Penny Auction

[cbeast]

I'm surprised nobody has developed an auction site like Quibids or Beezid using bitcoins. If someone could create an open source environment for website development of this sort, people could buy bitcoins and make microbids on any of a number of sites. Any thoughts?

[RandyFolds]

You could get filthy rich doing it. With the crowd of suckers here, and their tendency to treat btc like monopoly money, it would be a huge hit. If I knew how to program and had no heart, I would be working on it as we speak.

[cbeast]

You could get filthy rich doing it. With the crowd of suckers here, and their tendency to treat btc like monopoly money, it would be a huge hit. If I knew how to program and had no heart, I would be working on it as we speak.

I understand how you feel. I just think that penny auctions are just another form of gambling. I'm not saying I would participate in such activities, but it could popularize bitcoin.

[RandyFolds]

The micropayment aspect of bitcoin lends itself well to the concept. One issue I see is the variable confirmation/propagation time for transactions. I am not sure how you would deal with that.

[mokimarket]

I'm surprised nobody has developed an auction site like Quibids or Beezid using bitcoins. If someone could create an open source environment for website development of this sort, people could buy bitcoins and make microbids on any of a number of sites. Any thoughts?

My site MokiMarket.com will be the first to accept bitcoins. Right now we are accepting paypal and Bitcoins OTC (pm me if interested) but we will have a bitcoin payment processing fully integrated into system along with some other big changes next week.

Been soft marketing/lauching the site and did some advertisements in this post: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=49265.0. As far as penny auctions being a scam, nobody has paid more than MtGox rate for any bitcoins on my site. Just look at all my ended auction http://www.mokimarket.com/ended_auctions.html . My site has very low traffic so anybody that has put any effort into winning has.

My goal is to create the first marketplace where you can get tangible items for bitcoins.

[RandyFolds]

My goal is to create the first marketplace where you can get tangible items for bitcoins.

I think you were beat to the punch a long time ago... https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Cool site, but how does your it work? Why would I want to sell something for pennies? To my knowledge, you can't combine ebay and the concept of the penny auction unless you are willing to serve as a pawn shop and take on all sale risk yourself. It kind of seems like you are losing a ton of money... Have any products been delivered?

[cbeast]

My goal is to create the first marketplace where you can get tangible items for bitcoins.

I think you were beat to the punch a long time ago... https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Cool site, but how does your it work? Why would I want to sell something for pennies? To my knowledge, you can't combine ebay and the concept of the penny auction unless you are willing to serve as a pawn shop and take on all sale risk yourself. It kind of seems like you are losing a ton of money... Have any products been delivered?

Penny auctions are hugely profitable if they are well advertised and have good traffic. They are like a lottery/auction combined. Items can generate many times the revenue than they are worth. It's pretty much a scam, but it is legal.

[joeyjoe]

I could create something like this in a week.

Let me know if your interested and we can talk terms

[RandyFolds]

My goal is to create the first marketplace where you can get tangible items for bitcoins.

I think you were beat to the punch a long time ago... https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Cool site, but how does your it work? Why would I want to sell something for pennies? To my knowledge, you can't combine ebay and the concept of the penny auction unless you are willing to serve as a pawn shop and take on all sale risk yourself. It kind of seems like you are losing a ton of money... Have any products been delivered?

Penny auctions are hugely profitable if they are well advertised and have good traffic. They are like a lottery/auction combined. Items can generate many times the revenue than they are worth. It's pretty much a scam, but it is legal.

Yes, I know. These are questions about THIS site, not penny auctions. This 'ebay' model is unique amongst penny auctions, and is grossly unprofitable in the manner that it's being run at the moment. I am trying to find out if that is promotional, or just pure ignorance of the concept.

[joeyjoe]

Theres excisting scripts out there at the moment, If someone would like me to make a bitcoin payment system for an excisting system, say 100btc and ill do it.

[miner3gazillionand8]

Theres excisting scripts out there at the moment, If someone would like me to make a bitcoin payment system for an excisting system, say 100btc and ill do it.

I've actually been looking for site software that will let me accept bitcoins or partial bitcoin payments for penny auctions.

Here's what I need:

Sellers create account.  Buyers do not need to do so.



Seller  posts a doodad for sale and a wallet address, and people elect to send bitcoins as bids.


A bidder bids one increment (tbd - a whole coin, or a bit-cent, et cetera.)  The bidder does NOT need to create an account; only the wallet who sent the winning bid needs to be identified; then only for shipping.

typical timer stuff: if there has been >0 bids in the last 10 seconds, the timer is reset.

When it reaches zero it freezes the auction, but continues accepting payments.  Anyone who bids after the timer has reached zero is paying to stand in line to get the item if confirmation fails.



confirmation consists of 3 things:

1: bitcoin's confirmation of payment sent & received

2: verification that the confirmed payment was a valid increment (if bids are .2 bitcoins, then the winning bid must be .2bitcoind, not .00000001)

3: the timer is hidden and in it's place is the seller's email address and the winning bidder's bitcoin address. 

The seller has a public email address.  The winning bidder, in order to transmit shipping information, will indicate an email address that (s)he will use,  by sends an agreed-upon micropayment "id fee" in the range of .0000001-.0000999 using the same wallet from which was sent the winning bid.

("I'm the winner.  You'll see a final payment of .00000073 from the winning wallet, to prove that it's me.  mail the  doodad I won to 1313 Mockingbird lane,  Mockingbird Heights , etc.)


Seller gets the final .0000073 payment from winner, and addresses the package for shipping.

Site owner gets a cut.

I'll pay 100 btc if you want to sell that to me, give me a decent editing and accounting interface, and secure it.

[payb.tc]

likewise, this kind of 'reverse' auction is something i developed and ran a while back in AUD (http://rauction.com.au) and have been meaning to port it to BTC for ages.

i'm sure even if you're not the first matthew, there'll still be room to compete.

[mokimarket]

My goal is to create the first marketplace where you can get tangible items for bitcoins.

I think you were beat to the punch a long time ago... https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Trade

Cool site, but how does your it work? Why would I want to sell something for pennies? To my knowledge, you can't combine ebay and the concept of the penny auction unless you are willing to serve as a pawn shop and take on all sale risk yourself. It kind of seems like you are losing a ton of money... Have any products been delivered?

Penny auctions are hugely profitable if they are well advertised and have good traffic. They are like a lottery/auction combined. Items can generate many times the revenue than they are worth. It's pretty much a scam, but it is legal.

Yes, I know. These are questions about THIS site, not penny auctions. This 'ebay' model is unique amongst penny auctions, and is grossly unprofitable in the manner that it's being run at the moment. I am trying to find out if that is promotional, or just pure ignorance of the concept.

Well we just recently launched and we are posting most of the items, so yes we have only made money on 1 to 2 auctions. This business is not the scam people think it is for smart bidders. Just like bitcoins, the early adopters reap huge benefits. Any new penny auction site has to build up an honesty rep before people start using it. And yes we have delivered tangible and virtual products (over 20). We have a feedback rating system as well so you can verify. Some members of this forum have started using it and no one has lost money.

If you want to try it out use this coupon code: freecredit25, and it wont cost you a thing.

[joeyjoe]

Hmmm,

Your better off having the buyers creating an account, and depoisiting funds into their balance, and then using that balance for the penny bids.

I dont see the point of having sellers sell the items because people will scam this left right and center.

madbid.co.uk doesnt have sellers selling, everything sold is from the company itself. Best to put things up for auction like 10btc or 50btc, the money generated will be much more.

[mokimarket]

Hmmm,

Your better off having the buyers creating an account, and depoisiting funds into their balance, and then using that balance for the penny bids.

I dont see the point of having sellers sell the items because people will scam this left right and center.

madbid.co.uk doesnt have sellers selling, everything sold is from the company itself. Best to put things up for auction like 10btc or 50btc, the money generated will be much more.

That's exactly how it works for buyers.

We have several ways to reducing scamming the system
1) Feedback rating system
2) We hold commission from auctions 7 days after Seller has shipped item or buyer has indicated receipt of item

The site where there is only one seller (the website itself) is set up for bidders to lose in the long run, my site is not intended to be that way. I want to increase the probability of winning items by having multiple sellers and not just high end products. If you could spend 2 BTC's to get a used 5gig mp3 player, y the heck not? We are actually going to be changing the site soon so that sellers get 100% of all commission, the only fees will be to cash out but you could use your credits to bid on other auctions.