Friday 16 October 2009

HOW TO BEAT ONLINE AUCTIONS – THE DANGERS OF BINGE BIDDING

Online auctions like MadBid.com and Swoopo.com require nerves of steel and a clear head. So be smart, don’t mix bidding and boozing.

There was a time when coming home late from the pub meant a slice of cheese on toast and the last 20 minutes of a black and white horror film. A weekly ritual that had us waking up on the sofa at 4am with ITV’s nightscreen, half a cup of cold tea and a crick in the neck for company.

Nowadays, post pub entertainment is significantly more sophisticated. We can terrorise the neighbours with a quick blast of Guitar Hero or get online and test our Pro Evo skills against a kid in China. Digital TV means no more nightscreen. Even in the wee hours there will be something still showing – and not just a 40-year-old offering starring Christopher Lee.

And of course, there’s the internet. Information, entertainment and stimulation the likes of which our parents could only dream of. There’s something on the worldwide web to cater for every taste. No matter how eclectic you think you are, there is probably already a Facebook group for your chosen passion.

But beware. The internet can be an expensive place when whiskey and beer – not to mention shooters of brightly-coloured goo – are clouding your judgment. Take online auctions for example. To pick up a brand new iPhone, a home entertainment system, a bundle of cash or even a car for a fraction of the ticket price, you need to have your wits about you.

If you were fighting in the trenches, you would have got a shot of rum to calm your nerves before charging a line of machine gun positions armed with a rifle and a big coat. And if you hit the rum before a late night online auction session you too could become cannon fodder – albeit metaphorically rather than literally.

Boozed-up post-pub amateurs are like the lame wildebeests of the online auction world. They thrash about in a haze of liquor-induced bravado, blowing their precious bids and missing out on the biggest savings.

Our lions – the practised, experienced bidders - are biding their time. Calm, collected – and sober – they pick off their drunken rivals, landing the top prizes and laughing all the way to the front page of the MadBid website. Our wildebeests wake up – prizeless and penniless - wishing they had passed out on the sofa.

Saturday 3 October 2009

HOW TO WIN ONLINE AUCTIONS – BID MORE, TALK LESS

Recently, I surfed various online auction forums on the lookout for some top tips from successful players. I was hoping for an insight into what makes the best bidders tick. What are their secrets? What I can learn to improve my chances of winning online auctions and taking home an iPhone or a home cinema system for a fraction of its value?

What I found instead was that online auction regulars prefer a spot of verbal jousting to talking tactics. Players boasted about the number of bids they had stored up and how they were ready to crush the opposition and land the most sought-after items.

"You were doomed from the start," one confident MadBid winner gloated to his unsuccessful peers.

Like Aussie fielders sledging a lone English batsman, the online auction community likes a bit of banter, as players try to fray the nerves of opposing bidders. For some online auction fans, this is no doubt part of the fun.

But others prefer to keep their eyes on the prize. These online auction punters are of the ilk that believes ignoring the digs and focussing on improving your own game hold the key to success. These cooler customers choose to devote their full attention to what really matters - live online auctions – rather than the background noise.

Instead of slamming their opponents with their chat room wit, I recommend online auction fans let their bids do the talking. Building a reputation as a high roller – a player who sticks with the bidding as the price continues to rise – can often be enough to influence the outcome of a popular auction.

Online auction success is about timing and nerve. Some of the most successful players at MadBid, for example, put the huge savings they’ve made on everything from cash to cars down to picking the right moment to bid. To claim the most hotly-contested online auctions, they also need to be bold, and hold their nerve as the price tag goes up. Each bid on a MadBid auction may only increase the selling price by a penny, but it will keep going until a winner emerges.

If you think you’ve got what it takes, leave the banter to the amateurs and get bidding!!

On a separate note I think online auction sites like Swoopo, MadBid and BidandClick should allow its users to interact in a community. Customer churn rate reduces when customers interact at a social level and they are more loyal towards sites. Only MadBid has commentary from customers but most of the information I found was from forums.