Earlier this afternoon, PursePenny.com, a penny auction site focused on designer handbags and other designer accessories, shut down after having only been open for 11 days. Why? According to the new front page of their website:

Hello,

We appreciate everyone who has supported PursePenny, and we have done our best to provide the best entertainment shopping platform. Unfortunately, due to many challenges with this business and the constant attacks on our site by Pennyburners.com, PursePenny is now out of business. We intend to ship out any remaining product(s) that you may be expecting.

Respectfully,

Amanda PursePenny

On August 11th, PennyBurners published an article titled "PursePenny Steals Content From PennyPurses", in which we linked content and images on PursePenny that were taken directly, and without permission, from PennyPurses.com, the first, original, and only penny auction site for designer handbags. We originally discovered PursePenny when a user by the name "Amanda Renalds" joined PennyBurners as the "owner". After further investigation, it turned out that the site's domain was registered under the name of Toni Kirchner, a former penny auction owner whose now-defunct sites, VacationsForPennies and AuctionCombat, closed while still owing bidders items and money.

When these discoveries were published, "Amanda Renalds" stated, "The domain was purchased from GoDaddy domain auctions. I do not know who the previous owner was, it has been updated now." Then, Toni Kirchner himself registered on PennyBurners and deflected blame onto a penny auction script developer, stating that this developer was trying to "get at" him. Toni tried to assure everyone that "anyone can register a domain name with GoDaddy using any name they want." However, shortly after "Amanda" and Toni made their posts in our forum, PursePenny had domain privacy turned on, making it impossible to see who the domain was registered to. Thankfully, we had the foresight to take a screenshot of the domain registration information beforehand:

Please click: PursePenny Domain Registration Information

While it is true that you can register a domain with any name you wish, if this script developer Toni accused of trying to frame him was really out to "get" Toni, s/he would not have turned on domain privacy. We were not convinced, and neither were many bidders who remembered the mess Toni Kirchner left behind when his other two sites went belly-up. We warned bidders to be extremely cautious going forward, and asked that they let us know if they received any of their wins.

We watched over the next week as auctions for designer items like Manolo Blahnik shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses, Gucci purses, Jimmy Choo perfume, Lulu Lemon athletic clothing, and Swarovski jewelry sold for less than $.10 each. In one week, PursePenny auctioned off more than $15,000 in designer accessories, with bidders winning at more than 95-99% off the retail price. With no prior or current advertising/marketing in place, how did PursePenny plan to sustain themselves at such a loss? Surely two articles by PennyBurners and another concerned forum owner were not enough to shut down such a legitimate operation!

No, to put it bluntly, the "challenges" PursePenny experienced were challenges brought on by lack of research and preparation, lack of marketing and advertising, and most of all, a lack of ethics.

As of this date, no one has reported receiving any of their wins. However, this may be due to the fact that bidders first had to spend a total of $500 on the site to "earn" 10-day shipping. We still await feedback from the winning bidders of PursePenny. If you, or someone you know, have received authentic, won items from PursePenny.com, please tell us about it in the PennyBurners Penny Auction Forum.

To Toni, Amanda, or whoever the real owner is of PursePenny, and to all of those who strive to open their own penny auction site - DO YOUR RESEARCH! This is no longer an industry where you can take money from innocent people and get away with it; this is not a "get-rich-quick" industry. There are advocates in the community, such as PennyBurners, that will make sure that bidders and their money are kept safe.

Thankfully, there are still many legit penny auction sites out there with proven customer service, shipping, fair play, and marketing prowess. These sites can be found through diligent research of reputable penny auction forums and review sites, where thousands of bidders leave honest reviews and feedback for the various penny auction sites in the industry. Join the PennyBurners Penny Auction Forum to discover these sites, to discuss bidding strategy, and to learn more about the penny auction industry.