Why Pay to Bid on Penny Auctions when EBay is Full of Them?

Are the penny auctions - where you pay to bid win or lose - real auctions? In my view they are not. All too often the cash paid by bidders far exceeds the value of the item on offer and almost every bidder will lose and still be out of pocket.

Many people are concerned that these auctions should be considered lotteries or prize draws but, to date, they are allowed to continue unchecked. Of even more concern to many people is the total lack of regulation or oversight there is for these websites. How does anyone know they are straight? How does anyone know the game isn't rigged? How can anyone know who they are bidding against?

A real auction in my book is one where you don't pay anything to bid and only the winning bidder pays in return for the item being sold. Call me old fashioned, but isn't that fair?

So it amazes me to see people gleefully tipping their hard earned cash in to these sites when there are thousands upon thousands of auction ending all the time on eBay where the bidding is at just one cent! Don't believe me? Well let me prove it to you. I've set up a filtered search of the live auctions on eBay that will pick out sales just about to end where the bidding currently stands at just a penny. Take a look At the Auctions.

I appreciate not every auction is going to appeal but with well over 100,000 penny auctions running at anytime there has to be something that catches your eye!

Another genuine penny auction promotion is being run by the online auction forums at Pheebay who are encouraging sellers at alternative auction sites to list items at a penny starting bid as a way to publicise their sites who would otherwise be buried in eBay's shadow. They are also running a Squidoo Lens to promote the individual sales.

So before you find yourself draining your credit card only to bid for things you don't win, remember eBay and many alternative auction websites still offer some great bargains.