SitnBid.com invites you to play the game of reverse auctions, also called lowest unique bid auctions.
What exactly is a reverse auction?  It’s a game based on the auction principle, with a given lot and a number of bidders (we call them participants or players) who are competing to win the game.


The principle of the game is as follows:   

A lot is put up for auction, and within a given time frame several players compete with each other to win this lot.  Players bid amounts ranging from 0.01 to infinity, and the winner is the player who at the end of the given time had bid the lowest amount. “Easy!” you may say. “It’s 0.01 that wins!” Not so fast! There’s a subtle twist that makes this game much more interesting: to win the auction you not only have to be the player who placed the lowest bid, but also be the ONLY player who bid this amount.    

The example above shows the results of an auction that just closed. As you will see:    

- 0.01 = 4 bids placed ................................  not unique bids
- 0.02 = 3 bids placed ................................  not unique bids
- 0.03 = 1 bid placed ..................................  LOWEST UNIQUE BID
- 0.04 = 2 bids placed ................................  not unique bids
- 0.05 = 1 bid placed ..................................  unique bid but NOT THE LOWEST
- 0.06 = 3 bids placed ................................  not unique bids

In this example, it is the player who placed the 0.03 bid that won the auction.

We invite you to watch the animation below so you can fully understand the principle.

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What you need to know when you play: 

All bids are blind, it means that they remain secret untill the end of the auction. 

For each bid placed, you receive a bid status message that compares your bid with the current winning bid.    

Here is a list of messages you may receive:

NOT UNIQUE and TOO LOW: this means there is no “unique and lowest” position taken by a competitor below your own position, neither is there a free interval available.   

NOT UNIQUE and TOO LOW but there are still some FREE INTERVALS below this bid: this means that there is no « unique and lowest » position taken by a competitor below your position, but on the other hand there are one or several intervals remaining.    

NOT UNIQUE AND TOO HIGH: this means that there is a “unique and lowest” position taken by a competitor below your position and no interval free.   

NOT UNIQUE AND TOO HIGH and there are still FREE INTERVALS below this bid: this means there is a “unique and lowest” position taken by a competitor below your position as well as one or several free intervals.   

GOOD AND UNIQUE: This is the winning position. There is no free interval below this bid.   

GOOD and UNIQUE and there are still FREE INTERVALS left below this bid: this means that it is a winning position but watch out – there are still free intervals below your bid. 

UNIQUE BUT TOO HIGH and there are still FREE INTERVALS remaining below this bid: this means that there is a “unique and lowest” position taken by a competitor and that there are one or several intervals still free below your bid. 

UNIQUE BUT TOO HIGH: this means that there is a “unique and lowest” position taken by a competitor and that there is no free interval below your bid.   


These messages change in real time depending on the moves of each player.   

Another important thing to know is that you can place your bids one at a time or by interval. To prevent the placing of wide intervals in the last seconds of the auction, and to favor the use of strategy, SitnBid.com allows a maximum of only 5 bids to be placed simultaneously. 

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Now you’ve discovered the reverse auction principle and rules, move on to the next chapter to learn more about the SitnBid.com concept.   

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