Web Cash

The idea of penny auction sites – like QuiBid – is enticing. I’m sure you’ve seen the ads… he bought an iPad for $5! What a savings!

Well, there’s another company on the scene – Bigger Bidder – with a similar business model. Bigger Bidder hosts penny auctions, just like QuiBid. People “bid” on stuff, just like they would on eBay, and each bid increases the price one penny. At the end, you pay for the final bid, you pay for the shipping, and you get the item.

So… How Does That Work?

Here’s how it works.

Bids are not free. Each bid costs you $0.68. When you place a bid, you use a bid… in other words, you just spent $0.68.

So let’s take an example (and yes, this is a real example from the website). On September 23, an auction ended for an Apple iPad 2. The final price was $15.09. Shipping was an additional $20.00.

The final bidder paid $35.09 out of pocket for a brand new iPad 2. Awesome! Right? Maybe.

Let’s say the winner placed one final bid and happened to win. That would be an awesome deal. But, if the price increased to $15.09, there were 1,509 bids placed. Let’s say the winner was bidding heavily for the last couple hours, and placed 100 bids. Well, then he spent $68 in bids alone. Still a good deal; around $100 with the final price and shipping.

How does Bigger Bidder make money? All the other bids. In this case, 1,509 bids x $0.68/bid = $1,026. That’s double the retail price of the item, so assuming they got some kind of wholesale price they made a nice profit on this. The trick (or luck) of it is to get in at the end of an auction. If you bid too early, you either invest a lot of money (and don’t save anything) or just end up giving up and wasting all your money.

Are There Deals to Be Had?

Most definitely. Somebody won an Apple TV for $0.02 + $15 shipping. Less than $20, for an item that costs $100 on Amazon? A Dell Inspiron laptop (retail $900) also went for $0.02.

I don’t quite understand the rhyme or reason behind these auctions ending so low. I guess it’s just plain dumb luck… but if you can get lucky, you can definitely get a good deal. It may also be that the user base is still relatively small, so there are auctions ending at weird times of the day where you won’t have competition. A larger site, like QuiBids, will have a more steady buying audience and thus more stable end prices.

The Best Part?

You can get free bids. Sign Up through this link and you can get 150 free bids.

You might not win anything… but at least you can try the site out without wasting your own money. Just think, that’s about $100 worth of bids. Isn’t it worth trying to snag some nice piece of electronics at a discount price? And if you lose, just keep on moving!