Firstly, players are to pay a certain specified amount to purchase bids. The amount is non-refundable. The auctions are then purchased with the help of these bids. Each time the same process is repeated. For each usage of bid on an auction the cost of the particular item increases by a fixed amount. This in turn also leads to extension of the deadline for that particular auction. It also gives a chance to the competing player to place or reform his/her bid in a way extending the auction. The game can be considered to be like a brinksmanship game. Brinksmanship is a strategy that involves pressuring the opposition to walk back through creation of deadly or disaster situations without the actual implementation of the attributes associated with that situation.

Thus with each and every bid, the cost of the item decreases. The player with the last bid wins that particular item or reward.

Once the auction is finished, the auctioneer collects the final amount that is the sum of the actual cost of the item and the amount spend on bids by the players.

Online auctions:

Penny auctions are now also available online. A number of good sites have appeared in the recent years offering such type of auctions. The items kept for auction are mostly consumer electronics like cameras, mp3 players, laptops etc. The cost of bids ranges from 10-25 cents (USD). With each bid the time of the auction increases by 10-15 seconds and the price by 1-2 cents (USD).

The main features that these bidding sites provide are:

  • Automatic bidding wherein bots provided by these auction sites bid on the player’s behalf. They bid up to a maximum value.

  • Bid on Bids in which packs of bid are themselves kept for bidding.

  • Discounts on bids for purchasing larger number of the same.

  • Rookie auctions: These are for those players who have not won any auction. It guarantees that the player is made to bid with those who have themselves not one any auction before so as to make each player win at least one auction.

Risks involved:

The main risk associated with online penny auction is that it is mostly assumed to be a regular auction. Users or players with less knowledge of auctions may therefore apply poor judgment while making bids. The site makers themselves make the users easy target by intermixing normal or authorized ads with the unauthorized ones. Also the legality of this auction provides the sites to get out of such matters easily. Thus adequate knowledge of bidding should be acquired before doing the same.

The penny auction is a relatively new development in the online marketplace. Essentially a penny auction site relies upon a system of bidding that allows the customer to typically pick up high value items for a low spend. In the past there were many critics of the penny auction system; early pioneers were accused of putting profits ahead of customers, simply making promises that could not be kept.

Today however there is a new school of penny auction sites entering the marketplace. Perhaps a response to early criticisms of the system, these new sites have developed a host of different mechanisms to make penny auctions simpler and a better deal for the bidders.

Auction Sites Online