for every given auction. Every 'bid' in this case increases the price by a penny and if you are the one to stumble upon the 'hidden' price, then you win the item.
This of course doesn't need a timer. The auction length in-fact depends on the number of active members at a given time. So there could be auctions that end in a few seconds or a few days, you never know.
From the point of view of the owners, timerless penny auctions are less risky a business model because they already know their exact profit for every single auction. There is less uncertainty based on cash flows. However, at the same time, this reduces the thrill of a penny auction and bidders might prefer to buy the product at its retail instead.
One site that has mastered timerless penny auctions is PennyGrab. It is a relatively new site but has really done well for itself and the bidders. It has unusual features, like a chat feature that is absent from perhaps all other penny auctions. They also have good deals on buy now, which attract bidders. They also give away free bids often.
RockDawg is another timerless penny auction which is much older, but has less bidders. It has a smaller community of bidders and many penny auction bidders like it this way.
The other category of timerless penny auctions is what sites like BidWhammy work on. They tell you which bid number will win the product. So it says something like "Bid 54", so the 54th bid will win. The good thing is, in certain promotions, the cost of these bids will be less than the items sold, so you are guaranteed to come out on top if you win the auction, no matter how many bids you place.
Do you like timerless penny auctions? What are your thoughts?
Showing posts with label bidwhammy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bidwhammy. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Sunday, October 30, 2011
BidWhammy Rock The House Nearing
BidWhammy is a new entertainment auction site that is growing in popularity each day. It follows a bidding model which is quite different from traditional penny auctions. Here, a predefined fixed bid number wins the auction, so the person placing, say, the 300th bid wins the item. You can also read my interview with Greg of BidWhammy.
BidWhammy is having a great promotion called Rock The House next week on November 4, 5 and 6. In these, the house is guaranteed to lose money!
There are these bundles of electronic products that are usually on every penny auction. The total worth of these bundles is $1500. 3 such bundles will be auctioned off. In all of them, it is the 400th bid that wins. Buying 400 bids at BidWhammy costs just $236. If you are the lucky winner, you are guaranteed to make over $1250 for every bundle in pure profits.
This is a great promotional event and definitely worth trying out if you are looking for new penny auctions/entertainment auctions and looking to have some fun. Also, these are easier to win than similar electronic items at traditional penny auctions.
At penny auctions like Quibids, these popular electronics go for several hours, sometimes a day or more and the price can be very high in terms of number of bids placed. Here at BidWhammy you know the number of bids that will be placed in advance - 400. I think the auctions will hardly last for 10-15 minutes because they should be quite popular among bidders. Check out Rock The House.
If you do happen to win one of these bundles, I would love to hear from you!
BidWhammy is having a great promotion called Rock The House next week on November 4, 5 and 6. In these, the house is guaranteed to lose money!
There are these bundles of electronic products that are usually on every penny auction. The total worth of these bundles is $1500. 3 such bundles will be auctioned off. In all of them, it is the 400th bid that wins. Buying 400 bids at BidWhammy costs just $236. If you are the lucky winner, you are guaranteed to make over $1250 for every bundle in pure profits.
This is a great promotional event and definitely worth trying out if you are looking for new penny auctions/entertainment auctions and looking to have some fun. Also, these are easier to win than similar electronic items at traditional penny auctions.
At penny auctions like Quibids, these popular electronics go for several hours, sometimes a day or more and the price can be very high in terms of number of bids placed. Here at BidWhammy you know the number of bids that will be placed in advance - 400. I think the auctions will hardly last for 10-15 minutes because they should be quite popular among bidders. Check out Rock The House.
If you do happen to win one of these bundles, I would love to hear from you!
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Interview with Greg Smith of BidWhammy
I had the opportunity to interview Greg Smith, the co-founder of BidWhammy. BidWhammy is an interesting variation of auction, and falls in the category of entertainment auctions. However, it is quite different from traditional penny auctions. Read the interview to find out more about this new and exciting auction site.
Sid: BidWhammy isn't a typical penny auction. How does it differ from other traditional penny auctions like Quibids
Greg: Hi Sid, first we would like to thank you for taking the time to explore BidWhammy and give us this great opportunity to talk directly to the readers of your blog.
BidWhammy came about because of the problems we saw with typical penny auctions. Ben and I have both been huge fans of penny auctions for a long time and we did quite a lot of bidding for a few years. We, like a lot of customers, have felt the frustration of the extending timer. To us, it felt like too much randomness and wasted time, like we really had no control. I would sit there clicking and basically punching my keyboard every time someone would bid after me. That’s when we started talking and thought there had to be a better way. That’s why at BidWhammy you will never find an extending timer, we really hate them with a passion. The other problem we saw was the huge profits these companies were making off their customers. Don’t get me wrong, profits are not a bad thing, however, the penny auction industry markets itself as a way to save big money, but it’s really hard to tell people you’re saving them big money when you’re making 450% profits on a Kindle. That’s why on BidWhammy we pre-set the number of bids to end an auction. The biggest thing we love about BidWhammy is the control we give to the bidders. We tell you the position of your last bid and you have the chance to win IggyVision’s that you can use strategically to see the bid count for free. Everything we did on BidWhammy is focused around giving people the best chance at winning products without spending hundreds of dollars in the process.
Sid: Do you think other penny auctions would like to follow a model similar to yours?
Greg: I doubt it, first they would have to agree to give up huge profits. There was a lot of time spent on our bid process as well. We put a ton of work into making sure the process works smoothly, it’s actually a lot more difficult of a process to develop than the one used at traditional penny auctions.
Sid: Are you going to stick to this model or do you plan to have different models on your site in the near future?
Greg: We love our process and we think once many users figure out just how consumer friendly it is, they will love it too. At this time we have no plans to deviate from our process at all. But, who knows what the creative minds at BidWhammy will come up with in the future. No matter what it is, you can bet it will be consumer friendly.
Sid: What advice would you give people looking to win on BidWhammy?
Greg: I would say the most important piece of advice is to be strategic. We stress the fact that BidWhammy is better because we allow you to strategize. Use the IggyVision’s you win to see the bid count for free at the right times. Also, look into the Seated Auctions because the limited seats will give you better odds to win.
Sid: What are the biggest advantages offered to bidders of BidWhammy compared to traditional penny auctions?
Greg: I would say the biggest advantages are the fact you can win at BidWhammy without spending a lot of money or wasting hours in front of an auction. You’ll know when an auction is going to end. With BidWhammy, the more users there are the quicker products sell, that’s the opposite of a traditional penny auction. Without extending timers you’ll never get sucked into a 3-4 hour auction. We give you all the information you need to be successful. One of the other advantages is the products we can bring to the public. Let’s face it, traditional penny auctions are limited on the products they can sell if they want to be in business for long. With BidWhammy, we have the luxury of putting up whatever we want and never have to worry about losing our shirt, yet we have combined that with a great system that greatly benefits the consumer.
Sid: You seem to be very open about who the company founders are and their background, which is almost non-existent in the industry. Any comments?
Greg: We value transparency in a non-transparent industry. At BidWhammy, we have nothing to hide, we think being very upfront and honest with the public is the pathway to consumer trust. Many companies in other industries display this information and we think of BidWhammy the same as any other company out there.
Sid: Do you think now is a good time to enter the industry or do you think it is quite saturated already?
Greg: I think the industry is quite saturated for the traditional model. New sites are up and down every week. We saw a hole that needed to be filled. We developed BidWhammy with the consumer in mind, this was very easy because we were the consumer.
Sid: What's the biggest challenge in opening a new entertainment auction company?
Greg: I think the biggest challenge is consumer trust. So many websites pop up every day, the consumer is quite skeptical. I think that’s why you see so many people sticking with the big penny auction sites, even though they should be able to figure out their chances of winning are greatly reduced with the large amount of users. The great thing about BidWhammy is that your chances of winning don’t diminish with increased bidders, the odds will always stay the same.
Sid: Where do you see the future of penny auctions? Do you think they will become more mainstream in the future?
Greg: I think the future is bright for penny auctions. People like the excitement of entertainment shopping. It feels really good to win something for 95% less than the retail value. I also think it is up to the community as a whole to help gain the consumer trust I spoke about. We as a community need to help weed out the bad egg’s only looking to drop a quick scam on consumers.
Sid: Do you plan to operate in countries other than the US in the future? Canada?
Greg: We actually already operate in Canada. There is a shipping charge to Canada because obviously it can get very expensive, but we saw no reason to exclude our friends to the north from participating in the BidWhammy experience. We also offer gift card exchanges to Canadian customers since a lot of the gift cards can only be used in the United States. We allow them to specify if they want their win exchanged for something like an Amazon.ca code.
Sid: Do you have any additional features you are planning for the future that you might want to share?
Greg: We do have many features we are planning in future releases of BidWhammy. In fact we have an exciting feature in development right now that online gamers and competitive people will love. I can’t give all the details but I guarantee many people will like it and it will garner a degree of competitiveness among BW customers.
Sid: What's the idea behind the unique concept of BW Girls?
Greg: I’m glad you asked about the girls. They were a team we originally put together simply for promotional events. It’s always nice to see great looking girls promoting something. I mean Ben and I are awesome looking guys, but let’s face it, hot women are much more affective in grabbing some attention. Then we decided to give them a dedicated space on the site where the public could meet them.
Sid: How big is the whole team at BidWhammy?
Greg: Actually the team is only 3 officially at this point. Myself (co-Founder), Ben (co-Founder) and Erin our PR Director. We have contracted work out at times because with our normal lives and jobs, it would have been impossible to put all this together without some help. The BW girls work to own shares of the company. They do a great job promoting.
Sid: Can you share some of your previous entrepreneural experience?
Greg: Ben and I agree, we are blessed by the chances we are all given in this country. We have made many attempts at businesses and have more times than not failed, but we gained valuable knowledge in the process. Mostly our failures were due to the fact we lost interest in what we were doing and it just didn’t make sense to us anymore. Some things always seem like a great idea until you really start getting into it and figuring out you really don’t have that much interest in the concept anymore. With BidWhammy it was different. We actually came up with the idea about 4 years ago. At that time we decided to sit on it and work on some of the stuff we were doing at the time. We always kept coming back to this idea because it just seemed like we both had passion for it. A lot of planning was key and in late December last year, we said let’s do it.
Check out BidWhammy.
Sid: BidWhammy isn't a typical penny auction. How does it differ from other traditional penny auctions like Quibids
Greg: Hi Sid, first we would like to thank you for taking the time to explore BidWhammy and give us this great opportunity to talk directly to the readers of your blog.
BidWhammy came about because of the problems we saw with typical penny auctions. Ben and I have both been huge fans of penny auctions for a long time and we did quite a lot of bidding for a few years. We, like a lot of customers, have felt the frustration of the extending timer. To us, it felt like too much randomness and wasted time, like we really had no control. I would sit there clicking and basically punching my keyboard every time someone would bid after me. That’s when we started talking and thought there had to be a better way. That’s why at BidWhammy you will never find an extending timer, we really hate them with a passion. The other problem we saw was the huge profits these companies were making off their customers. Don’t get me wrong, profits are not a bad thing, however, the penny auction industry markets itself as a way to save big money, but it’s really hard to tell people you’re saving them big money when you’re making 450% profits on a Kindle. That’s why on BidWhammy we pre-set the number of bids to end an auction. The biggest thing we love about BidWhammy is the control we give to the bidders. We tell you the position of your last bid and you have the chance to win IggyVision’s that you can use strategically to see the bid count for free. Everything we did on BidWhammy is focused around giving people the best chance at winning products without spending hundreds of dollars in the process.
Sid: Do you think other penny auctions would like to follow a model similar to yours?
Greg: I doubt it, first they would have to agree to give up huge profits. There was a lot of time spent on our bid process as well. We put a ton of work into making sure the process works smoothly, it’s actually a lot more difficult of a process to develop than the one used at traditional penny auctions.
Sid: Are you going to stick to this model or do you plan to have different models on your site in the near future?
Greg: We love our process and we think once many users figure out just how consumer friendly it is, they will love it too. At this time we have no plans to deviate from our process at all. But, who knows what the creative minds at BidWhammy will come up with in the future. No matter what it is, you can bet it will be consumer friendly.
Sid: What advice would you give people looking to win on BidWhammy?
Greg: I would say the most important piece of advice is to be strategic. We stress the fact that BidWhammy is better because we allow you to strategize. Use the IggyVision’s you win to see the bid count for free at the right times. Also, look into the Seated Auctions because the limited seats will give you better odds to win.
Sid: What are the biggest advantages offered to bidders of BidWhammy compared to traditional penny auctions?
Greg: I would say the biggest advantages are the fact you can win at BidWhammy without spending a lot of money or wasting hours in front of an auction. You’ll know when an auction is going to end. With BidWhammy, the more users there are the quicker products sell, that’s the opposite of a traditional penny auction. Without extending timers you’ll never get sucked into a 3-4 hour auction. We give you all the information you need to be successful. One of the other advantages is the products we can bring to the public. Let’s face it, traditional penny auctions are limited on the products they can sell if they want to be in business for long. With BidWhammy, we have the luxury of putting up whatever we want and never have to worry about losing our shirt, yet we have combined that with a great system that greatly benefits the consumer.
Sid: You seem to be very open about who the company founders are and their background, which is almost non-existent in the industry. Any comments?
Greg: We value transparency in a non-transparent industry. At BidWhammy, we have nothing to hide, we think being very upfront and honest with the public is the pathway to consumer trust. Many companies in other industries display this information and we think of BidWhammy the same as any other company out there.
Sid: Do you think now is a good time to enter the industry or do you think it is quite saturated already?
Greg: I think the industry is quite saturated for the traditional model. New sites are up and down every week. We saw a hole that needed to be filled. We developed BidWhammy with the consumer in mind, this was very easy because we were the consumer.
Sid: What's the biggest challenge in opening a new entertainment auction company?
Greg: I think the biggest challenge is consumer trust. So many websites pop up every day, the consumer is quite skeptical. I think that’s why you see so many people sticking with the big penny auction sites, even though they should be able to figure out their chances of winning are greatly reduced with the large amount of users. The great thing about BidWhammy is that your chances of winning don’t diminish with increased bidders, the odds will always stay the same.
Sid: Where do you see the future of penny auctions? Do you think they will become more mainstream in the future?
Greg: I think the future is bright for penny auctions. People like the excitement of entertainment shopping. It feels really good to win something for 95% less than the retail value. I also think it is up to the community as a whole to help gain the consumer trust I spoke about. We as a community need to help weed out the bad egg’s only looking to drop a quick scam on consumers.
Sid: Do you plan to operate in countries other than the US in the future? Canada?
Greg: We actually already operate in Canada. There is a shipping charge to Canada because obviously it can get very expensive, but we saw no reason to exclude our friends to the north from participating in the BidWhammy experience. We also offer gift card exchanges to Canadian customers since a lot of the gift cards can only be used in the United States. We allow them to specify if they want their win exchanged for something like an Amazon.ca code.
Sid: Do you have any additional features you are planning for the future that you might want to share?
Greg: We do have many features we are planning in future releases of BidWhammy. In fact we have an exciting feature in development right now that online gamers and competitive people will love. I can’t give all the details but I guarantee many people will like it and it will garner a degree of competitiveness among BW customers.
Sid: What's the idea behind the unique concept of BW Girls?
Greg: I’m glad you asked about the girls. They were a team we originally put together simply for promotional events. It’s always nice to see great looking girls promoting something. I mean Ben and I are awesome looking guys, but let’s face it, hot women are much more affective in grabbing some attention. Then we decided to give them a dedicated space on the site where the public could meet them.
Sid: How big is the whole team at BidWhammy?
Greg: Actually the team is only 3 officially at this point. Myself (co-Founder), Ben (co-Founder) and Erin our PR Director. We have contracted work out at times because with our normal lives and jobs, it would have been impossible to put all this together without some help. The BW girls work to own shares of the company. They do a great job promoting.
Sid: Can you share some of your previous entrepreneural experience?
Greg: Ben and I agree, we are blessed by the chances we are all given in this country. We have made many attempts at businesses and have more times than not failed, but we gained valuable knowledge in the process. Mostly our failures were due to the fact we lost interest in what we were doing and it just didn’t make sense to us anymore. Some things always seem like a great idea until you really start getting into it and figuring out you really don’t have that much interest in the concept anymore. With BidWhammy it was different. We actually came up with the idea about 4 years ago. At that time we decided to sit on it and work on some of the stuff we were doing at the time. We always kept coming back to this idea because it just seemed like we both had passion for it. A lot of planning was key and in late December last year, we said let’s do it.
Check out BidWhammy.
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