Studies on Penny Auctions

October 29, 2009

If you want to study bid-fee/penny auctions, lowest unique bid auctions and game theory a bit more in depth here are a few scholarly papers that we’ve come across: Penny Auctions Toomas Hinnosaar Department of Economics, Northwest- ern University, (Department of Economics, Northwestern University) (October 15, 2009) Slides Pay-As-You-Go: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis of a [...]

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Beware of Phishing Attempts

October 18, 2009

Beware of phishing/spoof E-mail attempts. One of our readers just told us that he received an e-mail from someone pretending to be Swoopo, he says that the e-mail wasn’t even sent to the address he used when registering. We have also heard that this has been happening with fake e-mails from people posing to be [...]

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The Psychology of Scams

September 27, 2009

We already know that there are con artists at work utilizing the entertainment shopping phenomenon to profit. With this in mind, you may be interested in reading this fascinating study on the psychology of con games.”The psychology of scams: Provoking and committing errors of judgement” was prepared for the UK Office of Fair Trading by [...]

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Penny Auctions a Mix of Game Theory and Psychology

September 26, 2009

Winning penny auctions have a lot to do with game theory and intimidation tactics. In fact the whole concept behind bid-fee auctions comes from economist Martin Shubik and his colleagues, John Nash, Lloyd Shapley, and Melvin Hausner’s “dollar auction.” What’s a dollar auction? Read this excerpt from William Poundstone’s Prisoner’s Dilemma: “In 1950, Shubik, John [...]

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Don’t Play Defensively

September 24, 2009

By: Stephen R. Smith (AnCapMan) No doubt you have read manuals and other types of studies on penny auctions. I did too! I paid for all of them when I first stumbled on Swoopo, a site I no longer play on. These manuals and advice sites always say the same thing; bid at the last [...]

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How to Record Penny Auctions

September 8, 2009

How to video record penny auctions.

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Is There an Effective Strategy to Winning Penny Auctions?

September 1, 2009

Here’s what  user tracie_n_AnCapMan in our forum has to say: Very Simple – Win it at all costs, any other strategy is mathematically unsound. Yes that is oversimplified, but You must be willing to lose big to guarantee the win. What causes the win? a few things, the aforementioned Volunteers Dilemma is a large cause [...]

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Look Out for Software Glitches

August 25, 2009

A member of the PAW Forum & customer of BidRay wrote to tell us that they won an auction multiple times, yet never really won it. The camera is a 2 minute interval auction the timer went to 0 for 1 full minute and then another bidder bid and the auction continued – screen shots [...]

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Do a Price Check!

August 24, 2009

A user in the forum just added this useful bit of advice for penny auction bidders so we thought we’d remind you. Thanks Murano! So many sites have an MSRP listed that is way above what you could actual buy it for. There’s nothing wrong with an auction site listing the MSRP as they see [...]

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Penny Auction Forum

August 13, 2009

Have you joined the Penny Auction Forum yet? If not, what are you waiting for! Join today it’s free. Our forum is a place for users to Review penny auction sites (Did you receive your items? How easy was it to win?) Find new ones Talk about problems you’ve had with fraudulent penny auctions Share [...]

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Know when to quit

June 23, 2009

Once you get bidding on a penny auction you don’t know for certain when you will win the item, or if you will even get it for a low price.  Over on GoBid there’s a Samsung Pink Netbook auction going  on since last night. It’s $399.98 right now on Amazon, one particular bidder has been [...]

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Read before you bid on penny auctions

June 21, 2009

When you find a new penny auction site be sure to read all terms & conditions and look everything over carefully before bidding. Be on the look out for: Cost and terms of shipping, is this even disclosed? Terms of payment: Paypal, check, money order, major credit card. Purchase: If you have to pay the [...]

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Penny Auction Pitfalls

June 19, 2009

Is that little shiny BID button calling your name on every item? Want to see your name on top so badly that you can’t stop clicking it even after you’ve just spent $100 for that $25 McDonald’s gift card? At least you’ll know you won’t go hungry when all that’s left are food gift cards [...]

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Bid Throttling to Stay on Top

June 17, 2009

Bid Throttling: The strategy where a bidder constantly hits the bid button as soon as a competing bid is placed. Take Note: On some penny auctions this is against the terms of service. Be sure to read all rules pertaining to the penny auction site you are registering for before you purchase bids and play. [...]

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The Bid-to-Win Psychological Bullying Strategy to Winning Penny Auctions

June 16, 2009

Penny auction users are using their user names, bidding patterns and auction site forum postings on lesser known penny auction sites to their advantage. We noticed that this was happening over on YottaBid. Yotta Bid, in an effort to establish credibility and show transparency, has a forum where bidders can interact with each other. In [...]

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Timing Great Bargains

June 14, 2009

There are great deals to be had on penny auction sites but it’s all about timing and who and how many bidders you are bidding against. Sometimes you can luck out and get a deal by only placing as few as 1 bid on an auction. A few minutes ago a children’s ATV auction ended [...]

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Know the True Value of an Item Before you Bid

June 14, 2009

Be sure you know what you are bidding on before you risk your bids that you paid hard earned money for. Some penny auction sites will put an MSRP price for an item which may actually cost way more than what you can buy the item for in the open market. Before you bid research [...]

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