Unique Auction Makes Online Bidding a Game of Chance
Published March 20th, 2006
Auction News
A new Internet venture that screams “too good to be true†is testing users’ taste for gamesmanship in the online auction space, offering electronics, jewelry and other luxury items at a fraction of their retail prices.
The idea is that UniqueAuction.com, launched in September, makes up for the loss on the item by charging bidders fees — US$2 per bid for standard members and $1 per bid for platinum members.
Platinum membership means access to better information about other bids. It is not only encouraged — it is practically required to “win,†which is accomplished by placing the highest unique bid for an item, down to the penny.
Unique Auction CEO Arif Mirza touted the company’s revenues from bidding fees — more than $2.8 million so far. The tally is posted in a running display on the home page, where users can place bids as low as a couple of bucks for anything from a diamond necklace, to an Xbox 360, to a Humvee SUV.
The object of the site’s game is to come up with the highest unique bid. If the highest bid is offered by more than one person, those bids are canceled, and the winning bid would then be the next highest bid that is unique.
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