Quibids - Is it Possible to Use Voucher Bids First?

At Quibids, is it possible to use voucher bids first, before using your paid bids? Or the other way - use real bids first and not use voucher bids at all? Quite a few bidders have asked me this, and I wanted to write a post about that.

Some of the reasons you would like to change the default ordering of the bids that get used up are -

• If you are just bidding for fun to test out your luck because you have quite a few voucher bids in your account, then you need to be careful not to use up your real bids. It is best to use real bids when you want to buy the item at full retail if you don't win. Voucher bids don't count towards your buy-now price. 
• If you are bidding on a gift card and you are prepared to buy it at full retail and the auction is fairly competitive, then you may not want to use voucher bids at all because those could be wasted. Instead, you want to use only the real bids and if you lose, just buy the item at full retail. This is also the case with other high-end electronics. 

This can actually be a neat addition to your regular Quibids strategy.

Ok, so now coming back to the original question - can you order your bids in Quibids as to which ones should be used ahead of which ones? The simple answer is no. This is unfortunate - I would actually like to see them be more flexible here and give users the option to use whatever kind of bids they want to use. 

Currently, here is how the bids are used - in the order of expiration. The bids that expire soonest are going to be used up first. I would ideally like this to be the default behavior but give the user power to change it easily. From the Quibids Terms of Conditions, 

"When You place Bids, the first Bids used will be Bids from Bid Packs, starting with the Bids that are going to expire the soonest. After Bids from Bid Packs are exhausted, Free Bids will be used, starting with the Bids that are closest to expiring. After Free Bids are exhausted, Voucher Bids are used, starting with the Bids that are closest to expiring. At QuiBids sole discretion, You may be given an opportunity to select which type of bids to use on an auction."

 So there you have it. Unfortunately for bidders, there is no good way to order which bids you want to use. That being said, read the last line - At Quibids' discretion, this can be changed. If you have been bitten by a situation as this and you didn't realize and ended up wasting a ton of bids, real or voucher, it might help to contact their help team and try to ask them to change this. I am not sure if they will oblige.

Did you ever run into this situation where you wanted to order your bids differently, like using virtual bids first or using real bids first? 

Overview of Penny Auctions

This is a Guest Post by Adeel of LimitlessBids

Summary 
In this article, we will be comparing the difference between regular online auctions, and penny auctions. We will also find out whether or not it is always a good decision to use one service or the other and lastly, we’re going to figure out how we can earn a profit from using both penny auctions and traditional auctions.

I know that the majority of the people that will be reading this already understand how penny auctions work, let me start off with a little review in case we have some new users on the site. When bidding in a penny auction service, you are going to have to pay for the bids beforehand. The price per bid ranges from between.50 to $1.00 a bid.

Unlike traditional auctions, every single time a bid is placed, the timer is once again restarted to allow for another bidder to bid. Now, if you are not the last person to bid on an item, you in essence helped pay for someone else's merchandise, a problem that does not exist in traditional auction houses. However, there are some companies such as that allow all users the option of using the buy it now option for any product AND having their bids cost count towards that amount! Check and make sure that the buy it now price that is listed on the penny auction site you are using is comparable to other online retailers. Sometimes penny auction companies will try to overinflate their prices so they can turn an even larger profit when you “Buy it now.”

Another problem that has plagued the penny auction world is that there are groups of people, who combine their funds, and purchase very large amounts of bids and effectively bid you off of whatever item you are interested in winning, making it very difficult for you to win as a new user. Some websites however do have a winner tiered limit, for example, only 1 win for any user over $500 in a week, or month, etc. This will ensure that there is a fair playing field for everyone, and so that everyone may win products that really are for far less than retail.

Lastly, look for a penny auction website that is not interested in reaping huge profits, but instead look towards companies that will keep their profit margins low. How do you do this you ask? Just see how many free giveaways they have, free bids are good but free items are just amazing. For example, zBiddy.com offers you the chance the spin their wheel and win between 1-10 bids for FREE, this can be done daily. Another website LimitlessBids.com actually just gives away items, like the Samsung Galaxy S3 they have up for this month. There is a catch however, you must be a registered and paid member of both of these websites to reap the dividends. marketing done quickly, and as soon as possible.

Finally, another few tips that I have for users who are interested in learning more about Penny Auction services, or want to know about how to make it easier to win, these are the tips I have for you. Firstly, I think that you make sure that a site is reputable. It has SSL security when you attempt to make a purchase, and all of your questions are responded to immediately when you e-mail them. Next, the newer a site is, the less members there will be available on the site to bid and for this reason, you will be able to get a ton of products for very cheap, before everyone else finds out about the site.

Okay, so when you locate a site that is new and does not have many users, you are going to want to bid, and bid heavy on the items on the site. Make sure the site is Paypal verified, Verisign verified and has SSL on the purchase page. Once you go through that checklist, check which high price items you should be able to win, use the techniques we discussed in earlier articles about bidding later on in an auction and then finally, when you know you want the auction, MAKE SURE YOU WIN THE AUCTION. There’s no way you’ll pay anywhere near retail if you follow this to the T.

Next, all that is left to do is set up your account over at ebay.com, or amazon.com and resell the items that you just won. Since most penny auction websites offer items that are brand new, this will give you the chance to sell brand new items on ebay or amazon, for a fraction of the price that you paid. If you follow this advice, to the T, and make sure to be a shark, not a minnow when bidding, you will be able to make a fast amount of money using both Penny Auctions and Traditional Auctions.

I myself was able to rake in about $10,000 extra profit this year alone doing this. That is all I have for you in this installment hopefully I have been helpful in allowing you to gain more knowledge about penny auctions and how to be successful in winning auctions to get items you want, for 90+% off retail and then reselling them for a profit with ease! 

CharityTick Penny Auction Opens

It's official - a new penny auctions CharityTick has opened. It tries to combine the auction model of penny auctions with giving to charities. It's a neat concept and this blog wishes them luck with the site considering how many penny auctions have closed shop in the last couple of years.

For now, the site is quite new, so it might actually help to join early and try to win some products. You get to support your choice of charity, which is also quite cool. Here's a page about how it all works.

Good luck bidding! If you've tried the site, don't forget to tell everyone in the comments section about your experience. 

HappyBidDay Turns 2 (and yes, it is a big deal)

HappyBidDay, an alternative to Quibids, turns 2 years old next month. In case you didn't already notice, these are highly turbulent times for the whole penny auction industry and it is quite an achievement that HappyBidDay has stuck it through and made it this far while several other large penny auctions have closed shop. Today, of all the legit penny auctions, HappyBidDay can truly stand as an alternative to Quibids.

In order to celebrate this event, HappyBidDay is giving away 25 free bids to all members for use in the regular penny auctions. That's right - just register and get 25 free bids deposited on November 7. There is no reason to miss this at all. 25 free bids is a lot of bids to use to try out a site.

If you are serious about penny auctions and winning on them though, you should buy a bid pack and reduce your average cost even further. This way, you can afford to outbid your competition and therefore win products. As a general tip, keep an eye out on beginner auctions and Amazon gift cards - they usually have less competition.

As an additional bonus, there is a special coupon code that you can use, which is for the readers of this blog: QBSPECIAL that expires in a couple of weeks from now, so combine your free bids with discounted bids and you cannot go wrong! Join the site today to make use of this great offer. Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. 

500,000 Page Views!

That's right folks, it's been a great journey so far, writing this blog and sharing with everyone what I think about the world of penny auctions.
Although I haven't been very active with this blog for the past couple of months, I intend to change that. And, today I realized this blog has reached a really cool milestone already - 500,000 page views! That's a lot of information shared with a lot of people.

What do you think about this blog? What do you like to read in the future? 

Special Coupon Code for my Readers

There is a special coupon code especially for the readers of this blog. This is courtesy of HappyBidDay. This is a penny auction like Quibids, and has been around for a while, although not as old as Quibids. Even as so many of the penny auctions closed down, HappyBidDay is going strong because it still offers something to the bidders and the owners have a good sense of this business. I have previously written about winning on HappyBidDay but in a nutshell, look for gift cards and if you are new, always look for the beginner auctions.

Anyway, the coupon code is QBSPECIAL (Click to redeem) and will give you a 30% discount on your first bid pack. This is a significant discount from regular packs and I encourage you to use this to lower your average cost of bid, which will have a positive impact on your profits of wins. If you buy the biggest pack, then you'll get a 40% discount. Although I don't always recommend buying the biggest packs, in this case, a 40% discount is quite significant, so it is definitely worth considering.

Specials: Gift cards and Silver Coins
Competitive: Electronics (I suggest bidding on Amazon gift cards and using them to buy electronics)

PennyGrab Coupon Code

PennyGrab is having a great promotion to celebrate their 1 year in existence! Use the code PENNYDOZER to get 10% off your bid packs, and also participate in games. Yes, exciting games, and win bids in the process! (the site is trying to promote the game angle, so the bids are quite generous. I am not sure how long that is going to last). You should be able to find these under the Games tab. 

Exciting Penny Auction Variations

If you are bored of traditional penny auctions with a timer that increases each time a bid is placed, you should check out other forms of penny auctions. The industry has a come a long way from the traditional model and some of you will find that more fun and better returns.

My favorite is PennyGrab simply because they have a Buy Now and gifts at regular intervals. This means most bidders actually win something, and it is not hard to formulate a good strategy for almost guaranteed wins. The site has grown into a very loyal bidder community who actually help each other out (no power bidding, for example). Another great feature is you can chat with your fellow bidders which is really cool.

Do you know of other exciting penny auctions with different models? 

Nebids Interview with Larry NeJame

This is my nebids interview with the co-founder Larry. nebids is a promising new penny auction which aims to bring a complete marketplace to the penny auction industry - you can both buy and sell items based on the penny auction model. If implemented well, I think the idea has great potential for bidders. The site is yet to go into beta but the founders are excited and you can sign up now for bonus giveaways. Here is the interview:


Sid: nebids is centered around a penny auction marketplace. Tell us a little about how nebids is supposed to work.
Larry: The simple of it is nebids will provide a platform for anyone to buy and sell using the penny auction format; just as eBay allows people to buy and sell using a traditional online auction format. Virtually anyone will be able to shop and sell through nebids and they will be able to sell pretty much anything they want.

Sid: When is nebids going to be live?
Larry: We plan on going live with our Beta Launch around mid to late June. This is barring any unforeseen road blocks. The first version of the site will be launching very shortly after the Beta Launch.

Sid: Why do you think bidders will be attracted to nebids as compared to say bidding on Quibids?
Larry: One of the key things we are offering bidders is lower bid prices. Bid prices will be set at $.50 per bid which is the lowest we’ve ever seen. We also allow bidders to purchase any number of bids they want; we are doing away with bid packs. So if someone wants to buy 83 bids, they can. One last thing that we are going to try to bring to the table is a larger variety of items that shoppers can buy. We hope to provide as many different shopping categories as an eBay or Amazon.

Sid: Do you think you can get enough sellers especially in the initial stages, considering it would be risky for them?
Larry: That of course is one of the major challenges to the launch. We have been working tirelessly to get the word out there about nebids as best we can to create as much buzz as we can about the site. In the past few weeks we have been taking signups and getting feedback through our Facebook page and we have been getting a ton of positive responses and participation so far, so we think there is going to be no shortage of bidder/shopper participation.
It’s our goal to make sure everyone has a pleasant experience on nebids either shopping or selling. So especially in the early stages we are going to try to work very closely with the sellers and give them as many guarantees as possible, to make sure they are making money on their auctions.

Sid: How do you plan to prevent problems with sellers like not shipping items?
Larry: We will have a built in system that requires the sellers to fulfill an auction order once the auction is completed. If they seller does not fulfill the auction order they will be heavily penalized, either by being banned from the site or incurring negative feedback on their account, which will hinder them from selling effectively.
The system will also require the buyer to finalize the auction by paying the ending auction price and shipping. At that point the seller will be responsible for shipping the item/fulfilling the order. Nebids will be the facilitator for this transaction, similar to how Amazon works; it will not be a transaction directly between the buyer and seller. This will ensure that both parties are protected.
If a seller does not ship the item the money paid by the winning bidder will be refunded. Also all bids placed on the auction will be refunded to all participants in that auction.  The seller will of course not receive any distribution of money from that sale.

Sid: Will there be any restrictions on what items can be put up for auction?
Larry: For the most part anyone can sell anything. However there are some standard restrictions, such as, no pornographic material or paraphernalia, also things that you might not have the rights to sell.

Sid: Tell us a little about the people behind nebids
Larry: Nebids has 3 founders: Larry, Marcus and Scott. All three of us grew up in Florida and we have worked with each other for a number of years. Larry handles most of business operations of the company and Scott and Marcus handle the technology and development aspects of the company.  Each of us have extensive experience with other business ventures in different fields such as, telecommunications, ecommerce websites and software.

Sid: Do you think other penny auctions will copy this model? Are you aware of any other live penny auctions who have implemented such a marketplace?
Larry: It’s certainly possible for other penny auctions to copy this model. Our hope is that people looking to get into the penny auction business choose to sell through nebids as opposed to starting up a website themselves. We think it is a beneficial scenario all around, sellers will not have to worry about the overhead of starting a website and marketing it, they can simply list items and market to nebids built in customer base.
To our understanding there have been some attempts at an eBay –like penny auction before, however they seemed to charge outrageous commissions on the auctions making it virtually impossible for sellers to generate a profit. There are other marketplaces out there, however they do not use a standard penny auction format.

Sid: Is nebids open to international bidders or just US residents?
Larry: To start nebids will only be open to US residents only. The goal is to expand to other regions at a later date, if possible.

Sid: Do you think the penny auction industry in general should be regulated more closely?
Larry: That’s an interesting question. With some of the practices utilized by some penny auction sites that we’ve seen, like shill bidding and not shipping products, the quick reaction to that question is “YES”. However one of the primary goals with the nebids marketplace penny auction format is to eliminate those bad practices that are being demonstrated today, which the marketplace format inherently eliminates or at the very least dramatically reduces. We really think this format is going to be a game changer.

Sid: What kind of auction models do you plan to implement? Just the traditional timer auctions or something more?
Larry: The initial plan is to offer a traditional timer penny auction where a bid increases the auction price by $.01. We feel like this is the simplest and easiest to understand model for both shoppers and sellers. We will constantly be updating the site with new features and options, such as, a buy it now option. However the core model will be a traditional timer based penny auction.

Sid: What do you think is the main reason behind so many seemingly successful penny auctions closing down, like Swoopoo, BidRivals, etc.
Larry: Sometimes companies simply overextend themselves, which is a common reason why established companies go under. From what we’ve seen over the last couple of years there have been a lot of small penny auction startups that have come and gone in almost the blink of an eye. It seems most new penny auction site owners do not realize what it takes to get a successful website off the ground, let alone a penny auction. It requires a lot of work and a lot of capital and resources at the beginning to be successful, which is something most people do not account for.

Check out nebids today.

10% Off Bids: PennyGrab Coupon Code

PennyGrab has a great offer - save 10% off any bid pack you purchase with the code STARWARS. PennyGrab runs one of the most interesting campaigns and it is a pleasure to read the witty emails. So what was it today? May the 4th be With You! That of course is something all the sci-fi star war fans or any geek reading this would immediately appreciate, from the famous 'may the force be with you' statement. And what better time to talk of sci-fi and celebrate the inner geek than a day after the release of the Avengers! (Yes it is awesome and you should see it irrespective of whether you like "that kind" of movies or not)

Redeem STARWARS coupon and get 10% off your bid packs.