$20 Free Bonus from Unwired Buyer
Unwired Buyer is a service that allows you to bid on eBay auctions through your phone, and is currently giving out an easy free $20 via PayPal for new users that sign-up and complete a phone bid. I was pretty skeptical of the offer at first, but I just got paid about three days after my initial bid. Easy twenty bucks.
To qualify, you must have a 10+ feedback score, or have been registered for 12 months. Here’s the step-by-step on getting your free money:
1) Sign up with them, either directly or via referral. You don’t need a referral to sign up, but if you do the referrer also gets $5 at no cost to you. If you would like a referral you can contact me.
2) You must link your eBay account. They are an ‘eBay compatible application’, so they don’t actually store your password, but they do have the ability to bid for you. Thus, I recommend not making your Unwired password the same as your eBay password. After doing my own due diligence, the company seemed legit, so I went for it. After signing up you do have the ability to un-link the accounts and then changing your password.
3) Log into eBay and find an auction to bid on. What happens is first you add an auction to your Watch List (do not place a bid online). Unwired Buyer then they will call you on your phone when there are 3 minutes left in the auction, and then you can decide whether or not to bid. Remember, you need to do a phone bid to get the bonus. You don’t need to win, just bid!
To get the $20 and run, I would recommend just finding a 1 cent e-Book with free shipping, and bid on it. Here is a very useful link to find low-cost auction options. Just find one that ends at a convenient time for you. Easy!
Best case, you get outbid and get $20. Worst case, you have to pay a few pennies for your $20 
You don’t even need to pay PayPal fees on your winnings!
4) Wait for the call. I recommend having your PIN number handy. You’ll enter that, and then you can either listen for directions or just hit *#1 to bid the minimum amount.
5) Wait for the money. They say 2-7 working days, I got mine in three inside an e-mail titled ‘Unwired Buyer Rewards’. Here is a screenshot of my free money:
Thanks to Claire of TiredButHappy for turning me on to this offer and referring me to start out as well.
Wait, what do you think of the service?
Honestly, I don’t plan on ever using it again. Last minute bidding is too emotional and bothersome, and I think bid-sniping is much, much better. That way, you don’t even need to be near a computer or phone. To remove Unwired Buyer, go to My eBay > My Account > Preferences > General Preferences > Third-party authorizations, and revoke the authorization.
Find more in Deals & Offers, eBay | 7/21/06, 12:48am | Trackback
July 21st, 2006 at 1:33 am
hmm. pretty neat. doubt I’ll use it too but eh, 20 bones! I’ll wait for your referral
no need to search ebay #.
July 21st, 2006 at 7:15 am
Sounds interesting - awaiting your referral.
July 21st, 2006 at 7:42 am
Thanks for the tipp man. I made some lunch money this morning.
July 21st, 2006 at 7:47 am
Thanks for the referral bonus and the trackback ping.
July 21st, 2006 at 8:52 am
Thanks for the referrals everyone! Be sure to look in the referral e-mail for a special link.
Let’s burn through some venture capital!
July 21st, 2006 at 9:23 am
According to the founder of the site, they’ve raised $7.5 million in VC…
July 21st, 2006 at 10:14 am
I went through this whole process a few days ago myself and I must say it was a really easy, cool way to nab $20 buks.
Thanks for the info on “un-linking” the account. That is new news to me.
July 21st, 2006 at 2:37 pm
How do these companies get VC money…seriously….I have better ideas that my own grandma wont put a dime in.
This is an AWFUL business model that will not last. I can assure you that they wont be around 24 months from today (unless ebay decides to buy them out etc…)
July 21st, 2006 at 4:06 pm
Actually, in testing it proved quite popular.
July 21st, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Just did my first entry, and I didn’t even have to pay a dime. How come?
The service let me bid on a product that could only be bid on by preapproved bidders. Yet I still got my $20 PayPal credit.
Nice.
July 21st, 2006 at 4:22 pm
Cool, an Unwired representative?
Actually, I think there is a market for this type of thing. Think of all the products that you personally don’t buy, but have been around for years. Whether it can be profitable remains to be seen, it seems all automated so I think it’s possible.
I also think if they patented the phone-bidding method, like Amazon’s 1-Click Buying, it could be very valuable.
July 22nd, 2006 at 4:38 am
Is there any cell phone fees? for usage? never done a thing like this on it …detailS?
July 22nd, 2006 at 5:42 am
ebay will probably come up with something similiar themselves, I mean they did buy Skype for an insane amount of money. Or, ebay will just buy UnwiredBuyer for a ton of money, that’s what unwiredbuyer and their VCs are really praying for anyways.
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Sounds great - please send me a referral
July 25th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
That was amazing! I didn’t even win the auction, and they sent me the $20. Good deal. I doubt I’ll use it again, though.
July 26th, 2006 at 6:25 am
I got my $20 within 8 hours of my bid for the 1 cent ebook. Thanks Jonathan!
August 1st, 2006 at 10:40 am
looks like a good deal; please send me a referral. thanks!
August 21st, 2006 at 10:20 am
Hi Jonathan,
Could you please send me a referral for Unwired Buyer Signing up if still available? Thanks!
Great blog!
August 26th, 2006 at 11:25 am
if you still have a referral please send, thanks!
August 31st, 2006 at 9:55 am
Both my boyfriend and I have become huge fans of Unwired Buyer after finding out about it through this promotion. The only problem is that if an auction is ending at 5AM, your phone will ring at 5AM. The real test will be when I try to use it to buy something like a cell phone–I always lose those auctions, presumably to bid snipers.
August 31st, 2006 at 10:47 am
Through your site, I signed up for unwired buyer and got the $20 pretty quickly. But now that I’ve referred a friend, I find that their payment speed has slowed way down–beyond their promised 48 hours. I tried to contact their customer service through their website, but that seems to be down. Has anyone had this problem?
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:51 am
It’s been almost 4 days and I still haven’t got my damn money!
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Yes, I have not received payment and its been over a month! Also e-mailing cusotmer service yields no results.
I think they were overwhelmed and I’m betting that they are re-evaluating their bonusing. In the meantime, they leave the $20 bonus up there so people continue to refer but don’t receive the bonus.
I would say it is very bad business practice - I’m betting that they are hoping people don’t bother to complain, or they have an “out” clause that says that they give out the bonuses on their discretion.
I for one am not referring any one else to their service until I receive the promised referral.
This is not the way to start/run a business. You are supposed to get people to trust you, not change the rules on promised bonuses after people sign up!
September 4th, 2006 at 9:57 am
The Unwired Buyer $20 Promotion is ending soon. Starting Wednesday, they are discontinuing the $20 promotion.
September 4th, 2006 at 3:08 pm
“Anna Says -
The only problem is that if an auction is ending at 5AM, your phone will ring at 5AM. ”
You can configure which items you get called on through their website. You can also setup a dollar limit, so you won’t be called if it is over a certain amount.
December 4th, 2006 at 6:15 pm
[...] Buying things with rewards cards: $300-$600 Credit card signup bonuses: $400-600 Bank signup bonuses (Example): $200-400 Other bonuses and perks (Example): $100-$200 0% APR Balance Transfer offers (How To Do This): $500-$1,500 ———————————————————- Total: $1,500 to $3,300 a year That’s not something to sneeze at for most people. The key is to not spend this money and let it roll straight into increasing your net worth. (Maybe skim off some for some fun things ) Remember the Big Stuff - Save it! This money is enough to fund half my Roth IRA every year. Save $2,000 each year x 30 years x 8% a year… that’s something like over $200,000. [...]
December 29th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I plan to sign up, I need a referral.