EBay is old news. What’s new is penny auction sites. “Swoopo and GoBid are two of several new ‘penny auction’ sites where consumers can bid for flat-screen TVs, laptops, cameras and game consoles as well as jewelry and gift cards for prices that start as low as a penny,” says a story in the San Jose Mercury News.
The catch is there is a fee to place each bid, between $.60 and $1. Users buy packs of 10 to 700 bids at a time, then can dole them out on items they crave. The site highlights auctions that are in their final seconds.
But here’s another catch. On Swoopo, users can pre-program bids using a “BidButler,” which waits until the final 10 seconds to place your bid. But every time a bid is placed, the time left on the auction jumps up. So it can be quite exciting – and frustrating – to watch the an item’s price continue to climb as the countdown actually counts up.
Critics of penny auction sites say it is as addicting as gambling and dub them an “evil eBay.”
But…I may try it, just once. I swear I’ll be able to quit!
On the other hand, if paying $.34 for a $150 Nikon Coolpix digital camera, or snagging a $699 Apple 16GB iPhone for $8.06 is going to get you addicted, fogettaboutit!
Thanks, Mark!
June 16th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Wow, what a smart business!! They are making a killing on some of those penny auctions! If I understand this correctly, they got apx $4,387 ((5774 bids x 75 cents) + $57.74 winning bid) for an Apple MacBook that retails for $1299. Nice little profit making website there!!
June 16th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Wow, that really is incredible. I’m torn between wishing I had created this business and thinking that is a total scam!
June 16th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Yeah, I agree with you. I guess there is a demand for it and it’s a win – win situation for the winning bidders and the company. It’s the people that keep bidding and don’t win that get burned since they still have to pay for each bid. Crazy!!
June 18th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Hello, my name is Montana and I work for Swoopo.com. I manage their social media. I can reassure you that we are not a scam.
We do have beginner auctions for the first timers, and we also suggest people come into bidding with a strategy.
There are a lot of auctions where we lose money also.
I encourage you all to follow us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/Swoopo or become a fan on our Facebook page. That will give you more insight to our company and who we are.
Hope all is well.
Best,
~MT
June 30th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
check out this site guys, talks about the not so honest sites. http://digg.com/business_finance/Scam_Penny_Auction_Sites_Bots_Shill_Bidders_and_Theives
June 30th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
However on the site I mentioned above they did say some good things about zoozle.com and other penny auctions sites out there like swipeitup.com, and some others. I love the site by the way bargain babe!
June 30th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
a few penny auctions sites out there that I have heard good things about:
http://www.swipeitup.com
http://www.zoozle.com
http://www.bidray.com
http://www.rockybid.com
If I find anymore I’ll share. There is also a website for penny auction reviews called pennyreviewer.com
July 4th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Hi, my name is Craig and I am part owner of the penny auction site Zoozle.com. I appreciate all the positive comments above! I highly recommend checking out the penny auction review sites being talked about to make sure you are not getting into a scam site since there are lots of them floating around the web (by scam, I mean sites using fake bidders to bid against you, aka “bots”). I personally guarantee Zoozle.com is honest and all our bidders are real people. Just a heads up! Happy Bidding!
July 6th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Montana how do you explain the bidbutler that puts a 140 bids in one item at a very early time in an inexpensive item? Bidbutler are bots that is from your company that serves its purpose, to increase the price on the item that is on bid.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:11 am
I just noticed the prices of the items on bid in Swoopo with “worth up to” is sort of a jacked up price compared to the market suggested retail price, where did swoopo get their own “worth up to” price? Can you give me some thoughts on this Montana?
July 18th, 2009 at 9:32 am
I have play these peeny auction sites and done well.
Rockybid,Zoozle,BidRodeoand Centy24.
DO NOT USE BID LEW THIS AUCTION SITE IS A RIP OFF
July 24th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Check out pennyauctionwatch.com
July 29th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Ive won many products off these sites and actually made money i resold them. i won a Nintendo wii on Bidlew.com for 5.57 and then sold it on ebay
August 12th, 2009 at 6:31 am
hey..
let me give you a british point of view of a penny auction website..
it costs more to the bidders as the currency here (GBP) is costlier than there (USD) ..
a few weeks back ..
i saw this great canon camera get auctioned..
RRP was worth GBP 970 ..
it was auctioned at around GBP 30..
so .. the company made a whopping GBP 3k !!
its like .. the consumer is happy as its like 1% the original price .. and the seller is more than happy at raking in almost more than 300% the price!!