Two of the Internet's largest auction sites have signed up with a program that rewards customers for clicking through to their Web sites. eBay and uBid both participate in a rewards program offered by Blink.com, a company based in New York boasting 1.8 million registered users.
According to a Blink.com representative, eBay has been involved in the pay-for-bid campaign for two months. Blink.com members are rewarded for clicking, registering and bidding on eBay auctions. Detractors say there is potential for Blink.com users to abuse the service, explaining that if a buyer is being paid simply to bid on an item, there's no incentive for them to actually purchase it. Detractors also cite the possibility that user of this service may be "bidding up" the price of items with no intention of buying them, inflating prices for legitimate bidders.
One poster on an Internet shopping forum explained how to earn reward points through eBay without having to purchase an item. "If you do it right, there is never a chance of winning a bid on ebay. Find something like digital cameras or computer gear - the idea is to find something very popular. Look at newest listings or if you do a search for a specific item, you can select "lowest price" at the top of the listings. Find something for $1 or .01 etc and place a single very low bid. No chance to win a $600 computer for $1."
Spokespersons for eBay and uBid did not get back to us with program details by press time, so we joined the Blink.com service to find out what rewards were offered through the program. Although we could not determine what rewards uBid was offering, we found that Blink.com members receive 5 Blink points for visiting the eBay site. They receive another 7,500 points if they register with eBay and place a bid for a product within 30 days. However, this is for new eBay members only. "If you already signed up [for eBay]... use the link in Huge Grab to place your bids and earn even more points!" Registered eBay members can earn 75 points for each bid placed on eBay products according to the Blink.com Web Site.
Curious about redemption, we learned that a Blink.com user would have to earn 20,000 points to earn $2 in cash that would be sent to them through MoneyZap. They would have to earn 200,000 points to earn $20 in cash that would be sent to them through PayPal.
The program is designed to attract new members to Web sites and encourage them to use the services. But it isn't clear that Blink.com will attract serious buyers to the auction sites.
