Penny Auctions Aren't the Only Place to Get A Great Deal

We at Penny Auction Insider enjoy penny auctions, obviously, and while we don't play as often as many of our readers, we get just as excited about the savings that can be had. However, penny auctions aren't the only sites on the web where online savvy consumers can get great deals and a little entertainment. Woot and GroupOn are two social media entertainment shopping sites that allow users to get a fabulous, if not completely random deal of the day.

Woot offers a "Today's Woot," which is a product the site has managed to buy in bulk at an extremely low price. Take a scroll down their blog for an idea about past Woots. They offer everything from mid-range laptops (today's Woot) to golf bags and talking smoke detectors. It seems like a lot of Woot-ers buy the deal of the day just so they can share their experience in the online forum. Woot also displays statistics about how fast the product is selling and how long it takes to sell out (sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't, but there is always a new product the next day).

GroupOn is a collective buying site that features a new deal each day for 17 cities around the US. Today in San Francisco it was a bay cruise for $26 (50% of the list price). The site negotiates with the supplier and they agree that if a certain number of people buy the item, the deal goes through at the list price and if it doesn't, the deal is void. GroupOn leverages the power of the masses to get good deals. However, most of the stuff is local, so you have to be in the geographic area to take advantage of the deal.

For an interesting economic analysis of GroupOn, Evan Miller goes to town here.