How to win penny auctions – Sure-Fire Tips and Tricks

Penny auctions literally mean auctions for pennies, i.e. auctions that are general low priced and offer the best value for money. The concept is ingenious if you come to think of it. A normal auction site will list up items for sale and the users are supposed to bid at the items with a price that they deem fit enough to win the auction. In a normal auction, the item goes to the highest bidder and in most cases the bids are private. So, the only way a bidder can know the price of a winning bid is intuition.

Penny auction sites on the other hand operate with a completely different set of rules. The penny auction site will list up the items and the bidders will have to buy bids from the auction site. These auction sites work on a 15 second timer and the last bidder to bid is the winner. But the caveat is that each time a bid is made, the counter is reset to 15 seconds and the bid is increased by 1 cent. In this manner the bid prices starts rising penny by penny and eventually the item gets sold at a significantly higher price than the original listed price. Still, there is every possible chance of you winning the auction, if you work out your entire strategy before going in to the auction.

Top tips to win a penny auction comfortably

Choose the right penny auction site:

One common trait to auction sites is the lower the number of bidders, the higher the chances of winning a bid at a lower price. The concept of competition applies to penny auctions as well. The larger the user base of a penny auction site, the higher the competition and subsequently, auctions end at considerably higher bids. It is of utmost importance to choose a penny auction site with moderate to low user base. One of the best options currently is Beezid. Fact of the matter is, they are running a promotion at this time, and you can get some free bids to warm your hands before you go berserk. For more information on how to win penny auctions and for penny auctions reviews make sure you visit Penny Auction Police.

Internet connection plays a major role

Penny auctions demand impeccable timing from the bidders. There is every chance of you losing an auction if you are late by just a couple of seconds. Make sure that you have a minimum of 256 kbps connection to start your bidding journey with. You want your bids to be registered instantly and without any latency. A significantly higher speed connection does not give you that much of an advantage, but a lower than 256 kbps connection will surely work to your disadvantage. Click here to check your internet connection.

Be smart about choosing your username

Now this might seem like a moot point, but you would be surprised to know how human perception can work to your advantage. Instead of picking up mundane usernames like your name or the city you live in, choose something that is likely to have some kind of impact on the other bidders. You can either go the “sly fox” way or the “mighty hulk” way.

Sly Fox 

Choose a username that might get the other bidders to think that the auction has ended or has been put on hold or the item has been sold. A username like Deal ended, Closed auction, Auction on hold, Terminated, Finished etc. might have other bidders think that the auction is beyond their reach now.

Mighty Hulk 

Like every other game, confidence plays a big role in penny auctions too. Human psychology plays an important role in the chances of someone winning or losing. The chances of a confident user winning the auction are obviated in comparison to those of an intimidated user. 

Choose a username like The Winner, The One, Auction king, Smart bidder, Power bidder etc. to show your mighty demeanour to other bidders. In this 15 second game, this might just prove to be the deciding factor.

Reconnaissance is of utmost importance

The key to winning anything depends on the level of your preparation. Without a plan and strategy, you might as well giveaway the money to everyone as charity. So before you start firing your guns, do a proper recon of the users in the penny auction site/board. You might want to be aware of the big sharks in the game and identify the big time bidders. Keep the power bidders in close hindsight and take notice of their usual moves. The power bidders wield a lot of leverage in terms of bidding for items. With them being identified, follow the three golden rules:

• Always bid on a single auction at a time and make sure that the count of participating bidders does not cross 3, inclusive of you.

• Never bid on the first row. If you want to avoid long drawn auctions, this rule has to be followed at all costs. Usually these auctions are hogged by the power bidders and unless you want to run in with them, it is better to avoid these. You would be surprised to know that many would purchase an item that outdoes it retail values by a mile, just for the fun of it. Most of the times, it is the power bidders. Avoid like the plague! 

• The time that I have spent researching and winning penny auctions has proved that the sweet spot lies between the $2.20 and $30 price range. You might want to follow this rule like an unspoken decree.

Tried and tested strategies

The Mighty hulk strategy 

Intimidation works big time, Period. If you can induce some kind of an “I got no chance” feeling in other bidders, you have won the battle. The usual strategy is to place bids in the final moments or when the counter is just about to hit zero. Although this might seem like the logical step in winning auction items at a lower price, we can approach this game from a completely different angle. Remember the only competition you got is the other bidders active on your penny auction item. If you give them a feeling that you are going to get the item no matter what the price, they will leave the auction soon enough. 

You do so by placing bids as soon as a higher bid is placed. Do not wait for the timer to count down, just do it. This will convince the other bidders to believe that you are a power bidder and you are going to get the item on sale at all costs! If you are in for the long haul, do not stop at just purchasing the smallest bid package. Get that “Bids placed” score up in the leagues of the power bidders.

The dawdling tortoise strategy   

The following is almost a sure shot way of winning Bid package penny auctions. In this, all you need to have is some patience and the chances of you winning them will touch almost 100%. The people bidding on these Bid Package auctions are generally those that are almost left with no bids. So the golden rule to not lose anything on these auctions is this – Divide the number of bids that you currently have by 3 and only spend that much amount of bids in these Bid Package auctions. Considering that the other bidders are almost out on bids, there is every chance of you winning the auction. 

The key to participating in these auctions is timing. When you have a healthy number of bids in your backyard, dividing them by 3 will leave you a greater number of bids, sufficient enough to win them from other people that have almost no bids left. Also, start bidding only after at least 50 other bids have taken place. With a sneaky username, as outlined in the Sly Fox trick, you even have a greater chance of grabbing these low competition bidding packages.