Editor’s Note: HappyBidDay no longer seems to be operating. Comment below if you can confirm.
HappyBidDay is a mid-sized penny auction website and has been in business since 2010. While HappyBidday.com is not as large as Quibids, Beezid or DealDash, HappyBidDay is considered to be a very established website which offers a good variety of auctions, fairly-fast shipping and an overall good reputation with bidders. Please continue reading to learn more about bidding on HappyBidDay. If you have or do currently bid there, we’d really appreciate you leaving a HappyBidDay review at the bottom of the page.
Disclaimer: This review was written by an independent third party. For any comments or factual corrections, please email info@bestpennyauctionsites.org.
About HappyBidDay.com
Website:
www.HappyBidDay.com- Competition: Medium
- Coupon Codes: 200% Bids (no coupon needed)
- Free Sign-up Bids: Unlimited bids until you win.
- Free bids: Rewards program, facebook/twitter, periodic promotions
- Address: 113 Barksdale Professional Center, Newark, DE 19711
- Phone number: (302) 294-0879
- Facebook: facebook.com/happybidday
- Twitter: twitter.com/happybidday
- BBB Rating: A+
HappyBidDay Reviews
HappyBidDay is a good penny auction for both beginners and experienced bidders. For beginners, HappyBidDay offers Happy Auctions (free to participate) and Starter Auctions (reserved for new bidders). Both of these penny auctions help new bidders become acquainted with the website and allow them to gain valuable bidding experiences before getting into some of the more competitive auctions for high-end products. Another feature of HappyBidDay which benefits new bidders is Win Limits. Win Limits put restrictions on “Power Bidders” as to how much they can win in any given day or week. This makes it easier for new bidders to be competitive.
If you’re an experienced penny auction bidder, you’ll be glad to know that HappyBidDay offers a decent number of high end auctions (iPads, TVs, laptops, gold, silver, etc.). Resellers (bidders who earn money winning auctions and selling their winnings) and other power bidders (experienced, high volume bidders) have a good selection of quality auctions to compete for.
Common HappyBidDay Auction Items
- Precious metals: Gold, Silver and Jewelry
- Tablets and laptops: iPads, Galaxy Tablets, Acer Computers, iPods, MP3 players, etc.
- Gift cards: All denominations from Amazon, Walmart, gas cards, fast food, etc.
- Small home appliances: Blenders, toasters,
- Gadgets: Remote controlled toys, iPod speakers, etc.
- Video games and video game consoles
- Toys, remote control vehicles, etc.
- GPS systems
- Musical instrucments
- Overall good variety of penny auction items
HappyBidDay Auction Features
HappyBidDay Auction Box Explained
HappyBidDay uses a pretty standard auction box. The graphic below is intended to explain each element of the auction box.
Courtesy of HappyBidDay.com.
Types of HappyBidDay Penny Auctions
HappyBidDay offers several different types of options with different rules to be aware of.
| Symbol | Auction Description & Commentary |
|---|---|
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Buy It Auctions: Most HappyBidDay auctions offer the ‘Buy It’ feature which allows auction losers to purchase the auction item at retail and receive all their lost bids back. Great feature. |
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Starter Auctions: Low competition auctions reserved for new users who have not yet won an auction. This is great if you’re trying HappyBidDay for the first time. |
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Rookie Auctions: Rookie auctions are for bidders who have fewer than 25 wins. These are nice as ‘power bidders’ are kept out to make winning easier. |
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Capped Auctions: Penny auctions which limit the closing price of the action. For example, an auctions capped at $5 will never cost the winner more than $5 unlike other auctions where the closing price increases without limits. |
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Snappy Auctions: We’re not big fans of this one. But, snappy auctions are auctions where each ‘bid’ actually costs 3 bids. Seems like a tricky way to deplete our bids so play with caution. |
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VIB Auctions: These auctions block new bidders from entering at an unknown point in time. These are great as it prevents bidders from coming in at the last minute and taking over the auction. |
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Bids Back Auctions: Interesting auction feature where the winner gets 25% of their bids back. This tends to make the auction more competitve and drive prices up but works great fot the winner. |
HappyBidDay Shipping and Fees
HappyBidDay charges for shipping and processing. Fees range based on the size of the product and shipping location. You can find the shipping fees for each auction at the bottom of each auction page.
Is HappyBidDay a Scam?
We don’t think so. HappyBidDay has a good reputation in the industry and is not known for executing any shady practices that we know of. They have been in the industry for a long time.
HappyBidDay Pros and Cons
- HappyBidDay Pros: Good balance between the # of penny auctions and the amount of competition, plenty of chances to win free bids, fast shipping, responsive customer service
- HappyBidDay Cons: Shipping is not free (what can I say, we’re picky!). HappyBidDay has both shipping and processing fees which are clearly visible on all auction pages.
HappyBidDay FAQs
Does HappyBidDay offer a buy it feature?
Yes, HappyBidDay.com offers Buy It on almost every auction. HappyBidDay’s Buy It works like this- Let’s say you spend 300 bids on any given TV auction and lose. If you choose to the buy the TV at their listed price, HappyBidDay gives back 100% of the bids which you used on the auctions. This is a pretty good deal as now you can go and start bidding again on other auctions without having to buy bids again.
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
What are Happy Auctions?
HappyBidDay offers Happy Auctions, a free-to-participate auction type. Basically, they give you tons of ‘Happy’ bids (free) which allow to to participate in their free auctions. In general, they only auction lower-end products and bid packages in these auctions but the winner only has to pay the final closing price.
HappyBidDay recommends that you use Happy Auctions to stock-up on bids for their penny auctions and to win small gift cards and electronics. They are not a bad place to practice either!
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
How do I get free bids at HappyBidDay?
HappyBidDay offers a number of different ways to get free bids. First, they give you a bunch of Happy Bids (50) when you sign-up. They also give you a pretty heavy discount on your first bid package if you use coupon code HAPPYFREE.
Others ways to get free bids on Happy Bid Day
- We follow HappyBidDay on their facebook page and they are always running promos and contests for free bids as well.
- Many auctions come with free bids if you win (this helps keep you in the game)
- Referring a friend gets you free bids
Stay tuned to the blog for other ways to get free bids on HappyBidDay.
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
Does HappyBidDay offer auto-bidding?
Auto-bidding on HappyBidDay
BidRunner is the name of HappyBidDay’s auto-bid tool. BidRunner starts when a user enters in a ‘bid from’ (the price at which it will turn on) amount, a ‘bid to’ (the price at which it will turn off) amount and the total number of bids to be spent.
- When it bids: Randomly during the final few seconds
- How many bids can it place per campaign: Up to 400 bids
- How many can be set simultaneously: 1 per auction, 2 at any one time
- Can it be deactivated? No. Once it’s started, it cannot be stopped
- Restrictions: New customers cannot set more than 50 bids at a time
- Try BidRunner
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
How does HappyBidDay.com’s Buy It feature work?
HappyBidday offers Buy It auctions where auction losers can get all their lost bids (for a given auction) replenished if they choose to pay for the item at retail value.
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
Where can I find HappyBidDay Reviews?
First, there is a slideshare presentation of this HappyBidDay Review here:
Next, there is a Youtube Video review of happybidday available as well:
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
What are Happybidday Reserve Auctions?
Happy Bid Day now offers a new kind of auction, reserve auctions. Beezid.com has done something similar in the past so we wanted to take a close look at what these new auctions mean for HappyBidDay bidders.
First, here are the bullet points on Happybidday.com’s Reserve Auctions:
- Auction requires that a hidden reserve be met in order for the auction to continue
- Once the reserve price is met, a notification appears to let bidders know
- If the reserve is not met, all bids are returned PLUS 10%! That’s right, you get a 10% reward if the auction does not reach its reserve!
- If the reserve is met, all bidders (winners and losers) get 20% of their bids back.
- Auction items are typically high end, expensive items
When we first saw reserve auctions, we were concerned but there is real value in these auctions.
Posted in: HappyBidDay FAQs
HappyBidDay User Ratings and Reviews
The reviews below were submitted by users, and solely reflect the views of the individuals who submitted them. Users were not compensated for leaving a review.
Submit your review | |
I had previously had a good experience with HappyBidday (a year or so past) but after a long break I am not so sure things have gotten better. Is it possible there are "ringers" in the playing field? As Donna From the March 29, 2017 review states "The same people/person wins the $100 or Reserve auctions regardless the cost. Even the $25 cards are being won by the same people/person. I have actually seen some bid over the cost of the prize offered and they still lose the "power" bidder.
I think I will use up my bids and then be done with un'HappyBidday'.
I have been bidding for about a year on Happy Bidday. It is a love/hate relationship. I have one many items up to $100. There are certain auctions the same persons bids on every rime and wins no matter the amount of bids it takes to win. There is one person who wins 90% of Reserve auctions. I just don't bother. There are the same 5 or 6 power bidders who win most all the over $100 auctions. It is getting harder to win any auction and actually get a deal. Most if you add the cost of your bids and the cost you must pay you win no deals. It is a rarity. I do bid but if i see certain names i do not bother. I have come to the conclusion there are robots on this site because they will power bid on several auctions at the same time and run the price way up then disappear, hardly ever winning. The same 5 or 6 win all the big auctions. But the worst thing about Happy Bidday most of their auctions do not have a set amount that does not allow new bidders. So you could be battling for an auction and it be over $30 and you a couple 1000 bids in and a new bidder starts. That is very wrong. But if you just like to win then bid on the smaller auctions and $25 gift cards and you have a good chance to win.
I had no experience with penny auctions until last week. I decided to try HappyBidDay because unlike other sites they gave me 5 free bids without requiring me to purchase any. These promo bids are best used on starter auctions featuring low value items locked only to users who have never won an auction. (Once you win, any of your 5 promo bids that remain will disappear.) With my first bid I was able to win a little copper round collectible and 30 bids for $1.02. (You can find more useful items, such as in-ear headphones or $10 gift cards. However the gift cards I've seen for starter bids only come with 10 bids and you probably want at least 20 unless you're planning to purchase a bid pack.) Then I got lucky on a $10 Amazon gift card and 50 bids for $1.13, and today I won a Choose One auction and selected a LeapFrog laptop for $1.49.
The biggest drawback to HappyBidDay is shipping and processing. I don't recommend bidding on anything until you've looked at how much it will cost to receive your item. Also, the shipping price seems to be tied to item value in some cases. Don't tell me a 5 oz silver bar costs $9.99 to ship! It does come with 150 bids, though, so the retail value is high and I think the shipping is tied to that.
Bid carefully, because there are serious power bidders and not just on the big ticket items like iPads. I'd watch some auctions after you win your starter auction because you'll see the same bidders come up a lot.
On the other hand, don't feel confined to Rookie Auctions (less than 25 wins). My second and third auction wins came from the regular, open-to-all auctions. Just start with some modest items and remember, like any sale, it's not a good deal if you don't have any use for it.
Winning products is fun and getting them delivered in a few days is awesome. This site has great features and they care about their customers having a good experience.
Overall, a pretty fair penny auction. I love buy it auctions, happy auctions and think the return policy is fair. I'm not a big fan of reserve auctions (i dont bid there).
I have been bidding on penny auction sites for over 5 years and many have come and gone. HappyBidDay has been around for over 5 years and I have had great success winning on their site. Their customer service is good and my products are delivered within days. Can't say that about the others
IT IS A SCAM, DONT TRUST THIS COMPANY
Seems like a scam you buy bids and it seems to go foever uses all your bid bucks you buy the bid says 20 seconds you think it's done and it adds 20 more seconds until you have nothing left
Very addicting u will get hooked quickly and eventually get angry from losing
The site is easy to understand. Seem to be a lot of the same bidders winning the high end items. So if you are a new bidder stay away for high end items. I have one several small items. Best part of the site is free to bid auctions for bids, but this does make it harder to win with some many people with lots of bids.