Penny Auctions - what's the catch?

[5129frederick]

I've seen these Penny Auctions advertised - real hard sell, ram it down your throat type of thing where supposedly you can pick up a brand new car for a couple of hundred pounds.  Nobody gives anything away, so what's the catch?  Do you have to buy tokens or bids or something and if you're outbid that your money gone, or what?  I'm highly synical - rightly so, where it says how you can buy a  video camcorder for about £3.00.  Common sense tells me it's rubbish.  Why's everybody not buying Chanel for 50p a bottle and selling it at a below normal price on eBay?  I obviously haven't read the small print!  Has anybody actually tried it, and does it work?

[fionajohnston]

afaik you buy bids ie £10 gives you 10 bids when you bid a clock resets if no-one else bids before clock runs out you win

[mustard-tree]

Tried it once ages ago.  You buy a batch of bids, prices vary.

But your batch of bids soon goes as others bid on the same thing.

Bit of a gamble I think, you could spend 100s on bids and end up with nothing.

Not really a catch, as you know what you are paying for.