anyone remember penny auctions?

1  2020-07-15 by nomad1c

they were auction sites but instead of ebay where the highest bid wins, each bid cost the person money that wasn't returned. the bid would raise the total price by say 1 cent, but would cost the bidder say 50c per bid. they'd buy packs of a hundred bids for $x and use them to try and win items, usually paying way above the asking price if they got into a bidding war

they had this whole subculture of "respect" and "power-bidders". the hope of any power-bidder was to bid a small amount and hope everyone would be too scared to counter-bid, so they could win the product at below market price. if someone did get involved, the power-bidder would bid endlessly until they'd won it, even if they spent much more than the product was worth, in order to "protect their turf" and build a reputation not to be fucked with

somehow these sites managed to fuck up what should have been a license to print money. i'm not sure if they're still around today

13 comments

15  DuckSosu 2020-07-15

I remember I was incredibly jealous I did not come up with the idea first. It's an incredible way to scam money from idiots. Surprised to hear that they aren't around anymore.

8  nomad1c 2020-07-15

from what i can tell the power-users scared other users off and colluded with each other to win new ipads and macbooks for a few dollars each

6  DuckSosu 2020-07-15

You'd think the sites would come up with some slimy way to avoid that, but I guess not.

7  TotesAgotes 2020-07-15

Increase the price of bids with each repeat made by the same user within a certain timeframe and gradually drop the price back down if no more are made. Seriously considering starting one of these once the economy gets irrational.

1  Matthew94 2020-07-15

once the economy gets irrational

once

5  Bagtot 2020-07-15

There’s Deal Dash. They’re still around. Took me five seconds on the site to realize they were full of shit.

3  THE_CRUSTIEST 2020-07-15

All the DealDash ads featured middle-aged suburban grandmothers, their ideal target

1  ilovebooze1212 2020-07-15

Same, but with these quick loan-thingies you know just text a number and you get instant 1000$

Pay back 3000 by next month

8  banevader90000 2020-07-15

My 10 year old ass in the early 2000s telling my parents they are stupid since they could get an Xbox for 40 bucks lol

1  ilovebooze1212 2020-07-15

My country had a local one. As already commented a bunch of guys started screwing the system and got flat screen (non internet connectible think 2007) TVs for lunch money at a time when these things cost thousands.

1  Rocket_Lag 2020-07-15

I was always under the impression that places like wish.com are the modern iteration of those sites.

1  Matthew94 2020-07-15

the power-bidder would bid endlessly until they'd won it, even if they spent much more than the product was worth

Po*rcells: we need to raise the minimum wage because we can't survive

Also Po*rcells: Watch me waste my savings so I can dunk on people

1  devotedrat17 2020-07-15

Waste my saving so i can dunk on people.... on the internet.

Pretty based tbh