Penny Auction REVIEWS – Which Penny Auctions are the BEST Bargains?

Do You Know the Warning Signs of Fraud? This question is posed by UPS in one of the company’s latest publications. The reason for the warning is a increase of complaints to UPS by irate customers claiming items they paid for or won were never received. UPS then proceeded to inform consumers of their 8 fraud warning signs, and information on how to not be a victim. Below is a copy of the warning signs of fraud and scams listed by UPS, in effort to curb the dishonestly and deceit.

1-If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Always remain aware of how much you are spending on a item. Always be sure that the final price is not more then you would have payed at a local retail store..

2-Puts pressure on potential customers by telling you to act quickly- Is the site stating that they can only do certain deals if you move quickly?

3-Promises extremely high merchandise, for mere pocket change. it should be noted that you cannot always win an item for less than retail.

4-Requires an upfront financial obligation from you. There are some sites that do not and have satisfied customers, meaning their users have won and received items. Do your homework.

5-Buyers want you to to send them the difference and overpay you for an item. This is a common scam which mostly happened on Craigslist not penny auctions, but be careful.

6-Does not give the impression of a legitimate business. Be vigilant of everything and find out if they have a legit business name, address? What are their privacy policies, terms & conditions? Research. Investigate, put their address in Google, map it out. Go to the Secretary of State’s office website in the state the site is said to be located in and look to see if they’re even a registered company. Check their Alexa ranking, if the number is large that means their traffic is pretty low and you see a lot of bidders and winners they may not be a totally honest site.

7-Guarantees success. Are they guaranteeing you will win? because no person is guaranteed to be the winner, and if so they can not call themselves a fair site.

8-Something just doesn’t feel right. Go with your gut instinct when it comes to spending your money. It will usually lead you to the right decision.

If you believe that you’ve been a victim of fraud or just want to find out more about your consumer rights, visit ftc.gov or call the FTC’s (Federal Trade Commission – the nation’s consumer protection agency), toll-free number 1-800-FTC-HELP

We have recently noticed that most penny auction web sites have instituted chat features and Facebook Connect these days. We think this creates a problem, as evidenced by what we saw on our forum. Penny auction members can take advantage of private messaging functions and e-mail to cheat and coordinate with each other on the penny auctions. Everyday penny auction sites are adding chat functions & connecting to Facebook, Myspace, and users’ full names and details are being displayed. We have informed these sites that this is not the wisest of choices. A report of ex-forum members conspiring were even made evident in a popular chat room. Some penny auction bidders have been found creating Facebook profiles with their auction names. Many users are continuing to complain that they’re receiving suspicious e-mails and/or invitations to collude on popular sites by way of Facebook. Below are just some of the forum user’s copied messages from random people trying to collaborate on a daily basis.

“Alright, I think you’re a pretty fast bidder, but i’m tired of battling you on this site and losing my bids – as I am sure you don’t like losing bids as well. Can we make a deal? When I see you trying to win something I won’t challenge you; and you do the same for me. What d’ya say?”-anonymous bidder

“I have been going back and forth all day with you, why don’t we chat to find out if we can help each other win. Would you want to?”-anonymous bidder

With these incidents becoming more transparent and complaints more frequent, many penny auction site will be monitoring their users activity more closely. Any sign of teaming up or coordinating in auctions is strictly prohibited, and will always result in a member ban.

A ground breaking investigation questioning the credibility of the BBB was just brought to light on November 12th on ABC’s 20/20, click the following link to watch the segment: Better Business Bureau Probe.

The investigation and report clearly shows how the LA BBB allegedly gave a racist group an A+ rating, and a fake group labeled “Hamas” an A-. The Boston BBB even gave an F rating to the Ritz Carlton which happened to have only 2 complaints. The report alleges that the BBB takes illegal payments to raise ratings and is more concerned about making money than ensuring business credibility. After many complaints this investigation brought stunning evidence of how the BBB manipulates business’s credibility rating for financial gain. Just because the members are accredited does not always mean that they have been audited or pay taxes. It certainly calls for more public awareness when it comes to dealing with dishonest business’s and websites.

Website: www.PonGow.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Domain Registered: January 2010


Auction Type: Penny Auction
PAI Member Rating:

(27 votes, average: 2.37 out of 5)
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PonGow.com is a new penny auction that features reserve auctions and a host of other features — all in an attempt to make penny auctions fairer and more transparent to bidders. PonGow’s owners apparently want to legitimize the heavily-criticized penny auction model by introducing more expensive items to bidders, whilst providing them with a fair shot at winning auctions.

After studying the business model for more than half a year, PonGow’s owners have refined and streamlined the concept, presenting in a way that’s never been seen before.

Unlike other reserved-based penny auctions, PonGow.com rewards early bidders or those who place bids before the auction reaches its “PonGow Price,” with twice the number of bids they used below the auction’s reserve price, regardless of whether or not they won the auction.

For a new penny auction, PonGow offers a variety of impressive items. For women, the site carries handbags, shoes, jewelry and other luxury goods; for men, the site has electronics and luxury watches; last but not least is the children’s selection, made up of kids’ items and furniture.

PonGow has deigned their business model in such a way that 3 people win the auction when it ends. First you have the last bidder who gets to purchase the item for its auction ending price. Then you the 2 runners-up, who get to receive the equivalent of 10% and 5% of the auctioned item’s MSRP in bids.

Website: www.TheCheapBid.com
Oneandone
Private Registration
1&1 Internet, Inc.
+1.8772064254
Chesterbrook, PA
United States

Domain Registered: June 2010


Auction Type: Penny Auction
PAI Member Rating:

(3 votes, average: 1.00 out of 5)
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Though it styles itself as a penny auction that sells cheap bids, TheCheapBid.com doesn’t have the most competitive bid prices—that title still belong to For10Cents.com. This new penny auction site is a low-profile player in the industry, and might be an ideal PA for novice bidders to get their feet wet.

From what we see on the landing page, it’s pretty obvious that the owners of The Cheap Bid are hands-on when it comes to running the site. They’ve come up with numerous seasonal promotions and gimmicks to entice people to sign up—for Halloween, TheCheapBid has spruced up their site with special Halloween images. They’ve also added a few holiday perks for bidders, such as mystery auctions and more.

If you’re looking to bid on big-ticket prizes, then you’ll have to go somewhere else. Prizes on the TheCheapBid.com are made up primarily of low-value items, including gift cards, Blu-Ray movies, video games, relatively affordable consumer electronics and more. Though don’t be surprised if you see a major auction taking place every now and then.

As far as feedback goes, The Cheap Bid is an enigma. The only useful bit of information we found is that the site uses the popular PennyAuctionSoft script that’s mostly found on other new penny auctions.

Try them out yourself and see how it goes.

If you’re thinking about bidding on BidRay.com, or want to know how penny auctions work in general, then this video should be a great way of letting you know the facts. Is BidRay really a scam? You decide.

Website: www.BidBlink.com
BidBlink Inc.
+1.4158817321 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              +1.4158817321      end_of_the_skype_highlighting Fax
1072 S De Anza Blvd #A107-343
San Jose, California 95129
United States

Domain Registered: June 2009


Auction Type: Penny Auction
PAI Member Rating:

(3 votes, average: 2.33 out of 5)
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While BidBlink.com makes use of the same penny auction model found on most PA sites, BidBlink has added a design feature that essentially lessens the sting of losing and using numerous bids to no effect.

Bidding on BidBlink still works the same way as in other penny auctions—you place a bid, and the item’s price increases by a penny. When the auction reaches the 45-second mark, any further bids placed automatically extends the auction by another 15 seconds—this is to prevent last minute bidders from “stealing” items.

Like any conventional auction, the final person to place a bid before the timer counts down to zero wins, pays the final price of the item, plus shipping. For those that lost the auction however, things aren’t quite over just yet.

BidBlink prides itself for being an online entertainment shopping venue, and shopping is exactly what you can do on this site. Auctions on the site feature a ‘Buy Now’ option, which lets losing bidders spend the bids they used on an auction to purchase the item at a discount.

In short, bidders can either win an item at a great deal, or pay the retail price for it.

Because of BidBlink’s popularity, winning on the site can be very hard, especially when it comes to the hot auctions. If you’re a novice, then it’s best for you to stick with the gift cards and other smaller prizes.

Website: www.eUNIBID.com
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
Phone: (480) 624-2599
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States

Domain Registered: April 2010


Auction Type: Penny Auction
PAI Member Rating:

(7 votes, average: 2.71 out of 5)
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Going online earlier this year, eUNIBID.com is another penny auction that uses a tweaked version of the auction model commonly used by other PA sites.

Auctions on eUNIBID come with a maximum price for each item, which will differ depending on the item’s value and demand. Bidders can only bid up to the maximum price of an item, and bids must be placed in USD and pennies. For example, if the maximum price of an item is $99.99, you can bid anywhere between $1.00 and $99.99. Each auction has a minimum bid count and its own bid price that depends on the item up for sale.

Winning an auction on eUNIBID is where it gets tricky. Since the site uses a highest-bid auction model, the bidder that places the highest unique bid is the winner. However, “highest” only means the closest unique bid to the maximum price set for a particular item. “Unique” means that no one else has placed the exact same bid amount before you. If someone else places the same exact bid amount, your bid is then “burned,” which means you’ll have to bid once more to stay in the game.

Since eUNIBID is barely a few months old, there’s not much we can say about their service. Try them out if you’re feeling adventurous.

Website: www.BidRivals.com
Bidrivals Ltd
Johan Lofstrom
+356.21332657
Office 194, Suite A
Dolphin Court A, Embassy Way
Ta’ Xbiex
Malta

Domain Registered: March 2009


Auction Type: Penny Auction
PAI Member Rating:

(15 votes, average: 3.27 out of 5)
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Based in Malta with servers running in Finland, BidRivals.com is a popular penny auction that’s steadily forging ahead in the world of penny auctions. With a growing number of regular bidders, BidRivals features an impressive array of prizes, including the latest electronics (even the recently released 11.6 MacBook Air) and other luxury goods.

In addition, bidding on BidRivals is also open to more than 25 countries, making it one of the biggest penny auctions in the world.

However, because BidRivals caters to such a huge audience, the site sometimes suffers from occasional lags and speed problems—don’t be surprised if you experience lag issues when clicking the ‘bid’ button. Lately the site seems to have been undergoing numerous maintenance repairs, going offline to fix these issues. We can only assume that this has to do with numerous technical problems that plague BidRivals.

As its name suggests, the rivalry on this penny auction site is intense. One auction for an iPod Touch got as high as up to $67. With each bid costing $0.60, BidRivals made over $4,000 on one auction alone. If you’re a novice or someone who likes to take it easy with bids, this site may not be for you.

Website: www.GeekBids.com
HostMonster.Com INC
support@hostmonster.com
Phone: +1.8014948462
1958 South 950 East
Provo, Utah 84606
United States

Domain Registered: August 2010


Auction Type: Penny Auction
PAI Member Rating:

(3 votes, average: 2.67 out of 5)
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GeekBids.com is a low-profile player in the penny auction industry that opened in August this year, and is operated as a family business based in North Carolina. For a new auction site, GeekBids offer an impressive array of prizes, mainly specializing in consumer electronics such as iPods, laptops, Apple products, video game consoles, HDTVs and more.

Like all penny auctions, GeekBids promises to sell these items to bidders at a fraction of their retail cost. While this deal sounds tempting and all, be advised that we’ve yet to find any reviews about GeekBids, so if you’re thinking about signing up, do so at your own risk.

Bidding on GeekBids is pretty straightforward. Bids on the site are called GeekBucks, which cost $1.00 each and come sold in packs. Like most penny auctions, GeekBids also has an automatic bidding assistant (BidButler on most sites) called the Geek-Matic, which you can use to bid on an auction when you’re away from the computer.

Placing a bid on an auction increases the item by 1 cent, while resetting the auction timer by up to 20 seconds. As always, the last bidder to place a bid wins the auction, and gets to pay the last price of the item plus shipping.