Monday 7 June 2010

4 and You’ve Found a Good Penny Auction Site

1) Plenty of closed auctions – A sure way to know how good a penny auction site is or if it is even real, is how many closed auctions they display. A good site will have a list of both the best deals grabbed by users as well as the most recently closed auctions. Look out for when an auction closed if a site has auctions closing regularly (at least 20 a day) then you know you’ve found a good site!
2) A great range of products – Another way to tell if I site is any good is the sort of products they offer. A good site will offer auctions such as Electricals, Vouchers for high street brands and bid packages. An auction site that offers mainly bid packages should be treated suspiciously.
3) A lot of results – Search the name of the website you have found in Google and see what results come up. Look out for links for forums, reviews, Wikipedia and social network sites such as Facebook. Read the reviews of others and join a forum or social networking site and see what other users think of the site.
4) Good press – Any established penny auction site will have good coverage from external sources. Look out on the company’s website for coverage from National Newspapers, TV Channels and Magazines.

Tuesday 1 June 2010

How to win online penny auctions

Penny auction sites are a great way to grab a bargain on top brand products. Unlike traditional auction sites such as ebay, penny auction sites are pay-to-bid but the savings you can make are fantastic. Here we lay out the top 5 tips on how to win on penny auction sites.
1. Learn about the site and its users
Take a look around the site and get a feel for the layout, take advantage of FAQ’s and watch how other users bid. You are most likely to win when you know who you are up against.
2. Get the right time and right product
There are often quieter times on penny auction sites such as breakfast time when many people are getting ready for work or the school run. Also at first bid on smaller products such as bid packages and vouchers to get a feel for the bidding process and you have a much greater chance of winning.
3. Get Free Bids
Some penny auction sites give users free bids upon registration and sites like MadBid.com reward users with loyalty schemes such as ‘claim your daily free bid’ where you can claim a free bid daily for up to 15 days when you purchase a bid package.
4. Make sure the site is genuine and secure
Sometimes penny auction sites can seem too good to be true and in some cases they are. Look out for sites that have secure payment systems such as C.O.M.O.D.O Authentic Secure. Also look out for sites that offer a ‘Buy Now’ feature on selected auctions as this reduces risks when bidding and gives you a back up plan.
5. Research the site
Search the site name on Google and look for articles about the company from trusted sources such as national newspaper, tv channels and user forums.

Penny auctions – Is it a scam?

Penny auction websites have recently grown in popularity and number and like many phenomenon’s for every good site there are 10 bad ones. Below we have listed the three things to watch out for when looking at penny auction sites and choosing a site to bid on.

Get in touch...

• First of all find out if and where the company is registered in the UK. If not steer well clear, look for a company registration number.
• Look for contact details such as phone numbers, e-mail addresses and a postal address. If a site does not have all of these then you could face problems in the near future. Not only does this show that it could be difficult to get hold of anyone but it raises questions as to where they are based.

Be Smart...

• Look for a bidding history on the site... If there isn’t one don’t sign up. A bidding history shows that others are using the site and allows you to figure out your competitors.
• Look for latest winners... Make sure there is a list of recent winners as this indicates that other people are winning auctions and helps give you an idea of what price a product tends to go for.
• Sign-up to a site which offers at least one free bid so that you can try before you buy and find out if penny auctions are for you.

Be Safe...

• As when you are shopping online it is important that you shop safely on penny auction sites.
• Look out for sites that accept payment via multiple methods such as PayPal, Debit Card, Credit Card and uKash.
• Look out for sites with accreditation such as Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode as well as McAfee Security. These logo’s are a sign of safety.