The Wild West of Penny Auctions

22474383_8df07ca60f_oWow, can you believe it’s almost the end of 2014 already?!

This recent comment from one of our members really brought back memories.

Zero writes, “I used to enjoy going to Rockybid, six jax or jacks, its been so long I forgot how it was spelled, and in the early days zoozle. Glad to see this site is still up and running though. PAW was and probably still is the best outlet to discuss penny auctions, as well as share good and bad penny auctions sites. In the very early days it was like the wild west, there were limited ratings on sites and many were so new that there was no consumer reports or fraud data this was the main place I would turn to as a watchdog.”

Well, thank you! I truly appreciate your comments and the trip back down memory lane! Gosh, for those of you who still check this site from time-to-time it’s always fun to hear from you! And – oh, zoozle!

Anyone else remember zoozle?! I remember talking to Craig about zoozle back then, back in 2009 when penny auctions were just beginning and back then it really was the “wild west” of penny auctions. I think I remember he told me he found out about penny auctions from Estonia. From a press release back then…

“Zoozle.com opens bidding to their European-style, online penny auctions and points out shady competitors. Zoozle’s goal is to bring the fun reverse auctions, found in Europe, home to America — in an honest and fair way. “If people bid right in a fair environment, like Zoozle, they can find bargains at over 90% off on TV’s, laptops, cameras, video games, watches, and more.”

“Zoozle.com auctions are strictly for United States residents only. Craig Pratka also states, “Zoozle is a fair and honest company, and tries to keep it simple. Users like honesty and a clean website.”

I remember Zoozle – many Penny Auction Watch members loved Zoozle and won tons of items…. But that was 2009, and now it’s 2014… 5 years have come and gone and it’s crazy to think about, really.

Ah, the nostalgia.

And the Wild West.

Yes, it really was like the wild west back then… Hard to think about and highlight all that went on and developed in the penny auction industry over the years, but since I’m reflecting, check out just a few of the happenings and drama that occurred by going to the Hall of Shame section.

Countless sites paid phony actors on Fiverr.com to make fake reviews, and we busted many of them.

Countless others threatened me and hacked, even DDoS attacked this site.

pennyauctionwatch ddos Oh, the drama!

To think that my experiment of setting up a blog just to share my first penny auction experiences would have turned in to this… Penny auctions are still around, just they’re not as plentiful.

Many sites had internal shill bidders. Companies bid against users who paid for bids to get more money. Many didn’t even ship one item. Some even admitted to it as in the classic case of vuulu and found it amusing. Amusing? I find nothing amusing about stealing from bidders and offering items you never even plan on delivering.

From a chat conversation with a penny auction owner back in 2009:

mike:  because things will sell to people you dont want things to sell bots act as a reserve so items never sell you get money, and dont sell products

me   ohh i see nice i bet u can mae a lot doing that?

mike:  ohhh you thought products ell

sell*

lol

mike:  products never sell, you just get cash and they bid on products that you dont sell

 

Shameful…

You know, if you are still bidding and still reading this please let me know. Please continue to post the sites that you find that seem shady and we will continue to educate and point them out.

 

Join us in the Penny Auction Watch forum and discuss penny auctions or reminisce with us!

 

Photo by puukibeach CC attribution.

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1 comment… add one
  • John December 23, 2014, 4:21 pm

    So far I have tried (in order of how I liked them) HappyBidDay, DealDash, Quibids, and Beezid.

    I think, for me atleast, the key is to not think of it as shopping at Walmart but rather going to the casino. I am not a consistent bidder on any of these sites. Occasionally, I get the itch and I scratch…..

    Just out of curiosity how many penny auctions are you (anyone who reads this) a member of?

    Reply

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