What are the least expensive penny auction websites?
This is a question we hear all the time! Since penny auction bidding is all about the dream of saving tons of money, it’s only natural that savvy shoppers want to look around for the cheapest penny auctions sites.
First, let’s look at the costs involved in penny auction bidding.
- Cost of bids: Penny auctions charge a per bid price. This means that each auction bid carries a price on it and can range from 10 cents to a dollar or more depending on the penny auction.
- Cost of processing and shipping: Some penny auction sites don’t charge for shipping and other charge very high fees. The processing and shipping costs are important considerations when determining what the cheapest penny auctions are.
- Likelihood of winning: This is not a quantitative cost but all things considered, if you don’t win, the cost of the aforementioned is irrelevant.
If you’re still paying attention, you may not begin to get the feeling that you’re not going to get an exact answer on the question of cheapest penny auctions. You’re right, it’s a mute point because the 3rd factor, likelihood of winning, throws everything else out of the window.
I think the best thing we can do to answer this question is provide a summary of the other costs involved and, assuming that you follow the strategies on this site, you may pick up a win or two for some good deals.
Penny Auctions with the Cheapest Bids
When it comes to bid prices, you have two types of auctions- there’s Quibids and then there’s everyone else. Quibids is the only penny auction (that we know of) that does not waver on bid prices. Bids are 60 cents, always. No deals, no discounts and aside from their badges feature, Quibids does not give away very many bids either. When it comes to bid prices, we’d say that Quibids is actually the most expensive.
Most of the other penny auctions (HappyBidDay, OrangeBidz, Beezid, Dealdash, etc.) offer either large or small discounts on a regular basis. For example, HappyBidDay brings it’s bid price as low as 10 cents when signing-up or during certain promotions. Keep in mind though that everyone else is usually getting this same deal (unless you’re a new user, you get unlimited bids for 24 huors) so competition can be high during these times.
Penny Auctions with the Cheapest Shipping and Processing Costs
If you are fortunate enough to pick up a penny auction win, there are a few penny auctions with free shipping and processing which we’ve covered in the past.
- Quibids: Quibids offers free shipping and processing, all the time. In a vacuum where competition level didn’t matter, we’d say this is the safest bet.
- OrangeBidz: We think that OrangeBidz is a great penny auction because competition seems reasonable and shipping is always free in the Continental USA.
- Beezid and HappyBidDay still usually charge for shipping (there are occasional specials) but in general, when you win, you end up giving a bit back to the house in the form of high shipping fees. The deal is still good (if you win) but we think that these fees are a little unnecessary at times.
We’d like to re-iterate that the true cheapest penny auction really does depend heavily on a number of factors which are not easily determined. For the most part, the likelihood of winning is a big ‘unknown’ (which is what keeps these auctions in business) so this makes it difficult. As we always say, stick with bidding on penny auction with the ‘buy it’ feature and you’ll realize minimize your risk.
Which penny auctions do you think are the least expensive to win?
I haven’t researched much about OrangeBidz but I have researched a ton and have participated on DealDash. I once loved this site and I still currently “like” the site for a few reasons. Before Christmas 2015, Bid prices were as low (the lowest I have ever seen by the way) at just 12 cents a bid. It’s now December 26th and they are currently priced at 16 cents per bid which is pretty darn good. They also add in a feature that every time you bid on an item and happen to be the high bidder, a timer is being run and once the timer runs out, you receive additional free bids. As of right now, they are doing a 3x’s faster timer to obtain those free bids. it’s based on “levels” like on line gaming. The higher level you are the longer it takes to get those free additional bids. example, I am at level 27. I have 0 money invested, right now, in Deal Dash but intend to buy anoth bid pack. I am about 50-60 seconds away from getting to level 28 which then means, as I am high bidder, my time before getting to level 28 becomes shorter and shorter. with the current 3x’s faster to get to next level, I should be at level 28 in way shorter time. once I get to that level of 28. DeaDash will GIVE me 125 FREE bids added directly to my account and total bids available. I do nothing. it just adds to it. huge plus, especially the 3x’s faster promotion. the negative right now is I believe they are trying very hard to get left over inventory gone before the first of the year because the items the past few days have been, well, not so appealing as well as repeating the same products over and over. 6-8 months ago the product selection was awesome. advice, don’t wait for TV’s, IPads, etc at the end of the year. you won’t see them probably until mid January. right now, a flashlight and ear buds are the most up on the board. if you need these things, then go for it as you will get $60 ear buds for almost nothing and one last plus…shipping is ALWAYS free AND if you win the auction, all the bids you used to obtain that item, you get every bid spent back in your account as if you didn’t use any. all you are doing is paying for the final price that the auction ended. oh and I like that I can put, for example, 100 bids on one item then put my iPad down, go away from the site and just forget about it…I lose, then I lose 100 bids…I win, I get all bids returned and an email that tells me I won the auction for say, $35.00 using 100 bids. I get my bids all back and all I pay is $35.00… THAT’s it. no catch. love DealDash (will take a while to get your item though so watch out for that. Hope all this helps…now, from this article, gonna do some research on that “Orangebidz”