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.

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.

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?

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.

Unusual Items at Penny Auctions

Penny auctions can have some unusual items that are not traditionally associated with them. When regular penny auction bidders think of penny auctions, they tend to think of electronic items and gift cards. True, these still dominate the scene, but many penny auctions have moved beyond.

There have also been plenty of penny auctions that specialize in a given niche, from designer clothing to gold and silver auctions.

Some of the more unusual items sell for very little and at a greater discount than the traditional items. This is a smart move for bidders because they know they can win a bargain with reduced risk - not everyone wants the items. It is a good penny auction strategy, therefore, to go and bid on these unusual items at penny auctions.

One site I like to hunt for these items is HappyBidDay. I usually find that these items sell for a really low price. Remember that bidding here starts from $1.00 and not $0.00, so all these items are really really cheap in terms of number of bids placed.

That's right, the last item sold for a mere 1 bid!

If you are hunting for bargains, you might want to consider looking for non-traditional and unusual items at penny auctions as well.

Penny Auctions in News

Penny Auctions have been regularly in the news, on and off though. However, most of the press around them has been negative. Sure, there are dishonest penny auctions but there are a lot of genuine and honest penny auctions around as well. The media should provide a more holistic view of the industry.

Penny auctions do not guarantee a win. The price to be able to win a Macbook at $50 is that you might not win anything at all, and end up spending money on the bids. Yes, this is a possibility but you know the rules of the game before you get started don't you?

The advertising around penny auctions is something that I have regularly written about and would like to see improved by leaps and bounds. If penny auctions are to go mainstream, they need to stop all kinds of misleading information and advertising, promising too good to be true deals. This is done implicitly or explicitly by probably every penny auction. However, this isn't the right way to go about it.

The best way for the penny auction industry in general would be to lay out all the rules and possibilities in front of the customer. Let the customer then decide if she wants to spend money trying to win a product real cheap or if she is happy to go to a "risk-free" bidding site like eBay.

Quibids for example states that odds are not available for penny auctions, which is certainly true - after all it is a multi-player game where the outcome depends on the actions of different bidders with different strategies. However, they can certainly give the statistics if they really wished to.

There are some elements in the positive direction but these seem inadequate as of now. The news around penny auctions has been grim to say the least, which is a pity considering how much potential they do have, especially with the holiday season fast approaching.

Jumping on Penny Auctions

Is jumping on penny auctions ethical? Is jumping on penny auctions a good strategy?
These are two very different questions that need to be answered by every penny auction bidder.

What is jumping on penny auctions?
Jumping is a term used to describe the phenomenon where bidders enter an auction after someone else has placed a considerable number of bids.

Why Jumping?
The reasoning from the jumper's point of view is simple - he is trying to look for "overpriced" items. He figures that since this product usually sells for say $5, and currently it is at $5.20, it is likely to end soon. However, what he failed to realize is that there is probably someone who has invested heavily in the auction.

The effects of jumping become much more evident when you are trying to bid on higher end items like iPads that can go on for hours together and have tens of thousands of bids in all.

Is Jumping Ethical? 
Any question relating to whether something is ethical a tough question to answer. You certainly know that it can happen. It affects power bidders disproportionately. Before you place a single bid on a penny auction, you should know that jumping is certainly a possibility that might occur. Instead of looking at it from the perspective of right and wrong, I would like to look at it from the point of its utility, i.e. is the jumper in a better position to win a penny auction.

I know a lot of penny auction bidders are very touchy about this topic and have strong feelings on this subject. I would like to resist this temptation and look at whether it is a good strategy or not. After all, my blog is about telling you when something would work and when it wouldn't. 

Penny Auction Strategy - Jumping? 
So is jumping a penny auction strategy?
Here are some points to consider:

Let us try to look at this from the point of view of the jumper. The jumper usually expects that the auction will end soon enough or sooner than its average. This is because it is closer to the "average price" of the item and it seems already overpriced.


However, anyone who has bid on penny auctions knows that prices of items can vary tremendously. It is not uncommon to see a product sell for $5 now and $50 an hour from now. It is therefore very hard to know if a given auction will be closer to its "average". Therefore, the jumper might end up in an overheated battle.

From the psychology of a power bidder, if he sees a jumper, chances are he will continue to bid. The process might go on for a long time. In addition, if there are bidders who dislike jumpers, they might make every effort to put in that extra bid just to make sure that you don't win. This is a real possibility that you should be aware of.

Apart from this, if you jump at penny auctions, chances are that the other people, especially the power bidder for that particular auction will remember you. You might then expect a lot more jumpers on auctions that you are participating in. If you want to have a long term stay in a penny auction, hostility towards a bunch of power bidders will not exactly work in your favor.

Know the risks before you think of jumping as a penny auction strategy. Remember it is certainly allowed, so you can jump if you want to - that' the bottom line.

Stock Up on OrangeBidz Bids!

OrangeBidz has a nice promotion going on now - they will double your bids for this weekend only. Unfortunately, that means you need to act fast. Here are the full details of this new promotion from OrangeBidz.

OrangeBidz has proved to be a very reliable penny auction over the months. I remember having covered this new penny auction when it started off, and it feels nice to see it doing so well. They have a ton of new and innovative promotions quite often which keeps the bidders happy and looking for more. Check out OrangeBidz here.

Exciting HappyBidDay Offers

After the popular football promotion, HappyBidDay is at it again! This time, there are plenty of other offers that you can get. There is a special offer that gives you discounts on bid packs (you can get the code my logging into HappyBidDay - I am not supposed to post it here because it isn't for everyone, just for the members).

If you haven't already tried out, you can register today to get 20% off your first bid pack using the coupon HAPPY. With this coupon code, you get an additional guaranteed win - if the bid pack you buy doesn't result in a win, you get all your bids replenished for free!

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.

Football Season on HappyBidDay

HappyBidDay is celebrating the football season with some nice products and promotions. The promotion is the famous Bid Back Madness for 1 week starting today: every bid that you place will be returned as a free bid that can be used in special Happy Auctions.

In addition, there are some nice products on auction. There is a football jersey that can be customized to your team and size. There is also an NFL football on auction. Since not all bidders would be interested in these specialized items, those that do can get some great deals.

If you are new to the site, use the coupon code HAPPY to get 20% off first bid pack purchase.

RockDawg Discount Bids Today

RockDawg is running a promotion today on PennyAuctionCoupon: 25 bid bones for $5. This is a great way to stack up on some really cheap bids. The actual value of 25 bid bones is $18.75, so you save over 70% on this pack.

RockDawg has regularly been featured on PennyAuctionCoupon and it is good for the bidders who have a shot at winning the auctions without having to spend a ton of money on bids first.

For those who do not yet use PennyAuctionCoupon, do visit the site and see how it works - it has some really good deals for bidders, featuring one deal a day and almost always the discounts are over 50% which is certainly impressive because they have a deal every single day.

Cheap Bids at OrangeBidz

OrangeBidz is having a promotion for some cheap bids: 170 bids at only $96, which is $0.56/bid. This offer is only valid for today. Also, just log into your OrangeBidz account today to get 2 free bids.

Bid Back Guarantee at HappyBidDay

HappyBidDay has a bid-back guarantee on its bid packs now. The bid back guarantee is simple: if you don't win an auction by the time these bids run out, HappyBidDay is going to replenish all your bids. This bid back guarantee is valid for new registrants who purchase 150 or 225 bid packs.

The bid back guarantee is a great way to save a ton of money because you can always use these bids to win high-end items. If you fail to win, there is really nothing to lose because you get all these bids back anyway. If you do end up winning, however, you get the best savings ever.

Generally, look for the auctions that are a combination of Amazon gift card and free bids - these tend to be easier to win. Also, if you are new to the site, use the coupon code HAPPY to get 20% off your first bid pack purchase, in addition to the bid back guarantee. It cannot get better than this!

Poll Results: At How Many Penny Auctions Did you Invest Money in Bids?

So this was my poll for the last month or so: At How Many Penny Auctions Did you Invest Money in Bids? I wanted to see which spectrum my users belong to. Here are the results:

None: 55 (22%)
Just one: 88 (36%)
2-4: 47 (19%)
5-7: 19 (7%)
7-10: 4 (1%)
More than 10: 30 (12%)

Votes so far: 243

A lot of my readers are here only to learn about penny auctions, which explains why they have never really bought bid packs (perhaps they have used free bids?) However, of the people who did buy bid packs, a majority of them have used just one penny auction. A good number have also been prolific, bidding on more than 10 penny auctions.

Have any suggestions for new polls? Let me know!

Today's Promo at OrangeBidz

OrangeBidz has a great promo for today: All bids purchased this weekend will be returned, whether you win or lose! This is a great way to stack up on bids while winning other items essentially for free.

In addition, if you are looking for which bid packs to buy, you might consider the 100 bid pack because you get 25 extra free bids with this pack now. The bids must be used by 9/5/11 in order to qualify.

Good luck bidding!

OrangeBidz on PAC

OrangeBidz is featured on PennyAuctionCoupon today. For the next 10 hours or so, you can buy 25 bids at only $7, a discount of 63%. This is a great way to stock up on some bids. In addition, if 55 or more of these get sold, everyone who purchased a bid pack will get 5 additional bonus bids.

Collecting Bids at Penny Auctions

Getting cheap bids at penny auctions is tricky because too many free bids leads a site downhill and makes it much more competitive for the bidders. However, there are plenty of ways in which you can collect bids at penny auctions.

When you are looking to gather bids, you should know that some sites like Quibids distinguish between "real" and "virtual" bids, in which case your strategy should be very different. However, most of the new penny auctions don't work the same way. In these, it is easy to win products and pile up bids.

Before you start bidding on bid packs like crazy, you need to look at the history. I had previously written about how it is easy to win bids at some penny auctions and not others. You need to take a look at the history. For example, one of the penny auctions that I really like, HappyBidDay seems to have a lot of goodies in terms of winning bids - most of the bid auctions end at really low prices. The two latest bid pack auctions I could find ended after 34 bids and 133 bids for 100 bid pack and 150 bid pack, each time ending at less than the total value of the bids (note that auctions here start at $1.00 and not $0.00).

As you can see from the above auctions, the bid packs at this site are really good for the bidders. A good strategy in this case would be to just purchase one bid pack and use it to win more bid packs when the opportunity arises. It is good for beginners because you get 20% off your first bid pack purchase if you use the coupon code HAPPY.

There are other penny auctions in which bid packs can get really competitive. Quibids is one of the sites that has competitive bid packs, which is one of the reasons I don't advise the Quibids bid pack auctions. However, in new penny auctions, the strategies can be quite different and you can pile up a lot of bids. Winning many bid packs is also very good for winning high-end electronics like Laptops or other electronics which are comparatively less competitive at new penny auctions.

Balanced View of Penny Auctions

Penny auctions don't get the right or fair treatment from the press. Usually. This is because it is much easier to find the unhappy minority and they make for better news articles. There are countless winners in the penny auction industry that are really good at what they do and stay ahead of the curve at all times. Perhaps penny auctions aren't for everyone.

In any case, it was heartening to see an article about penny auctions in Wall Street Journal which seemed to cover both sides of the story. Sure, the article talks of the bad apples - the ones that use shill bidding but it also talks of how the person referred to in the first sentence could win at penny auctions (after losing money initially, that is).

There are definitely red flags in the industry, which is why there is need for regulation but regulation to the extent of making sure everyone is fair. Like any auction, it is competitive bidding with skills and strategies, and people are free to participate or not. However, penny auctions, especially new penny auctions, need regulation in terms of being ethical.

The article also talks of the Entertainment Auction Association which may not have great success but is certainly on the right track. Many review sites cannot be fully trusted.

Here is another interesting tidbit from the article - there are 165 penny auctions in the US currently, according to Technology Briefing Centers so now you know how many penny auctions there are!

RockDawg on PennyAuctionCoupon

RockDawg is again featured on PennyAuctionCoupon. This time, you get 25 bid bones for just $5, an incredible $0.20/bid - a huge saving for all bidders. RockDawg runs auctions which are not traditionally penny auctions but really interesting nonetheless. If you hit a 'magic number' chosen at random, you win. This auction model means you can cut your losses while hunting for great deals. You can know more about it by reading my interview with Diane of RockDawg.

Amazon Gift Cards Deals: The Best In the Industry

Penny auctions are well known for great deals on products, but not every penny auction is well suited for all kinds of products. For example, Quibids is really good for some high-end products, vacation packages, etc. So where do you find Amazon Gift Card Deals?

I like Amazon gift cards because Amazon has a million products that you can buy and you are thus not restricted to only certain items that are auctioned off in the penny auctions. This is why I really like to look for Amazon gift card deals and I found HappyBidDay to be the best of all.

Here is why: The Amazon gift card auctions here end really cheap, even during the most competitive times. The best thing is, these gift cards are bundled together with several free bids and in most cases, the number of free bids is more than the bids that you spend winning the product! This is crazy because you get more bids than you started off with while also getting a great Amazon gift card.

Here are some of the latest auctions at HappyBidDay - notice that these are on a Friday night, one of the most competitive times for any penny auction. Also note that the auctions start at $1.00 and not $0.00 like other penny auctions.

The auctions ended after 15, 15, 8 bids only. And there are 50, 75 and 50 free bids with these auctions. They are really low in competition and something every penny auction bidder should try out. You can keep collecting a lot of bids on these Amazon gift card auctions which help you win even more of these (note that electronics are still competitive, so you should stick with Amazon gift cards). Also, for a limited time, HappyBidDay is having a promotional discount on their bids, so do check that out as well.

50% Extra Bids: An Amazing Deal - CashArena Coupon Code

CashArena is a new penny auction that has taken the small world of penny auctions quite by storm because instead of auctioning off products like most penny auctions do, CashArena auctions only pure cash. The site is extremely well made and is very different from all other penny auction sites. In addition, they have a number of other ways in which you can win (e.g. Coloritas at their site).

For a limited time, CashArena has a great promotion to new members - 50% free bids! I didn't find any coupon code for the site, so it is a big deal. The CashArena coupon code is SIDBLOG. You can use it the first time you buy bids and get 50% free bids at CashArena. This will drastically reduce the overall price you spend for the bids (you can mail them the coupon code or just contact support to redeem it)

If you are interested, you can read my interview with Hilary of CashArena to know more about the site and the business. Check out CashArena for a totally different penny auction experience.

Bid Back Madness is back at HappyBidDay

The hugely popular bid back madness is back at HappyBidDay! It is only for a week, from August 17th to 23rd. During this time, every single bid that you place in an auction will be returned to you as a Happy Bid, which can then be used on any happy auction. This is a great rewards program where your chances of winning are literally doubled. Even personally I've had great success with their bid back madness (pity it doesn't last forever!) You get the bids in your account as soon as the auction gets over.

Anyway, if you are interested, check out HappyBidDay. If you are not yet a member, you can Register Here (coupon included) to get 20% off your first bid pack purchase, which is a great saving.

An Interesting Promotion at OrangeBidz

Today OrangeBidz has announced an interesting promotion. Only today (August 14th 2011) every 100 bid pack you buy, you will automatically get 100 extra bids! These extra bids should be used within midnight of today. You can use them on any auction though, but it should be today. In addition, you can buy multiple bid packs of 100 and you will get these extra bids multiple times (just be sure to use them all before midnight).

Interview with Hilary of CashArena

This is my interview with Hilary St Jonn, the Marketing Manager of CashArena. CashArena is a new penny auction that, like its name suggests, auctions cash instead of products. In addition, they have a number of other exciting features that lets you win on the site. The business is operated in Europe and North America and the owners have a good deal of entrepreneurial experience, which always helps to keep a company afloat.

The site is already very attractive and well designed, and not one of those hastily put together scripts showing how serious they are about the business. Its global scope is also an interesting aspect. Here is the interview, and I hope you enjoy it. I would always love to hear from my readers, so if you have questions or suggestions, do drop me a line.

Sid: CashArena seems unique in offering money instead of products. Why would bidders be attracted to this?
Hilary: Well, first off you can spend cash anywhere. It isn’t a special product or a gift card you can only spend at one store. We like this because it gives users the flexibility to bid on any auction and then use the money for what they want to.

Sid: Will you have any products or just pure cash even in the future?
Hilary: With “Cash” in our name, we don’t have any plans to introduce products. :)

Sid: Do you plan to stick with the traditional penny auction model or are you looking into other models like unique lowest bid or the 'secret price' auctions?
Hilary: Our model already goes beyond the traditional penny auction model with our unique mini games played with the Coloritas earned in the auctions. There is a weekly Lowest Unique Game where the lowest unique bids win, and the Reward games where users can convert the Coloritas to cash or more bids.

Sid: Apart from the products offered, how is CashArena different from other penny auctions?
Hilary: Well, our mini games and the chance to earn Coloritas are completely unique and never before seen.

Sid: Tell us something about your rewards program and Coloritas.
Hilary: As users bids, the Colorita on the auction will spin faster and faster until it is released to a random bidder. Bidders can then save up their Coloritas and use them to convert for bids or cash in the Reward Games or in the Lowest Unique game, with a prize of $1000. The Reward Games are completely unique as the reward in each level continues to grow as users bid during the auction day. When a level is converted, that level resets and starts to grow again. There is a strategy on converting the level as you don’t want to convert it too soon, but if you wait too long, someone else may convert it and you may loose your chance and a pile of bids or cash!

Sid: With so many penny auctions opening up, do you see the penny auction industry growing or stagnating in the future?
Hilary: I don’t think it will grow or stagnate, but instead users will demand higher quality from the penny auctions they participate in. This is not only fast shipping but also superb customer service.

Sid: Where do you think penny auctions are more popular, North America or Europe?
Hilary: It is hard to say, as they are completely different markets. North America is easier to start in because it is the same language, similar currencies (and only two), so it is a great place to see if your penny auction is a success.

Sid: Why do you think many penny auctions fail to take off and then close shop?
Hilary: I think a lot of penny auctions don’t plan properly. They put all their money and resources into the start up and don’t consider the money and resources needed in order to keep the auction running. They also may not have a marketing budget, and without enough users a penny auction can go out of business very quickly.

Sid: What attracted you to the penny auction model? Are you targeting any particular market segment?
Hilary: We really wanted to bring something completely new to an already existing market. With CashArena.com, that is exactly what we are doing! Right now we are focusing on North American but hope to expand soon.

Sid: Which countries do you operate in? Do you plan to expand in the future?
Hilary: We are worldwide, but our opening hours are targeted towards North America. We do hope to operate 24/7 in the near future.

Sid: Are there any additional features you are planning for the short and long terms?
Hilary: Yes, we do plan to add more payment and withdrawal options as well as more unique mini games for users to play with their Coloritas.

Sid: How long has CashArena been running for?
Hilary: CashArena.com has been online since June 2011, and has been live since August 2011.

Sid: If you had to name just one feature that separates you from all the competition, what would it be?
Hilary: Coloritas!

Sid: Tell us more about CashArena and CoMoGo. How big is your team?
Hilary: CoMoGa is an international corporation with offices in Canada and Europe. There are about 20 members in the entire CoMoGa team, 9 of them are dedicated only to CashArena.com.

Sid: Do you have experience starting companies in the past?
Hilary: Yes, this is CoMoGa’s third start up. And most of the leading team members in CashArena.com have first hand experience working with successful start up companies.

Sid: Any future goals for CashArena you would like to share?
Hilary: We are always aiming to improve CashArena.com and actively look to our users for feedback.

HappyBidDay Rewards Program: 150 Free Bids!

HappyBidDay is having a huge rewards program this week, giving 150 free happy bids for every day you log into your account! These bids can be used on special happy auctions on the site. With so many bids, you will never feel short of bids and can just employ the penny auction strategies you want to use.

In addition, for those who are not yet a member, for a limited time, you can Register Here to get 20% off your first bid pack purchase. This is a significant amount of saving, especially if you can get the bigger bid packs and want to stay on the site for long.

Penny Auction Promotions: How to Make Use of Them

You will find lots of penny auction offers and sometimes it can be overwhelming. However, penny auction offers are extremely profitable to the users, so it is important to know how they work.

First off, you should look for honest, legitimate, low competition penny auctions which run some really attractive offers. For example, HappyBidDay has loads of freebies when you join in and something exciting happening all the time (in fact, if you Register Here, you can get 15% off your first bid pack).

Mostly, it is the newer penny auctions that have lots of offers and promotions. This is because they want to promote their site to new bidders. This is certainly a good thing from the bidders' perspective, especially when you know that the business is legitimate. After all, you could be the early adopter for the next Quibids.

Penny auction promotions help the bidders in several ways.
Free bids: If you can get free bids right off the top, nothing like it. You can use those to decrease the overall cost of bids. Or you can just try your luck winning an auction (it is hard but possible).

Discounts: Discounts actually help you save even more than free bids. You can end up saving tens or hundreds of dollars if you pick the right penny auction promotions.

You can find lots of good promotions on my Facebook fan page. You might also Google for your favorite penny auction coupon codes but you might not find all the promotions.

In any case, you should certainly make use of the promotions that are offered by penny auctions to increase your winning chances and decrease the overall cost of bids and thus increase your profits.

OrangeBidz Second Chance Promotion

OrangeBidz is having a second chance bid pack sale. This is done sometimes at this site and I haven't seen it elsewhere (I personally like the idea a lot). So basically, you can buy one second chance bid pack of 100 bids (automatically enrolled). If you use all your 100 bids by next Sunday (August 14th) and fail to win anything, OrangeBidz will refund you ALL the bids, once. It is a really cool offer for both existing and new members.

Nice OrangeBidz Promotion Today

OrangeBidz is having a good and interesting promotion today. For new members, you will get 8 free bids (2 usually) and for those who are already a member, just log in to get 2 free bids!

In addition, OrangeBidz is having a nice promotion for a new bid pack they are offering: 170 bids! This is an odd number of bids to have, but the deal sure is great. Instead of the usual $0.75/bid, you only pay $0.56/bid, which means the 170 bid pack costs only $96.

If you are not yet a member, consider joining today for other great offers and promotions.

Penny Auctions Blog is Growing by the Day!

I have been trying my best to keep readers updated about the world of penny auctions. I started this blog off as a guide for Quibids but branched out to talk about all penny auctions. My Penny Auctions Blog now not only gives you strategies and guides but also gives you the latest promotions and coupon codes so you can start bidding and winning items on newer penny auctions too.

Here, I wanted to share my visitor statistics with you. My Penny Auctions Blog has been growing almost every month since its inception a little more than a year ago. The quality content of this blog attracts a lot of penny auction bidders who seek valuable information, tips, advice, promotions, etc. For the month of July, I had 15,000 unique visits to my blog! No wonder then that this blog is one of the most famous and trustworthy blogs on this topic :)

I am also really happy with the other numbers: the average time spent on my blog is 3:40, which is impressive. The average number of pageviews for every visit is more than 2 ( remember that Google Analytics doesn't count single page visits, so this figure is in fact much higher).

To stay updated, you should certainly join me on Facebook where I give out lots of coupon codes, promotions and other strategies and tips for penny auctions. In addition, you should consider joining my mailing list so you are current and updated about all that is happening in the exciting world of penny auctions.

I should thank you, the reader, for the valuable contributions you make to my blog and I hope to churn out quality content like this for a long time to come.

Gold on Penny Auctions

Gold on penny auctions isn't common and it is quite hard to find penny auctions selling gold bullion. However, it is certainly not an impossibility and a number of penny auctions are now offering these products. Gold bullion in the form of coins and bars are the most famous. You can find several gold eagles and other coins from around the world in addition to standard bars. Most of the times, the weight is less - from 2 grams to 1 oz (about 33 grams) but the smaller ones - 1/10oz, 5 grams etc are more famous because they are cheaper for the site to procure.

Although gold coins at penny auctions are not as popular as electronics or gift cards, you can find some very reputable penny auctions that sell gold coins and gold bullion. HappyBidDay is one of the few mainstream penny auctions that auctions gold and silver bullion. If you are interested, you can bid just on these bullion items - it has several gift cards and electronics like traditional penny auctions do.

Apart from this, there are several penny auctions of late which have come up that specialize in precious metals - more specifically gold and silver coins and bars. Commodity Auction is a site that is a few months old and it specializes only in gold and silver bullion. Bid Wealth is another penny auction that recently opened specializing in bullion items.

So yes there are options but it is not yet mainstream.

How to Start A Penny Auction Part - 1

I am starting a series on how to start a new penny auction site. It may not really impress everyone, but it is worth mentioning here because there are several bidders who are interested in getting into it themselves sometime. Plus, there are many businesses who want to do the same and establish themselves in a particular niche. More recently, many small businesses that already have a presence are getting into the game, which means they already have an established base.

Now, it might also be of interest to the casual bidders and readers of my blog. After all, penny auctions are a curious business model and people want to know how to start new penny auctions.

Before I start the series, I wish to let all prospective entrepreneurs and small businesses know this: contrary to the popular belief, penny auctions are not a goldmine. The first few weeks/months will be painfully unprofitable. If you think you can make a quick buck and leave, you are mistaken and this industry is certainly not for you.

However, if you are serious about the business, you should read on.

Step-1: Set up Your own Company

This is the first and most important aspect of running a penny auction or really most other businesses. If you look at established penny auctions, you will see that almost all of them are LLCs. Limited Liability Companies are ideal for this kind of business, at least when you are getting started. Even if you already own a business, it might be a good idea to first incorporate an LLC and then start off with your penny auction business so you can test the waters safely. Remember that the best penny auctions in the industry, like Quibids, are all LLC's.

If you are not a legal expert, then you need to get professional help in forming your own LLC. This is important for long term sustainability of the business. If you are looking for a company, think CorpNet. They have a great legal team and being small but highly experienced, they can really understand your needs well. Plus, they offer one of the lowest industry fees, so you can get away with less. They also have a money-back guarantee, so you cannot lose trying them out.
If you already have a legal team in place, then you do not need another company, unless you need specialized advice.

Setting up an LLC is the first step towards starting your own penny auction site. This is also one of the most important steps because you want to do it right - very right. If you are free from legal hassles and have done this step in the right manner, you have a strong foundation upon which you can build your business for further profitability. 

Mystery Surprise at HappyBidDay

HappyBidDay is having mystery surprises this whole weekend. All you need to do is log into the site and you will get your mystery surprise. Today, I had a discount coupon from them which gave me 10% discount on bids purchased. If you are not a member, you can Register Here to get 12%-15% off your first bid pack purchase only.

These discounts are interesting because it reduces the overall cost you spend towards the bids. This increases profitability for the bidders in the long run. Since it is a very trusted site, you don't need to worry about buying more bids. They are having great products and the inventory seems to keep increasing, so I sure am excited about the future. They recently started auctioning gold and silver bullion, which I personally like a lot but there sure is something for everyone.

First Midnight Auction at OrangeBidz

Most new penny auctions have specific times when products go on sale instead of auctions running 24 hours a day. I am happy to report that OrangeBidz is taking the first step towards higher successes by offering its first midnight auction today! Also, if you don't win, you get half your bids back!

It is certainly a good sign for the site as it continues to grow and attract more bidders. I think the promotions that OrangeBidz runs are good and keeps the members active.

There is also a $7 25 bid pack on sale at PennyAuctionCoupon for OrangeBidz (1 per user). They are also offering 5 additional bids if the deal hits 80 users.

Winning Penny Auctions

Winning penny auctions is no trivial task and any experienced bidder can be a testimony to it. However, there are penny auction bidders who consistently and impressively rake in the profits through penny auctions. How is this possible? What do they know that you don't?

Look for the Best Winning Chances
A lot of bidders look for "safe" options like Quibids or BidRivals. True, you have Buy Now on these sites and if you are careful, you cannot lose money. However, they don't give you the best winning chances. To get the best winning chance, you should look for new but trusted penny auctions, like say HappyBidDay. This is because this site gives tons of free bids bundled together with the gift cards, so you can keep winning products and use the extra bids to win more gift cards.

Look for the Best Bidding Times
Bidding times are very important to win penny auctions. For example, at many new penny auctions, the afternoon time on weekdays is the best to bid on. These are the times when people are still at work and there are fewer bidders online. Of course you should study the site because some penny auctions will trim their auctions accordingly.

Know what to Bid on
People get tempted by big-ticket items. However, there are usually the most difficult to win. So don't go for the Macbook just yet. Instead, just try to win a small gift card which you can, in all probability, get it for less than the retail.

Another OrangeBidz Promotion

OrangeBidz is having another big promotion today.

First, anyone who registers today gets 5 free bids. In addition, all existing members who log in today get 2 free bids.

Now for the major promotion: OrangeBidz is running a "Second Chance Bid Pack" sale today. In this, if you buy a 100 bid pack today, you are enrolled towards a 'second chance' if you don't win anything with these 100 bids. This means if you don't win anything with these 100 bids, OrangeBidz will replenish this bid pack (one time only) to add 100 bids to your account again. You are also limited to one second chance bid pack per user.

This is a really cool offer and regular bidders should be excited about this.

RockDawg Coupon Code 5 Free Bids

Here is a RockDawg coupon code for 5 free bids: HappyBirthday. This will give you 5 free bids. It is valid for all members - new and old. All you need to do is log into your account today and enter this code in the redeem coupon area. The bids should be added instantly to your account.

I have done an interview with Diane, the co-founder of RockDawg, in which she talks about the industry in general and her visions of the future for RockDawg. Do read the interview to know more.

PennyGrab Coupon Code

Use this PennyGrab coupon code: SID10 to get 10 free credits.
PennyGrab is an exciting variation of penny auction in which there is a hidden deal price and the bidder who makes the price hit this price is the winner. It is a new but promising site and it seems to be doing quite well already.

RockDawg on PennyAuctionCoupon

RockDawg is having a great promotion today on PennyAuctionCoupon. You can buy 25 bids at just $5! This is a great opportunity to get some bids if you like RockDawg. Only one coupon per user is allowed. It is probably one of the cheapest prices that you will ever see for a penny auction like RockDawg.

If you don't already know, RockDawg has special 'unleashed auctions' in which there is a price that is hidden and the person who hits that price is the winner. One bid costs one cent as usual but you can bid multiple times, consecutively, on a single item till you hit that hidden price and are the winner.

I had interviewed Diane, the co-founder of RockDawg. Read the full interview here. It is a great site to join and also one of the highest rated in the industry.

If you are going to join RockDawg or already a member, just use the RockDawg coupon code RD52. This will give you 10 free bids, so you have a lot of bids at your disposal!

Great promotion at OrangeBidz

OrangeBidz is having a great promotion today: On special auctions, you get 50% bids back and there are several free bids on every bid pack purchase. This ranges from just 4 free bids with 30 bid pack to 130 free bids on 500 bid pack purchases. OrangeBidz is celebrating its 4th month in existence, and if you ask me, has been doing pretty good overall. The winning chances are fairly good, it attracts customers and runs such great promotions and gives free bids for logging in too (sometimes, that is). If you are not a member yet, it is worth checking out.

Winning Sustainably at HappyBidDay

HappyBidDay is a popular penny auction which is growing well in terms of new products offered to the bidders. There have been many inclusions in the past few weeks. However, this post is not intended to show how awesome the products are and how you can win an iPad2. Instead, it is about the more humble Amazon gift cards.

HappyBidDay is a relatively new penny auction so you don't have a lot of experienced bidders. However, for the very big items, like iPad2, there is a healthy amount of competition, so your chances of winning are as good as any other penny auction. However, it is the smaller gift cards that interest me because they let you win sustainably.

Let me explain. Unlike other penny auctions, at HappyBidDay, the gift cards (Amazon is popular but there are plenty of others too) always come bundled up with free bids. Thus you will see a $15 Amazon gift card bundled together with 75 free bids.

Now, here is the interesting part: Auctions at HappyBidDay start at $1.00 and not $0.00. Competition is not about the final price but the number of bids placed on the auction. See a typical gift card auction at HappyBidDay below:

You can see the $15 gift card is bundled with 75 free bids, and the closing price is $1.51. This means a total of 51 bids were placed on the auction. Assume that the winner was very aggressive and every alternate bid was placed by the winner (this is a highly unlikely scenario at HappyBidDay. The winner usually spends even less bids). This means the winner placed a maximum of 26 bids. This is for an item that has 75 free bids along with it!

What does this mean? The winner, in the end, has more bids than she started off with and has an Amazon gift card as well! This is what I mean by winning sustainably at HappyBidDay. If you concentrate on the gift cards, you get free bids along with the gift card and in many cases, the winner ends up with more bids than she started with!

If you are not already a member, you can Register Here (coupon code in-built) to get up to 15% off on your first bid pack purchase.

PennyAuctionsBlog back on Facebook!

If you are wondering where this blog disappeared on Facebook, well, the page was taken down after some issue with Quibids. Long story short, I have now gotten my page back and it feels really good. Do join me on Facebook where I give you the latest news, updates and coupon codes from several penny auctions. Sometimes it is just easier to post on Facebook than on the blog especially for coupon codes that help you save money but don't need an elaborate post.

http://www.facebook.com/PennyAuctionsBlog

Best Time to Bid on Penny Auctions

What is the best time to bid on penny auctions?
This is a very important question that every bidder needs to answer in order to optimize her winning chances. So what is the answer? It depends! Not very helpful right? But let me explain to you more in detail.

When you are looking for the best time to bid on a penny auction, what is it that you are looking for? You want to find the least competitive times in a penny auction. This is when you should bid because the lower the competition, the higher your winning chances. (Remember that no one can ever guarantee you a win at penny auction and anyone claiming otherwise is a snake-oil salesman you should steer clear of).

Finding the Least Competitive Times
It is important to find the least competitive times for your penny auction. Essentially, competition at any penny auction depends on -

• The number of bidders currently online
• The number of products up for auction 
• The number of popular items up for auction 

These three factors, in a nutshell, determine the least competitive times for any penny auction.

How to Find this Information?
It is not easy to get this information. Almost all the trackers I have seen are no good. You should observe general trends. For Quibids, you should read my post Best Time to Bid on Quibids which will give you great insights into this information.

For other sites, as a general rule of thumb, afternoons to early evenings are less competitive. For example, at HappyBidDay, the afternoons can give you products worth hundreds of dollars in gift cards for a couple of bids each, along with plenty of other free bids to use. However, late at evenings and nights, it becomes more competitive like a regular penny auction.

You should know what is the best time to bid on a penny auction to improve your winning chances. Again, another rule of thumb is to avoid weekends, although some penny auctions have great products on weekends. It is almost always a trade-off.

It's Still Unpredictable 
For new penny auctions, it is easier to predict competition. However, for any penny auction, it is impossible to do so with certainty. Just a couple of aggressive bidders can change the whole dynamic of the game. You need to understand that penny auctions are inherently unpredictable because their outcome depends not only on your own actions but also on the actions of other bidders. By knowing the best time to bid on penny auctions, you are merely bettering the odds and adopting a wise strategy.