The following article is a guest contribution that was originally published in our forum yesterday by Jeremiah of BargainsandFun.com.
Long long ago in a far far away place….. oh wait that’s another story
I have recently started looking back over the past 3 or so years that I have been involved in this industry. The things that were then and the things that are now. The different tides of the penny auction world so-to-speak.
Back when I started in Penny Auctions (as a bidder) there was always this feeling of enjoyment that I had when I was bidding. Wondering who the other person was at the other end of the auction who I was bidding against. Wondering if they were getting as much enjoyment out of my bidding as I was or if they were only there for the item and took no enjoyment in the nerve racking last seconds of an auction. Of course back then there were very few sites that you could bid on and it actually took work to find them because sites like PAW did not exist at that time (or you didn’t know they existed). (PAW launched in May of 2009). I would stay up till 4 or 5 in the AM bidding on auctions, going from site to site (with the few sites I found) and spending sometimes large amounts of money just “playing the game”. I would join and leave auctions on a whim, I would bid whenever I wanted on whatever I wanted (within my win limits of course). If I had a problem with a site I would contact the site and talk to them about it. I didn’t know any other bidders and they didn’t know me. I would win some, I would lose some, I would learn new things – BUT MOST OF ALL – I had fun.
Today’s Penny Auction World is a much different place than it was then. If I were a noob coming into the world of Penny Auctions today I would surely find my way out. There is more drama than a soap opera and in most cases it is not as entertaining. Yes there are a few moments that you can have a very entertaining read on one of the many forums within this community of ours, but more and more it has become a somewhat hostile environment.
A prime example of this is “tagging”. It seems that many users believe that once they have tagged an auction it is THEIRS and anyone else should find something else to bid on because they tagged it. While tag and defend is a perfectly acceptable strategy and should be accepted by all, the mere fact that you hit the bid button before someone else did doesn’t entitle you to that win/item. It simply means that your interested in it and will go for it when the auction ticks down into it’s final minutes. More and more it has been the way of the land that if someone steps on your tag you immediately go to the nearest forum or blog and chastise that user for doing exactly what they are supposed to do BID. We need to stop this type of activity, spend more time having fun and less time worrying about someone bidding on an auction that you think you own. Because until the auction says ENDED it doesn’t belong to you.
Another prime example of this and one that is really frustrating to read about is the blatant use of the term JUMPER. Just like the “tag and defend” method that many users employ, jumping is a strategy. Even if you don’t like it – there is nothing wrong with it. It is the same as building a reputation so that no-one bids against you in the future. If you are that worried about jumpers then rather than chastising them in the forums or other places, why don’t you simply find sites where JUMPERS don’t affect you. Sites that have a subscription based service like hog-it-up don’t have a per-bid fee. This means even if a jumper does show up it doesn’t cost you anything and since your bidding is free it becomes more a test of endurance than a test of your wallet. Another option would be looking for sites that are BIN, this way if you do get jumped you can at least get the item for the retail price. Yet another option is to find sites that go to a closed group type of format – while you don’t always know when it will go to a closed group format and prevent jumpers, you have a better chance of not being jumped than if you bid on sites that don’t have it. The final option of course would be to go to reserve sites where there is no timer after the auction ends (such as speedyfinger) where the reserve price closes the auction and if you hit the reserve you win.
The drama and stress that all of these things cause to all of us on an every day basis can have long lasting health effects on us, our bodies, and our families. Not to mention that they can have a horrible impact on our social life and our wallets!
It seems that this entire industry has gone from a FUN experience to that of a PROFIT experience. Many users have started making a living off of their wins and look at anyone else that bids as cutting into their profit margin. This is why in the penny auction world doing a referral is something that rarely happens – many people look at it as if they refer a friend that friend will bid and could possibly cost them a few bucks. We need to get out of this mentality and go back to the roots of the penny auction industry and start having fun again. There are many opportunities out there for free bidding, subscription sites, and reserve sites. All of which have different fun aspects they can offer. All of which ship items and all of which have been around for a while!
We need to get back to the “Entertainment” aspect of Entertainment Shopping!
Discuss this in our forum!
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Anthony April 30, 2012, 4:54 am
Great read
hats off to Jeremiah
He seems to have cut close to the bone of what’s been eating away at the auctions and most importantly the people that participate in them.
I hope that this is a phase for the PA world like with any growing up. The concept matures and becomes more acceptable by new audiences that might not have the “historic” back ground of the old timers but still want to have fun.
I think penny auctions should direct their attention towards further gamification, provide more ways that a bidder can get some feedback on his progress tell him that he’s doing fine, that he’s noticed that he’s part of a community that’s not all that hostile.
Afif May 2, 2012, 5:12 am
We completely agree, we looked around at the market and discovered penny auctions were becoming boring. So we decided to do something about it.
Introducing BidShowroom’s Right Price, the auction doesn’t close when it gets to 0 it closes when a certain price is met on the auction and the timer reaches 0. It creates a mystery amongst bidders some even winning by placing just one bid on an auction.
We have an amazing referral scheme that allows users to benefit by bringing in their friends, we ship all winnings within 48 hours using Amazon and we are constantly evolving based on user feedback.
We want to make penny auctions more fun again, take it back to its roots where auctions weren’t going on for ages, people aren’t just placing a huge amount of bids across every time on a site, going back to some more strategic and fun bidding style, and we hope that we have done that with BidShowroom
Alex May 4, 2012, 1:52 pm
Not sure that subscription or buying seats with free bidding to unconsciousness after makes auction more entertaining. Gamification – yes, I agree.
Berniesbiz2 November 12, 2012, 6:07 pm
I honestly haven’t noticed this cut-throat attitude in the auction bid programs. However, I haven’t been stepping over to the forums either. I guess I’ll have to take a peek in some forums to see if this is really going on. But Jeremiah’s article was still a good read.