Bidding On Penny Auctions" Bidding Hints"

Dec. 16, 2009 - PRLog -- Can you give me some advice about how to bid?
Help center > Frequently asked questions > Bidding
We often get asked by people how to improve their chances of winning an auction on SwoopBug.com
Here are a few different observations

There’s no 'sure-fire' winning strategy, but here are a few tips to help you get started, as well as a few of the traps that novice bidders sometimes fall into.


Place your bid late
Watch the countdown and try to place your bid in the final ten seconds. If the timer has reached this point, you know the auction will end with you as the winner unless another bid is placed.


Start with the cheapest products

Although you can get some incredible bargains on our most expensive items, they also tend to be the most competitive auctions, attracting hundreds of bidders. Our cheaper products tend to have fewer bidders, meaning you’re much more likely to win.

Use the T-matics to your advantage

The T-matics is a powerful tool, if you get the timing right you can scare off other bidders by placing one. Nobody likes to see their bids matched over and over again by your all conquering T-matics, you might just persuade them to give up and try again next time.
Turn their t-matics against them
On the other hand, some people have a ‘fire and forget’ policy with the T-matics. It is easy to tender in and win with a quick single bid if your rival has gone to make a cup of coffee safe in the knowledge that their T-matics will protect them.
We’ve noticed that users tend to set the ‘Bid To’ value of their T-matics to a round number, so watch out for this and you might be able to snap up a bargain by simply clicking on the “Bid” button when T-matics has just finished.


Keep an eye on what other bidders are up to

You can see the details of the last ten bids placed: try to work out who’s bidding and when they’re bidding. It’s all about timing, so maybe you can work out when the right time is to jump in and grab the lot.


Scout out the competition

Look and see how many different bidders have recently bid on an auction. You're more likely to win if there are fewer bidders interested in the item than if there are lots of competing bidders.

Bid at the right time of day

The number of bidders varies throughout the day – smart bidders can use this to pick up bargains by bidding when others are busy having breakfast or taking the dog for a walk.

Fine-tune your T-matics

If you use T-matics to bid on your behalf, it’s best not to set your ‘Bid To’ value to a round number – other bidders will be watching out for this (see above!).
How do I win more Auctions?
So how do you up your chances of winning an auction? As we have researched and examined thousands of auctions that have been conducted on SwoopBug, we have learned several things that can increase a person’s chance of winning an auction. The first main thing that we have learned is:

The SwoopBug customers that win the most auctions are the ones who spend the most bids in their pursuit of winning.

Most people’s first question after learning this is, “How are they able to confidently spend so many bids? Isn’t it possible that they will just lose all that money?” The answer to this question is actually fairly simple and it is related to the second main thing we have learned about winning an auction.

The SwoopBug customers that have the most success are the ones that are willing to exercise the “Buy it Now” feature if they do not win the auction.

The customers who are the most successful at SwoopBug are the ones who pick out products that they would be willing to pay full retail price for. Then they bid on those items for a chance to win them far below retail price. As a result of their willingness to go all the way they usually have a very high chance of actually winning the item.

The SwoopBug customers that have the least success are the ones that have unrealistic goals and are unwilling to pay more than a small fraction of the actual retail cost of an item in bids.

Even if you are unsuccessful in winning an item, you can still apply any of the bids that you have used towards that item and still buy it for a price that is comparable to what you would pay at a local retailer. It is a fun and risk-free way to do your holiday shopping. However, many customers don’t ever consider using the “Buy it Now” feature. Instead, they are interested in spending $20 trying to win a $1500 Apple Macbook. Although it is possible for someone to win the Apple Macbook with $20 in bids, it’s highly unlikely. This is an unrealistic expectation that certain customers have. We encourage everyone to set a realistic expectation of how much time and financial investment is necessary to win a big ticket item

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We are a penny auction site offering Name Brand items for auction at an almost 95% savings from retail store prices. A most significant difference between swoopbug and most other auctions is we deliver all our merchandise from our own warehouse..