Bitcoin Forum

How many people in this community would be interested in a Bitcoin penny auction site?

For those of you not in the know, here is how such a site works:

• User buys bids with Bitcoins, usually priced at a small amount so multiple bids can be bought with 1 Bitcoin
• Every bid placed on an item raises the item's current price by 1 penny, or in this case a bitcent
• Winner of auction pays final price of item
• Item is delivered to user

Items put up for auction would be a mix of gift cards, additional site bids, Bitcoins, and potentially physical items.

Obviously, the process of buying bids to place on an item generates the primary revenue for the operation the site. It may be misleading to some when they see a user winning 20 bitcoins for some ridiculously low amount, like 1 bitcoin.

Thanks, I would like to hear the interest of the community.

Penny auctions are like gambling. There is always demand for it. However smart people know the odds, and won't play. Therefore you need lots of stupid people.

I don't see the success in bitcoin gambling yet because the early adopters are too damn smart to gamble their money away. However that might be changing and the stupid people might start using bitcoin as well. So it might work in the near future.

Really? Have you heard of SatoshiDice? :)

You should know about mokimarket.com.

it needs alot of stupid ppls, but there are enough of them! just look at Satoshi Dice!

It's been tried already, and hasn't been very successful.  mokimarket.com.  I would suggest not duplicating your efforts TBH.

Sounds like you need a way to prove that the penny bids are legit which requires a Web of trust but the whole integration of everything would have to be done correctly for people to take the validity seriously.

Sounds like my site mokimarket!

The problem is that any penny auction site is basically considered a scam (even though anyone that has used my site know hows easy it is to win bitcoins), so you can't really get an active userbase. I've had my site up for a year and a half and I would say only 10% of auctions are profitable.  I tried to make it a marketplace by allowing users to post their own penny auctions but that didnt really catch on either. Seemed like a good idea at the time haha!
 

I don't really understand why people look at it that way either.  It's a form of gambling/entertainment, just like playing the slots or putting some chips down on the poker table.  I suppose when it is not marketed as such, people could call it a scam.

I know, if I had a lottery or slot machine site where the house has a clear edge, people wouldnt call it a scam. But a penny auction site with no clear edge is most definitely a scam! O well.

I see...
like pisobid.com!

but, if not many people bid and for example I
win an XBOX 360 for just 0.001 BTC you would be out of business in no time :P

Yes that's the risk, which is why many penny auction sites ARE scams because they can't afford to give away a $500 product for pennies. Thats why my site is mostly filled with used products, every now an then I post new inexpensive stuff, but i guess my offering arent attractive enought to generate interest.