I really enjoyed reading this thread - you can learn a lot about the mentality of a penny auction player from this forum:
http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1925#post1925
Read more!
Showing posts with label penny auction watch. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penny auction watch. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Expanding Penny Auction Universe: Part 2
So earlier I blogged about how the penny auction universe is expanding. We went from 1 (Swoopo) to 95 penny auction sites in about a year. Whoa! Actually, Swoopo was in the EU for a few years before it came to the US, but like most things, this blog is US-centric.
However, not only is the penny auction universe getting larger, it's also diversifying. There is now a wide range of sites and products, you can go for sites with or without bidbutlers, true penny auctions, or alternatives like the 12 cent-step variety at Swoopo. Penny auction sites are selling a wide variety of products and even a few cars.
Now, entrepreneurs are taking entertainment shopping in new directions. We blogged about SevenSnap, a bid-fee app for the iPhone and Penny Auction Watch recently blogged about Rackup and CircusPop.
Rackup was featured at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco earlier this week and TechCrunch blogged about them here. Rackup seems like a great way to get gift cards on the cheap. Users enter a virtual room and when the auction starts they can click to buy the featured gift card. The first 10 people get the card with a varying bonus from between 3% and 100% of additional money on the card for free depending on when they clicked "buy." The earlier they click, the higher the bonus. However, if more than 10 people buy then the earlier people get kicked out and must enter again at the beginning of the list (lowest bonus). It's a little confusing, but the TechCrunch video explains it all clearly. The most important point is that if you want to buy a gift card anyway, you might as well do it on Rackup - the worst you can do is a 3% bonus and the best you can do is a 100% bonus. It costs nothing to play but companies that feature their gift cards are charged an 8% transaction fee. No wonder the TC50 conference-goers loved this one, we do!
Another interesting concept in online bargain hunting is CircusPop. This company charges users for bids ($0.75 - in bidpacks) which can then be used to "check" the price of an item for sale, until then prices are hidden. If users like the price, they can buy the item from CircusPop the same way they would at at traditional e-tailor like Amazon. CircusPop says that their prices only go down because every time someone views the price of an item, that price drops by $0.25. The site guarantees that users will find the lowest prices or their bids will be refunded. Like with Rackup for giftcards, the worst a user can do on CircusPop is get the product for the retail price, and it seems there is an opportunity to get the item for a substantial discount. CircusPop launched a few days ago and seems to have generated a fair amount of buzz (they have 700+ facebook members, as Penny Auction Watch pointed out).
Read more!
However, not only is the penny auction universe getting larger, it's also diversifying. There is now a wide range of sites and products, you can go for sites with or without bidbutlers, true penny auctions, or alternatives like the 12 cent-step variety at Swoopo. Penny auction sites are selling a wide variety of products and even a few cars.
Now, entrepreneurs are taking entertainment shopping in new directions. We blogged about SevenSnap, a bid-fee app for the iPhone and Penny Auction Watch recently blogged about Rackup and CircusPop.
Rackup was featured at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco earlier this week and TechCrunch blogged about them here. Rackup seems like a great way to get gift cards on the cheap. Users enter a virtual room and when the auction starts they can click to buy the featured gift card. The first 10 people get the card with a varying bonus from between 3% and 100% of additional money on the card for free depending on when they clicked "buy." The earlier they click, the higher the bonus. However, if more than 10 people buy then the earlier people get kicked out and must enter again at the beginning of the list (lowest bonus). It's a little confusing, but the TechCrunch video explains it all clearly. The most important point is that if you want to buy a gift card anyway, you might as well do it on Rackup - the worst you can do is a 3% bonus and the best you can do is a 100% bonus. It costs nothing to play but companies that feature their gift cards are charged an 8% transaction fee. No wonder the TC50 conference-goers loved this one, we do!
Another interesting concept in online bargain hunting is CircusPop. This company charges users for bids ($0.75 - in bidpacks) which can then be used to "check" the price of an item for sale, until then prices are hidden. If users like the price, they can buy the item from CircusPop the same way they would at at traditional e-tailor like Amazon. CircusPop says that their prices only go down because every time someone views the price of an item, that price drops by $0.25. The site guarantees that users will find the lowest prices or their bids will be refunded. Like with Rackup for giftcards, the worst a user can do on CircusPop is get the product for the retail price, and it seems there is an opportunity to get the item for a substantial discount. CircusPop launched a few days ago and seems to have generated a fair amount of buzz (they have 700+ facebook members, as Penny Auction Watch pointed out).
Read more!
Friday, September 4, 2009
A Post All Penny Auction Players Need to Read
Penny Auction Watch has an incredible story about shill bidding at new site Pardoo. They really did their detective work on this one. Nice job.
Read more!
Read more!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Pposh Claims to be in Testing Mode, Questions Remain
I received lots of angry comments (almost certainly from Pposh employees) about my accusation that Pposh is a scam. People in the comments claim the site is still in testing mode and that users were sent an email saying so. I did receive such an email, posted below in its entirety.
"Salutations-
However, this alone does not clear the site from what I would call dubious practices if not from being an outright scam. First, nowhere on the site could I find a disclaimer saying it is still in testing mode - a huge problem. Pposh lists ended auctions with details about when they were won, who won and for how much. Pposh do you see any problem with posting over 170 ended auctions with full descriptions of the travel packages won with really low prices that were not actually won? That's false advertising if not illegal. Your blog has similar false advertising, which I took a screen shot of and posted here. If you are in testing mode why would you post on your blog "I just won a Caribbean cruise on a new website I just stumbled on and I feel they are going to be very successful ... they have just launched the site a few days ago. Check it out." So you didn't win a cruise 1. because you work at the site, 2. because there is no cruise because you are in "testing mode" and 3. you were OK with lying about this auction to potential customers.
Also, how can you claim to be giving away five "free" bids when you are in testing mode - obviously if I can't win anything because you are in testing mode you can't legitimately charge me for bids. I don't know if users can use bids they purchased at Pposh to bid on these "testing mode" auctions, but when I used all five of my "free" bids this morning I was prompted to select a bidpack and enter my credit card information (again, without ever being told I was bidding on "test" auctions). This is very, very wrong, if not, again, a huge SCAM.
Pposh, we will watch you closely when you claim to leave "testing mode" and see what is going on then. However, in an industry that already has a credibility problem you have dug yourselves a large hole with your lack of disclosure and misleading if not fraudulent information posted on the site. Everything about your site looks and feels like a fully operational penny auction site, if you are in testing mode you need to say so on the site. I really don't know why you would do live testing anyway, except in my honest opinion, to deceive potential bidders.
Pposh - I have not deleted your comments on the previous post and have no plans to do so. However, if this pattern of comments continues and you do not properly identify yourselves as Pposh employees or persons with a vested interest in the company I will delete them. I believe fully in transparency and user freedom of speech, however, if comments are deceptive in their own right than as the administrator of this site I have an obligation to filter them.
Penny Auction Insider community: Pposh has been extremely deceptive, I would avoid the site until it can be verified that they are legitimate. I am not the only one who feels this way, Penny Auction Watch had a similar story this morning. We will continue to follow this story but in the meantime, as Penny Auction Watch stated earlier today, anyone with $150 and a few spare hours can start a penny auction site and anyone with an internet connection can post a comment on this blog. We need to be careful before we spend money on any new penny auction site, unfortunately it's just too easy to defraud people online.
Even Swoopo, the largest and most credible site is getting destroyed by angry users on their Facebook page who claim to have won items and not received them or purchased bids and not received them. I think Swoopo is completely legitimate, but if even the best sites have glitches why would you trust a newcomer that is being deceptive before they even go live? If you have a Facebook account go here to read the comments on the Swoopo Facebook page, it's a mess.
Read more!
"Salutations-
Thank you for signing up with Pposh.com. We are in the middle of testing the site. We do apologize for the inconvience but can you please come back in a few days. We will of course hold your bids and will send you an email as soon as it is ready.
Thank you for your patience and we look forward to seeing you soon!!
Pposh.com"
However, this alone does not clear the site from what I would call dubious practices if not from being an outright scam. First, nowhere on the site could I find a disclaimer saying it is still in testing mode - a huge problem. Pposh lists ended auctions with details about when they were won, who won and for how much. Pposh do you see any problem with posting over 170 ended auctions with full descriptions of the travel packages won with really low prices that were not actually won? That's false advertising if not illegal. Your blog has similar false advertising, which I took a screen shot of and posted here. If you are in testing mode why would you post on your blog "I just won a Caribbean cruise on a new website I just stumbled on and I feel they are going to be very successful ... they have just launched the site a few days ago. Check it out." So you didn't win a cruise 1. because you work at the site, 2. because there is no cruise because you are in "testing mode" and 3. you were OK with lying about this auction to potential customers.
Also, how can you claim to be giving away five "free" bids when you are in testing mode - obviously if I can't win anything because you are in testing mode you can't legitimately charge me for bids. I don't know if users can use bids they purchased at Pposh to bid on these "testing mode" auctions, but when I used all five of my "free" bids this morning I was prompted to select a bidpack and enter my credit card information (again, without ever being told I was bidding on "test" auctions). This is very, very wrong, if not, again, a huge SCAM.
Pposh, we will watch you closely when you claim to leave "testing mode" and see what is going on then. However, in an industry that already has a credibility problem you have dug yourselves a large hole with your lack of disclosure and misleading if not fraudulent information posted on the site. Everything about your site looks and feels like a fully operational penny auction site, if you are in testing mode you need to say so on the site. I really don't know why you would do live testing anyway, except in my honest opinion, to deceive potential bidders.
Pposh - I have not deleted your comments on the previous post and have no plans to do so. However, if this pattern of comments continues and you do not properly identify yourselves as Pposh employees or persons with a vested interest in the company I will delete them. I believe fully in transparency and user freedom of speech, however, if comments are deceptive in their own right than as the administrator of this site I have an obligation to filter them.
Penny Auction Insider community: Pposh has been extremely deceptive, I would avoid the site until it can be verified that they are legitimate. I am not the only one who feels this way, Penny Auction Watch had a similar story this morning. We will continue to follow this story but in the meantime, as Penny Auction Watch stated earlier today, anyone with $150 and a few spare hours can start a penny auction site and anyone with an internet connection can post a comment on this blog. We need to be careful before we spend money on any new penny auction site, unfortunately it's just too easy to defraud people online.
Even Swoopo, the largest and most credible site is getting destroyed by angry users on their Facebook page who claim to have won items and not received them or purchased bids and not received them. I think Swoopo is completely legitimate, but if even the best sites have glitches why would you trust a newcomer that is being deceptive before they even go live? If you have a Facebook account go here to read the comments on the Swoopo Facebook page, it's a mess.
Read more!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Something for nothing, nothing for something
Like my co-blogger, I'm a big fan of Penny Auction Watch, and like him, I was amused by the win of a Honda Insight for $1.24. Amused but a little dismayed.
The truth is, a penny-auction site makes money so long as the average product goes for 2% of the the purchase price (given the usual arrangement of a 50¢ bid and a 1¢ increment). That is not a very high bar and it's bad for everybody (except the winner) when a site can't maintain even that standard. First of all, it sets up unrealistic expectation in unsophisticated users, and a more-realistic skepticism in the sophisticated ones.
Second, if a site gets itself into financial jeopardy (as the aptly named Rocky Bid seems likely to do), its investors might very well pull the plug. When that plug gets pulled, what do you think the people who have bought big bid-packs will get? Let's not always see the same hands. That's right, Bobby: nothing. Bupkis, zip, nada, niente. And that's bad for all penny auctions and all penny-auction bidders.
And I wonder what's going to happen in with this auction of Michael Jackson tickets. I'm guessing that the King of Ped-- oops, I mean the King of Pop, I'm guessing that the King of Pop is not going appear, so: does the winner get his bids back? Do all the other participants get their bids back? What about people who bought bid-packs just so they could participate?
Probably, the bidder who paid $8.59 for a pair of tickets worth $12,000 is not going just accept his money back. If I were him, I would be all about, "Give me the $12,000 refund that the auction house is getting from the promoter!"
Otherwise, some lawyers are going to be getting rich.
Read more!
The truth is, a penny-auction site makes money so long as the average product goes for 2% of the the purchase price (given the usual arrangement of a 50¢ bid and a 1¢ increment). That is not a very high bar and it's bad for everybody (except the winner) when a site can't maintain even that standard. First of all, it sets up unrealistic expectation in unsophisticated users, and a more-realistic skepticism in the sophisticated ones.
Second, if a site gets itself into financial jeopardy (as the aptly named Rocky Bid seems likely to do), its investors might very well pull the plug. When that plug gets pulled, what do you think the people who have bought big bid-packs will get? Let's not always see the same hands. That's right, Bobby: nothing. Bupkis, zip, nada, niente. And that's bad for all penny auctions and all penny-auction bidders.
And I wonder what's going to happen in with this auction of Michael Jackson tickets. I'm guessing that the King of Ped-- oops, I mean the King of Pop, I'm guessing that the King of Pop is not going appear, so: does the winner get his bids back? Do all the other participants get their bids back? What about people who bought bid-packs just so they could participate?
Probably, the bidder who paid $8.59 for a pair of tickets worth $12,000 is not going just accept his money back. If I were him, I would be all about, "Give me the $12,000 refund that the auction house is getting from the promoter!"
Otherwise, some lawyers are going to be getting rich.
Read more!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Another Penny Auction Blog
Penny Auction Watch is a blog with a similar objective to ours: to cover the penny auction industry and provide participants with timely, interesting and objective news and advice. They've been around since late May have have put up lots of good posts since then. Check them out for a good overview of the penny auction universe of the last few months. I especially enjoyed their post about RockyBid's car auction that went for $1.24. I think they lost money on that one :). Penny Auction Watch has also exposed some unfair practices of a few penny auction sites, so this would be a good starting point if you are new to the world of penny auctions.
Updated Friday, July 24th 2009....
And now RockyBid is trying to swing their huge loss on the Honda in their favor, by letting people know via Google AdSense just that.
It's funny because I'm sure anyone who doesn't know about the situation - that RockyBid really did sell a car for $1.24 (and lost over $20,000 in the process) - would think it was a HUGE scam. A scam like those - Work from Home! Make over $15,000 a month! Anyone can do it! It's so easy! Just come to our seminar! It only costs $200! - type of scams. Or those - free MacBook pro! just fill out our customer feedback survey! We promise we won't sign you up for hundreds of recurring fee services like fruit of the month club and automatically charge your credit card! - type scams. But it's not, someone really did get the deal of a lifetime on Rockybid - and I'm sure the executives over there were crying when that happened. Here is a video of the winner with the car
Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
