Penny Auction Sites Closing

Syndicated from blog.Bid-Bob.com:

I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge a couple of Penny Auction websites that have closed in the last couple of weeks.  I think both come to mind because one became popular in a very short amount of time, and the other was one of the first to launch back in 2009 and 2010.  I was suprised to hear the news about both closings, but I know first-hand the challenges involved in competing in this industry.

1) Doofard.com: Some of you never knew about this Penny Auction site, but they quickly became popular because of their fantastic customer service, the great shipping times, and the overall popularity of the owners.  From my standpoint, they came across as inviting their customers to be part of their family in a way just based on the way the owners interacted with and treated their customers.

2) BigDeal.com: This announcement came today, and it was a surprise to me.  Apparently some bidders saw the writing on the wall but I always thought BigDeal was one of the sites that was well established and had a very good traffic flow.  It just goes to show that even a well-established Penny Auction site can come on hard times in a hurry.  I don't know why they started losing money, or even if they were making a good amount of money at one time.  The company was founded by a number of smart businessmen with an overall startup investment of $4.5 Million Dollars.

What's My Point?

From time to time it's good to acknowledge the well-run sites like Doofard.com, and the well established sites like BigDeal.com as they exit the industry.  We all have a stake in the overall health of an industry that provides such a great entertainment shopping platform.  There are lots of people that think running a Penny Auction is a piece of cake.  You just buy the software, stick some items out there, and the huge profits will come.  It's not that easy.

Bid-Bob.com is trying hard to brand itself as a website that offers more opportunties to win with our Bonus Prizes and the way we increase the value of a gift card as the auction price goes up, as a great place to have fun and enjoy competing against other people to see who can get the best deal, and as a website that truly supports charitable organizations.  We're not going anywhere, in case you wondered.

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Penny Auctions - Bid-Bob