Christmas can be a stressful time but online auctions can take the fuss out of the festivities.
Christmas is just a few days away and with snow on the ground and a nice little four-day break coming up, many of us will be full of festive cheer. But Christmas can also be a stressful time of year – and not just for SC and his over-worked midgets. Trekking across the country for family gatherings, elbowing your way through the crowds to buy the last of your gifts, deciding which celebrity chef really knows how to cook the turkey – it's enough to knock the stuffing out of you.
But of course, online auctions have the answer. You can land all manner of festive goodies for a tiny fraction of their retail value. From home entertainment systems to piles of cash, online auctions provide the ideal light relief to the Christmas headache. Here's our top five online auction Yule tide treats:
Tom Tom Go Live 950
Sat-navs are must-haves when it comes to visiting relatives for the big family Christmas. Nobody wants to get lost, especially when it's snowing and there's a massive feast and loads of presents waiting for you at the other end. Win yourself one of these bad boys on an online auction site like MadBid and you need not worry about swallowing your pride and for asking directions or arguing with your co-driver over how to read a map ever again.
iPhone 3Gs 32GB
Christmas stress? There's an app for that. Well, probably. You can find out for yourself if you pick up the best phone on the market for a fraction of its not-so-insignificant price tag. After spending all that money on presents for other people you deserve a treat. Don't leave it to Santa – reindeer sweaters can't find your nearest Indian restaurant or tell you if your shelves are level.
Nintendo Wii Bundle
After two weeks of eating for England, many of us will be looking down at a spare tyre come the start of January. Online auctions can help with that too. Online auction sites like MadBid regularly auction off Nintendo Wiis – the ultimate fitness gadget. Unlike other games consoles, you can't play Nintendo Wii sitting in a bean bag surrounded by food wrappers and empty cans of Red Bull. You've got to get out of your PJs and get moving. By the time you've smashed home a few winning forehands and beaten some cartoon bad guys to death with your bare hands it'll be like all that turkey and cake never happened.
Ultimate photography kit
Digital cameras are the perfect way to remember great Christmases - or at least provide a few laughs if Uncle Ted has too much eggnog. Don't be one of those tiresome cretins who know the pixel quality of their camera phones – do it like the professionals, with an actual camera. If you bid well, you could get one for literally pennies on an online auction site like MadBid.
Panasonic Microwave Oven
Once the big day is over, you'll be left with all manner of food and just a few days to get it eaten before you have to go back to work. From cold turkey to Christmas cake there'll be more grub than fridge space. A brand new microwave oven for a fraction of its retail value is just what you need to take the edge of a stale mince pie or warm up some leftover veg.
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
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.
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.
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.
Friday, 25 September 2009
PENNY TRADES AND ONLINE AUCTIONS: IT’S ALL ABOUT TACTICS
Timothy Sykes Timothy Sykes is someone I have been watching for a little while now.
Timothy trades stocks, but not any that you've heard of. He trades Penny Stocks to the tune of triple-digit returns.
Penny Stocks have traditionally been considered a risky investment because their low, low price means they’re prone to sharp swings in value. That’s “risky” before credit default swaps, collatorised debt obligations and mortgage backed securities gave new meaning to the word. While the world’s bankers have been licking their wounds, Timothy has been using Penny Stocks, his razor sharp wits and his Bar Mitzvah money to make himself a millionaire.
The concentration, attention to detail and guile required to make money from Penny Stocks should not be underestimated. Prices move fast and if you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose your stake quicker than you can say “taxpayer-funded stimulus package”. Timothy, though, does know what he’s doing - having turned $12,000 into a whopping $2,000,000 before he’d even graduated from university.
This kind of savvy reminds us of successful online auction punters like those over at MadBid who were so good the site’s boss had to introduce limits on the amount of times users could win: they were too good for the market.
Fortunately for Timothy, there are no limits to what he can make, and since November 2007 he is up 475 per cent. We’re yet to find our first online auction millionaire, but some of the more skilful players have picked up must-have gadgets, cars and cash for a fraction of their retail value.
Briefly, Timothy ran his own hedge fund, and from that experience he wrote a tell-all book – An American Hedge Fund - about the world of fast-paced trading. In it he has a cutting message for the financial establishment: "I would like to thank the thousands of inept corporate management teams … pump-and-dumpers, market manipulators...for your endless scheming and undying greed, without which my fortune would never have been possible."
So, what can online auction fans learn from Timothy, the Penny Stocks Millionaire? I think it’s to keep your eyes on the prize and to perfect your tactics. Who knows, perhaps you’ll be the next online auction aficionado to get a call from MadBid’s boss wanting to know your secret - it's happened before.
Timothy trades stocks, but not any that you've heard of. He trades Penny Stocks to the tune of triple-digit returns.
Penny Stocks have traditionally been considered a risky investment because their low, low price means they’re prone to sharp swings in value. That’s “risky” before credit default swaps, collatorised debt obligations and mortgage backed securities gave new meaning to the word. While the world’s bankers have been licking their wounds, Timothy has been using Penny Stocks, his razor sharp wits and his Bar Mitzvah money to make himself a millionaire.
The concentration, attention to detail and guile required to make money from Penny Stocks should not be underestimated. Prices move fast and if you don’t know what you’re doing you can lose your stake quicker than you can say “taxpayer-funded stimulus package”. Timothy, though, does know what he’s doing - having turned $12,000 into a whopping $2,000,000 before he’d even graduated from university.
This kind of savvy reminds us of successful online auction punters like those over at MadBid who were so good the site’s boss had to introduce limits on the amount of times users could win: they were too good for the market.
Fortunately for Timothy, there are no limits to what he can make, and since November 2007 he is up 475 per cent. We’re yet to find our first online auction millionaire, but some of the more skilful players have picked up must-have gadgets, cars and cash for a fraction of their retail value.
Briefly, Timothy ran his own hedge fund, and from that experience he wrote a tell-all book – An American Hedge Fund - about the world of fast-paced trading. In it he has a cutting message for the financial establishment: "I would like to thank the thousands of inept corporate management teams … pump-and-dumpers, market manipulators...for your endless scheming and undying greed, without which my fortune would never have been possible."
So, what can online auction fans learn from Timothy, the Penny Stocks Millionaire? I think it’s to keep your eyes on the prize and to perfect your tactics. Who knows, perhaps you’ll be the next online auction aficionado to get a call from MadBid’s boss wanting to know your secret - it's happened before.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Times - Got it wrong - Again!!
A quick note on how 'The Times Newspaper' has made a habit of getting it wrong. It didn't expose the MP's fraud that has marred the UK politics recently and it has always got it wrong about Penny auction concept.
A times article - Save Thousands on Auction Sites talks about new breed of sites where one can save up to 90%. It sent hundreds and thousands of unsuspecting customers to a game strategy site www.MadBid.com. I am sure many customers loved the concept (ones who were quick learners) but many were disappointed.
MadBid even though got a great coverage couldn't have benefited much because of high customer attrition rate, as most people who went to the website failed to win a bargain.
After BBC coverage on Penny Auction sites I thought 'The Times' would keep away from writing about Penny Auction concept and will leave this to bloggers and smart press. But NO ... like Brittney 'they did it again'. They wrote another article Ten Best Auction Websites and I quote an excerpt "MadBid may be better known, but at just 50p per bid Swoopo is more than twice as cheap." They got it wrong again!!
Funny enough Swoopo has at least 10 times* more customers than MadBid, mainly through Swoopo's mega online PR reach. MadBid is David in the David and Goliath battle for supremacy in the Penny auction arena. It’s not MadBid but Swoopo that is better known.
As for 50p one of my very learned German lawyer friends informed me the Swoopo is forced to keep the price at 50p because they are a German company and by law in Germany you cannot have a bid priced more than 50p in games which involve bidding or participation.
Also because of the liquidity on Swoopo it is very difficult to win on Swoopo. With millions of customers and thousands of them bidding at any one time on the 8-10 auctions running on Swoopo at anytime it’s very difficult to win. So I would say the 50p which seems so cheap in real terms is very costly when compared to the ease with which one can win auction on MadBid.
Note - Since I have no access to Swoopo and MadBid data I used Alexa ranking for MadBid.com and compared it with Alexa ranking for Swoopo.com, Swoopo.de, Swoopo.co.uk etc.
A times article - Save Thousands on Auction Sites talks about new breed of sites where one can save up to 90%. It sent hundreds and thousands of unsuspecting customers to a game strategy site www.MadBid.com. I am sure many customers loved the concept (ones who were quick learners) but many were disappointed.
MadBid even though got a great coverage couldn't have benefited much because of high customer attrition rate, as most people who went to the website failed to win a bargain.
After BBC coverage on Penny Auction sites I thought 'The Times' would keep away from writing about Penny Auction concept and will leave this to bloggers and smart press. But NO ... like Brittney 'they did it again'. They wrote another article Ten Best Auction Websites and I quote an excerpt "MadBid may be better known, but at just 50p per bid Swoopo is more than twice as cheap." They got it wrong again!!
Funny enough Swoopo has at least 10 times* more customers than MadBid, mainly through Swoopo's mega online PR reach. MadBid is David in the David and Goliath battle for supremacy in the Penny auction arena. It’s not MadBid but Swoopo that is better known.
As for 50p one of my very learned German lawyer friends informed me the Swoopo is forced to keep the price at 50p because they are a German company and by law in Germany you cannot have a bid priced more than 50p in games which involve bidding or participation.
Also because of the liquidity on Swoopo it is very difficult to win on Swoopo. With millions of customers and thousands of them bidding at any one time on the 8-10 auctions running on Swoopo at anytime it’s very difficult to win. So I would say the 50p which seems so cheap in real terms is very costly when compared to the ease with which one can win auction on MadBid.
Note - Since I have no access to Swoopo and MadBid data I used Alexa ranking for MadBid.com and compared it with Alexa ranking for Swoopo.com, Swoopo.de, Swoopo.co.uk etc.
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