Wednesday 4 September 2013

Confessions Of A Penny Auctionholic

As a shopaholic, I like to indulge in penny auctions. We all know bids are the best part in any auction. We purchase bids hoping to win the item we desire. So, companies sell these bids in bundles. If you want the price of per bid to be less, buy always more, that is, in bundles. At the same time, companies get profit from the number of bids placed in an auction.

                                               AUCTION



Here I want to emphasize the Bids we place. This is where I see many of them wasting your bids and finally not saving a penny at least.

You may think that you haven't purchased any bids to lose, instead claimed all for FREE. Remember one thing, each bid costs you money even though it seems free. How? for every bid you or others place, it simultaneously increases the price of the item by a cent or a penny. Right? agree?

My suggestion is not to waste your bids unnecessarily, else, you may end up paying more than the actual value of the item.

I'll still be precise by citing my incident:
As a newbie to online shopping in 2002, I once bid for an Apple IPAD of retail price $400. I wanted to bargain it for $25. My bid costed me 30 cents on an average. At the most, I saw not more than 2 people were bidding for the same. Initially, the thought of gaining $400 product  for a mere $25 gave much excitement within me.

Later, when I calculated for the bids I used up plus my own winning bid, it surprised me and I thought I was outwitted.
Bids started at 1 cent and goes on until $25. I actually used up 1250 bid credits. Upon calculating for 1250 bids, 1250 * .30 = $375 plus $25, winning bid. Thus I spent $400 exactly it's retail price

I didn't save any cent/penny here. A futile bargain. After a series of experiments in penny auctions I finally zeroed in.

If you got 50-100 bids only, I insist you to use Autobid strategy from the start of the game. Tripleclicks site and other reliable sites have this feature. But be prepare for loss, when auction continues even after your final bid.

I'll usually consider auto-bidding option only when I bid for multiple items and want to concentrate on one, and at times when I cannot do it manually watching the screen for hours. You cannot cancel once you have setup your budget and bids.


We all know one thing most crucial. Ending time of auctions will always vary. Some even takes longer hours. Be wise and do not use your bids in the beginning itself. Don't go for autobid in middle of auction too, as, you will definitely loose your bids very quickly. In site like Tripleclicks, they will display winner names. Watch how many are competing. If there are only few you probably have more chances to win. See if they are aggressive in their bidding. If their interests seems to fade, jump in with confidence.

                                       Aggressive Bidders                                        



Give a forethought to your bidding time. Do not bid at times when there are lot of competitors or when traffic is huge. Know about the possible buyers of the product and select your time accordingly. For instance, kitchen appliances auction are at peak in mid-day as it is solely bought by stay-at-home moms.

Auction sniping is a fun game for me personally and I win mostly. If you are a newbie, please don't use this strategy. I will enter the game only at later stage, when I see only a handful are competing. Remember each bid will extend the timer settings. First I will watch, wait and study the auction pattern. I will understand the auction momentum and analyze best time in order to bid aggressively. I will ensure I have got hefty bids at stock. Everyone has their own winning strategy of course. Choose the strategy which works out for you ultimately. 

I like Tripleclicks for their unique types of auctions. If you have not won any auction before there is a Junior auction and you will be winning for sure after a 2-3 attempts only.

No limit auctions are for as the name suggests, even if you have reached your winning limit for the week/month, and if you still want to bid, this auction is another goldmine.

Winning in penny auction is a hard game but if you know techniques to outwit your opponents, auction becomes a fun game. I, at first, failed successively in various sites. After nearly a year I became a winner in many auctions and I had huge success from Tripleclickssay, around 10 auctions and mostly electronics. 

I attempted reviews, tips, strategies, forums, social media's, and word of mouth details in order to empower myself as a winner in auction. Learned few in each. E-book is the best tool I found at last to make me win strategically. I bought a few books and the top books which I recommend are:

             Win Online Auctions With Less Bids

                     How To Win Penny Auctions

                       Win Online Auctions

                    Auction Income Guide+ Bonus

Sometimes I see penny auction not as fun. People sometimes don't behave appropriately. I see they are in the game to lose money deliberately. The reason is very simple. They do not want to be a "loser". At times, to revenge their opponents. Even if the product isn't worth the bidding amount (sometimes exceeds the real value) or if they already have a pile of stocks at their home, they won't consider the spending. Instead their focus is on their pride and showing their winning "power".

When you sense such behaviors you better opt out of the show. 


Avoid "buy it now". Sites like QuiBids and E-Bay have this option where bidders can buy it at retail price. You will be shelling out a few bucks but to be a disgruntled bidder, for, they sunk too deep to pull out and so they have to see it through. Specially, do not go in for high-competitive or non-competitive sites. You will never win in such sites.

Analyze the psychological factor of other bidders while bidding.

Some manual bidders aren't bidding on every single one of the outbids. We can be sure that there are many other bidders in between. Perhaps they are multi-tasking at the moment and hence they miss their chance which in turn is advantageous for you.

Some others place bids when price hits a mark,usually when just one second is left. We can infer that they automate bidding process.

I have seen few others bid just to test if they can win or not. These passers-by don't stand up to the last, and they'll leave the game as soon as they find more competitors.

Note down all bidders type. Save on your bidding fees by simply not doing any actions initially. Is it possible? Yes. Passers-by and multi-taskers will soon bankrupt these automated bidders. Don't bid on an item that cost more than retail price as few auto bidders have more funds than anticipated.

Allow yourself bidding moderately. The way you bid should show other manual bidders that you are keen on winning the product and you are on display highest bidder title once in a while. This will have a psychological effect upon them that they think somebody is more serious than them. Similarly, passers-by too will quit soon after if they find prices are further moving up and auction isn't dying.

Some bidders actively bid on several items and soon end up draining their cash quickly, and start playing one or two in hands. You can thus eliminate the incapable bidders in the process and focus only on bidders who are aiming your item and see their bidding pattern.

When you see manual bidders switch to automated bidding it is a good sign that they're not interested. Now you have real advantage to know the real players competing.

Low value items, say, Flip Camcorder normally have less number of bidders and so a better winning chance. Hence if you win several of these low price items, which normally have 80-90 % off the retail price, you can resell it locally for a profit. I am doing this personally and I use this profit to gain more bids to target high value products, like a MacBook Air. By this strategy you can lower your risks of insufficient funds though it seems to be tedious.

It is better to leave an auction after a few bids placed instead of overpaying for the item in the end.

I bid at 3 A.M, in wee hours so that there is less competitionI will aim for only the item which I should win and do not go in for multiple items. Do not switch multiple sites. Pay your attention to only best, BBB accredited, established, safe site. I chose Tripleclicks for this reason. Never rush immediately after your stuff. Normally, I find "most sought-after" items will be auctioned for a number of times repeatedly. Observe site and its bidders style. Learn the average price for items you want. Thus you can use it for auto bid to set maximum price for the item.

Tripleclicks has various styles of auctions. It's own PriceBender penny auction as well as auctions from other retailers. 


  • Junior auction for those with 9 wins or less
  • U - no limit on wins
  • NAB - No auto-bidder auction
  • DP - Double member reward points
  • LAST - last chance and no additional auctions
  • NEW - new items recently added
  • WBF - Winner receives all their bids after completion
  • 1WA - those who have never won auction before

                         
              
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       
                                                         Grace Digital Wi-Fi Internet Radio
                                                                              Retails For: $78.00
                    
Current Price:
 $6.78 
SAVE 91%!
                                  
                                           
                                                                                                                                          

BID NOW  OR  SEE PRODUCT DETAILS                          
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* plus cost of bids, if any  



                         
                             
 For Your Do's and Don'ts in Pricebender Penny Auction
                                            

The above techniques can increase your chance of winning auctions next time. Please Stick to a site and with my techniques tell me your story of success here.

                                


          
               My advance Happy Bidding next time



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