Bidding Strategies for Online Auctions

Online auctions have come of age. Once the province of one big online auction site whose name starts with e and ends with Bay, there are now many online auction sites utilizing a number of different business models. You can score some incredible bargains in online auctions – or you can pay far more for an item than it’s worth. Depending on the site and its business model, you can end up paying out more money than you intended and still not end up with the item you were bidding on. If you want to score big bargains in online auctions, it helps to understand the site’s business model and have a targeted strategy for winning items on each site.

Standard Online Auctions

The most familiar type of online auction site, that big, well-known one, is technically an English auction. In English auctions, the item is posted and users place open bids on each item. Each new bid must be larger than the bid before it and the winner is the one who places the largest bid at the end of the time allotted for the auction.

One of the best strategies for winning online auctions is to keep your bids to yourself. This may seem impossible – after all, don’t they show the highest bid? Not necessarily. Some sites allow you to name a maximum amount that you’ll bid on an item – but won’t show the maximum bid to anyone else. Instead, the site will increase the bid on the item by a specific increment – and you’ll pay that price if you win it. If someone tops your bid, the site will automatically increase the bid by the standard increment – and keep doing that until someone outbids your maximum.

By letting the online auction site manage your bidding, you’re saving yourself time and ensuring that you don’t get carried away and bid more than you can afford. You’re also avoiding one of the biggest no-nos in bidding – calling attention to the item you want to buy. Every bid increases its visibility – keep your bids out of site and you’ll have less competition.

Bidding Strategies for Penny Auctions

Penny auction sites are growing in popularity. On these auction sites, you buy a number of “bids” for a package price, and then use the bids to buy items that interest you. The action on penny auctions can be fast and exciting – and strategy is important to winning the items you want for the lowest possible number of bids.

Strategies for winning penny auctions often involve timing things right. Bidding during off hours, for example, guarantees that you’ll have less competition for items you want, which usually translates to spending fewer bids to get the item you want.

The most important tip for winning online auctions is a common sense one. Research the online auction site before bidding. The more you know about how the site works, the easier it will be to win the auctions you enter.