Are Penny Auctions Legit?

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83turbomon

Starvin Like Marvin...
Joined
Aug 9, 2009
Messages
3,704
I was thinking of buying an Ipod touch off of beezid.com or another penny auction. im not looking on spending alot of money and want a good deal without getting scammed..... ur take...
 
I buy off of ebay and gunbroker on no reserve auctions all the time. Usually no problem until you get a pissed off seller that he didn't get more for it but they are few and far in between though...
 
There are a few penny auctions on the internet. You can find out more on Youtube about them.

They are legit though, but they are pretty devious. Every time you bid, you bid one cent. That one cent costs you one dollar. Lets say the Ipod Touch ended at $2.50. Since each one cent bid costs a dollar, that is actually $250.00. Hopefully you didn't bid 250 times, or that would be stupid on your part. :biggrin:
Also it works on a stacking method, your one bid puts you on top. You just gotta hope that you can hold that top spot until the timer runs out. :P

Then I think they toss on that 2.50 price on top of your bids that you used.
So, you could just bid once and win. That would 2.50+the one bid(a dollar)=3.50 and probably have to pay for shipping too.

What makes them devious is, they don't really promote that one cent=one dollar part. So people stupidly bid like they are just spending a penny each time.
Also is there to say if the bidding stops when the counter counts down? Or do they float it along to make sure they don't lose money? Who knows.

Don't get me wrong. You can get great items for a low low cost.
How do they make money though?
Lets say that Ipod Touch ends at $12.00. Just add how much you bid and the shipping. A great buy!
Here is how they profit. $12.00x100=$1,200.00
Lets say this Ipod Touch costs $200.00. 1200-200=1000! They just made a grand off of one Ipod Touch just from the bids alone!. Minus a few other costs here and there and still just made big bank.

Is this wrong? Probably, I don't know. Does kind of screw out the retailers.
I am sure the site will give you the item, the last thing they wanna do it to scare people from bidding.

So.....it's up to you, if you wanna do it.
(Hopefully I didn't leave anything out)
 
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