I'm a seasoned veteran when it comes to penny auctions; although, I've been out of the game for awhile for various reasons. I joined happybidday probably 2 years ago and participated very little just prior to my penny auction hiatus. I've jumped back in this month and started up again on happybidday. I took the usual steps, updated my account information since I had moved, bought some bids and started bidding. I wanted a game console I knew would draw a lot of competition and spent a fair amount of bids on it. I realized I now had the option to buy it at retail price and get all my bids back which they did not have when I first joined so this was exciting. The auction ended, I didn't win, so I bought the console outright and got all of my bids back. Good deal. Now I have the xbox I wanted for my son and my bids are back in my account to use to win something else for him or myself. We'll see what pops up on my radar next. I highly recommend joining. It's awesome and you can't lose, even if you don't win the auction. Just buy it and get your bids back.