What are the least expensive penny auction websites?

This is a question we hear all the time! Since penny auction bidding is all about the dream of saving tons of money, it’s only natural that savvy shoppers want to look around for the cheapest penny auctions sites.

First, let’s look at the costs involved in penny auction bidding.

  • Cost of bids: Penny auctions charge a per bid price. This means that each auction bid carries a price on it and can range from 10 cents to a dollar or more depending on the penny auction.
  • Cost of processing and shipping: Some penny auction sites don’t charge for shipping and other charge very high fees. The processing and shipping costs are important considerations when determining what the cheapest penny auctions are.
  • Likelihood of winning: This is not a quantitative cost but all things considered, if you don’t win, the cost of the aforementioned is irrelevant.

cheapest-penny-auctionsIf you’re still paying attention, you may not begin to get the feeling that you’re not going to get an exact answer on the question of cheapest penny auctions. You’re right, it’s a mute point because the 3rd factor, likelihood of winning, throws everything else out of the window.

I think the best thing we can do to answer this question is provide a summary of the other costs involved and, assuming that you follow the strategies on this site, you may pick up a win or two for some good deals.

Penny Auctions with the Cheapest Bids

When it comes to bid prices, you have two types of auctions- there’s Quibids and then there’s everyone else. Quibids is the only penny auction (that we know of) that does not waver on bid prices. Bids are 60 cents, always. No deals, no discounts and aside from their badges feature, Quibids does not give away very many bids either. When it comes to bid prices, we’d say that Quibids is actually the most expensive.

Most of the other penny auctions (HappyBidDay, OrangeBidz, Beezid, Dealdash, etc.) offer either large or small discounts on a regular basis. For example, HappyBidDay brings it’s bid price as low as 10 cents when signing-up or during certain promotions. Keep in mind though that everyone else is usually getting this same deal (unless you’re a new user, you get unlimited bids for 24 huors) so competition can be high during these times.

Penny Auctions with the Cheapest Shipping and Processing Costs

If you are fortunate enough to pick up a penny auction win, there are a few penny auctions with free shipping and processing which we’ve covered in the past.

  • Quibids: Quibids offers free shipping and processing, all the time. In a vacuum where competition level didn’t matter, we’d say this is the safest bet.
  • OrangeBidz: We think that OrangeBidz is a great penny auction because competition seems reasonable and shipping is always free in the Continental USA.
  • Beezid and HappyBidDay still usually charge for shipping (there are occasional specials) but in general, when you win, you end up giving a bit back to the house in the form of high shipping fees. The deal is still good (if you win) but we think that these fees are a little unnecessary at times.

We’d like to re-iterate that the true cheapest penny auction really does depend heavily on a number of factors which are not easily determined. For the most part, the likelihood of winning is a big ‘unknown’ (which is what keeps these auctions in business) so this makes it difficult. As we always say, stick with bidding on penny auction with the ‘buy it’ feature and you’ll realize minimize your risk.

Which penny auctions do you think are the least expensive to win?