# Penny auctions: any Dopers ever made it work? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795 "2011-01-24T16:24:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/21 "2011-01-24T20:53:53Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > It’s exactly like the lottery, if lottery tickets cost $1 and the grand prize was $10,000 for every million tickets sold. It’s also quite a lot like roulette, if the pay out was 35 to 1 but the wheel had seven thousand numbers of it. > > I’m fairly sure there are gambling laws that prevent the house from taking 90% of the pot from each bet. The same laws should apply to sites like this. I don’t care what the people who run it are making, so long as they are not being dishonest to make it. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/22 "2011-01-24T20:59:58Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I don’t care what the people who run it are making, so long as they are not being dishonest to make it. You should care, as the house margin on a random lottery _will_ come out of your pocket if you participate enough times. That’s just math. The only time it makes sense not to care would be if you devised a scheme that allowed you to win a far-more-than-random percentage of the time. Which so far there’s no evidence is even possible, given how the auctions are set up. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/23 "2011-01-24T22:53:03Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I don’t care what the people who run it are making, so long as they are not being dishonest to make it. The way their system works is by feeding on the ignorance of marks dumb/gullible enough to try it. Are you the same poster who defended the existence of ghosts and abusive polygamy because it was featured on Oprah? If not, excuse me (I’m not very good with names- particularly usernames), but if so, why do you regularly attempt to defend the indefensible? ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/24 "2011-01-25T12:06:21Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > As I said, I’m very aware of the degree of scam involved, saying it repeatedly is entirely unnecessary. Sorry, but there is a bit of a disconnect here. If you’re aware of the degree of scam involved, I don’t see why you’re asking for accounts of positive experiences with them. People win because of blind luck. The second link I posted above is a very in-depth account of an attempt to find a winning strategy. It failed, because of the way the site was set up. There is no way for an individual to find a winning strategy at a penny auction site, assuming they have set it up in a competant manner. The model of automated bidding and rolling auction times ensures this, assuming they can generate sufficient interest in their site. The user community as a whole could beat them, by religiously avoiding bidding against each other. Good luck with getting that organised, and anyway, at the point the site is giving out bargains it will close down, and you probably won’t recieve your item. > [@Giraffe](#): > > It’s exactly like the lottery, if lottery tickets cost $1 and the grand prize was $10,000 for every million tickets sold. It’s also quite a lot like roulette, if the pay out was 35 to 1 but the wheel had seven thousand numbers of it. > > I’m fairly sure there are gambling laws that prevent the house from taking 90% of the pot from each bet. The same laws should apply to sites like this. Exactly. When gambling, the thing the gambler should be most interested in is the ratio of payouts to bets. For example, for horse-racing this ratio is pretty high, IIRC it’s over 90%. From this baseline, the gambler can decide if their is anything they can do to improve their chances of winning (unfortunately, many gamblers are not realistic about this). With penny auction sites, the payout ratio is unknown but can be very low (under 10% in the real world example I linked to). > [@Stoid](#): > > I don’t care what the people who run it are making, so long as they are not being dishonest to make it. You really should care, see my comments above. Personally, I think it’s unethical to exploit people’s ignorance to effectively sell items for many times their true value. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/25 "2011-01-25T12:25:47Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Because the scripts are relatively easy to get and run, there’s new such sites coming along all the time, and while they are tempting because they are new and therefore have less competition in bidding, the newness means they are less trustworthy. Are you thinking of setting up such a site? ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/26 "2011-01-25T12:30:48Z")
From the Hubpages quote you posted: [QUOTE=Hubpages] …you also have the option of catching a scam site in the act, calling up an attorney and pulling the plug on it… and making far more than a penny in the process. [/QUOTE] Or are you fishing for a lawsuit? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/27 "2011-01-25T20:01:23Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > From the Hubpages quote you posted:Or are you fishing for a lawsuit? :rolleyes: That would be good, Stoid has a good track record with those… I look forward to her thread detailing how well it goes. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/28 "2011-01-25T20:42:01Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > is there any way of constructing a similar site that isn’t such a blatant rip-off? Is there such a site that does? No, because it’s an incredibly inefficient and time-consuming way to acquire a product (from the consumer’s end). As other’s have said, it’s a low-yield, high cost lottery (even if the proprietor or someone else doesn’t rig it with bots). It’s a fundamental misnomer to call it an auction or refer to “bidding.” Oh I didn’t see if this was mentioned, they also make much of how it’s a no-lose proposition because if you bid ninety times and “lose,” they’ll credit the cost of those bids against a buy-it-now retail purchase of the same item. I don’t have to tell you that that’s more sucker bait because the “retail” price will be bust-out MSRP and no deal at all. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/29 "2011-01-25T20:43:51Z")
This is interesting. I always wondered how those ipad for $27.75 things worked. But you seemed to need to sign up for something first and that was too much work to figure out what the deal was. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/30 "2011-01-25T21:58:53Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Are you the same poster who defended the existence of ghosts and abusive polygamy because it was featured on Oprah? No. > [@Merneith](#): > > Are you thinking of setting up such a site? Yegads no. > [@Crotalus](#): > > For are you fishing for a lawsuit? :rolleyes: Yes! I love lawsuits! Yippee! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/31 "2011-01-25T22:13:03Z")
Uh…[yeah you were.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=581918&highlight=polygamy) I don’t know about the ghost one. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/32 "2011-01-26T00:49:25Z")
> [@Elysian](#): > > Uh…[yeah you were.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=581918&highlight=polygamy) > > I don’t know about the ghost one. My participation in that thread was not what was described in he question, so no, I wasn’t. And when did you stop setting fire to kittens, Elysian? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/33 "2011-01-26T01:33:49Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > My participation in that thread was not what was described in he question, so no, I wasn’t. > > And when did you stop setting fire to kittens, Elysian? [Moderator Note]Both of you-knock it off.[/Moderator Note] ---
**Author:** ![Elysian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@Elysian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elysian)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/34 "2011-01-26T13:10:06Z")
Knock what off? That makes no sense. I wasn’t directly attacking her in any way, or calling her names. I just linked to another thread. What the fuck? Please explain. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/35 "2011-01-26T14:33:42Z")
In that other thread we were allowed to link to the guy saying he wanted to pump a little girl full of jizz. Just sayin’… ---
**Author:** ![ColdPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@ColdPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ColdPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/36 "2011-01-26T15:00:00Z")
I reckon you should go for it **Stoid**. Sounds like a good way to pick up some cheap items. ---
**Author:** ![MOIDALIZE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@MOIDALIZE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MOIDALIZE)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/37 "2011-01-26T16:12:16Z")
Yeah, **Stoid** , don’t let these petty naysayers get you down. Get out there and find some deals! ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/38 "2011-01-26T17:22:26Z")
Did a bit more searching on this today, and found the people who run the penny auction sites have been busy poisoning google results. Searching for “penny auction scam” turns up a lot of links with oh-so-helpfully tips, but which ignore the basic fact that the model is a rip-off for end users. Most recommend specific sites. The smartest one I’ve seen is a site that promised to return half of the value of your bids if you failed to win the item. On the face of it, that sounds quite good, moving the ratio of payouts to stake to a much more equitable level. But in fact, all they are doing is effectively reducing the cost of each bid. If bids cost less, people will bid more, so the site can offer this without greatly affecting it’s profitability. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2011, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/39 "2011-01-26T17:33:07Z")
I’m glad I caught this thread. I’d been planning to sign up at [SkoreIt.com](http://SkoreIt.com). ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795/40 "2011-01-27T00:45:38Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I’m glad I caught this thread. I’d been planning to sign up at [SkoreIt.com](http://SkoreIt.com). :dubious: I thought you were smarter than that… Oh, I just realized what your user name means. :eek: Carry on. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penny-auctions-any-dopers-ever-made-it-work/568795.md?page=3)