Best Holiday Season Deals at Penny Auctions

A lot of penny auctions are having their Cyber Monday deals around the season. Not surprising, since they want to attract new members. This is a great time for penny auctions in general, because people are always looking for the best deals online, and penny auctions can potentially give you the best deals that no one else in the industry can beat.

Penny Auctions for Holiday Season
So how are penny auctions doing? Well, they do have some great deals, but I found the site HappyBidDay has one of the best promotions. If you are not yet a member, this is a really nice time to join because you can save so much on bids (and since it is relatively new, it is not as competitive as Quibids).

If you are new, just use the coupon code HAPPY and you get 35% off your bid packs. This is a huge saving, considering that you will be bidding against people who have paid so much more than what you have paid, and thus, for the same amount of money spent, you have many more bids to outbid them. This is actually a good strategy because you are effectively bringing down your cost per bid, which allows you more freedom to bid on products and also be more aggressive if need be.

Winning Strategy
A lot of people ask me about winning strategies because ultimately that's what they are interested in. This depends from one site to another. Since I am writing about HappyBidDay here, let me tell you about HappyBidDay winning strategies.

I have written previously about this and want to reiterate - go for the gift cards. Once you have the initial bid pack ready, you can go for a kill here, simply because there is so much less competition for the gift cards. Look at the latest Target gift card auction below: closed after 2 bids! (here bidding starts at $1.00 instead of $0.00 which confuses people, so take advantage of that too!)

Electronics can be competitive. I would suggest gift cards. Another great reason for bidding on gift cards is that you get free bids along with the card, which can then be used to win other auctions. This can actually be cyclically sustainable if you are smart with your strategies.

Remember to use HAPPY when you register as a promo code.

Happy Birthday HappyBidDay!

While the rest of the penny auction industry celebrates Halloween, HappyBidDay is celebrating its 1 year birthday. This is a really great accomplishment considering how many penny auctions go out of business much sooner. It shows that bidders are happy with the site and it is well trusted among the bidders. HappyBidDay has slowly but steadily made a name for itself and will soon be a leader in the industry, competing with the bigger sites.

HappyBidDay has some great promotions lined up to celebrate this event.

For new bidders, you can use the coupon code HAPPY to get 20% off your first bid pack purchase. In addition, the two higher bid packs will give you a win guarantee, which means if you don't win any auction with these bid packs, HappyBidDay will give you back all the bids! In addition, you get 100 happy bids just for registering. These can be used on special Happy Auctions on the site.

For existing users, use the coupon code HAPPYBIRTHDAY to get 35% off bid pack purchases.

For this event, the win limits have also been increased: 10/week and 40/month.

Also, for the first time ever, HappyBidDay will auction off two 1,000 bid packs! That's a lot of bids, enough to win some really great items over and over.

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!

Halloween Special At OrangeBidz

Not surprisingly, OrangeBidz is at it again, celebrating Halloween this time. There is a great promotion that should interest everyone. Most penny auctions are gearing up for this Halloween, but OrangeBidz has taken the initiative to have some amazing promotions. Here are the deals you get:

Every auction you don't win this Saturday and Sunday - you get a complete bid refund!
Buy 2 bid packs and get a 3rd one free (on any bid pack)

These are great offers for penny auction bidders and hopefully people will make use of this special. Buying your bids during such offers reduces your overall price per bid and thus makes your penny auction bidding more profitable.

Penny Auction Mistakes - 1: Bidding Too Early

This is my penny auction mistakes series and the first post is devoted to bidding too early. This is a classic beginner mistake, especially with the ones who think that penny auctions are akin to traditional auctions (they are not). Just avoiding this simple mistake should help you save some bids in the long run.

The important part to remember is that this is a classic penny auction mistake only at some penny auctions. At others, this might actually be a great strategy! You need to recognize if the bidding is a mistake or not through the tips and strategies that I provide here.

Take a look at the auction below from Quibids.

Can you see the problem with it? The auction has over 16 hours left, and already over 500 bid are placed! This is a very typical mistake at Quibids and other established penny auctions. There is absolutely no way in the entire world that these bids could be the winning ones. This is a high-ticket Quibids product that is in a lot of demand. Very likely, the product will end up gathering over 25,000 bids.

Remember that penny auctions like Quibids are not like traditional auctions. Here, the last bidder wins and you don't determine the bid value, which means all bids are the same except separated through time (same value). Thus you would not want to squander away your bids early on. You are highly unlikely to win with several hours remaining for an auction to end. If you are serious about this item, bid when there are a few seconds left on the clock. The auction extends and goes on for hours together even from this stage.

However, there are certain cases, special cases, where this strategy might actually work. This is true for small penny auctions and new penny auctions that are just building up and lack a very active user base. A lot of auctions, especially in the afternoons, might be won just by one bid. In such cases, it is a good idea to place a bid at night if you are not able to place a bid in the afternoon. It might just pay off.

So how do you know if you are making this penny auction mistake? Here is a small checklist for you to go through.

• If the penny auction is popular, like Quibids, never bid when there are several hours left on the clock. The 1 cent wins you see displayed on Quibids are extremely rare. 
• If the item is a big-ticket item, like a Macbook or photography kit or HD-TV, chances are that it is highly competitive and a lot of people will be bidding on it. In this case, it would be a mistake to bid very early. 
• If the auction end time is towards the evening and weekend, chances are that people will log in and check the auctions. In this case, as far as possible, avoid very early bids. 
• If the penny auction is very new and only a few bidders are active on the site, you might want to take your chances sometimes by bidding too early. 

This is a classic penny auction mistake that you should avoid. Sometimes beginners see that there is no competition now, and get tempted to be the highest bidder. This is meaningless because competition will start when the auction is about to end, not when there are several hours left on the clock. Avoid this penny auction mistake and save a few bids.

Also, don't forget to check out my Penny Auction Strategy Guide.

Interview with Caleb of BidTavern

This is an interview with Caleb of BidTavern. BidTavern is a new penny auction that has a whole bunch of exciting new features. The first thing that you will immediately notice is that the site is very professionally designed and there is a whole social network out there through which you can talk to the owners and fellow bidders.

I had a chance to interview Caleb, the co-founder of BidTavern. Here is what he has to say.

Sid: You have almost a whole social network built around your site BidTavern. Why's that? How do you think it would it benefit the bidders?
Caleb: We were looking for a way to create more transparency for our users within the BidTavern site. We give them the opportunity to speak with us directly, bring issues or successes, as questions of give feedback in a public forum for everyone to view. This allows us to not only connect better with our users, but also gives them the opportunity feel heard in a public forum.


Sid: How did you decide to enter the penny auction industry? What attracts you the most about the industry?
Caleb: The other co-founder, Brad, actually turned me on to the idea. He had used them before but was never truly satisfied with one thing or another. After doing a lot of research we realized that we really liked the concept but felt that we could improve upon the idea dramatically by creating our own site. We are both come from an e-commerce background, and we love the spin that the penny auction provides to the e-commerce market.


Sid: You seem to want to bring in a whole new level of transparency in penny auctions. However, communication between bidders hasn't ended up very well for other penny auctions (as they can collude). Any comments?
Caleb: This will require us to monitor and be very involved in the community, which is the goal to begin with. We are not too concerned about these aspects, and if they do arise we will deal with them accordingly.


Sid: What's the biggest advantage BidTavern offers to penny auction bidders. Why should an average penny auction bidder choose BidTavern over the hundreds of others.
Caleb: I could probably go on for hours on this, but I will limit it to three differentiators. 1. We are the only, truly, mobile optimized penny auction site. You can bid from anywhere at anytime on any device. 2. Our product offering will set us apart as we prepare to start offering some very unique items. You will be able to find things on BidTavern that will not be available on any other penny auction sites. 3. We are accessible all the time, and will up the anty in regards to customer service. Many penny auction sites get a bad rap for customer service, and we plan to really provide an incredible service offering. Sidenote, we are offering free shipping on all items through the end of 2011.


Sid: Can you tell us about the founders of BidTavern and their background. Do you have any previous entrepreneurial experience?
Caleb: We have worked together on a few other sites, but nothing to this extent. We both graduated college together in 2007 from the University of Arizona, but we have actually been friends since we were 5 years old and played tee-ball together. We have each had our own projects that we have worked on and done well with, but we are more axcited about the potential of BidTavern than anything we have done in the past.


Sid: Do you see a good future for penny auctions even after a lot of scams and scandals that have given a bad name to the entire industry? Do you find the penny auction industry to be very competitive?
Caleb: At some point there will be stricter regulations imposed that will stop allowing these sites to pop-up, scam the consumer, and then dissappear. There has to be. We try not to worry about that stuff too much and just run our business as honestly and efficiently as possible. The penny auction industry is definitely a competitive one, if it weren't you would see a lot more success with all the sites that enter the arena. We are confident by differentiating ourselves in some unique ways and by not biting off more than we can chew, we can build a solid foundation and thrive within the segment.


Sid: Are you happy with the initial response to BidTavern before the launch? What are your goals in terms of number of bidders/number of auctions?
Caleb: We are more than satisfied with the launch. We had our highest traffic day yet, and we auctioned off three great items. The response was incredible and are working very hard to keep that momentum going.


Sid: You seem to have a 'Sell' option that is not very common in penny auctions. Do you plan to implement this soon? How would this work?
Caleb: We are hoping to implement this by years end. We are calling it the sellers portal, and to summarize, it will be a platform built to allow users ofthe website to actually run their own penny auction. We would handle all the items, technology, fulfillment and every other aspect of quality. The detailed strategy is still being worked out, but when we launch it we hope that it will be a game-changer in the penny auction world.


Sid: Do you plan to offer Buy Now in the future?
Caleb: We are actually offering the Buy Now option on select items currently. It is not across the board, but we do see a lot of value in giving the users the ability to not completely lose out in the even they do not win their auction.

Hope you liked the interview. Visit BidTavern today to find out more.

Genuine Penny Auctions: How to Spot Good Penny Auctions

Finding genuine penny auctions can be a challenge. Penny auctions are dime a dozen today and there is way too much choice. The bad news is that this is not good news for the consumer! The reason is that a lot of penny auctions wind up their business very soon and a few others are just outright scams. The other dilemma is an obvious one - if you bid on established sites, you face steeper competition but are assured that they won't disappear overnight (the best example is Quibids). On the other hand, the new penny auctions give you better deals.

So how do you find the genuine penny auctions? I have always maintained that most reviews of penny auctions on established sites reflects little truth - I have seen the 'top' sites disappear all too often. The reason is easy - they are highly biased! The penny auctions give out gifts in exchange for a good review, which destroys the whole purpose of a review.

So here is a good way to find out the genuine penny auctions: Look at the free market. That's right, let the bidders decide which sites they trust. I go to PennyAuctionCoupon and look at the deals. How many people have bought deals from a given penny auction? The more the number of deals bought, the more highly voted it is. This is fairly unbiased as people are actually putting their money into the penny auction they like.

You can find a list of all previous deals at PennyAuctionCoupon and this should give you a fair idea of the average. Then you can see if your favorite penny auction was ever featured and how it compares to the rest. Also, this is a good way to find new penny auctions.

However, do be careful because sometimes the new penny auctions might give a very good deal that is hard to resist and result in more people purchasing it which may not reflect its popularity. This however is a good tool to use in finding and judging penny auctions.

HappyBidDay Starter Auctions are a Steal

So HappyBidDay is having these special starter auctions for new members. I am not eligible for them because I am a veteran bidder there, but if you are not yet a member, you should certainly check this out. These auctions are ending at a ridiculously low price and competition. The last 2 I checked ended with just 1 bid! (Here auctions start at $1.00 and not 0.00).

As you can see, both the above auctions ended with just 1 bid being placed. This is a great opportunity for people who are yet to join HappyBidDay.

For those who don't know, HappyBidDay is an excellent site for a number of products, but most notably, their Amazon gift cards with free bids are easiest to win. They are also run by very honest owners so you can be assured they are not a scam. They are not as popular as Quibids (yet) so the competition is low.
If you are new, you can use the coupon code HAPPY20 to get 20% off your first bid pack purchase. Also take note of their special 'insurance' for bid packs - if you don't win, you will be recredited the bids.

Ghost Auctions on Quibids

Quibids just announced new ghost auctions on Quibids! These are very similar to the mystery auctions that a lot of other websites have. However, they still do it the Quibids style!

So here, you are guaranteed a product that is worth more than $50. To make matters more interesting, Quibids has promised to tantalize the bidders with hints but not what the actual product is.
So for example, the name of the auction is The Ghost of Frozen Desserts. Now you know something about the auction but not a lot.

I think this is a good step by Quibids. I have always maintained that Quibids is the largest and most trusted penny auction but they are a little behind on coming up with exciting auctions and variations. Well, that should change now. Last week I wrote about the newly introduced Quibids games, which is a great addition and innovation from Quibids.

With this Halloween special, Quibids has entered the realm of mystery auctions, which is a double edged sword. If people don't bid crazy on them, they can be a great bargain, but if someone spends hundreds of bids only to find that the product isn't what he wanted or expected, that can be a little disappointing. Also, I am not fully sure how Buy Now would work here but it probably is still the same.

I hope Quibids is faster with innovations to roll out more exciting features. Being the industry leader, Quibids can surely make or break the reputation of the industry, so all eyes on you, Quibids!

Quibids Games

Quibids games have been introduced! Quibids is the largest penny auction in US. It is good to know that Quibids has taken the initiative to launch something new and exciting. It is high time after all - nothing seems to be happening at Quibids! Now there is good news - Quibids games.

This is a great addition to penny auctions and will definitely increase the time that users spend on the site, thus increasing the average number of auctions a user bids. It is a smart move in my opinion - it will provide something extra for bidders.

So what is Quibids games? How does Quibids games work?

Well, it is simple. Just look for the game logo on top of auctions, like 1xGP. After you win a game play (GP), you are free to select any game to play. Depending on the game, you can win free bids. It is an exciting feature to have and quite appropriate for a penny auction. There is currently just one game but I hope Quibids will have plenty more in the future.

I think the Quibids games is going to be a hit and other penny auctions might soon copy the model.