Average price: $7.37
|
Current Auction Price in US Dollars
$18.35
3-21-2013
9:26:27 EDT
WINNER:
salem64
| Compare to * |
$85.99
|
| Shipping $ 9.99 Value of Placed Bids ** (759) | $197.34 |
March 21, 2013
Irrational Bidders Exhibit C: WTF?
March 17, 2013
DealDash User "Bio" - The New "Baby on Board"?
I don't bid on DealDash anymore because I ran out of Russian novels to read while waiting for my "BidBuddy" (autobid) to post after every 15 second countdown. I do visit from time to time, just to read the mini "bios" that the players post under their bizarre celebrity cartoon (I swear, one of them looks like Greta VanSusteren). Some of these bios remind me of the yellow diamond signs people stuck on the back window of their mini-vans that stated, "Baby on Board!" I always thought those signs were ridiculous. It's not as if I would restrain myself from ramming into you just because you might be carrying a baby passenger. I'm not going to ram you, anyway.
Some of the bios are to garner sympapthy, or to assure other players that they are bidding on items for charity or noble causes. They may be true, they may not. It's the internet! We never know. I can't tell how effective are these ploys, but I'm sure it's a wash between the bidders who are annoyed versus the ones that might give them a pass if possible.
The DealDash community is like the Jerry Springer version of penny auctions. People post complaints, politics, snide remarks, scolds and warnings, knowing when they bid, anyone paying attention can read their latest comment. Someone should put in their bio, "I'm living in a cardboard box, jobless and starving! I'm using the library for my internet! Please let me win an iPad!"
I might let that guy win.
Some of the bios are to garner sympapthy, or to assure other players that they are bidding on items for charity or noble causes. They may be true, they may not. It's the internet! We never know. I can't tell how effective are these ploys, but I'm sure it's a wash between the bidders who are annoyed versus the ones that might give them a pass if possible.
The DealDash community is like the Jerry Springer version of penny auctions. People post complaints, politics, snide remarks, scolds and warnings, knowing when they bid, anyone paying attention can read their latest comment. Someone should put in their bio, "I'm living in a cardboard box, jobless and starving! I'm using the library for my internet! Please let me win an iPad!"
I might let that guy win.
Irrational Biddders Exhibit B: Lunatics
Here is the result of an auction I watched recently on Beezid where the prize was a "50/50" - $50 gift card plus 50 bonus bids. Based on my formula, I wouldn't spend more than $5 final cost and 50 bids on this auction, and I would wait until the $4 or $5 mark before joining. Even though I bowed out after I saw this auction was going beyond rationality, I was still shocked to see the final result:
Final AuctionPrice: $36.92
Winning Bidder: playbaby - this bidder's record on www.allpennyauctions.com shows he/she is either a crazy rich person with too much time on her hands (since she is thousands in the red), or she's a Plant that accidentally wins a few auctions by default. Her bidding is deliberate, irrational and almost always a failure. The only auctions she wins is those she's willing to spend 10 x the amount, which doesn't only violate Rule #1, but is mean spirited toward other bidders.
| Shipping: $4.99 | |
| Placed Bids ** (1509) | $301.80 |
LOSS: over $ 250 |
March 16, 2013
Rule #1: TGIF - Get Your Bids Cheap
In an effort to adhere to Rule #1 of Penny Wise, Penny Foolish, the lower the cost of your bids, the higher profit you make on your winnings.After your first promotional bonus when joining a site, you'll have to buy bid packs at "promo" rates or win them in auctions. The cheapest way to buy bids is to win them, but that requires spending bids to do it. You'll have to use the formula to determine how many bids you can afford to spend to win more bids. (No more than 1/3).
The next cheapest and easier method is to bid on "Free To Bid" auctions on Beezid or HappyBidDay and pay .06 - .16 per bid, at most. On Beezid, there are constant free auctions on packs of bids ranging from 50, 150, 80, 250, etc. The amounts are somewhat random, so you must do the math ahead of time. Make a list of bid quantities offered and determine your absolute maximum price for that pack. For example, a 50-bid pack on Beezid frequently sells for $8.80 to $9, which is about .17 per bid. My goal is to pay less than $8 for that pack, and I won't bid above that. If someone else wants to pay more, let them. You don't get into bid wars over bid packs. I won't pay more than $10 for a 75 pack, and my goal is to always get it cheaper. I don't focus on buying bid packs, but look for deals and stock up if I can snag them cheaply. It's like buying boxes of cereal on sale. You know you'll use it and enjoy not paying $4 a box for it!
Set a max price based on .14/bid or thereabouts for Beezid. No reason to spend more. Don't be in a hurry, just watch for opportunities to snag bids cheaply. Whatever you do, don't buy any of their promotional packs where they offer 300% bids. Remember, promo bids expire after a week, and bonus bids only count 1:5, in other words, they only apply for every 5 real bids you spend. Even factoring in the 1:5 bonus bids into the value, a typical bid package: 100 bids @ $70 plus, 100 promo bids and 100 bonus bids (worth 20 bids). If you use up these bids in a week's time (220 bids), they cost you .31 each. You can buy bids much cheaper either in auctions, by winning free bids in a hybrid auction, or bidding for them at a max price of .14 - .16. There are plenty of opportunities for that.
Don't get sucked into a "promo" deal. It's not a deal.
The next cheapest and easier method is to bid on "Free To Bid" auctions on Beezid or HappyBidDay and pay .06 - .16 per bid, at most. On Beezid, there are constant free auctions on packs of bids ranging from 50, 150, 80, 250, etc. The amounts are somewhat random, so you must do the math ahead of time. Make a list of bid quantities offered and determine your absolute maximum price for that pack. For example, a 50-bid pack on Beezid frequently sells for $8.80 to $9, which is about .17 per bid. My goal is to pay less than $8 for that pack, and I won't bid above that. If someone else wants to pay more, let them. You don't get into bid wars over bid packs. I won't pay more than $10 for a 75 pack, and my goal is to always get it cheaper. I don't focus on buying bid packs, but look for deals and stock up if I can snag them cheaply. It's like buying boxes of cereal on sale. You know you'll use it and enjoy not paying $4 a box for it!
Set a max price based on .14/bid or thereabouts for Beezid. No reason to spend more. Don't be in a hurry, just watch for opportunities to snag bids cheaply. Whatever you do, don't buy any of their promotional packs where they offer 300% bids. Remember, promo bids expire after a week, and bonus bids only count 1:5, in other words, they only apply for every 5 real bids you spend. Even factoring in the 1:5 bonus bids into the value, a typical bid package: 100 bids @ $70 plus, 100 promo bids and 100 bonus bids (worth 20 bids). If you use up these bids in a week's time (220 bids), they cost you .31 each. You can buy bids much cheaper either in auctions, by winning free bids in a hybrid auction, or bidding for them at a max price of .14 - .16. There are plenty of opportunities for that.
Don't get sucked into a "promo" deal. It's not a deal.
Irrational Bidders Exhibit A: Bidding as Video Game
$15 Walmart Gift Card
Applying The Formula: 33 bids used on a $15 gift card using a BOM. 20 real bids cost him $12, 11 voucher bids could have been saved for something else. Shipping on this card is .50, plus the winning price was .83, over a third of which was spent by the winner. This game included a "Game Play" where the winner had the chance to play an easy video game and win more voucher bids. But, based on his bidding style, he needs to separate bidding on auctions from shooting at terrorists.
- FINAL COST: $ 13.33, and a free chance to win 30 - 60 voucher bids. Was it worth it? There are far easier and cheaper ways to win an auction for pennies. Zach forgot Rule #1.
March 15, 2013
Quibids & Beezid Links - Help The Author With Her Project
If you are curious about Quibids or Beezid after reading my book or landed here through an inquiry about popular penny auction sites, please help me with my research by clicking this link:
http://qb.cm/r33985521 - Quibids
Beezid Link:
http://www.beezid.com/?ref=84reuqc08vk&utm_source=bu&utm_medium=RAFsb&utm_campaign=RAF
This will help me get 25 - 100 free bids so I can continue studying various bid strategies and save you time, money and bids.
Thanks!
Pre-Set Autobids to win Small Auctions
While culling through records of winners of lower-cost gift cards on Beezid ($10 - $25) that attract conservative, newbie bidders, I noticed an interesting strategy: the auctions were often won within 20 - 30 bids by a bidder who set a BOM (autobid) from early on in the auction, prior to the last 4 minutes, often well before. It looks like they preset 25 bids (the max) at up to 30 minutes before the auction, walked away and wagered a pittance of bids that newcomers would freak out right away at the autobidding and bow out. Which is exactly what a lot of them did.
To counteract this strategy, you can try one of two things: first, wait for the auction to begin for real (within the last minute), and wait for the autobidding to run up. If the newcomers flee in terror, bid against the autobidder, counting how many he has left. If he's awake and paying attention, you'll know by the 25th bid. If he set it and left, you only have to risk a half dozen bids to find out. If he's there, decide if you want to spend 50 more bids on the item. If he's not there, you may just snag it up by default. Or, you can try this strategy for yourself by setting an autobid for the max bids (25 for small items) on an auction with no other autobidders set, and see if it works for you.
To check for pre-set autobids, click on an auction that is still 15 minutes or longer (in Beezid), and if you see bids already placed on that auction, go inside the auction to see if one of those bidders is set to Autobid. That's an auction to watch.
For more helpful observations of penny auctions, get my book Penny Wise - Penny Foolish.
To counteract this strategy, you can try one of two things: first, wait for the auction to begin for real (within the last minute), and wait for the autobidding to run up. If the newcomers flee in terror, bid against the autobidder, counting how many he has left. If he's awake and paying attention, you'll know by the 25th bid. If he set it and left, you only have to risk a half dozen bids to find out. If he's there, decide if you want to spend 50 more bids on the item. If he's not there, you may just snag it up by default. Or, you can try this strategy for yourself by setting an autobid for the max bids (25 for small items) on an auction with no other autobidders set, and see if it works for you.
To check for pre-set autobids, click on an auction that is still 15 minutes or longer (in Beezid), and if you see bids already placed on that auction, go inside the auction to see if one of those bidders is set to Autobid. That's an auction to watch.
For more helpful observations of penny auctions, get my book Penny Wise - Penny Foolish.
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