The surge in penny auction sites over the past few years has attracted a number of followers who believe that with just a few cents and good timing they can win the jackpot of large cash prizes.  Penny auction sites rely on the slimmest of financial commitments — as the name suggests, one cent — to bids, which are used in an online auction.  Unlike popular auction sites such as eBay, however, penny auction sites charge for each bid in each auction rather than having a blanket fee for unlimited bids (and in the case of eBay, free bids).  To some penny auctions are a simple, entertaining past time, others consider it with a more lucrative and claim they can make considerable money or turn large profits from small bids.  Whatever your decision on online auctions, there are plenty of sites out there that pander to any and all audiences — so long as you have one cent to spend!

Perhaps the most popular online penny auction is Bidoncash.com.  This website has free registration and offers sample bidding tips to newcomers unfamiliar with the top online auction sites and their practices.  Bidoncash charges one cent per bid with an unlimited number of potential bids, so that a customer can spend as much as they want on any auction.  Bidoncash not only auctions cash prizes of fifty to one hundred dollars, but also bids themselves; selling fifty or one hundred bids for a starting price of just a few cents.  Thus, customers could potentially snag a large number of bids off a single auction, then in turn use them for cash auctions and drastically multiply their one cent investment.  As time runs out, the bidding becomes more frantic, so that the price of an auction can increase very quickly in the closing seconds, and the last person to register a bid takes all the marbles.  Bidoncash offers no payouts larger than one hundred dollars and requires specific website accounts for cash transfers; PayPal is not an accepted method of monetary transfers.

Many websites offer more enticing auctions than simple sums of cash.  Dealdash.com, for example, has the sort of items and products you might expect to find from an eBay listing but for rock bottom prices.  A new Xbox or Playstation game, for example, may cost only ten cents from the start.  For the duration of the auction, usually twenty four or forty eight hours, the price rarely, if ever, increases, as the product is almost guaranteed to have higher bids towards the closing seconds of the auction.  In this way, a lucky customer can bid on a high definition television that costs only ten dollars, but the catch is that nobody must trump their bid until the timer runs out.  If a bid is placed in the closing seconds, the timer resets to thirty seconds, allowing other customers to place bids.  As such, the price only increases in the final moments, but the lure of extremely cheap electronics and appliances are enough to keep customers purchasing shares.  Each bid costs five cents, and Dealdash allows customers to bid on bids themselves, so a five cent commitment can net fifty or one hundred bids.  Furthermore, a bid decreases the cost required for the buyout, so customers can outright purchase the item for a lower cost if they have previously bid upon it.

Some sites rely upon customer satisfaction and referrals.  Beezid.com claims to be the number one auction site on the internet due to their system of rewards for returning bidders.  Referring friends to sign up for an account nets ten free bids; a bid from a registered and referred friend can get you discounts or more free bids; friends can bid together to decrease the time bump after each bid.  Like Dealdash, Beezid resets timers after each bid, so that even in the closing moments of a deal, enough time is put back on the clock for more bidders to throw in their investment.  Beezid costs only one cent per bid, allowing staggering returns on investments, with $100 gift cards going for auction prices of only a few cents, and brand new Apple Powerbooks, a two thousand dollar computer, for several dollars at most.  Beezid offers plenty of advantages for their customers, giving better return rates for those who have not won an auction, real time auctioning without resetting timers, occasional free bids on full price items, and customized auction trackers for those who invest considerable time into the site.

Some websites go further than simple online pointing and clicking.  Bidhere.com allows users to send in their bids from text messages or smart phones (such as BlackBerry and iPhone models) and gives five free bids to new members.  Bidhere’s auctions actually start at zero dollars, and they have reported some cases of giving away free merchandise after only a one cent bid retained the order.  Bidhere has several types of auctions for personal preferences, with five, ten, and fifteen second trackers rather than the standard half minute for those who prefer faster rates of return.  Others have two cent bids, which slowly eliminate the timer.  An AutoMonkey bidder permits users to input bids automatically when the timer reaches zero, so that as long as they have the funds in electronic accounts available, they will stay in the running for the auction indefinitely.  Bid packs are sold in quantities up to twelve hundred, so that accounts can reach massive sizes and customers can bid on practically any product available on the website.  Auctions won can also be redeemed as the cash value in credits, so that high end computers or televisions can be turned into thousands of dollars worth of bids.

Bidcactus.com guarantees to sell only new merchandise and does not allow third party auctions, so that customers have a degree of familiarity with the site.  Bidcactus puts an upper limit on the number of auctions that users can win in the duration of one month, so that the website gives best odds to anyone attempting to win an auction.  Only eight auction wins are permitted in a one month span, so it’s not unusual to see a much lower number of bidders at Bidcactus, as they tend to place bids only in the opening span of their specific time line.  Multiple users can converge accounts, and bids are available in packs as large as several thousands.

Some websites have realized the frustration that losing auctions can cause to their customers and create incentive programs.  Bidzilla.com gives customers reward points for every bid that they place — regardless of winning or losing — so that they can redeem points for merchandise at the official store.  This method has helped Bidzilla become perhaps the most popular penny auction site on the internet, as they retain the overwhelming majority of their customers due to a friendly incentive system for placing more bets.

Internet penny auction sites are an entertaining way to have a chance at winning cash prizes or claiming auctions that cost only one percent of the retailing item.  Customers should be careful to play in moderation as always, and choose which site caters to their personal preferences of online formats and rewards best.

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