Penny Auction Winning Tips

To excel on penny auction sites like Quibids, HappyBidDay, BidRivals, Bid66, Pointnbid and more you need a little bit of luck and strategy. You won't necessarily win your first auction. Penny auctions take some practice. Don't waste a bid on an auction when it has several hours left on the timer. Most bidders wait to bid in the last 5 minutes of the auction. Watch other auctions on the online auction site before you bid on an auction. Take note of the following:
1.) Ending auction price of previous auctions
2.) Number of people bidding
3.) Amount of auctions
4.) Time in your time zone and others

When taking note of the ending auction price of previous auctions look at the recently won auction page. Most penny auctions have a page that displays recently ended auctions. If you have an eye on a particular item see if it is on a winners page and how much the item sold for.  Lets say you are looking to bid on a iPhone. If the iPhone recently was won for $2.35 don't start bidding until the auction is at least $1.50. This will save you some bids.

You can also roughly determine the amount of people on the online auction site if it is a small site. Most sites have about 10 auctions running at a time. Click on each auction and you can see the amount of people bidding. You can take note of the people on the site during different periods of the day. Determine what time of the day there is the least amount of people. The less competition the more likely you are to win. Most penny auction sites have less people from 2 am - 10 am. But also take note of other time zones. 7 pm in the east coast is only 4 pm on the west coast.

What is the best time to bid on penny auctions?

The best time to bid on a penny auction is a time when there is the least competition. The less people on the site, the greater your chance to win because there is less competition in each auction. With less competition your chances of winning greatly increase but this still does not mean that you will be guaranteed to win. You should use personal logic and research to determine the best time to bid on a penny auction site. Penny auction strategies have a large influence in your winning odds. Read about my penny auction tips and strategies at my previous blog post on Quibids.

To know when is the best time to play you must first understand that there is not necessarily a perfect time to bid. However, below are some great tips on when the best time to play is:

• Play when people are commuting to work. Most people are getting ready for work and commuting between 6:00 am - 8:00 am. This is a great time to play as there is less penny auction competition.
• Don't play between 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm. This is when traffic on penny auction sites is the greatest. People are just coming home from work and have free time to play.
• Pay attention to time zones and your competition's location. Sites like Pointnbid are located in Australia and most of their customers are located there. BidRivals is global but mostly in Europe. Quibids is in Oklahoma and most of their bidders are in the United States.

 After determining the best time, analyze the site that you choose to bid on. Keep in mind these three factors:

• The number of products currently up for auction
• The number of popular items (TVs, Laptops, iPads) up for auction
• The number of bidders currently online

My last tip has nothing to do with time but more with strategy. One way to get ahead of your competition is through more bids. The more bids you place the higher the likelihood that you would win.  Take advantage of coupon codes and discounted bids. The penny auction site, HappyBidDay, often has promotions for discounted or free bids. They also give all new customers 50 free bids at registration. Another great place to buy cheap online penny auction bids is Penny Auction Coupon and Penny Auction Promo.

The Ins and Outs of Quibids - How to Win on Quibids

Below is an article that I read on businessinsider.com. It is on How to Win at Quibids.com. It is very interesting. Let me know your thoughts on this:

One of the biggest penny auction sites in the news today is QuiBids, an online auctioneer that charges $0.60 for each bid—and I'm not talking winning bids—I'm talking every bid. Personally, I would stay away from this site, but if you have the time to learn the game and come out on top, you may just get some good deals.

This article isn't meant to condone QuiBids. In fact, it's more of an advisory how-to to show you everything that goes into bidding on the site. If you think you can actually win some of these auctions, then by all means, give it a try. But for most of you, this will just reassure your doubts of success.

What is QuiBids Exactly?

QuiBids.com is an online penny auction site. But at first read, this statement is deceiving. You might think that you pay a penny to make a bid on any particular auction item. But it's quite the opposite. You actually pay $0.60 for each bid you make, only being able to up the current bid for the auction item by one "penny". Actually, the bid amounts vary in either 1, 2, 5, 10 or 20 cent increments each, where 5 cents is the norm.

But before explaining in further detail, let's check out QuiBids' own video on how it works.

Sounds interesting, right? Let's dissect their 4 steps and see what's really going on.

Step 1 Purchase Bids

To begin, the video states that you need to buy your bids in Bid Packs. There's five options to choose from: 40 bids for $24.00, 75 bids for $45.00, 300 bids for $180.00, 600 bids for $360.00, and 800 bids for $480.00.

Usually, the more you're willing the pay, the less the actual per bid amount, but in this case, if you do the math, you'd find that they all cost a flat 60 cents per bid. If you were hoping for some sort of deal right away—there is none.

But wait...

If you're new to QuiBids, these five options don't apply. You're forced to purchase a Starter Bid Pack with 100 bids for $60.00. You cannot bypass this. If you don't buy this, you can't start bidding. And as you can see in the picture to the right, they've already begun with some deceptive phrasing, i.e. Where do We Send your Winnings?, when technically you've won nothing. This is a required purchase.

Beginner's Auctions

Next, you're highly encourage to start bidding in a Beginner's Auction, which you can only do once, that consists of more Bid Packs. You then start using your purchased bids to try and get another Bid Pack. If you happen to win it, great—but there's more work to be done.

Claiming Your "Prize"

Once you win this Bid Pack voucher, it doesn't automatically apply to your account. You need to "claim your prize"—which is odd, because it's not a prize, right? A prize is something you get for nothing, not something you purchase.

Anyways, to claim your "prize", you need to pay the amount you actually won the Bid Pack for, which could be anything. Remember, the amount of bids you made have already been deducted from your Bids Account, so you've already spent money to win the auction. Now you need to pay the amount you won it for—and that's not all—you also need to pay a $1.99 transaction fee.

So, if took you 20 bids to win a 25 Bid Pack, then it seems like you are up 5 bids. But, you won the auction for $2.23, bringing your total up to $14.23 for 25 bids that would normally cost $15.00. Now, tack on the transaction fee of $1.99 and you've just paid $16.22 for something worth $15.00. Quite a deal, huh?

And this is just the beginning, which is meant to get you comfortable in the bidding process. I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable yet.

Not Claiming Your "Prize"

Something to be warned about—if you're one of those many users who did not know they had to claim the "prize", then you might just lose it. You have a week to claim the auction you've won, and if you don't, everything you spent will be forfeited and you're officially screwed.

Step 2 Find an Auction and Bid

In the video, they use a Nintendo Wii as an example of an actual (not beginner) auction. You can see the bid price, the time remaining and the bidding history.

Bidding and Timing

For new auctions, the price starts at zero. Each time a user makes a bid, the price for the auction goes up by 1, 2, 5, 10 or 20 cents, which is predetermined by QuiBids. You CANNOT choose your increment. Each time a user bids on the item, the clock gets reset, with a maximum of 20 seconds, so other users have a chance to bid.

Quote from the video: "Each time a bid is placed, the auction price will go up in increments of 1, 5, 10 or 20 cents. This increment is always shown at the top left of the product image. If there isn't one, it will automatically go up in 5-cent increments."

Now, as you can see in the video, there's a 2 cent bid appearing in the top left of the product image, which in fact is allowed. I'd say this immediately shows the unprofessionalism of QuiBids—someone I would not trust my money with. But I may be reading too much into this.

Winning

If you're currently the highest bidder, and no one else bids by the time the clock reaches zero, then you've just won the auction. In the video example, you see that someone just won the Nintendo Wii for $17.95, using 8 bids for $4.80. The Wii itself costs $239.99, so that's a whopping savings of $217.24. Awesome! Next you pay the shipping charge, in this case it's $9.50, which still saves you $207.74. Though they claim these kinds of deals happen for 80% of their users, from what I can tell, it's the exact opposite, with only 20% actually getting this steals.

The Actual Cost

In actuality, if you're committed to winning the auction, but there's also at least two others committed, you've got yourself a pretty good bidding war. Let's say three users want an Xbox 360 worth $300.00 and each are committed to winning the auction for $200.00. Each of them uses about $120.00 in bids to win it at $200.00, but only one can win. So, two people have lost $120.00 each, while the other is forced to pay $120.00 for bids + $200.00 for the final auction price + $12 in shipping, which equals out to well above the original $300.00 price tag. And they probably weren't the only ones bidding, which means QuiBids probably made over $400 from bids just for hosting the auction. However, QuiBids claim they take a loss on around 50% of the auctions run each day.

Step 3 Check Out

This is the only part of the video that seems to be legitimate. You pay all the above costs with your credit card and fill out your shipping information. Easy enough.

Step 4 Lose an Auction, Buy It Now

If you really wanted to purchase the product, but lost the auction, then you have one chance left—Buy It Now.

Settling
If you lose, you can opt to buy the product anyway, for the full retail value minus the cost of bids you've already placed. Let's use the video's Wii example again. You've placed 200 bids worth $120.00 but lost the Wii. You can buy it at $200.00...um...wait, wasn't it $239.99 before? It was. Another editing goof? Or a way to make the final purchase price lesser and more enticing?
Okay, you buy it at $200.00 minus your $120.00 in bids, which equals a remaining cost of $80.00. Not quite an auction steal, but at least you're not throwing a $120.00 away. But don't forget about shipping costs!

steal, but at least you're not throwing a $120.00 away. But don't forget about shipping costs!
Hidden Costs

Something they don't tell you about in the video (nor explicitly state on their site) is that it only credits bids purchased fully with credit cards. If you won a Beginner's Auction for a Bid Pack, those bids have absolutely ZERO retail value in this aspect of the game, making the actual cost of the Wii higher. So, lets say that out of $120.00 in bids, $25.00 were "voucher bids", you would only be able to deduct $95.00 from the actual retail price, meaning you would pay $105.00 more plus shipping in handling.

Contradiction Admitted

In the QuiBids blog, they try to make users aware that they should use the Buy It Now, so as not to waste their money. But in the process, they contradict themselves compared to the statements made in the video that 80% of users get great deals.

"If you are unsuccessful in winning an item, you can still apply any of the bids that you have used towards that item and still buy it for a price that is comparable to what you would pay at a local retailer. It is a fun and risk-free way to do your holiday shopping. However, many customers don’t ever consider using the “Buy it Now” feature. Instead, they are interested in spending $20 trying to win a $1500 Apple Macbook. Although it is possible for someone to win the Apple Macbook with $20 in bids, it’s highly unlikely. This is an unrealistic expectation that certain customers have. We encourage everyone to set a realistic expectation of how much time and financial investment is necessary to win a big ticket item."
Is It a Scam?

If the above information didn't turn you off, then maybe you'll listen to others and save your money. Many users end up winning nothing but debt, calling it a scam. Some believe it's a pyramid scheme. Others believe it's rigged. And the rest of us just don't care to even risk it.

Artful Deception?

At first glance, it seems that QuiBids.com is related to Amazon.com, thanks to their logo in the top left of the website, which is different than their older logo in the video. Now, QuiBids has absolutely zero relations with Amazon, which makes this an attempt at legitimizing their illegitimate business model. We're you fooled?

Live Agents or Live Robots?
Another thing you'll notice is if you haven't purchased any Bid Packs yet and you try to close the page. Instead of simply letting you close the page, they prompt you to talk to a "Live Agent" about last minute savings. No matter what you want to do, you're forced to press OK to go to a second prompt, where you can either stay on the page and chat with Rachel, the "Live Agent" or leave.

If you actually want to talk to Rachel, you'd find that she not really a "Live Agent", but more of a "Robot Agent" meant to sucker you into buying the Bids Pack. Here's an example from a discussion with new user George:

If these aren't reasons enough to stay away, and you think you still have a good shot at winning some auctions for cheap, here's a few tips for you...
Tips for Winning

• Be committed. If you're not committed, there's nothing to stop you from leaving the auction and trying to bid on something else. In that case, you're just throwing money away.
• Go into the auction prepared to pay at least the full retail price. If you're not and you lose the auction, you either threw money away or need to buy it for the full retail cost. If you think you have an excellent shot at winning the auction, than be prepared to pay no less than 75% of the retail cost. It's highly unlikely you'd save any more than 25% on the item.
• Always wait until the last second to bid. Why bid when there's 20 seconds left when you can bid at 1 second? The idea is to not waste your bids and to keep the clock down as low as possible, that way there's less time for others to make bids.
• Use the Bid-O-Matic—or better yet, don't. There is a Bid-O-Matic tool which does all your bidding for you, literally. But you should stay far, far away from this, unless you're trying to bully someone into submission. But if that's the case and it doesn't work, you've just lost all of your bids and potentially the auction.
• Don't compete against Bid-O-Matic bidders. If you notice someone has lightning fast speed at topping your bid, then they're probably using this tool. Wait until you notice this user's winning bids to disappear, meaning they lost all their money and need to reset the tool.
• Make sure the auction is a "penny" auction. Why pay 2, 5, 10 or 20 cents per bid when you can pay 1 cent?
• There's plenty more tips available for winning on QuiBids, but my advice is to just stay away. If you can't help yourself, check out this article for more help on winning, or visit the QuiBids 101 blog. Also note that, surprisingly, the Better Business Bureau has giving the Oklahoma City QuiBids a rating of A-, so maybe it's not that bad.

If you do end up using QuiBids, be warned that it's highly addictive, because it's just like gambling. Think lottery tickets, slots, horse racing—it's all the same thing—gambling.

What is Quibids? What is a Penny Auction?

What is Quibids? Quibids is one of the largest penny auction sites in the US. To understand Quibids you must first understand penny auctions.

I am going to first explain what a penny auction is. Most of you are familiar with a traditional auction. An auctioneer will lead the auction starting at a specified price and the person to bid the highest price on the auction wins. Penny auctions are similar to a traditional auction, where items are purchased through a bidding system. A penny auction is an online auction where bidders make bids in increments of one cent with every bid raising the price of the item by just one cent. Unlike traditional online auctions, bidders must pay for bids or bid packs. At Quibids each bid is $0.60 each and are sold in incremental bid packs. To view Quibids prices click here. Also unlike traditional auctions, penny auctions are timed. The last person to place a bid is determined the winner of the auction. The timed auction concept is very similar to the online auction model of eBay. However, unlike eBay, online penny auction sites increase the auction time with each bid placed. Penny auctions are unique to online auctions like eBay, in the price of a penny auction starts at $0.

Why shop online penny auctions like Quibids? Many people are attracted to penny auctions because of the tremendous savings they offer on brand new products. Penny auction sites offer electronics, computers, household items, gift cards, toys, tools, jewelry, event tickets and more at rates as low as 5% the retail price. It is not atypical to see people win auctions on penny auction sites for as little as one penny. Much like a traditional auction, there is a possibility of another bidder bidding on the same item that you are. However, this is the thrill of the online auction game. You can view my Quibids Strategy tips by clicking here. Many people are attracted to penny auctions for the thrill they receive during the bidding process. Penny auctions have an advantage over other auction sites like eBay because all items are brand new and from a trusted source. Quibids sells hundreds of brand new items every day including electronics, computers, tools, toys, home goods, fashion items, gift cards and more.

To read my 5 step process on how to participate in penny auctions please click here.

To contact Quibids click here.

How to Win on Quibids

If you haven't checked it out yet, I would definitely recommend the Quibids 101 section on Quibids.com. This is a very informative FAQ section for Quibids.com customers or any penny auction lover. Quibids even features special Quibids strategies for winning penny auctions on their site. I think Quibids is the best penny auction site. To read my review on Quibids.com please click HERE.

Below is Quibid's very own strategies on how to win on Quibids.

Source: Quibids.com

So how do you up your chances of winning an auction?  As we have researched and examined thousands of auctions that have been conducted on QuiBids, we have learned several things that can increase a person’s chance of winning an auction.  The first main thing that we have learned is:

The QuiBids customers that win the most auctions are the ones who spend the most bids in their pursuit of winning.

Most people’s first question after learning this is, “How are they able to confidently spend so many bids?  Isn’t it possible that they will just lose all that money?”  The answer to this question is actually fairly simple and it is related to the second main thing we have learned about winning an auction.

The QuiBids' customers that have the most success are the ones that are willing to exercise the “Buy it Now” feature if they do not win the auction.

The customers who are the most successful at QuiBids are the ones who pick out products that they would be willing to pay full retail price for.  Then they bid on those items for a chance to win them far below retail price.  As a result of their willingness to go all the way they usually have a very high chance of actually winning the item.

The QuiBids customers that have the least success are the ones that have unrealistic goals and are unwilling to pay more than a small fraction of the actual retail cost of an item in bids.

Even if you are unsuccessful in winning an item, you can still apply any of the bids that you have used towards that item and still buy it for a price that is comparable to what you would pay at a local retailer.  It is a fun and risk-free way to do your holiday shopping.  However, many customers don’t ever consider using the “Buy it Now” feature.  Instead, they are interested in spending $20 trying to win a $1500 Apple Macbook.  Although it is possible for someone to win the Apple Macbook with $20 in bids, it’s highly unlikely.  This is an unrealistic expectation that certain customers have.  We encourage everyone to set a realistic expectation of how much time and financial investment is necessary to win a big ticket item.

To Recap

• Pick out the items that you would like to purchase for yourself or give as gifts
• Set some personal goals for how many bids and how much time you are willing to invest in an auction
• If you fail to win the auction, exercise the Buy it Now feature and purchase the item at value price