What is the Penny Auction Strategy called "Win Or Buy It"?

Penny Auctions are websites that auction off items like electronics, computers, phones, gift cards and other merchandise.

Each bid usually costs 50 cents or more. Every bid usu ally brings the price of the item up by one penny.

You purchase bids, then you start bidding on the item you want once that auction has begun.

The clock keeps ticking down towards zero.  Every bid adds another small amount of time to the clock. Eventually the clock hits zero and nobody else places a bid... the last and highest bidder remaining at that point wins the auction.

With patience, practice and a little luck it is possible to get some items at fantastic discounts.

Many Penny Auction sites will let you apply the dollar value of the bids you have spent to buy the item at a fair retail value and NOT lose the cost of those bids.  So in those auctions you can lose and still get a decent product in the end for a decent price.

Many people would like to buy an item and are willing to pay a fair full retail price but would like to try their luck at auction and see if they can get it even cheaper by winning an auction of the item at below retail price.  If they win they feel they got a bargain and if they do not win they will simply be buying it at a reasonably low retail price similar to the prices listed for that item on the major competitive priced outlets.

So this is the idea behind the strategy known as "win or buy it" and many people flock to the sites that offer a good amount of capability to attempt this.

In essence if the bidder drops out by buying the item, the auction continues, he applies his bid value up to that point in the auction and he has lost or risked nothing really.  Others are left to win the auction but several of the same item are available so everyone gets the item they want.

Some auctions take this a step further and let you start your bidding on one item, and/or decide to choose from several items you could pick to win in the end.  In other words you can start bidding on an iPhone and choose a Google phone instead at the end.  They will usually let you see a list of "alternative" items that you can pick from as soon as the auction begins.  That certainly adds a new dimension to things and a chance for an even more complex strategy.

Some auctions only offer this for certain items, and other penny auction sites do not offer this feature at all because it cuts into their profit margins.

One should get fully acquainted with the rules, features, and nuances of each penny auction before getting started to minimize the "learning curve" losses that beginners often face.

It is also a good idea to read up on the opinions of others and see what kind of experience they have had with some of these sites.  Many will be happy with the auction, product shipping time and customer service.  Also, check the review and ratings sites to see how each one measures up.

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