Bid a grosz, win big

Tylkogrosz.pl, a new auction website, was launched recently and presented to the public last week. The launch comes as the "all-pay" model of auction websites - where bidders pay to bid on products - gains in popularity across Europe. Podbij.pl, a similar website, was launched in Poland just weeks before.

All-pay works by charging all bidders to participate, an idea which was born in Germany in 2005 and since then has gained success in Finland, the UK, Spain and Sweden. According to the owners of Tylkogrosz.pl, the time has now come for Poland.

All items up for auction on the website start at zł.0, and bidders are given a short time limit - for example three minutes - to make their bids. If a bid is received within the time limit, the price of the item rises by one grosz, and the time limit is reset. This lasts until the time limit expires with no one making a bid. The cost of placing a bid is zł.3 plus VAT.

The site offers several innovations to give it an edge over the competition. "What makes Tylkogrosz.pl unique, besides the low cost of bidding, is the fact that the auction runs until the item sells, meaning there's no limit on how long the auction lasts," said Krzysztof Malinowski, the website's product manager.

"To distinguish ourselves from our competitors that have recently come on the market, we've introduced bidding through the use of a cell phone," Malinowski added.

The website also offers cash back to vigorous bidders that have come close to winning the auction - either second or third place - with credit returned to their accounts.

Malinowski added that the portal hopes to attract 30,000 users at the beginning and 100,000 in 2009.

The owner of Tylkogrosz.pl is Coloma Investment, which in turn is owned by COF Capital OÜ and Valkea Media, the parent company of Warsaw Business Journal.