Bidster.com offers three types of auctions. The first type is Lowest Unique Bid auctions where the lowest unique bid wins, and not as in a traditional auction where the highest bid wins. The second type of auction is the Cent Auctions where the highest bid wins. The third type is the Scratch Auctions that is an unique and new product Bidster launched in December 2009.
Below we describe how Bidster works: how you become a member, get started and how the auctions works. Thereafter the different auction types are described in detail. For more information you can also visit Frequently Asked Question section under “Support”.
How Bidster works
Bidster membership is free, secure and convenient. As a member you can load up funds which also will give you some extra free bonus bids. As a member you can also participate for free in our membership auctions.
You need to have the following information handy to register for an account: email address, a permanent postal address in United States.
Bidster values your privacy, and vows to never share your personal information with any third party without your explicit consent. As a member, you may choose to receive exclusive offers and newsletters from Bidster, but you may also choose to opt-out of such mailings at any time by opting-out in your profile.
As a Bidster member, you may use PayPal, Click and Buy, debit or credit cards via Paynova (VISA, MasterCard, Maestro, Diners) to add funds to your account.
All transactions are secure and processed through these trusted internet-commerce companies. For security reasons, you may be required to provide these trusted companies with your billing address for the transaction to go through.
Although Bids are only from $ 0.50 each, you may receive additional bonus when you add funds to your account.
How Lowest unique bid auctions work
Bidster’s lowest unique bid auctions differ from regular auctions in that the lowest and uniquebid wins the auction. Bids can only be placed in whole cent, and the goal is to place low bids that are unique when the auction ends. For each bid that you place, Bidster gives you one of the following three responses:
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Your bid is the lowest unique bid. If the bid maintains this status, meaning that no bidder places a bid on the same amount, you will win the auction when it ends.
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Your bid is unique, but not the lowest. To win the auction, all bids that are lower and unique must be knocked-out of the auction by either you or another bidder placing the same amount.
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Your bid is unfortunately not unique. Amounts that receive several bids cannot win the auction.
If your bid is the lowest unique at the end of the auction you get the right to buy the auction item for that bid, which almost always is a fraction of what the item would otherwise have you cost you.
It is easy and exciting to place bids on Bidster’s lowest unique bid auctions. You can choose if you want to place a single bid, for example 3 cent, or multiple bids at once, for example an interval on all the bids between 1 and 5 cents. When you place multiple bids, you will be charged once for each bid.
After your bids have been placed, you can check their status under “My Bids”, where you can follow the excitement live as the auction end comes closer.
Once an auction has ended, your bids for that auction will be shown under “Finished Auctions” instead of “Ongoing Auctions”.
Auction example (Lowest unique bid auction)
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When the auction begins, Maria places two bids: 1 cent and 2 cent. Bidster gives her the status reply that 1 cent is the “lowest unique bid”, and 2 cent is “unique, but not the lowest”. At a later time, Peter places three bids on the same auction: 2, 3, and 4 cent. The bid on 2 cent gets the status “not unique”, since Maria also has a bid on 2, while the bids 3 and 4 cent both get the status “unique, but not the lowest”.
Before the auction ends, Christian places the bid 1 cent, and gets the reply “not unique”. Instantly, Maria’s bid on 1 cent also gets updated to “not unique”. Peter’s bid on 3 cent then becomes the “lowest unique bid”, since neither 1 nor 2 cent are unique anymore.
If no more bids are placed before the end of the auction Peter gets the right to buy the item for 3 cent.
Bidster can sell the item at this extremely low price by charging a small amount (most common $ 0.50) for each bid that is placed in the auction, combined with exclusive deals and discounts with many of the companies that have their products on the website. Bidster is, simply put, a great opportunity for companies to give you the opportunity to buy their products at a fraction of what they would otherwise cost. Bid and win!
Below you see a graph that gives you an overview over the bidding statuses and how lowest unique bid auctions works.
How cent auctions work
In the Cent Auctions the highest bid wins the auction. Each time a participant place a bid the price of the product increase by 10 cents. When no bids are placed within the bidding time the auction ends. The bidding time starts usually at 2 minutes and counts down to 0 (if no bids are received in the meantime). When a new bid is placed the bidding time is reset to 2 minutes and counts down until 0 or a participant place a bid again. The count down time for a cent auction will become smaller the longer the auction is active. The reason for this is to increase excitement and quicker end auctions that have been running for a while. The participant that has the highest bid when the counter reach 0 and the auction ends wins the auction and the opportunity to buy the product for this price (plus a freight cost).
Bids are placed through a free membership account. The bidding is open and you can follow your own bids and the latest placed bids for each auction.
For Cent Auctions, you can choose to place a single bid or more bids at the same time through the Bid Robot. For example, you can activate the Bid Robot starting to bid immediately when the auction starts, or let it wait a while until the auction has been running for a time before it starts to bid on your behalf.
Once your bid has been placed, you can follow the outcome of the auction at the start page or the specific auction page. On the specific auction page you can see the all latest placed bids. You can also see your placed bids on the auction page or under “Ongoing Auctions”. When an auction has ended you find the auction and the bids you placed in it under “Ended Auctions”.
Auction example (Cent Auction)
When the auction starts Maria place a bid on 10 cents. Then she has the highest bid and may purchase the product for that price if the counter reach 0 and the auction ends before a new bid is placed.
Suddenly Peter place a bid and raise the price by another 10 cents. The countdown timer resets and starts over on 2 minutes. If no one places a new bid before the auction ends, Peter will receive the opportunity buy the product for 20 cents.
But Maria adds another bid. The countdown timer is reset again, but nobody place a new offer before it has reached 0. Maria wins the auction and can purchase the product for 30 cents plus a delivery cost.
How Scratch auctions work
Scratch Auctions are a form of classic so-called Dutch tulip auctions where the price of the product is reduced the whole time until someone buys it. What Bidster created is a new version of Dutch Auctions. On Bidster´s Scratch Auctions the current price is hidden from the participant until the participant scratch the auction. Then the participant will see the current price. Every time someone scratch the auction the price is lowered.
So the more people that scratch the auction the faster the price will drop. You need to have the courage to wait for a really good and low price – but do not wait too long because then maybe someone else purchase the product before you. When the price gets lower and lower the chance that someone buys the product and the auction ends dramatically increase.
Auction example (Scratch auction)
The market price of the product is $ 100. Starting price for the auction is $ 95 (the start price is hidden for the participants). Every scratch lowers the price $ 2.5.
When the auction starts Maria scratch the auction and get the current price of $ 92.50. She sees the price in 10 seconds, but thinks it is a bit expensive and choose not to buy the product for the current price. Thereafter Peter scratch the auction and get his current price of $ 90. He also thinks it is a bit expensive and decides not to buy the product.
After Peter´s scratch, Christian decides to scratch the auction and he receives the price $ 87.50. He thinks the price is pretty good, but chooses not to purchase the product since he hopes that the price goes down further before he strikes.
Maria scratch the auction again and get the current price $ 85.00. She thinks it's a good price and choose to purchase the product. Then the auction ends and Maria is the winner.
