On BigDeal.com, like on offline auctions held by auction houses, time is added to the auction when someone bids.  That means that bidding at the last second is not necessarily the best winning strategy.

When is a good time to bid then?  Here are some tips we hope you find helpful:

• Some users like to bid with a few seconds left to see if anyone will bid before them.  That strategy can help save bids but can seem passive to other bidders.
• Some users like to bid aggressively as soon as someone else bids.  That strategy can help limit competition but it costs a lot of bids.
• Some users like to skip turns to try to save bids.  That strategy can work but can be risky as the auction can end.
• Some users like to bid on every turn.  That strategy ensures that the auction will continue but it can be expensive.
• Use a combination of the 4 strategies above depending on the auction you are in and the bidding patterns of other bidders.

Lastly, please be aware that bidding with just a few seconds left has a drawback:  BigDeal.com counts your bid only when we receive it on our servers.  When you hit the “BID” button, the information has to travel on the Internet and reach our servers before we can count your bid.  If your browser, your PC, or your Internet connection slows down, we may not get your bid on time and the auction could end.  If you have a slow PC/Browser/Web connection, we recommend that you avoid bidding with just a few seconds left on the auction.

Improve your strategy:  read more bidding tips.

We hope this helps!

Nick, George, and Brandon
Co-Founders

We would like to explain how we can afford to offer such incredible deals yet still be in business.

In a typical BigDeal.com auction:

• We lose money to the auction winner.
• However, we make money from users who buy the item using our BUY IT NOW.  Just like traditional ecommerce sites, we make money on the difference between our retail and wholesale prices.
• We also make money from users who don’t win the auction and don’t buy the item.  In this case, we make $0.75 per bid used by that user.

We hope that this helps clarify how BigDeal.com’s business works.

Nick, George, and Brandon
Co-Founders

BigDeal.com is a game of skill.  You are playing against other bidders who want to win just like you.  Only 1 bidder per item will win.  That bidder will, on average, save about 69% off the auction item’s retail price.

Here are a few tips to help you win an auction:

• Bid on items that you really want.  If you don’t win the auction, you can BUY IT NOW and pay the same price you would have paid at an average retail store.
• Less expensive items are usually easier to win because they typically attract fewer bidders.
• Items with fewer people bidding are usually easier to win.  You can tell how many people are bidding on an auction by clicking on the auction item.  The stats at the bottom of the page show all the bidding activity since the auction started.
• Items whose past auctions have resulted in high savings are usually easier to win.
• Some days of the week and times of the day have less competition.
• Read our bidding tips for other tips to hone your strategy.

We hope this helps!  Have fun and go get ‘em!

Brandon, George, and Nick
Co-Founders

BigDeal.com is a game of skill.  To win, you must outsmart and outplay other users bidding on the same item.   Here are some tips on how to play:

• Bid on something you want.  If you win it, you are likely to get a very big discount (69% average discount in February 2010).  If you don’t win, then you can buy it for its normal retail price using our BUY IT NOW feature.  That way, you can bid with little to no risk.
• Use our BUY IT NOW feature.  If you use our Buy It Now feature, you will never leave BigDeal.com empty-handed.  Our BUY IT NOW price starts at the retail price of the item and declines in price by $0.75 after you bid.  For example, if you spend $75 bidding on a $200 item, you can BUY IT NOW for $125.
• Start small.  Winning a $50 item is typically easier than winning a $1500 item because there are likely to be fewer bidders.  Start small and learn the ropes with inexpensive items.  As your strategy improves, move on to higher price items.
• Watch an auction before you play.  Learn how the auctions work before you play your first auction.  The best way to learn is to watch others play in an auction.
  
• Read our bidding tips.  These tips can help you win.  We highly recommend that you read them.

We hope this helps!  Happy bidding!

George, Brandon, Nick
Co-Founders

• We already limit the number of wins per customer to 10 for every 30 days.  Many customers have asked that we also limit the number of wins per month on highly desirable items and we are currently implementing this feature.
• We will add at least 5 new items to BigDeal.com every week to increase the diversity and freshness of items on the site.
• On some higher priced items, we will reset the clock to 20 seconds instead of 30 to speed up the auctions.
• Many customers have suggested we remove the Buy It Now option from Bid Token auctions because it makes them last too long.  We are currently implementing this feature.
• We are steadily increasing the number of auctions per day to give more variety of items to bid on.

Please contact us and let us know what else we can do to continue to improve your experience on BigDeal.com!

Nick, George, Brandon
Co-Founders

• First, in order to bid in our auctions, you must purchase Bid Tokens. Bid Tokens cost $0.75 each and are bought in packs of 30 to 300.  Once you use Bid Tokens, they are not refundable.  Unused Bid Tokens can be refunded for up to 12 months.
• If you win an auction, you are likely to get a really big discount. Our winners saved 69% on average in February 2010. We only auction new, factory-sealed items.
• If you don’t win an auction, you don’t have to lose your money. You can buy the auction item from us at a discount equal to the money you invested in the auction using our patent-pending BUY IT NOW feature, which is available on most auctions.

More Details About BigDeal.com Auctions

Our auctions are different than eBay’s.  Here is how they work:

• You can place a bid anytime during the auction by hitting the BID button.  You don’t enter a price.  You just hit BID.
• When you place a bid, the price of the auction increases by $0.15 ($0.01 in penny auctions) and the auction clock goes up by 30 seconds (like a typical real-world auction).
• If you are the last bidder when the clock reaches zero, you win the auction.

What If You Don’t Win The Auction?  You Can Buy The Item At Its Normal Price

Say you spent $75 bidding on a $200 auction item and you did not win.  You don’t have to lose that $75!  You can buy the auction item for $125 ($200-$75). Even if you don’t win the auction, you pay the same you would have paid on most ecommerce sites!

We hope this helps explain how BigDeal.com auctions work.  For more information, please read our FAQs.  We especially recommend our section on Bidding Tips.

Nick, Brandon, and George
Co-Founders

Here are the reasons we believe BigDeal.com is head and shoulders above the competition (read what the New York Times had to say about us) :

• The value proposition for our users is very powerful.  If you win an auction, you will get an average of 69% off.  If you don’t win, you can buy the auction item at its retail price using our BUY IT NOW feature.
• We have built a highly reliable auction technology to ensure that our auctions are fast, fair, and trustworthy.
• We prohibit employees and investors and their immediate families from bidding.
• We guarantee that there are no fake users (or “bots”) bidding on our auctions.  All the bidders on BigDeal.com are other users just like you. We also employ specialized software to prevent bidders from using “scripts” to automate their bidding.
• We limit the number of wins to 10 wins per user per 30 days to prevent top users from dominating the auctions.
• We have created a transparent auction site.  On BigDeal.com, we disclose every bid that has ever been placed on all auctions, the historical ending price of every auction, and the winners of all auctions and how much they paid for each auction.
• Every item that we sell is new, factory-sealed, and shipped quickly by highly reputable distributors.
• We give Loyalty Bucks to every user who purchases Bid Tokens ($1 earned for $1 spent).  These Loyalty Bucks can be redeemed for discounts in our Loyalty Store.  Users who redeem these Loyalty Bucks fundamentally get their Bid Tokens for FREE!

Why do we do all this?  Because we are building a long-term business based on positive word of mouth and customer retention and we want you to have a very positive experience on BigDeal.com.

While we believe we  already are the best penny auction site on the Internet, we are not resting on our laurels.  Here are some improvements we are working on:

• Auction win limits on certain high-value items.
• A more comprehensive Loyalty Store with hundreds of highly desirable products at steep discounts.
• A new auction item introduced every day.  New items will likely include travel, concert tickets, luxury items, and many other.
• More fun, interesting auctions with a fuller set of features.

We are working hard to continue to improve your experience and we really appreciate your business! Please let us know how we can continue to improve your experience on BigDeal.com.

Brandon, George, and Nick
Co-Founders

Some recent winners:

89% off a Panasonic Viera TC-p42x1 42″ Plasma TV – http://bit.ly/5nMdcA
86% off a Nintento Wii Console – http://bit.ly/8ZwMbC
85% off a Canon EOS Rebel XS Digital SLR – http://bit.ly/6sPaGx

If you haven’t used BigDeal.com yet, please read our tutorial and come in and play at http://www.bigdeal.com.

Nick, Brandon, and George
Co-Founders

Highlights

• We got great press on TechCrunch, New York Times, and Thrillist amongst many others.
• We launched over 150 auctions in the first week with users getting great discounts on many BigDeals (92% off an Xbox Elite, 86% off a 27 inch iMac, 97% off a Garmin Nuvi…)
• A large number of users redeemed their Loyalty Bucks to get great discounts on gift cards.  Remember:  Loyalty Bucks are full credits ($1 for $1) on all the bids you buy.  You can exchange Loyalty Bucks for up to 25% discounts on great gift cards.

Your Feedback

We are committed to continuously improving the site and have received a lot of great suggestions from customers.  Some of your suggestions include:

• Auction chats.
• More detailed user profiles.
• More detailed information in “My Account”.
• Simpler/better checkout process.
• Auction watch/alerts.
• Package tracking.

We are working on all of the above and more to continue to improve our user experience.

Recent Changes

We have already made a number of changes to BigDeal.com since launch, at the suggestion of customers, including:

• Customers can now only win 10 auctions per month.
• We have been adding more auctions per day.
• We have added new categories like GPS Navigators, DVD players, newer video games… we will continue to add new categories as quickly as possible.
• We have simplified and improved our tutorial to make BigDeal.com easier to learn.
• We have further restricted bidder eligibility. Employees and their immediate families and Board Members and their immediate families have always been prohibited from bidding on BigDeal.com. We have now added employees of investors and their immediate families and advisors and their immediate families to the list of ineligible bidders.  We are doing this, despite the fact that our attorneys tell us that it’s not a requirement, to avoid even the hint of impropriety.
• We have improved the performance of the site on older browsers.
• We have  added fun, interesting descriptions for most of our products.  Here’s my personal favorite (scroll down to read the description).

Please keep your suggestions coming.  We appreciate your feedback and are working hard to improve the site every day.

Nick, George, and Brandon
Co-Founders