Introducing Power Hour Timed Auctions

Dear SmartBidders,

We are happy to announce bid pack power hour which will be an hour full of action packed bid pack auctions. Power hour will start from 9PM EST this Wednesday.

So what's so special about power hour?

You want to take down your competition with some extra bids? Power hour gives you exactly that opportunity. To start with, power hour auctions are all time based with no reserve. Here is a quick set of rules explaining how it works:

1. Auctions close by time instead of maximum bids. So, if you have the lowest unique bid when the timer hits zero, you win!
   
2. Every time a bid is placed, 30 seconds will be added to the timer. If there are less than 30 seconds left in the clock, every bid will reset the timer to 30 seconds instead of adding 30 seconds to it.
   
3. The hints are always very precise (typically within 5 cents range) .
4. And last but not the least, each bid costs only 75 cents through out the auction.
   

**Update: Some of our timed auctions have a starting base price. This price would be added to the final bid price to determine the final price. The Starting price would be clearly shown in the auction page.

We hope you all will have fun in this fast paced auctions and devise your own strategy to outsmart your competition. All power hour bidders can load up their account with the coupon code "POWER" for 10% additional free bids with any bid pack purchase.

We at SmartBid are committed to bring you the most fun and rewarding bidding experience. Please let us know your feedback about power hour auctions at support@thesmartbid.com or share it at our facebook page.

Play Smart, Win Big!
SmartBid Team

Introducing Lower Bid Cost & Win Limit

Dear SmartBidders,

You said, we listened!

First, we want to extend our thanks and sincere appreciation to all of you for your feedback and suggestions to make our site super fun. You sent lots of ideas, suggestions and product choices through our survey - we at SmartBid sincerely say "Thank You!"

We read through every single response and worked on the ones which you all asked. Some of the major updates you will notice as of today:

1. Lower Bid Cost: We slashed the bid cost for most of our auctions from $1 to 75 cents. Which means more bids for the same buck - so if you have $75 in your account, you can bid 100 times now in regular auctions.
2. Win Limit: No one likes one bidder winning all the auctions and having all the fun. So, now if you are a smarty pant and have won 5 auctions in 7 days - We ask you to reward yourself by taking a break - Which means more reasons for all of you to jump in and play without fear!
3. Beginner Auction: We have now more beginner auctions listed and if you haven't won 3 auctions you are eligible to participate.
4. Early Bid Limit: To make our auctions more fair for everyone, we are introducing early bid limit. Now, we are limiting 25% of the early bids per bidder in order to give other bidders a fair chance to bid at the discounted bid cost period. So get in early and bid at half the price.

And don't forget you can always use our Reward Store to redeem dollar for dollar spent on bids on regular auctions.

Bid to win huge savings. Play Smart, Win BIG!

Enjoy,
The SmartBid Team

Beginner's Auction Update

A quick update from the Engineering team about Beginner's Auction:

Now Bidders who have won less than three auctions can participate in a beginner's auction - so jump in to get great deals with less competition.

Thank you to all of you who are finishing the survey- We are working on the features (hint: lower bid cost) you are asking us the most.

Play Smart, Win BIG!
SmartBid Engineering Team

Introducing Reward Store and Win Limit

Dear SmartBidders!

We are proud to announce SmartBid Reward Store! As of today, you can play in SmartBid auctions completely risk free. As you know, we give back every dollar in reward credits for every dollar you spend in regular auctions. From today onwards you will be able to redeem your reward dollars in our reward store. We will match dollar for dollar and you will be able to take equal amount of discount to buy Amazon gift card or bid packs. So, if you have spent $10 in bids and didn't win - no problem. You can apply those $10 reward credit in redeeming $100 Amazon gift card for $90 and so on. You can also choose to play in our reward auctions as always.

Thank You to all of you who had taken our survey and gave us feedback. We want to make sure we build new features which you care the most. Reward store is a step in that direction. We have also added more selections of products (to all you electronics lovers - HP computers and Nintendo gaming consoles!) as you requested.

Another important step we are taking today is to impose Win Limit in order to give everyone more chances of winning their favorite products. Members would be prohibited to bid on the same featured product (retail price over $100) that they have won in last two weeks so that everyone else has a chance to win.

Last but not the least, please take a moment to finish the survey (takes less than a minute to finish) who haven't taken it yet and you will be awarded 2 free bids. Send us a mail to support@thesmartbid.com after you finish your survey for free bids. You can also earn as much as 6 free bids by referring your friends to SmartBid.

Bid to win huge savings. Play Smart, Win BIG!

Enjoy,
The SmartBid Team

Great first day at SmartBid

We had a great first day at SmartBid!

We want to congratulate our first winner crazybidder who won a $10 gift pack with his 3 free bids! Register now and you can win also bid packs and gift cards at our beginner's auctions for 3 free bids.

We got great press coverage from our first day. Here is a news coverage from Yahoo news! SmartBid Takes Bargain-Hunting to The Next Level.

Watch our interview at PennyAuctionWatch.com.

Play Smart and win BIG!

SmartBid Grand Opening

Today, We are excited to announce the launch of SmartBid where bargain-hunters bid smart to win BIG! SmartBid members save up to 90% off retail on brand new products from sought after electronics to brand name gift cards through an exciting pay-per-bid reverse auction model where shopping is fun and engaging.

Why we created SmartBid:
We are a bunch of passionate shopaholics and we love nothing more than sweet deals! When we first saw penny auctions last year – we loved the idea how shopping can be fun and rewarding while competing for a cherished product with fellow bargain hunters. However, we soon realized that winning in regular penny auctions are more of luck than real competition.

We wanted to take the luck factor out of pay-per-bid auctions and put the bidders in the driver’s seat. This is why we are introducing Smart Auction™, an exciting reverse auction format where users bid skillfully to beat the competition and win brand new products at incredibly low cost. Register now and get 3 free bids to play for free.

Our unique features:
1. As the name says, it’s all about bidding smart. Unlike conventional auctions where highest bidder wins, SmartBid works quite the opposite. Products get bid typically within a range of a penny to a dollar and the lowest bid which is not matched by any other bid wins. Bidders use skillful insights to place bids which are unmatched by other bidders. SmartBid also helps along the way with hints, bidding history and live email updates to make the experience fun and interactive. Take a look at our video to see how it all works.

2. We wanted to create a fun and fair bidding environment for all. Auctions are designed to cater to different skill levels and everyone has a chance to get their money back in exclusive reward auctions. No one comes out empty-handed at SmartBid - members receive equal reward credits for every dollar spent on regular auctions which they can use to play in reward auctions or donate to charitable causes. We have selected Oceana for our first month beneficiary.

3. We also wanted to introduce complete control and transparency in the shipping process. As soon as you pay the winning bid price, you will receive an automated Amazon gift code equivalent to the product price in your email address along with instructions how to redeem your product in Amazon.

We wanted to take the opportunity to thank all beta testers who helped us test the site for last couple of months. Your feedbacks and encouragement have been extremely helpful and most of them have been incorporated directly in our site. It was extremely hard to choose the best beta tester when there were so many worthy candidates – hence, we have decided to declare multiple winners!

And the winners are-

1. PennyPincher - $40
2. soonerjudd - $10
3. amcoffee - $10
4. KSteven7 - $10
5. chrissy - $10
6. rebecca1973 - $10
7. elmo627 - $10

For rest of you – thank you for your helpful feedback and all of your test accounts have been migrated with $3 free bids to our live site.

Have fun and get ready to play smart and win BIG!

SmartBid Beta is closing in a week

Fellow Smart Bidders,

We are thankful and appreciative of your overwhelming positive response for our beta 2. A Big Thank you to all of you for your constructive feedback and taking part in making SmartBid, the most innovative auction site in the internet.

As most of you have been patiently waiting, we are just about ready to announce our launch date. This is going to be our final week in beta! So, get in with your last chance to master the art of smart bidding for FREE and spread the word out to your friends and family.

Also, every beta tester who has given constructive feedback would be given $5 in their account when we go live. And the prize for best beta tester ($100 bid package) will be announced at the end of our current beta. Make sure you follow us on our Twitter or Facebook page – as we are planning to run exclusive auctions for our twitter and facebook fans.

The grand launch is coming soon, very soon! Play smart and win BIG!