At reverse-auction Web site BidZone, lowest bidder wins

Anyone who’s been to an auction or has tried their hand at an online auction Web site such as eBay knows that the item up for grabs always goes to the highest bidder. So it took a little time for me to wrap myself around a really different twist to the auction model that’s being offered up at a brand-new Web site called BidZone.

Are you ready for this one? The item up for sale goes to the LOWEST bidder.

Technically, BidZone is not really an auction Web site in that it doesn’t offer items that were owned by other people.

The hundreds of items (they plan to dramatically increase that number in the upcoming months) that BidZone has to offer are brand-new consumer products.

Categories, for example, include a wide variety of consumer electronic products such as computers, televisions, cameras, cell phones, GPS navigation systems as well as such household items as vacuum cleaners, outdoor grills and coffee makers.

But the auction model still applies in that there is a bidding process that goes on in order for someone to acquire any item being offered there.

Here’s how it works: All of the items up for sale at BidZone begin at an appealing discount price, which is clearly displayed next to the item. In order to bid on something, you first have to buy “bids.” Normally every bid you buy will cost you 50 cents.

When you register at the BidZone Web site, you are given five bids for free.

This is an introductory promotion that will change as other first-time-user offers become available on BidZone.

A bid does two things. It first allows you to see the hidden current price of an item in which you are interested, and secondly, it also lowers that current price by another 50 cents so you are actually seeing the price at 50 cents less than the last person who saw it.

So the more people who want to see how much the price of that particular item is, the lower its selling price goes down.

This process continues until the price gets so low, that eventually it becomes too irresistible to pass up and someone will finally decide to buy it. So the item really does go to the person offering the lowest price for it.

And here’s the kicker. At that moment of sale, the item is reset and goes back to its original opening discount price and the process starts all over again.

I’ve asked around and I really haven’t seen anything quite like this setup.

It does take a little getting used to, but if you think about it, all of the “action” in an auction is really here.

You are still bidding against others for something, and the risk you take if you wait too long is that it will get snatched up by someone else who decides that the asking price is low enough. It’s all just kind of reversed.

The other thing that makes BidZone different from a typical auction is that there are plenty more of the same items available.

So if you did lose out on a bidding session, you can always try again for another one.

So BidZone is really more like an online store that has a clever way of selling its products.

But given the potential savings, it may still be a good idea to check out BidZone when you are ready to buy. I did some comparison pricing there and, typically, the opening prices of most of their items are already nicely discounted.

So as the bidding begins and if your timing is good, you can pick something up at a really decent price.

So how can BidZone offer these items at their lower prices? Because BidZone is making 50 cents on every bid that’s being made.

It’s this “collective buying power” model that gives BidZone the ability to offer these products at a much lower price. Selling bids to registered users at 50 cents a pop lets BidZone make a profit while at the same time lets them sell more for a lot less.

At least that’s the working theory on how it will work. As I said, the BidZone Web site just went live, so we’ll all have to wait and see how successful this model really is. I’m sure it’s going to take some added refinements and tweaking before it gets up to full speed, but still, it’s an interesting twist that could work only on the Internet.

If it does prove to be a winning formula, I for one plan to check it out when I’m ready to buy.

For more information, visit www.BidZone.com.

XCraig Crossman is a national newspaper columnist writing about computers and technology. For more information, visit his Web site at www.computeramerica.com.

2009 McClatchy Tribune