I beleive I come across pennyauction.com.sg site from facebook. Out of curiorsity I check out the site. And also doing some research on related sites as well. I found pennyauction.com.my
So one from Singapore and the other from Malaysia (based on the domain name).
But the interesting thing is, the same products and bidders appear on the 2 sites. I am just wondering, does this mean that we are bidding against 2 countries. Maybe more, who know :P
I further search around and discover that this type of sites are quite popular now (or maybe much earlier).
They are call penny auction. Basically as a bidder, you need to spend some money (say $1) to bid. For every bid, the bid price will increase by a penny (or cent or whatever you wanna call it). Bidders will continue until no one is bidding. And the winner will then have to pay for the bid price + shipping fee.
Frankly, the whole model look great to me, not as a bidder but a site owner :P
Say you list up a popular product that retail price is at $2
(so assume that, typically people will stop biding at around $1)
Bid# - Bid $ Spend - Bid at $
------------------
1 - $1 - $0.01
2 - $2 - $0.02
3 - $2 - $0.03
10 - $10 - $0.10
....
100 - $100 - $1.00
Do you see the trend? For a $2 dollar product, and if the winning bid is $1, the site owner will profit about $100 - $2 + $1 = $99.
That's is a lot of profit margin for 1 sale, earn $99 from a $2 product !!!
Even if the winning bid is at $0.10, the profit is already $10 - $2 + $1 = $9.00
Now imagine that this is a $1000 product.
Of course, you might be saying, still have supporting cost to run the business. Or course it will, which busines does not? But will they get should a high profit margin?
Personally, base of the research that I have found and digested, you might get "lucky" when not many people are bidding. Which will be quite unlikely if the site is popular. Beside, I wonder if the whole process is monitored. It is quite easy to trick in these type of sytem/software. By the way, I am not saying that all these sites are tricking. What I am trying to say it that, from technically stand point, if the whole process is not transparent, who know if the winner bidder is "real"?
Personally, I will not bid on these type of sites. But is up to you. Who know, you might be lucky :P
If I have a choice, I would rather start up a site for you to bid :) Supporter need :P
You can learn more about penny auction at:
http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/
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hey hey! :) i just stumbled on the pennyauction site from facebook too and was just abt to sign up when i stopped to look for reviews first.. and urs just hits the right notes, man! hahaha... i was thinking.. there must be something here that i've not yet put my finger on and that is...the lack of transparency of it all and how'd u know if ur bids really go thru or not.. anyways, thanks for this post of urs.. helped me think it through :D
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome :P
ReplyDeleteActually, even if the site is not popular, it will still be impossible to get the item.
ReplyDeleteThis is from a real experiences from a auction site just few days ago. A penny auction was held for a coach bag.
i spent $225 on 600++ bids to bid for a coach bag which they wrote it to be retail at $500! however, after 600++ bids is used, i am still unable to get the items.
In total, including me there is only 5 bidders!
During the bidding, there is usually one me and one other bidder who is bidding.
I thought that since there is only 2 of us bidding, the auction will end pretty quick.
But, No.
The one bidder will be 'fighting' with me for a period of time until he/she finished up his/her bids and as though it was pre-arranged, the next bidder will come in to continue the 'fight' with me.
It happens quite a few times, either one of the other 4 bidders came in always when the bidder that was bidding with me had run out of bids and i am the last bidder and the timer is about to reach 0.
I decided to stop buying bids after $225 is threw in and yet when i finished up all my bids, there is no one to continue the bidding with the last bidder who bidded with me.
It seems so suspicious don't you think?
And i then went to search online for the price of the bag, and i realised the bag could be bought at $200+ or maybe even cheaper if i search for more shop.
Overal experience, money wasted, times wasted.
Don't bid on penny auction. It is defintely not worth it!
Ps: hope you understand what i am trying to say?
I definitely understand what you mean :P
ReplyDeleteAs I mention - "It is quite easy to trick in these type of sytem/software" if the owner is not honest.
As for the site in question I have won an item already but will have to wait and see if I receive. Important fact about pennyauction.com they are currently using an outside payment processor and I have received foreign exchange fees on purchases. They are aware of this and said they are looking into it however no mention of what they plan to do to compensate me. Their listings are fewer now with longer ending times so I do not think this site is going to be around much longer. Bidders beware.
ReplyDeletefor your info. HK also bid for same item
ReplyDelete