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I worked for one of the biggest penny auction sites. I'll address some things in this thread. One key thing the author left out was "free bids". You can win
by legohead 10y ago
I worked for one of the biggest penny auction sites. I'll address some things in this thread.
One key thing the author left out was "free bids". You can win auctions that give you bids. So, for instance, you spend 10 bids and get lucky and win a 2500 bid pack. When bidding on the auction, an outside observer can't tell if you're using a bid you paid for or a "free bid" you won on the site or gained in some other mean (some auctions may be a product + free bids). So while it looked like the guy spent $3,500, he may have only spent $100 of his own real money.
Some sites even stop you from spending over the retail value of the site. The one I worked for let you buy the item if you spent bids that equaled the retail value. And we were fair with the retail value of items. We had people whose job it was to source products so we could afford to sell items at retail. If you lost the auction, you could also pay the difference between the value of your bids and the retail price and buy the item that way. So if the item was $150, and you spent $100 in bids but lost, you could pay $50 and get the item anyway.
Yes, some of these sites use bots. You can buy pre-built penny auctions sites and you will see they contain bots. The site I worked for never used bots while I worked there. I'd be surprised if any of the bigger sites use bots, as it's not needed and can be pretty obvious to detect with basic statistics. And you definitely have a certain type of person on this site who is running statistics and trying to beat the game.
These sites can actually be used to find a good deal, if they offer the retail option I mentioned above. Imagine you plan on buying a 65" TV. You try out a penny auction site and win it for $100, or end up having to pay retail for it anyway. The main loss would be paying shipping, which admittedly for a TV would be a lot. Personally, I never used one of these sites. It's just too stressful and slow for me (auctions can last for hours).
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- ebbv 10y agoYou keep telling yourself that they are in any way ethical. They are not. Letting people get it "if they spend the retail value" is hardly generous or benevolent. Other people will have also spent a bunch of money, and if you haven't already spent a ton of money and the total spent on the auction will be outrageous. Never mind that if you don't spend the retail amount, you're just out money for nothing. Unlike a legitimate auction site where if you don't win the auction you don't spend anything.
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- tptacek 10y agoI'm a little confused by your last paragraph. You seem to be presenting the "good" penny auction sites as if there are two possible outcomes: a very good deal, or retail price. But isn't the most likely outcome that you bid and get nothing?
- legohead 10y agoFor the average person, yes. I was speaking in consideration of the HN audience. Rather, people with enough intelligence to know what they are getting into and how they might take advantage of it. But most people are curious, try it out, lose some money, and quit.
- tptacek 10y agoI'm still not following. What the the "smart" procedure I can use to bound my outcome either to getting a great deal or paying retail?
- mst 10y agoThis kinda sounds like the old tradition of dicing for double or nothing over purchases (though whether it's only a tradition in novels I don't actually know) - except with the addition of people who can't afford the original purchase price as extra suckers to help add to the house advantage/profit margin. Not sure I'm entirely fond of the idea but it just seems like yet another borderline form of gambling to me, and no morally worse than the rest.