Penny Auctions

Not long ago, a new craze hit the Internet ...Penny Auctions. It came on the evening news ... "Can you really win an iPad for a penny? Yes ... You can. And we'll tell you how, right after this commercial ..."

So ... I watched the commercial like a good little consumer and then they told us all about the wonderful world of Penny Auctions. And within the next hour or so, I'd logged on, busted out the credit card and leapt into this new and wondrous world. I made the minimum investment ... about $15 if I remember correctly ... and I was on my way.

Now ... A while back, some people had me take a bunch of tests and they came away from it with the impression that my I.Q. was in the neighborhood of 174. I understand that is rather high. And, in the case of penny auctions, turns out, that comes in really handy. I started off with 25 bids. You buy bids, 25 for $15 in my case. Then you can use those bids to compete with other bidders to win ... more bids. Each time a new bid is placed, the price of the auction item (in this case a bid voucher for 100 bids) goes up 1 cent. So ... I decided to just watch the bidding and learn ... identify trends ... track the tendencies of the most active and successful bidders ... For two days I watched and learned. It was the weekend ... Sunday evening came after a Friday night and a good part of a rainy Saturday afternoon had been invested in gathering the data I needed. I actually built a spreadsheet to sort and interpret the data. I knew the average winning bid for any and all of the items I had an interest in acquiring along with who the bidders were who would rather lose their ass than lose an auction ... The mad dogs and the wimps ... push-overs and bullies ... bluffers and psychos ... I'd identified most of the major players and had their screen names on a list by category. And then ... I jumped in. And within a few hours, I'd accumulated about 500 bids worth of bid vouchers. I was kicking ass and taking names. I knew exactly when to swoop in on an auction ... when the bidders were just about ready to throw in the towel ... Which bidders would back off when bluffed ... etc....etc...etc.

The following evening I took my 500+ bids and went to war for some tangible goodies ... I got a set of walkie-talkies that worked over a 7 mile range, with a counter top charger and belt clips ... I got a color night vision monocular with carrying case and shoulder strap ... I got a Lenovo Mini Laptop Computer that converted into a friggen touch screen tablet PC! And just when I was ready to kick ass on an auction for this amazing digital camera ... I got a message saying I had reached my limit ... my winning limit ... I hadn't read the terms and conditions. Really ... Does anybody actually read those things? Anyway, they have a limit set for how much stuff any one bidder can win in a set period of time/days/weeks, etc. It pissed me off at first. I was on a ROLL after all. But, after a moment of thought, it made sense. It was ... fair. It was a way to limit the influence those more learned and experienced could have in the auctions. After a certain time, the big winners dropped off and the lesser bidders got a chance to win some stuff as well. It actually did a good job of leveling the playing field.

So there I was ... Lots of cool stuff in the mail being rushed to my front door ... I still had a few bids left in my bank and I'd still only invested $15. My experience with penny auctions had been remarkable ... awesome ... fun! And now that they had applied the figurative brakes on my race down the auction king highway, I had time to sit back and watch some more auctions ... Gather more data ...

A 25 bid voucher went for $1 ..... A 50 bid voucher went for $3 .... A 250 bid voucher went for $17!!!! Holy crap! How were these guys that ran the site making any money!?!?! Well ... Do the math. Each time the price of an item goes up a penny (All auctions start at a penny) that means someone expended a bid. A bid costs roughly 55 to 65 cents. Average=60 cents ... 0.6 dollars ... times 100=$60 ... for a 25 bid voucher. A 50 bid voucher for $3 translates to $180 worth of bids expended ... Follow the logic.

BUT ... I also saw ... in the wee hours of the morning ... 25 bid vouchers going for 8 cents. iPads going for two dollars and seventeen cents ... There are REAL opportunities to get incredible deals. But you have to do it the right way. The people who jump in too early on an auction will most likely run out of bids long before the auction ends, most of the time.

In the end, if you are a winner in penny auctions, you can win HUGE. If you don't know what you're doing, you can lose your ass and have nothing to show for it. I personally had an awesome experience. But I also bore witness to a ton of people being crushed and left by the wayside. Their experience was obviously not as enjoyable as mine.

My advice? Give it a try. But keep your initial investment in bid credits low until you know if you suck at it or not. Do your research. Be patient. Watch out for the bullies and psychos and mad dogs and most of all, do it for FUN. If you get a bunch of stuff, great. If not, chalk your $15 up as an entertainment expense and move on.

Thanx for spending a little time with me.
I appreciate it.
Billy