There has been a lot of noise about penny auctions, mostly on the internet, but also among groups of people that have used them. Penny auctions are a new, fun and exciting way to purchase brand new merchandise for insanely low prices. Some of the auctions have sold for less than one dollar, and we are not talking about useless items that you will never use. There are hundreds of items including brand name game systems like Wii, Xbox, and Playstation. There are also brand new iPods and MP3 players, kitchen appliances and knives, perfumes and many other items we use everyday. The chance that you might win an Xbox for $10 maybe $15 dollars is very tempting.
DealDash is one of these new online penny auction sites. It is very user friendly and is free to join. All you need to do to get started is create a unique user name and password. You will need a valid email address too, and if you join and verify your email through facebook, you will get a free $5 to use towards buying bidding credits.
You are probably wondering how these auctions work, or maybe you are thinking that this is a scam. Well, it works like this. First you will need to join. Once you join you purchase bid credits for $1 each. You can then search for the item you want to bid on. When you find one, you can start bidding. So, say you have $5 in bid credits. You can now bid on an item five times. Each bid you make raises the price of the item by $.05. There is a timer on the bottom of each auction; the timer ends at 30 seconds, but every time another person bids on the item, the counter resets itself for another 30 seconds. Bidding is as easy as pressing the “bid button” on the auction. If you bid on an item and the timer ends, you get the item for the price that came up when you last bid. It is as fast and easy as that.
If you do not win the auction, you will get a second chance to purchase the item at a discounted price. Since each bid costs you one dollar, you get to use the total of your bids towards the listed “buy it now” price. So if you bid 5 times on an item that has a “buy it now” price of $25, you can purchase that same item for $20. Keep in mind that you will need to purchase the item within the first 24 hours of the auction end in order to get that deal. Either way you look at it, you are still getting the item at a great price.
There are some opportunities to win bonus credits, and at times there are auctions held for bonus credits as well. These bonus credits can be used just like regular credits towards auctions and purchases.
DealDash.com appears to be doing well, and they seem to be taking their business seriously. They offer all forms of payment including Paypal, debit cards, Master Card, Visa, American Express, and even the Discover card. Once your item is paid for, they claim that they will have the item shipped within 5-20 business days. This may seem slow when compared to some eBay sellers, but the price makes waiting a few days well worth it. You should keep this in mind when bidding; especially if you are after a birthday gift, you may want to be sure to shop early.
One of the nice things about shopping on DealDash.com is that they are a charitable organization. They donate $.01 for every sold auction to different charity programs and will be posting details of them on their site soon.
DealDash is definitely a new twist on the old online auctions. You get great new items with warranties included at a fraction of the cost, and you can have great fun doing it. So if you are in the market for a new game system, iPod, or not, give it a try.