15 Cent Auction

Just what is a penny auction?

A penny auction is an auction where bidders pay-per-bid for an item and the time increases with each bid. The winning bidder is the bidder whoever is the last to bid when the timer counts down to 0 seconds. Not all auction websites are the same so make sure you read the rules carefully. Some auctions require you to also pay for the final amount showing for the item. For example if each bid raises the auction cost by $0.01 an auction that ends at $5.98 would mean there were 598 bids placed on that item. If the winning bidder were to place 74 bids on the item they would pay for each bid placed in addition to the final cost plus shipping.

Editor’s personal experience: I had some success with my first penny auction site. I won a few nice items at low prices, with some of my best being a Garmin GPS for $5, $50 Starbucks gift card for $0.80, a KitchenAid Mixer for $7. I have also spent more too, sometimes even over the value of the item and other times spending money and getting no items at all. These auctions can become very addictive, so be wise!

I didn’t know that there were so many penny auction websites until I did some investigating I found quite a few. Some are even auctioning off items such as cars, Michael Jackson concert tickets, gift cards, dvds, iPods, vacation packages, designer handbags, and other popular items.

Beware of shills, bots & scam auctions!

I have come across a few penny auction sites that appear to be doing business fraudulently by using shills: Penny auction employees/owners/friends that act as bidders to attract more bidders to the auction, and bid bots. A bid bot is a program that bids on many items or the same item over and over again. In order to obtain enough money to pay for the auction item so that the dishonest penny auction company makes a profit from all bidders then either releases the item to a real bidder in an effort to legitimize their penny auction site and reel more bidders in. Some auctions may even steal your money and not even ship you the item that you won.

PennyAuctionWatch℠ was created with the bargain seeking, cautious bidder in mind. Feel free to share your experiences with other bidders in the forum so that others can be warned of the fraudulent penny auctions as well as the legit, safe sites.

Thanks for visiting!

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