Well, Bidblink did it to me again. I was bidding on another 100 bid pack. Full determination not to let the timer run out without bidding. Sat for half an hour and watch 500 bids take place. An autobid war took up the last 100 bids and it was time to go back to work. I only had 38 bids in at this point and ready to finish this thing off. What happens? Nothing. When the timer got to 4 I clicked bid. Then It went to 1 and I clicked bid again JUST to make sure the bid was in. I've been doing that since I lost that last auction to the non responsive bid button. Guess what. It took neither of my bids. The auction ended.
Needless to say, I was pissed. I'm not sure how much more I have to do. I went straight to the "contact us" button. Guess what. All it is, is an email address. No online customer support. Well, I wrote an e-mail explaining what happened and asked how the hell am I supposed to bid if it won't take my bids. Even if I get a refund on bids, and I'm sure that's a huge IF, what can I do? Just lose another auction to the same problem. I may be done with Bidblink all together. We'll see what happens.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Wow!! that was fast
I went into this next auction on Bidblink for 100 bidpack. I was prepared. I am fully rested and had food and potty breaks and everything. After my experience last night I was ready for a long haul. The auction started as usual with a few bid bots competing. Then a guy bid early in the count a few times. It didn't take long to get to the sniping action. The first opportunity showed 3 interested parties plus the autobidder. I, of course, am one of the interested parties. The next snipe opportunity I let it get down to 3 seconds and bid. It didn't take and the autobidder won. It must have been the same for the other bidders. I've seen one of them a few times and a one bid and out kind of bidder he is not.. Lag lost me that auction. Bidblink is starting to irritate me now.
Waiting Works
I signed up for a Bidcactus membership last week. I haven't bought any bids or even looked real hard at the site yet. I'm still focusing on the sites I have bids in. This morning I received an email from Bidcactus with a coupon code in it for 20% off my first purchase. Not a bad deal. I can't currently take them up on the offer but, when I do decide to bidding on Bidcactus, I'll write customer service to see if I can get any discounts. I think I'll do the same to all the sites that I am looking into to see if there is any positive response.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Frustration sets in
My eyes are bugging from sitting here and waiting for an auction to end. This is a pretty safe auction on Bidblink. It's for 100 free bids. The thing is I ended up using 100 and didn't even come close to winning. This is mostly due to the fact that it ran for over 2 hours and 20 minutes. Well actually it's still going. I'm typing this while I wait for it to end so I can use "buy it now" and get my 100 bids back. Like I said, it's a safe auction. I'm not sure why this auction and the one before it went so long. The prizes aren't that worthy. Maybe it's because Bidblink only allows 3 wins a week and people are trying to get their wins in early so they can move on to another site.
One thing about Bidblink is they have reverse auctions. So the price doesn't go up as these things get crazy. I do like that. The buy it now option is at 100%. There's no math to figure how much your bids are worth when it's time to buy. One thing I don't like about Bidblink is the reset time can go all the way back to 45 seconds.
That makes for a long auction. I see no reason to move the timer back so far.
Ok, so the thing finally ended at $3.00 from where I couldn't take any more. Well, I'm sure I didn't need that extra sleep anyway. I'll be back tomorrow and try it again.
One thing about Bidblink is they have reverse auctions. So the price doesn't go up as these things get crazy. I do like that. The buy it now option is at 100%. There's no math to figure how much your bids are worth when it's time to buy. One thing I don't like about Bidblink is the reset time can go all the way back to 45 seconds.
That makes for a long auction. I see no reason to move the timer back so far.
Ok, so the thing finally ended at $3.00 from where I couldn't take any more. Well, I'm sure I didn't need that extra sleep anyway. I'll be back tomorrow and try it again.
Pay to play
I read a blog today cussing Swipeauctions.com. Here is the blog. He is talking about Swipebids.com but it is the same website. I checked it out.
It turns out that the guy is complaining about nothing as far as I can tell. I tried to sign up as a member and found out the last step is to pay some money. Now, this cash you're dealing out will buy you some bids. Just over $.50 per bid. Not a bad price it seems. Of course to do this you must enter your credit card info. Apparently this guy signed up as a member then was pissed that he had been charged. After that he complained to customer service. Customer service seemed very helpful and explained to the moron how things worked and that he can get his money back just like the guarantee said he can. The problem is he'll have to wait 30 days. bla bla bla bla
I would hope that any sane person would know what they were getting into before they gave out their payment information. Always know what you're buying and how much it costs including shipping and taxes and the like. In this day and age of online shopping that should be a given. I'm pretty sure this guy set this up purposefully so he could blog about it.
Since I was there, I looked around the site a bit. I couldn't see some of it because you have to be a member but it seems like a legitimate deal. There IS a guarantee that if you don't win anything in 30 days you get all your money back for that first payment. Sounds like a great deal for a beginner to me. There are also side competitions, a "buy it now" feature that enjoy on other sites, and charity benefiting auctions . They also have a feature I've never seen. They give the tracking information for the prizes that have been won. My guess is this was in rebuttal for accusations that they use bots. I haven't signed up for this site as my cash is tied up in other sites but I plan to check it out someday.
As always, you should do research before you become a member of ANY kind of site. Also, I always suggest to do research when you hear bad things about a site also. Some people just hate for the heck of it I suppose.
It turns out that the guy is complaining about nothing as far as I can tell. I tried to sign up as a member and found out the last step is to pay some money. Now, this cash you're dealing out will buy you some bids. Just over $.50 per bid. Not a bad price it seems. Of course to do this you must enter your credit card info. Apparently this guy signed up as a member then was pissed that he had been charged. After that he complained to customer service. Customer service seemed very helpful and explained to the moron how things worked and that he can get his money back just like the guarantee said he can. The problem is he'll have to wait 30 days. bla bla bla bla
I would hope that any sane person would know what they were getting into before they gave out their payment information. Always know what you're buying and how much it costs including shipping and taxes and the like. In this day and age of online shopping that should be a given. I'm pretty sure this guy set this up purposefully so he could blog about it.
Since I was there, I looked around the site a bit. I couldn't see some of it because you have to be a member but it seems like a legitimate deal. There IS a guarantee that if you don't win anything in 30 days you get all your money back for that first payment. Sounds like a great deal for a beginner to me. There are also side competitions, a "buy it now" feature that enjoy on other sites, and charity benefiting auctions . They also have a feature I've never seen. They give the tracking information for the prizes that have been won. My guess is this was in rebuttal for accusations that they use bots. I haven't signed up for this site as my cash is tied up in other sites but I plan to check it out someday.
As always, you should do research before you become a member of ANY kind of site. Also, I always suggest to do research when you hear bad things about a site also. Some people just hate for the heck of it I suppose.
Slow Play
I play poker. There's a term in poker called slow play. Slow playing is not betting a great hand in hopes to keep others in the game and building the pot. Well, in Texas Hold 'em, allowing people more time can come back and haunt you. It's quite possible to allow someone to catch a better hand than yours. In that case it would have been better to bet the good hand early to force the hand to end and collect the smaller pot. When I see someone lose because of slow play I always comment "Slow play equals no pay".
I have discovered that slow play equals no pay in Penny Auctions(PA) also. My strategy here is to let others spend their bids before I start spending mine. I pay close attention to who is bidding and how much. I actually keep a log on a piece of paper. When it gets to sniping time you can tell who's still in when the timer gets to 1 and people jump on the bid button. When there are still 3 or 4 people bidding during sniping moments I lay off. This is where learning each person's habits come in handy. I notice people who always jump in and others who are doing the same as me. So far this strategy has failed. I've got to where I can feel the other bidders are starting to wear out and it's time to start bidding with aggression. The problem I'm having is learning to be aggressive early enough. Every single time I've gone through this process I've let it go to long and no one jumps in to keep the auction alive.
I've also learned that you need to know how long the server takes to process your bid. On Beezid I've had no problem bidding when the counter gets to GOING. That responsiveness is a major feature I will be looking for in the PA sites. Bidblink is a different story. I have had problems getting my bid in even with 3 seconds left on the counter. That is frustrating. I'm sure it has to do with how much money Beezid has spent on their servers compared to Bidblink. The way I see it, it's like driving a vehicle. The brake is always something you have to figure out right away so you know how to stop safely. The bid button is the same. Figure out early if there are lag problems with your PA site's bid button and adjust your sniping accordingly.
I have discovered that slow play equals no pay in Penny Auctions(PA) also. My strategy here is to let others spend their bids before I start spending mine. I pay close attention to who is bidding and how much. I actually keep a log on a piece of paper. When it gets to sniping time you can tell who's still in when the timer gets to 1 and people jump on the bid button. When there are still 3 or 4 people bidding during sniping moments I lay off. This is where learning each person's habits come in handy. I notice people who always jump in and others who are doing the same as me. So far this strategy has failed. I've got to where I can feel the other bidders are starting to wear out and it's time to start bidding with aggression. The problem I'm having is learning to be aggressive early enough. Every single time I've gone through this process I've let it go to long and no one jumps in to keep the auction alive.
I've also learned that you need to know how long the server takes to process your bid. On Beezid I've had no problem bidding when the counter gets to GOING. That responsiveness is a major feature I will be looking for in the PA sites. Bidblink is a different story. I have had problems getting my bid in even with 3 seconds left on the counter. That is frustrating. I'm sure it has to do with how much money Beezid has spent on their servers compared to Bidblink. The way I see it, it's like driving a vehicle. The brake is always something you have to figure out right away so you know how to stop safely. The bid button is the same. Figure out early if there are lag problems with your PA site's bid button and adjust your sniping accordingly.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Beezid
I'll start with Beezid. It was my first PA site. My cherry popper. Let's get right past that the site is well run and looks good and has a ton of deals, blah, blah, blah. I don't really see anything that special about Beezid. They have this tool called the Sniper. It's as useless as a tool as I can imagine. I would love to hear from anyone who has ever used this sniper tool successfully. The idea of the Sniper is to keep the auction going in the event the dollar amount hasn't hit the predetermined level that you guessed it would when you set up the Autobeezid. Wow, what a lot of calculating to keep from hitting the BID button yourself.
There are two auctions that have some redeeming value. Fist, is the Early Bird Auction (EBA). These auctions are the ones that end between 5:00 and 8:00 am EST. If you win one of these auctions you receive your bids back. I have mixed feelings about this type of auction. Winning is great because it doesn't cost you anything. My first thought was that would be the only kind of auction I would try to win. However, the rules change during EBAs. This allows the big players with huge amounts of bids to buy the auctions. Fair enough. If you invest a TON of money to get all these bids you should be allowed to buy auctions. It's like having a high roller at a nickle poker game. What happens when two high rollers are at the same nickle poker game? This happens:
As you can see $97.11 was paid for a $99.00 item. I have no idea what led to this crazy auction. I was not a part of it. My guess is someone put a TON of bids in and got them all back. Even if he put in half of all bids there were still 4855 other bids placed. That is why these types of auctions make me nervous.
The second type of auction is the Bid For Free Auctions. These auctions are always bid packs of either 50 or 100 bids. These are the ONLY way you should buy bids on Beezid. With a little patience you can get bids at very near 50 cents a bid. The other only way to get bids should be to win an auction for them. NEVER buy bid packs straight from the website. The cheapest you can get is 60 cents a bid. There is a link for Bid For Free Auctions at the bottom of the home page. Easy enough to find and to use.
There are two auctions that have some redeeming value. Fist, is the Early Bird Auction (EBA). These auctions are the ones that end between 5:00 and 8:00 am EST. If you win one of these auctions you receive your bids back. I have mixed feelings about this type of auction. Winning is great because it doesn't cost you anything. My first thought was that would be the only kind of auction I would try to win. However, the rules change during EBAs. This allows the big players with huge amounts of bids to buy the auctions. Fair enough. If you invest a TON of money to get all these bids you should be allowed to buy auctions. It's like having a high roller at a nickle poker game. What happens when two high rollers are at the same nickle poker game? This happens:
As you can see $97.11 was paid for a $99.00 item. I have no idea what led to this crazy auction. I was not a part of it. My guess is someone put a TON of bids in and got them all back. Even if he put in half of all bids there were still 4855 other bids placed. That is why these types of auctions make me nervous.
The second type of auction is the Bid For Free Auctions. These auctions are always bid packs of either 50 or 100 bids. These are the ONLY way you should buy bids on Beezid. With a little patience you can get bids at very near 50 cents a bid. The other only way to get bids should be to win an auction for them. NEVER buy bid packs straight from the website. The cheapest you can get is 60 cents a bid. There is a link for Bid For Free Auctions at the bottom of the home page. Easy enough to find and to use.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)