What is AnniesBid?

AnniesBid is an auction site where bidders can save money on the items they want while raising money for charities. Every time a bid is placed on an item through our website, a contribution is made to one of the causes or charities selected by our auction participants. An Annie's Auction is fast paced and exciting. Auctions can end on our website very quickly, sometimes as many as six per minute. Knowing exactly how our auctions work will help you to win what you want and benefit the organizations and groups that need financial help.

Getting Started

To bid on our website, start by registering a new account. On the top of our home page, just click on the "Register" button and fill out the necessary information. Once you do, we will send you a confirmation email so we can verify your account. If you do not receive an email from us within one hour of registering, please check your email spam folder. If you find our email in your spam folder, please add AnniesBid to your "safe senders" list so this shall not happen again. However, if you still do not receive the email, you can have the email resent by attempting to log in again. If your registration was complete, you should be able to walk through the same steps. Once you verify your email address you are ready to bid!

How Annie's Auctions Work

Most Annie's Auctions start at a price of one penny. Whenever a bid is placed, the price of an auction item is raised by one penny. In most auctions, placing a bid results in 20 seconds added to the clock to allow participants the chance to place an additional bid. If you are the last bidder when the clock runs out, you win the auction! You then can claim your item by paying the final price for the auction and a part of the proceeds will be donated to charity.

What makes Annie's Auctions unique and so much fun is that auctions are closing all the time and can end in just seconds (instead of the days and even weeks when compared with other websites). There are huge opportunities to save lots of money on the items you want. In some cases, items will sell for nearly 90% off normal retail prices.

To bid in our auctions, all you need to do is register on our website and then choose an introductory, discounted bid package. Unlike traditional auctions, you buy bids in advance. You can see all of the bids that you "own" in your User Profile. When you place a bid, it is deducted from your remaining bids. If you win the auction, the item is yours to buy at the auction's end price. If you don't win, you can still purchase the auction item at a discount using our "Buy it Now" feature. If you choose to purchase an item in this way, the price will be equal to the difference between the retail price and the cost of the bids placed minus the amount donated through those bids.

How to Start Bidding

Using our website is easy:

1. Register a new account- Go to our home page and click on the "Register" link in the top-left. The instructions will lead you through the process. 

2. Buy Bids- Each bid costs 70 cents or less ($0.70) and are sold in bid packs. If this is your first time registering, you will be offered a discounted bid package that features bids for 40 cents to get started. We accept all major credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Your purchased bids are stored in your account online.

3. Select Auctions- Ask yourself "What do I need?" A new computer, an espresso machine, a flat screen TV? Or maybe just groceries, gas, or a night out at a restaurant?  Our experience is that once you skim through our site you will find many items you want to own which includes the hottest consumer items and useful gift cards for day to day use..

4. BID!- Simply click on the BID button on every auction page. We deduct one of your prepaid bids every time you hit "bid" and also add twenty seconds to the clock to see if any other bidders want to participate. The last bidder wins the auction. Yes, it is that simple!

Win an Auction?

To win an Annie's Auction, you need to outbid others bidding in the auction. That means being the last bidder when the clock runs out. If someone bids after you, you will see their name appear in the auction box as the current winner. You can also see the aliases of all recent bidders that have bid by clicking on the product name and visiting the product detail page.

To get your winning item, you pay the final auction price plus all shipping costs. If you are not the highest bidder you still can save money by purchasing products in qualifying auctions at a discount using our "Buy it Now" option, which can be accessed from your My Account page.   Using the "Buy it Now" option, the discount will be equal to the retail price of the product minus the non-donated value of your bids. This lets you buy any item you've bid on, even if you lose, with a FULL credit of all your unsuccessful bids (minus the donations).

We do not credit the amount of your bid that has been "donated" because that is allocated to the featured cause and not toward the potential purchase of the product. It is also used to give you points in the Annie's Idol contest.

How Buy it Now Works

Your prepaid bids never go to waste even if you do not win the auction of your choice. The example below shows the real cost savings possible through Annie's Auctions.

1. You buy a 50 bid package-- 50 bids at $30

2. You join an Annie's Auction and place 25 bids trying to win a $50 product and are outbid by someone else

3. Your 25 bids cost you $15.00 (or 25 bids at 60 cents each).

4. Even if you lost this auction and still wanted the item you could buy it for $38.50, or $50 minus the value of your bids ($12.50) minus the amount donated ($2.50)

5. Your prepaid bids never go to waste, win or lose.

A Few Points About Buy It Now

Please note that the "Buy it Now" option only applies to purchased bids and not voucher bids, which are won or earned.  Voucher bids have 0 buy it now value and do not reduce the price of items.

AnniesBid.com also runs special "hybrid" auctions from time to time where we combine products and bids.  These auctions do not allow buy-it-now.  You can be sure if an auction features but it now by clicking on the auction name to see its detail page, or by contact support.

Win Limits Help Spread Around the Wins

There are "win limits" in place that prevent one user from winning too many auctions in a designated time period. A user may only win two items per 24 hour period (starting with the first win) and four items per seven day period. Upon winning the second item in one 24 hour period, the user will not be able to place any additional bids on any current auctions until 24 hours after their first win passes. The same concept applies to the weekly limit as well.  There are also limits on how often you can win certain auctions or how much you can win in dollars terms - please review the terms of service linked below for more detail.

What are Featured Causes?

Featured causes are causes that AnniesBid user community has selected to receive contributions from our auctions.  Anyone that registers AnniesBid.com, whether they have purchased something from us or not, has the right to suggest causes to receive these contributions. We then select a group of causes from the suggestions to appear on a monthly ballot.  You can participate in voting by adding our Cause Voting application in Facebook and “liking” the cause that you would like to be chosen as the next Featured Cause.

Please note that any one time, we may run more than one cause on our web site.  These causes can be identified by looking at the heart color in the top-right of the auction interface.  Some auctions allocate the donation amount to AnniesBid.com general use for marketing and promoting our causes - these auctions are identified by the blue heart.

The amount of contributions that causes receive depend on you, our users.  Contributions are directly correlated to the number of auctions we run, the volume of bidding and the final sale price, as well as whether people choose to share news of their auction wins and resulting donations in social media.  Remember, you can help cause you love by using AnniesBid.com to purchase hot items you want and by encouraging friends and acquaintances to bid with us through our referral form (registration & login required). 

Now that you've read AnniesBid 101, its time to get even smarter with Annies Bid 201!