As global penny auctions gain in popularity, one cannot but stop and think - is it good for me, as a bidder? Sure, it seems it is a great idea for the site because it can now reach out to bidders all over the world without having a critical mass of bidders in each country. But what about bidders? How good is it?
Here, by global penny auctions, I mean those sites where people from all over the world compete on the same auctions. This means if there is a gift card that I am bidding on, chances are, the other bidder I am competing against is from a different country and time zone as me.
Pros The biggest advantage of global penny auctions is that it helps you with variety of products. This is accomplished in two distinct ways. One, there are certain products that are popular in the US and not the UK or Australia and vice versa. This means you get to pick and bid on auctions that you wouldn't normally see in your country. This sure is exciting.
Secondly, bidders get to see more auctions throughout the day because now people from different time-zones are competing. This is actually a good deal for many bidders who don't get to bid during the peak product times, like afternoon (because you are working) and instead want to bid at night when there are not enough products. Yes, it is true, almost all penny auctions have fewer auctions during the night.
Cons Of course it is not all a bed of roses. There are times when you don't want to be bidding globally. One immediate concern is to do with competition. Will the penny auction scale up the number of auctions in proportion to the number of bidders who have now increased? The answer of course depends on the site but the usual answer is no. This means more competition because of increased bidders on same number of slightly increased number of auctions.
Global bidding may also render some bidding strategies obsolete. This would mean bidders need to reevaluate everything, especially strategies based on best bidding times.
It is definitely exciting to be bidding against people from all over the world, but at the same time you should remember why you are on the site - to win! Some penny auctions can pull it off well and others cannot. BidRivals, the most popular site at one point of time throughout Europe is struggling today with significantly fewer auctions and bidders than at its peak.
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