Continuing my unscientific exploration of penny auction sites, I try new sites from reviews on APA (www.allpennyauctions.com), where the reviews are not all from shills, usually. The penny auction sites I tried were BidPunk (www.bidpunk.com), ibid2Save (www.ibid2save.com). Both auction sites have quite different layouts, prizes, bidders and return on investment potential.
Most people acquainted with penny auctions join different sites for the variety, the free bids, and the easy pickings when you are a rookie. This is obviously the way most of these second- and third-tier sites get new bidders. I bought a small bid pack from BidPunk and won a few auctions for $10 gift cards easily. There wasn't much competition and I'm sure the system was skewed for me to win at first. BidPunk has a roulette spin wheel similar to Zbiddy, where you can win free bids every day you log in. At first, I made back my money in two auctions. There are not many auctions on BidPunk and they are set far apart, so you can't hang around long.
After your initial couple of wins, you are then pitted against 5-10 regular crazy bidders who compete like mad for 3 or 4 auctions, so it's not particularly profitable. It appears BidPunk is appealing to a younger crowd, based on the prizes and small denominations of gift cards. Very few auctions are BIN auctions, and the bids are expensive (.60 - .75) even with promotions. Their delivery is a little on the slow side, but not terrible. Most of their prizes are either bid packs or e-gift cards delivered via email.
IBid2Save is a strange and terrible penny auction site. Perhaps once upon a time it was a decent venue, but currently it is far too difficult to win anything good for a reasonable amount of money (my formula of 166% profit is impossible to obtain), and the majority of their prizes are dollar store accessories or cheap jewelry that can be obtained for a fraction of the price at Amazon or at a flea market. If you are a bargain hunter and not an irrational bidding freak, you will realize that IBid2Save is a rip-off.
Initially, I bought a small bid pack and then won another bid pack where I spent $15 on "auction fees" that pretty much voided the great deal I thought I got. Ok, I thought, I can make this back. I noticed the only decent auctions ($200, $100, $20 gift cards and iPads or cameras), never sold for less than 70 - 80% of retail, after factoring in the "auction fees", shipping fees, and cost of your bids. Never mind the fact that those auctions run for 8 hours, since everyone and their uncle places an auto-bid for 300 - 500 bids. Although the average cost of bids was about .03 cents, since everyone got cheap bids, they threw them around like confetti and inflated the final cost of every valuable auction.
The only item I bothered to buy on IBid2Save was a watch that I researched on Amazon to see if the auction fee/shipping fee was less than the value of the watch. I probably saved about 40% on it, but it was hardly worth the effort. Most of the junk on IBid2Save can be bought for $1 - $10 although the site claims it is worth ten times that. Do your homework and you won't waste money.
UPDATE: I was given 350 free bids by IBid2Save (as was everyone else on their mailing list!) and found a few promo codes on their Facebook page and around the 'net. I managed to accumulate about 500 free bids and managed to win 3 $20 gift cards in a row. It was a Sunday afternoon and I suspect I just got lucky. I made back the investment and called it a day. Their shipping is very slow.
As far as Bidpunk, I wrote an unflattering review of the site on APA and they rewarded me with free bids. With those bids and a pack I got cheap on http://pennyauctioncoupon.com I won two auctions. I'm back to zero bids with them, but I feel I got my money's worth now.
April 29, 2013
April 20, 2013
Beezid's Persistent Telemarketers
Since dropping out of Beezid a month ago, I have received 4 phone calls from their Telemarketing department promising to help me win "The Big Items." I thought this was interesting, so I spoke with the first two telemarketers that called me (from Canada, incidentally).
The first caller told me she had observed that I hadn't won any big items and that she would like to teach me how to do it. The first thing I had to do was log in and buy $550 worth of bids and she would triple my bids. (AS IF I WOULD SPEND $550!) Tripling my bids on Beezid really means doubling them plus 1/5. This is not really a deal, since you can buy bids on the auction site for less than .13 a bid. I know, because I never spent more than .15 a bid on Beezid after the first bid package when joining. I pointed out to her that .30 a bid (the average price of this deal), was still much too high a price to pay for bids. She said that unless I had a stockpile of bids, like the Pros had, I would never win a big item. I said I didn't want to win a big item, I merely wanted to win $25 - $100 gift cards in a fair auction where maniacs and lunatics are not spoiling the auction by overbidding by 200 and 300 bids the value of the item.
She told me that bidders overbid to demonstrate their power and make a name for themselves so that they can then win auctions in the future much cheaper by merely intimidation. I said that was silly and counterproductive, since when I checked www.allpennyauctions.com for these maniacs' names, they, in fact, were overspending on nearly every auction. The whole point of penny auctions, I pointed out, was to win things cheap, not overspend on them. She said that Pros pay much less for bids than average people, and I said not according to my research, or according to the final auction results where Beezid shows how much the bids cost the bidder and what he/she actually spent.
There may be some Pros paying .10 a bid at Beezid, but most are spending .15 - .20 a bid and they are not making any money by power bidding an auction. Most recently, a bidder named "turkeyboy" overbid 50% on three separate auctions - a $25 gift card, a set of towels and a set of sheets. He could have bought all three products from Target for less than he spent on one auction. It makes no sense.
The telemarketer realized I was not an easy mark and let me go. The second telemarketer tried the same ploy on me, and when he realized I wasn't an idiot, but rather a disillusioned and disgusted normal bidder, he encouraged me to give Beezid another chance. I said I certainly would, thank you very much (not)! The next few calls I recognized from Beezid I let roll into voice mail.
The first caller told me she had observed that I hadn't won any big items and that she would like to teach me how to do it. The first thing I had to do was log in and buy $550 worth of bids and she would triple my bids. (AS IF I WOULD SPEND $550!) Tripling my bids on Beezid really means doubling them plus 1/5. This is not really a deal, since you can buy bids on the auction site for less than .13 a bid. I know, because I never spent more than .15 a bid on Beezid after the first bid package when joining. I pointed out to her that .30 a bid (the average price of this deal), was still much too high a price to pay for bids. She said that unless I had a stockpile of bids, like the Pros had, I would never win a big item. I said I didn't want to win a big item, I merely wanted to win $25 - $100 gift cards in a fair auction where maniacs and lunatics are not spoiling the auction by overbidding by 200 and 300 bids the value of the item.
She told me that bidders overbid to demonstrate their power and make a name for themselves so that they can then win auctions in the future much cheaper by merely intimidation. I said that was silly and counterproductive, since when I checked www.allpennyauctions.com for these maniacs' names, they, in fact, were overspending on nearly every auction. The whole point of penny auctions, I pointed out, was to win things cheap, not overspend on them. She said that Pros pay much less for bids than average people, and I said not according to my research, or according to the final auction results where Beezid shows how much the bids cost the bidder and what he/she actually spent.
There may be some Pros paying .10 a bid at Beezid, but most are spending .15 - .20 a bid and they are not making any money by power bidding an auction. Most recently, a bidder named "turkeyboy" overbid 50% on three separate auctions - a $25 gift card, a set of towels and a set of sheets. He could have bought all three products from Target for less than he spent on one auction. It makes no sense.
The telemarketer realized I was not an easy mark and let me go. The second telemarketer tried the same ploy on me, and when he realized I wasn't an idiot, but rather a disillusioned and disgusted normal bidder, he encouraged me to give Beezid another chance. I said I certainly would, thank you very much (not)! The next few calls I recognized from Beezid I let roll into voice mail.
How to Win on DealDash
Yes, Virginia, there is a way to win on DealDash if you are really patient, have money to BIN items you need or want anyway, and can accumulate a lot of free bids from the 20- and 30-second timer countdowns that are very annoying (and boring).
I haven't paid for a bid since my first bid pack on DealDash. I just accumulated tons of free bids by setting the BidBuddy to 100 or 200 bids on auctions where I can BIN (Buy it Now) an item I will use like cash - a giftcard for Target, for example, or an item I like under $30.
Over the past two weeks, I bought over $200 worth of BIN items from DealDash that I will immediately use like cash. Not only did I get all my bids back, but I accumulated over 400 free bids from the timer countdown. Most bidders on DealDash let the clock run down so everyone can get free bids. They are polite that way.
Now, how to win an auction (besides being lucky?): First, bid a few times on an auction before it reaches $5, when it closes to new bidders. You can watch that auction to see how many BidBuddies are running by observing the bidders and how often the clock resets at about 3 seconds. The clock never runs below 3 seconds when there are auto-bidders. Check back on the auction every so often, to see who dropped out. When there are 3 or fewer bidders left, and the price of the auction has gone up to about 30 - 40% of the item value (say $7 for a $25 gift card), consider all the bids you are using for that auction to be free bids. You might as well spend them, since they really didn't cost you anything.
Load the BidBuddy with 200 - 300 bids. You will win. By that time, most in the auction are running low on bids, or don't want to spend more than the item is worth (if they paid for their bids), or are not interested in the BIN option. Anyone entering the auction late, like you, will be using the same strategy, so you can hope you have more bids to spend.
I have only won on DealDash two ways: winning early in the auction by luck, or winning late in the auction by outbidding with free bids and spending 30 - 40% of the final price on the item.
I haven't paid for a bid since my first bid pack on DealDash. I just accumulated tons of free bids by setting the BidBuddy to 100 or 200 bids on auctions where I can BIN (Buy it Now) an item I will use like cash - a giftcard for Target, for example, or an item I like under $30.
Over the past two weeks, I bought over $200 worth of BIN items from DealDash that I will immediately use like cash. Not only did I get all my bids back, but I accumulated over 400 free bids from the timer countdown. Most bidders on DealDash let the clock run down so everyone can get free bids. They are polite that way.
Now, how to win an auction (besides being lucky?): First, bid a few times on an auction before it reaches $5, when it closes to new bidders. You can watch that auction to see how many BidBuddies are running by observing the bidders and how often the clock resets at about 3 seconds. The clock never runs below 3 seconds when there are auto-bidders. Check back on the auction every so often, to see who dropped out. When there are 3 or fewer bidders left, and the price of the auction has gone up to about 30 - 40% of the item value (say $7 for a $25 gift card), consider all the bids you are using for that auction to be free bids. You might as well spend them, since they really didn't cost you anything.
Load the BidBuddy with 200 - 300 bids. You will win. By that time, most in the auction are running low on bids, or don't want to spend more than the item is worth (if they paid for their bids), or are not interested in the BIN option. Anyone entering the auction late, like you, will be using the same strategy, so you can hope you have more bids to spend.
I have only won on DealDash two ways: winning early in the auction by luck, or winning late in the auction by outbidding with free bids and spending 30 - 40% of the final price on the item.
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