Penny auctions are increasing in popularity. In the past 6 months we have seen over 200 sites jump into the market. Is it because people can make genuine savings and there is a market for more of these sites or is there something we should be warned off?
Consumer Giants “Which” wants to see more regulation of penny auctions. So are Penny auctions site gambling?
We take an in dept look. The first thing we notice, a simple search on Google for Penny auctions is the number of sites available! All offering the best deals online. An Apple Mac Book for 1p… A Iphone for pennies.
It does sound so tempting. We are sign up, use some free bids, buy some bids for a tenner and I am sure to want one of those auctions for pennies. The trouble is you are not alone. You are playing against hundreds if not thousands of players. Plus, on some sites, you are playing against bots (shill bidders) and if you are not familiar with this term (when you bid, you have no chance of winning) as the website has a secret weapon up it’s sleeve. It is, if you like, making sure, the site doesn’t lose money, so for each bid you place, the robot (who will have a name like a real player) will play against you. Not nice eh? It gets worse.
Shill bidders make the experience poor value for money. If a site is going to use such bots against you how can you be sure you will ever win?
We conducted a test. We picked ten of the leading sites, played at 8 of these and watched for the whole of Augsust. A familiar pattern was starting to add up on some of them. Others appeared to be playing fair. So how do you know you are playing against bots?
Does your penny site appear to be as busy as Swoopo? Bids going all over the place when there are 2 or 3 minutes still on the clocks? Sure, some times new players may not understand the concept of Penny Auctions, but constant bidding at strange times, in our eyes is the first real tale tale sign. In our experiences, most players will bid in the last 10 or so seconds, or when they have been knocked out.
Also watch out for sites with multiple auctions which have one different bidder in each auction. For example (player A) never bids in any other auction even if the clock is ticking down to 3, 2 or 1 second for £1000… MMMM
There are lot’s of reasons genuine players will play at Penny Auction Sites. Some offer real value for money, Excellent Service and deals never seen before. This is the fun and addiction which appears to be happening accross the UK.
However, with bids costing up to and in some cases more than £1 per bid, you have to be careful to choose the right sites. Below are 3 sites we have chosen and sites where we have won, received the items and to date have no fears of Shill Bidders or any funny business. Check them out if you are looking for a real bargain.
1) www.landofsavings.com The Penny auction site that really does offer true Penny Auctions. The reason they are number one is the Customer Service is the best we have ever experienced. No matter the time, you can expect a reply within the hour! Amazing. Also, the site were the first to offer FREE2BID auctions, this means bids are 100% free, no cost and no risk of losing money. They offer items like bids with Playstation 3, cash and bids etc. It’s a great way to learn to trust them, after all, you don’t have to lose money when checking them out. Check out the winners pages for real genuine photo’s of winners. The site is one of the leaders in penny auctions
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2) Froggy bids is smaller than some of the sites, this is apparant with the auctions available. Perfumes, DVD’s etc, but they seem fair. We had 3 wins which were delivered in a fairly quick time. The Customer Service reply in the same day and the site offers a FREE Xbox 360 if you do purchase their top bid pack. This can be confirmed. Mine arrived around 14 days later.
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3) Swoopo
Swoopo is one of the cheaper ones. However, cheaper isn’t always better and in this case, we cannot stress this enough. Swoopo was nearly impossible to see our bid let alone win. Far too many players, auctions that just go up and up, in some case, going over the RRP! If you are new to penny auctions, stay away from Swoopo. It’s far too busy!
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It’s great fun and you win also great place and the best. You don’t need Mathemitcal skills you can see how many bids remain. see for yourself, i have won 24 items so far and there have been many winners.