Bid strategies

Tips & Trix how to win an auction at Bidster.com!

Here is a summary of the many tips some of our most frequent winners of our entertaining auctions shared with us, how you can increase your chances of winning our popular auctions.

As you probably know by now, there is no random element in our auctions. In all auctions you will bid against other bidders. So it is very much about the knowledge, tactics and timing, and endurance to win the auction or not. Just as it has always been in the auction business. Both the classical maximum bid auctions and declining Dutch auctions, the person who has the most knowledge about products and demand, and has the best bidding strategy, has always done the best deals at all types of auctions. It is the same here. Therefore below some tips and trix´s are shared.

1. Lowest unique bid auctions

In regular lowest unique bid auctions, most bids in an auction is placed under 10 % of the products market value. If there is a very popular product, it can go up to 20 % and in a less popular about 5 %. That means the lowest unique bid usually is found just under 50 % of these values between 2-7 % of the market price. Roughly as below table shows:

With more expensive products, the lowest unique bid goes up slightly in percentage, and with cheaper products, it usually goes down a percentage or two.

But no rule without exceptions, and the more customers who are now reading statistics and facts about past auctions will get more knowledge, which they of course will have as a base and asset for their bidding strategies. It´s all about how you place your bids a bit smarter than the other bidders. And if there is very few bidders, your possibility of winning the auction is of course higher. And remember there is no element of luck here.

What is there for different types of bidding strategies?

Some participants go in early in an auction and buy a large serie of bids from 1 and upwards. So they certainly have the lowest unique bid from the start of an auction. Then they sit and consistently defends its lowest unique bid by purchasing more and more bids up the numbers, as more and more of their lowest and unique bids in the auction gets not unique. Then it is just the question how far you are willing to go to defend your lowest unique bid.

Other tactics is similar but with a reduced number of bids, ie. the bidder purchases every third or fourth bid. Another strategy is to visit later or at the absolute end of an auction to place a larger number of bids, based on previous statistics on the same or similar closed auctions. Some participants do it with a full second with a reduced range and in some advanced cases, even at your chosen end figures analyzed by the least likely that other bidders place their bids. Some participants always place their bid or bids at the same number regardless of auction and time, if it is based on careful analysis and other theories.

As you see there is many different strategies behind the bidding. The vast majority place their bids themselves, others do it with others. It is no coincidence that certain names recur as the winner of our lowest unique bid auctions. They both invest more time and money in our auctions and therefore win more often than others. Some of them are doing very large profits some are not.

To win more lowest unique bid auctions, you should:

• Analyze past auctions results
• See how the task was completed in the near future auctions
• Decide what products or auction, you really want to win
• Decide if you will go in early and defend your lowest unique bid

or

• Go in as late as possible and try to find the lowest unique bid at the end of the auction

or

• At any time based on your statistical theory buy a full or reduced set of bids between x and y.

or

• Adding your bid simply based on the lowest number you do not believe other bidders place their bids, on plain psychology and rational human behaviour analysis.

Then of course you should never add more bids in an auction than what you can afford to lose. Even if you now can buy the product you bid on and get all your bids back in our BuyitNOW offer.

2. Cent Auctions

A Cent auction is an auction going on in 15 - 120 seconds, and restart with an increase in price by 10 cents, as long as there is more than one participant who wants to bid in the auction. When there is only one participant left who wish to bid in the auction the auction closes and the winner of the auction may purchase the product for the winning bid.

Winning cent auctions is mostly about timing and endurance. But there is some generel rules you should follow. Wait until the last seconds before you place your bid. It´s recommended that you start with cheaper and less attractive products to increase your chances of winning it. Use the bidrobot smarter than your competitors. Check who´m your competing against. Be active and follow all the auctions you are interested in.

One method is to enter into an auction when the auction activity is at its lowest when there is a small number of active bidders. Some choose to do it early, because they believe that the product is not as attractive as others on the site and therefore the activity is generally low in the auction when it is very much focus on other much more popular auctions. Others choose to simply wait until they believe that most bidders and their bid robots are running low.

Some participants sit and wait for the duels to kick off and thereafter start their bidding in the auction (a duel is when it is only 2 people placing bids against each other). Another method is to wait until a time when the activity on the site in general is low, for example in the mornings. Some people goes even further and choose only to enter an auction at certain times on certain days. As they then analyzed by the activity on the site is at its lowest then. Most people who win auctions using quotes bid robots and have very good timing and perseverance as well as statistics on other persistent bidders, so they choose their opponents in the auction with great caution. Some of them are so analytic that they try to find patterns at their competitors biddings and adapt their strategys based on that. Another method that is common used - place a bid robot in many auctions and scare away your opponents. We have seen it happen many times! Most place bids by themselves, while a few participants says to have groups and do it with each other.

As with all auctions, good knowledge, timing and strategy in bidding very important here too. However for cent auctions timing and endurance are most important. Most cent auctions end between 1 - 5% of the market value of the product. Some very attractive products can be maintained up to 30-40% of market value and extremely popular products can under rare circumstances even be pretty expensive! But we have never ( what we can remember anyway) seen a product be sold for less than with a 50 % discount.

In summary:

• Select the auction and the product you really want
• Cheaper and less attractive products is of course easier to win
• Select strategy day/time/startvalue when you will enter the auction
• Place your bids late
• Determine a limit to how many bids you want to put in the auction
• Use bid robots with the right timing
• Check on your competition
• Follow the auctions carefully and look for "sloppy" Bidrobot users

Although you can use our BuyItNow feature and get back all the bids you place in an auction, when you decides to buy the product from Bidster, you should never add more bids and bids in bidrobots than you can afford to lose with a smile.

3. Scratch Auctions

At our scratch auctions you pay a sum to see the secret lowering price, and the price on the product lowers with 50% of the sum you pay to see the secret price.

Let us say that the price to see the secret price is $ 1 and 1 000 customers decides to check the price 2 times on an average. Then the prices lowers with a total of $ 1 000. Everytime you scratch the auction you get 10 - 60 seconds to see the price and determine if you want to buy the product for the current price or not. When the 10 seconds is gone, you no longer see the price nor can purchase the product, unless you pay for another scratch. But do not wait to long, as soon as someone decides to buy it the auction closes.

So how low does the prices sink until customers buy it? Well the statistics so far says that a normal product goes for about 70% of the market price, popular products about 80 % and less popular products about 60%. Most auctions closes of course in the evenings when the traffic on the site is highest.

Like any of Bidster´s other auction types you can use statistics to receive information and estimate when someone purchase the product and the auction ends. One method is to scratch an auction you are interested frequently to lower the price for yourself. This is risky though, anyone can at anytime decide to purchase the product before you. Another method is to come back ie. every day and scratch the auction to see how the price has decreased. Suddenly it might be a price that you are fine with and then you can purchase the product. This is  a slower method but less risky. If an auction ends you hopefully have not invested that much money and can start over on another interesting auction.

As for our other auctions you can use our BuyItNow feature and get back all the bids you placed in an auction, when you buy the product from Bidster. Still you should never scratch the auction more for more funds than you can afford to lose.