Your chances of winning a lowest unique bid auction are thousands of times better than the chance of you winning the national lottery or a holiday competition on television. If you buy a ticket in the British National Lottery, the odds of winning are, on average, fourteen million to one. So out of every 14,000,000 people buying a lottery ticket, one will win the jackpot. The odds of winning a television holiday competition are similar to winning the lottery. To be in with a chance of winning the lottery or a television holiday competition, you usually have to put in some financial investment. It may feel less like you are handing over money if you make a phone call or send a text to enter a television competition but beware of premium rate charges.
The odds of winning a holiday in a lowest unique bid auction competition can be notably lower and might even be as low as one in 2,500. These odds can be significantly improved because the number of bids that you are allowed to place is often unlimited. Furthermore, there is a skill element to these auctions. This means that each time you place a bid, you are told the status of that bid. With every bid you place, you build up a bit more of a picture of what the winning bid could be.
Because of the importance of skill, it is essential to understand how these competitions work. When you place a bid in most of these auctions, you will be told whether it is unique; whether it is the lowest unique bid and if not, whether it is higher or lower than the current winning bid. You may also be informed if the status of your bid changes in the future, for example because somebody else places the same bid as you so yours is no longer unique. This gives you the opportunity to try again if you find that you are no longer winning the auction.
Another thing that is important to understand is what the term “lowest unique bid” means. Put simply, it means the lowest amount that nobody else has bid. If you bid £0.01, that will be the lowest bid. However, if someone else also bids £0.01, your bid will not be unique so you will not win. It then goes to the next lowest bid. So if the next lowest bid placed was £0.02 and only one person bid that amount, that person would win the auction. It is often easier to understand this concept when depicted visually in a graph or table. Many low bid auction websites will contain a “how it works” section that will include such a table.
Low bid auction competitions do charge you a fee to place your bid. However, it is always clear how much you have to pay to enter and you should make sure that you don’t place more bids than you can afford. The winner usually has to pay the amount of their winning bid in order to receive the item. However, because of the nature of these auctions, the amount of that bid tends to be a nominal amount of a few pounds, or even a few pence. This is a fun way to use your analytical skills and if you are good at it, you can pick up valuable items at a fraction of their true value.
