Lowest Unique Bid - top tips on how to win!

This week I'll be covering a few hints and tips on Lowest Unique Bid - a very different style of pay per bid auction to penny auction,  but results are the same: you get a brand new cheap Wii, iPad, or iPhone for next to nothing. A number of UK radio stations run lowest unique bid competitions: for example, Absolute Radio's lowest unique bid runs 3 to 4 auctions per week and there are reasonable number of lowest unique bid sites - see flutteroo.co.uk

So, this is how to play a lowest unique bid auction.

The Basics 

• Auctions end at a fixed time
• The person with the lowest bid that no one else has is (unique) at the end of the auction, wins
• The picture above shows some results for a finished auction - £0.04 won because only 1 person bid on it, and it was the lowest.

Lowest Unique Bids, Tips and Watchouts

• Whether you have the lowest unique bid at any time can change through out the auction as other players bid
  
• If you start with the  lowest unique bid and someone else bids on that, you're both out
  
• You can have a high unique bid, but end up winning as other unique bids below it are bid on by other  players
  
• Sites often tell you where the current lowest unique bid roughly is (lower or higher), but remember if you find it and bid on it, it will stop being the lowest unique bid.
  
• The real art is to find a space, bid on it, keep it, and remove any lowest unique bids below you by bidding on them or hoping others will bid on them.

What stuff can you win on Lowest Unique Bid?

Like Penny Auctions, Lowest Unique Auctions are a great place to pick up Bargain New Products -  TVs, Kindles, iPads and iPhone or even free cash! When you start playing, look for sites where you can play lowest unique bid auctions for free, so you can practise and develop your own technique. Click here for more information on how lowest unique bid auctions work.

How to Win a Penny Auction and get a bargain

Penny Auctions have been around for a long time now, but how to play them is still a mystery to most people. Here's a quick guide on how to play and win a penny auction.
Penny Auctions have been around for some time now, but how to play them is still a mystery to most people. Here's a quick guide on how to play and win a penny auction.

The Basics

All penny auction sites operate with the same basics:

• The price of the item starts at either nothing or a penny.
  
  
• Unlike ebay, customers pay to bid - bids are bought in advance and then used on the auction. (This allows the auction sites to fund incredibly cheap final prices)
  
  
• Every time someone bids, the price goes up by a set amount - mostly a penny but depends on the auction.
  
  
• When the clock gets to zero, the last person to bid wins (their name will be on the auction).
  
  
• However, every time there is a bid, the clock resets back to 30s or so, to allow other people to decide to bid... that's the twist!

How to Win a penny auction

For this, we're using a UK auction site, flutteroo, as an example:

• Practise, Practise, Practise...
  
  
• Pick a site with a good selection of product, has been around for while and has a strong reputation for customer service. In this example, flutteroo started in early 2009, has over 2000 fans on facebook and a good range of cheap ipads, cheap iphones, cheap wiis, cheap LCD TVs and lots of other cheap top branded electronic goods.
  
  
• Sign-up, buy some bids, then, before you jump in, watch some auctions close, and, if you can, practise before you go for the item you really want. Flutteroo provides free to play auctions for all members that have made a purchase. No bids are used and the player can buy the item when they win. You can practise your skills on these auctions as many times as you want without using bids. A great way to learn.
  
  
• When you are ready to bid for the item you want, pick your auction and time. Check out previous closed auctions for prices. Stick to the auction, don't play across too many auctions at the same time - you may be lucky to win with 1 or two bids, but you're likely to need to bid more than that.
  
  
• Look at the other customer 'tells', style and bluffs. Some customers always bid when the clock gets to zero, some always bid immediately after someone else has bid to try and put them off. Everyone has their own style of bidding.
  
  
• Penny auctions are fun, exciting and can be a great way to pick up some amazing bargains. Pick a good site, with a good reputation that's been around for while and have some fun.

If you decide penny auctions are not for you, but still like the idea of buying brand new items at low prices, then lowest unique bid (e.g. run on absolute radio) or buy it now / reverse auctions maybe more your cup of tea. Watch out for a posting next week on these other types of bargain auctions.

Mark