A.J. Rosner, Volunteer Staff/Developer

Anthony Rosner, Volunteer Staff/Developer

Anthony J. Rosner, (aka "A.J.", named after famous racecar driver from Houston) has been a great asset to the PennyBurners Team and volunteers a lot of his time to help where he can, including editing the Podcasts for PennyTalkRadio. He lives in Plainfield, IN, just 20 miles west of Indianapolis. He has a wife and two teen-age kids.

A.J. initially found penny auctions while hacking his kids' Wii console. He was searching for homebrew applications online when he came across a BidRodeo.com advertisement. He checked them out to see the kind of "deal" your parents always warn you about: If it looks too good to be true, it probably isn't legitimate. A.J. was intrigued, but skeptical, and didn't put any money in right away. He asked a friend of his if he'd heard of penny auctions, and showed him the "Rodeo". His friend risked a bit of money, and won something; he was hooked and decided to start a site, which A.J. helped manage, called Live2Bid.com. As they were both programmers, they didn't have to invest as much as most sites, though they had a lot to learn about the industry.

A.J. had won only a few items on Bid Rodeo - a couple gift cards and Tony Hawk game. As a casual bidder bidding on items he needs more than wants, A.J. doesn't spend thousands on penny auctions like most, but he do enjoy the rush of winning when it happens. He has tried a lot of new sites over the last two years, and has had some success. Most notable to him are:

Bid Rodeo: Mentioned above.

Bid-Wants: Beatles Rockband; Received PS3 converted to Amazon Cash bought Flat Panel TV.

ABCPenny: Dishes, Pots/Pans, Skillet, Gift Cards

BidSauce: Gift Cards.

SpiceBids: Movies, Microwave Oven.

BidDogz: Volleyball & Badminton sets, Autographed Tony Stewart pic, Remote Helicopter

Beezid: $100 Target card

Numerous Gift cards, flashdrives and such items from sites as YourPennyWins, PennyPrizes, BidPlenty, and LincolnBidz. A.J. has participated in a couple thousand auctions, and believes that his success is just above break-even over the last two years.

After Live2Bid was dissolved,A.J.  continued to concentrate his time to learning more about PHP/AJAX/MySQL by further enhancing the script they used. He enjoys the satisfaction programming gives him when he fashions a new concept/idea and is able to turn it into a solution. Although short lived, A.J. believes that Live2bid was the first site to utilize Auction Tiers besides the beginner; they added a novice tier on their site. They also were first to utilize what they called "Progressive Auctions", now referred to as "Scaled Auctions" on some sites. Those concepts didn't work well for them due to poor traffic, but have become some common concepts in the industry today. A.J. feels proud to have helped contribute to the industry that way.

Given what he has learned, A.J. would like to continue to being a positive influence on the growth of the industry. He is willing to help other site owners and bidders alike to understand the pitfalls from every side of the fence, since he have been there. Site Manager, Programmer, Bidder. This complete understanding allows him to still think out of the box with solutions that would help sites succeed.

A.J. doesn't drink coffee, but on a typical day, he probably downs about a 2-liter of Diet Coke or Mtn. Dew. Good luck, kidneys...