OK, it's probably pretty obvious to you by now that I signed up for Xanga for my high-paying (read: fully stocked coffee caddy keeps us interns happy) internship. However, I've grown attached to the idea of blogging and insulting other people on the comment section in their blogs. Seriously, how great is it to just take somebody down a peg or two when they put themselves on the line and brag about how awesome or great they are and yadda yadda yadda.

Anywho, aside from soliciting nice, unsuspecting bloggers (or Xangans as I've heard they like to be called) to (not) submit entries into our $100 grand prize slogan contest THEY have also asked me to post some stuff on here about penny auctions and bidding to zero and whatnot. They, by the way, are the powers that be, the stockers of said coffee caddy and the providers of unparalleled opportunities to work without monetary compensation. So the write up I was asked to put on here is sterile and, well, makes me sound like a scammer. Personally, I'd like to use this blog when I'm not working (volunteering) and entertain myself that way. To that effect I'd still like to have friends on here when that day comes.

So without further ado, here is what I think of Penny Auction websites:
OK, so in a penny auction is kind of like eBay. They have various items listed on the website and people place bids on them. Each item starts out at the low low price of one cent and each bid raises the price of the item another cent. There is a timer that counts down but when it nears zero, each freaking bid jacks the timer back up 15 seconds. So, you could be sitting there watching the timer run down, place your bid, watch the timer shoot back up then watch some other jerk outbid you only to make the timer increase at which point you bid again and then you're basically stuck in an incessant bidding war. Ridiculous.

Now, you may think that each damn bid only costs a penny so, what's the big deal? It's chump change, right? Wrong. Each customer has to pre-purchase bids, which are non-refundable and generally cost anywhere from 50 to 75 cents.

So penny auctions may be legal and not really a scam but they are rip offs and not even sure fire ways to get what you want. So what the company I work for does is like reverse bidding. They call it the bid to zero method. Basically the items are reduced to zero and the products are finalized at free. So, check out the website: Vroomlive.com.

More on the idea of bid to zero in the next blog. Which I'll be writing right now. Holler.

Hi everyone! I'm just getting started on Xanga... Drop me a comment if you've got some ideas on what to do first - or just to say, hey