DO WE USE BOTS TO PLACE FAKE BIDS?
WE DO NOT USE BOTS!Consignment auctions like ours have no reason to use a BOT. Any real auction house that takes consignments will not even consider a BOT. New product auctions such as penny auctions are the ONLY auction sites that we know of that use these bots and this is public knowledge as an ex employee of one of the big penny auctions spilled the beans just like the dating sites using bots was exposed to the world.
What is a BOT?
A BOT also known as web robot, is a software application that runs automated tasks (Artificial Intelligence) typically pretending to be a HUMAN. Bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human alone. Search engines use BOTS to index websites, many Dating sites us bots to pretend to be ladies responding to guys so the guys pay for memberships, etc… etc… lots of applications for bots but they are complex and very expensive to create and only the top programmers can make good AI bots and they don’t come cheap.
Why do penny auctions use bots you ask??
They own ALL the items (or) they are drop shipping items. These fake auction sites give you the illusion you are getting a great deal but if you do not reach the MINIMUM bid then a BOT purchases the item pretending to be a real buyer and the item just gets relisted and put through again and again till it sells for the minimum retail they company is after to turn a profit. Some of these sites even charge customers for each bid placed so they are very unethical.
Bots would not work on a consignment auction unless you allowed your customers to set reserves and have the bots bidding up the lots till the reserves were met (some live auctions have ghost bidders or plants in the audience placing bids so I could see why someone would wonder if online auctions did this). We DO NOT and it would only be a matter of time before a consignor spilled the beans and everyone would know that we allowed consignors to bid up items or set reserves. We assure everyone that WE DO NOT ALLOW THIS. Sure someone’s friend could make an account and place bids without anyone ever knowing but what if that person’s friend ends up being the winning bidder? It could happen, in fact we have caught people doing it and banned them for it but we do NOT allow it.
If you sell anything with us you know very well we DO NOT allow this. Your items start at 5.00 with NO RESERVES (unless the item is a bank not, coins, stamps or a Vehicle and we have allowed a face value or higher start price on that item – not a hidden reserve)
It is ridiculous to accuse us of running BOTS. We run an HONEST business, we promote the site as best we can for our consignors and we get fair market value for the items. If an item sells too cheap… oh well the bidder gets a great deal and something in the same auction will probably perform better then we expected and compensate for the under valued item… that is how an auction should be!