Modified 4/30/2009:

How are people getting Apple iMacs for $170.25? How about Nikon D90 Cameras (with lens kit) for $115.50? They are bidding in Dubli's Unique Auction and winning. I want to learn how they are doing it and teach all of you. (And as I learn more and we begin to discuss this, there is a good chance that I will close this topic to member's only. So register now to keep updated.)

If new, first click here to learn about Dubli and the Unique Bid Auction.

There are two messages that I have received as I have bid in the Unique Bid Auctions:

1) "Your bid of $XX.xx is neither unique nor the lowest single offer."

2) "Your bid of $XXX.xx is unique, but not the lowest unique offer."

I suppose there is a third, that I have yet to see, that says "Your bid of $XX.xx is the lowest unique offer." (I'd love to see this message with 2 seconds to go. I hope to soon.)

Make sure that you check your "Current Auction" page after you have bid. It will tell you what your current status is in the acutions that you have bid on. For me on one of the auctions, I got message #2 above until the last 20 minutes, when it changed to message #1. I then bid some more, but never got anything but message #1 after that.

Some lessons:

1) You might assume, as I did, that if you place a fairly low bid that is unique, but not the lowest unique, that once it is no longer unique, the lowest bid MUST be above where you last bid. This is NOT the case. (Example: the iMac that went for $170 - I was bidding in the $400s thinking the lowest unique would be there or above based on my prior bidding. I was wrong.)

2) If you have bid multiple times, your 'Current Auctions' tab only shows you the status of one of the bids. I guess, but am not sure, that it will always show you the status of bids in this order: 1) Unique and Lowest, 2) Unique but not lowest (the lowest of these if there are multiple) 3) If all of your bids are not unique, then it shows this status and chooses the lowest of your bids to show. (This all needs to be confirmed.)

3) If you bid a range of bids, you get an e-mail with the status of each bid - check your spam folder if you don't see it right away. Its important to find out the status ASAP. Then you can see the status change, as it does, in your 'Current Auction' page. (In the manner I explained in #2, above.)

Some ideas (but no guarantees):

1) Bid $160 worth of bids in a long range where you think the auction will end. For example, this iMac auction ends on 5/6/2009. You could bid from $165 to $215 and get every bid in that range. (Since the last iMac ended at $170.25, this MIGHT be a good range to try. If you get the iMac for, say $210.25 because that is the lowest unique bid, you've spent $370.25 for a brand new iMac. Not bad. THIS PLAN IS VERY RISKY. - You might bid $160 worth of bids and get nothing. But remember, right now, there aren't that many customers on dubli. If you plan to do something like this, do it before dubli really starts to advertise.

2) Bid a very low range and then a range where you think the item will end up based on previous auctions. Then, as the status of the bids in the low range changes to 'Your bid is neither unique of lowest', you can know that the lower bids are filling up. (Of course, its difficult to know if there is a low bid that is still unique.) This will give you some information about where to place new bids (maybe in the middle of the two ranges you started with). Again, there certainly are no guarantees with this plan.

3) Bid $0.75 to $1.75 on every auction. This will change (especially as people read this post) but right now there are a lot of auctions that ended in this range.

(I just love 3 item lists.)

I know that a community working on this can come up with some great ideas to increase our chances of getting really cheap good stuff. Why not join the discussion?

I didn't get any updates but I bid with about 5 minutes to go. I know that at about that time in the auction, you can no longer post a range of bids. maybe they also turn off notification (If there is any to begin with.) We need to discuss this more.

I don't think it's in my best interest to post information on a specific item if I have a unique bid. If I was unique, but not the lowest, at the time I input my bid, that doesn't mean that mine can't become the lowest unique bid. With the unique auction, it seems that there will be some information we are willing to share with each other, and other messages that we will want to keep to ourselves. I think where it makes sense to create an item specific thread, or add to an existing discussion, is when you placed a bid and it wasn't unique.

How do you update the status? Is it on the dubli website?
Thanks for joining the discussion. The more participation we get, the more likely we will be to get some great deals.

I want to get this discussion going. I know we're getting a lot of hits in this topic and there is no new posting. We can figure this out if we discuss. Very soon, they are going to be posting some very high ticket items it the Unique Bid section. There will be houses, cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles and $10,000 debit cards (the proceeds from the debit cards will go to a couple of very worthy charities, I understand).Some thoughts:

We need to understand all of the messages that you can get the first time you post and exactly what they tell you. We've begun that conversation, but we need to continue. Then we need to understand if there are messages that you are given after you bid when someone else bids that changes the status of your bid. For instance, if you have the lowest unique bid and they tell you that (I don't know if they do, but I assume so) and then someone else bids that same amount. Do they tell you? What if your bid is unique but not the lowest unique and then someone else bids on the price point that used to have the lowest unique and now yours is the lowest unique. Are you notified?

We need to get ready for these large items that are coming. I would love for someone who has contributed to this forum to win one of those.

OK, so I bid a couple times on the unique auction for the 24" Imac.  I bid $23.00 and $13.75.  I, like you, was confused on the message I got that said my bid was neither the lowest or unique.  I was not sure if it meant that there was a lower bid that was unique or just lower bids that were  not unique either.  So, I decided to bid $.25 to see what message that gave me.  It also said my bid was neither the lowest or unique.  Now I am even more confused because you can't go lower than $.25.  Unless of course you can bid zero but I am not sure you can do that.  I really want to learn more about how to win this type of auction.

Has anyone learned any more on this since the last post??

Thanks,
Lori

Well, I decided to bid again and this time I got the message that my bid was unique
but not the lowest unique so...at least I have a unique bid out there.  It's a fairly low
bid so there is a possibility that I could win if someone else bids the same as the lowest
now and mine is close to that!!  I am anxious to see what price ends
up winning it so I can maybe learn a bit more.  It ends Wed.

I agree, if the same people are winning a lot of bids, there has to be a strategy
they are using.

I will keep you posted and let you know if I get a different message.

Glad I found this forum!

Lori

Thanks..I didn't know to do that.  I am confused though because when I check my current auctions the only bid in there is the one that I bid $.25.  The most current one was the one that showed it was unique but not the lowest and it is not showing up under current auctions.  It shows up under bid history but not current auctions.  Any clues?

Lori