gift cards

“We don’t want to be a carnival, we want to be Disneyland.”- Barry E. Shore, YouNeverLose.com

This afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting and speaking with the friendly guiding founder and co-founders of the exciting new, not your ordinary, penny auction site YouNeverLose.com at the Wynn Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

YouNeverLose.com came about from the idea of two brother-in-laws,  David Winner and Zak Klein found firsthand a problem with traditional penny auctions. Zak, armed with experience in small business and David, a US Air Force veteran. Being that both are fathers who enjoy shopping for deals online, they came across two of the larger penny auction sites and  tried their hands at bidding  only to find that they quickly lost hundreds of dollars. They told me that thanks in part to their wise wives they stopped bidding, and both David and Zak pondered on how they could really provide a better experience unlike what is currently being offered by the traditional penny auction. Zak and David, in turn, sought consul in their good friend and advisor Barry Shore and the three launched YouNeverLose.com.

Barry Shore not only had success in starting up and running four e-commerce businesses, and worked in the gift card industry for over 20 years, he really is a victorious man. He told me about how  he was a quadriplegic and could only turn his head just a few short years ago, now he is able to walk with the help of a cane. I am inspired by Barry’s zest for life and can tell that he is truly excited about their new startup.

After reviewing YouNeverLose.com and then speaking with Zak, David and Barry I will say I am very impressed by the approach they have taken to offering a site that really is revolutionary in the penny auction space. I really think it is brilliant just how YouNeverLose.com works, and I’ve seen and tried many penny auctions.

Instead of purchasing bids like you would on an ordinary penny auction site, on YouNeverLose.com users purchase gift cards reward cards at their value (i.e. $25 gift card for $25 – plus the cards are shipped free of charged), and then receive what are called rewards points to bid on their gift card auctions.

YouNeverLose.com’s current reward card offerings include Restaurant.com, AMC Theatres, a Costco membership, Payless, Brooks Brothers, 1800-Flowers, Banana Republic, Brooks Brothers, Bath & Body Works, Fannie May, Gap, Kmart, LL Bean, Land’s End, Mrs. Fields, NikeStore, Old Navy, Sears, and Staples.

So, say you purchase a $25 gift card to any one of the stores that YNL offers, for each $25 gift card you buy you will also receive 25 bids to bid on their auction items, which are currently a number of gift cards.

 YouNeverLose has created a truly win-win opportunity for consumers.

I’m not the only one that thinks so, right now YouNeverLose is  presenting at ShowStoppers CES here in Las Vegas. Unfortunately it was too late for me to gain press access since the show had reached capacity, but I wish them the very best in their presentation and everything that will come from it!

Instead of allowing winning bidders a chance to exchange a won item for a gift card (i.e. Amazon.com) or PayPal credit

Many penny auction sites have  allowed winning bidders to exchange a won item for a gift card, i.e. Amazon.com, or PayPal credit, YouNeverLose has gone a step further. If you try YouNeverLose.com out and if you win just one item in their auctions you will be ahead, because they don’t sell bids, only gift cards that include rewards points (bids).

Barry tells me they have exciting plans to add more merchant and higher value gift card auction.

How would you like to not only purchase gas and groceries, but receive bid points for chances to win even more gift cards? I know I would.

Barry told me about Walt Disney and carnivals in the 1920′s. Back then carnivals were dirty places where the carnival goers rubes were lured in by the carneys to spend their hard earned money on carnival games, only to leave with cheap stuffed animals. Walt Disney was concerned about this and came up with the concept of Disneyland. On asking me how I liked the design and concept of YNL, I think it’s real classy and very unique,  Barry said, “We don’t want to be a carnival, we want to be Disneyland.”

I will soon be uploading a short video that I just filmed of Barry, Zak and David so you can meet them too!

Have you bid on YouNeverLose.com? If so, come on over and tell others about your experience with them in our penny auction forum.

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