QuiBids: Cheap Quality Goods and the Catch …
Posted by Fahz on 2009/11/03
Qui Bids Website
I am trying to purchase on Mac type product. While shopping on-line, I came accross dealmac.com, which upon reasearc was found to be reliable. But then, on top of this website was a very catchy advertisement on high-tech products being sold at a very low price. It’s: www.quibids.com
For instance: An Apple MacBook Pro 13.3″ was sold less than $200 [11/3/2009 @ 3.06pm MST], which is about 1/5 of the market price. The catch …. [insert drumroll] …
“Each bid costs just $0.60, available in Bid Packs of 40, 75, 300, 600 and 800 bids. Click ‘Buy Bids’ to get started. QuiBids accepts Visa, Mastercard, American Express, & Discover.”
Legal … and slick. At least, they explicitly stated this in the registration page – not with small fonts. With many people bidding, I’m sure they are making money. I am pretty sure that they used statistics and probability to get to the $0.60-per-bid cost.
thedigitalbard said
I’ve been watching Quibids and it looks like a scam to me… There is a $900 camera they have listed as $1150 and I’ve seen over 2000 bids on it in the past 10 minutes and it’s still going. So the site has already made $1200 on a camera that sells at BHPHOTO for $900.
Fahz NMSU said
I agree with @CYPHER`
I would not advice consumers to go there because one would spend a lot of time over there. In addition, the probability of getting those items is most likely low.
If there were only 10 people bidding [although I think it'd be in the hundreds] for the same 10 goods and the probability of getting these goods are the same, 1/10 … each of the 10 people would get the one product that s/he won very cheap but has *contributed* to the 9 goods’ pots that they did not win.
* We can probably to the mathematical analysis here, but neaahh!
** By the way, I purchased a refurbished apple product on apple.com website. Discounted and comes with a warranty.
Shawn said
I have to agree. They are genious. I wanted a new Ipod. I invested over 200.00 bidding only to win more bids. I wasted the money I could have taken to the store and bought my IPOD. Be careful not to get addicted.
Cody said
I won an Xbox 360 from Quibids for less that 13 bucks, and now I’m hooked! At first I was a little leery as well about getting new merchandise for so cheap, but they have made me a believer!!
Fahz said
I’m not sure if …. increasing first-timers’ chances to win is part of their program!
Liz said
I have spent a lot of money on this site and still haven’t won anything I bid for so my advice to anyone would be not to join this site because it’s addictive and you will spend too much on bids, shipping and taxes.
CYPHER` said
QuiBids & Swoopo, two names I found doing the same thing. It’s genius. Each bid cost 60 cents but each bid only increments the price by a couple cents or maybe a nickle … so think about it. You buy a block of bids, say the minimum of 40, which cost you $24.00. You bid on an item and that bid cost you 60 cents but the item amount only increased a nickel. So if you are bidding on an item that is at $4.00 and it started at zero … there have already been 80 bids placed if each bid increments a nickel. At $4, they have already made $24. Say the item finally sells for $100. At 5 cent bid increments, it took 2000 bids to reach $100 and at 60 cents per bid they just made $1200 on a $100 sale. If the increments are only 2 cents per bid, they made $3000 on a $100 sale. If you won, you pay the winning amount plus all the amount you spent on the bids, plus shipping, so you just spent $124 + shipping.
Everyone who bids can buy at their special price. Their special price is retail. I did a price comparison and they are very similar to Amazon prices. So you pay the price equivalent of maybe more than you would at Amazon, minus what you spent on the bids for that item, plus shipping.
It is not worth the risk or the effort. Another example, one they show a lot. Apple Ipod 32GB sold for $10.30. Divide that my 2 cents and see how many bids it took to just get to $10.30. It’s 515 bids or $309.00. They won’t show you the bid history and it’s a bullshit way to run an auction anyway.
It’s not a scam … I wish I would have thought of it. It’s just a great way to get 10X the retail price for a product at your expense.
jared said
what are you upset about with this site? they have found a way to get consumers a great price with a fun way to buy, all while making alot of money. I have purchased two items from quibids, a 8gb flashdrive that I paid .10 for plus 5 for shipping with one bid, that is 5.70 total for a $21 retail item. also, a flip ultrahd camcorder that i won for $21 plus 5 for shipping and 13 bids. which works out to 33.80 for an item that at target goes for 149.99. I have no complaints with either item and couldn’t care less that they are making alot of money on all the bids because I am also getting great savings.
Dann said
I’m with you Jared. Why are people getting so pissed about these sites? So what if Quibids is making a pile of money? Don’t all good business ideas? Like you said, people still have the opportunity to get some really great deals. Why do people always get so concerned if someone else finds a way to make great money? What makes them think that it’s somehow their job to monitor someone elses business just because that business is extremely successful? Haters! If they were on the receiving end of that revenue they wouldn’t be bitching.
Susan said
I agree with you both. I found this site yesterday and have spent $51 in bids and purchases with shipping and handling. For $51 I received a $25 Subway GC, $25 On the Border GC, and $50 Chili’s GC. You can only buy three items a day, and it it totally legal and….genius!! I still have 28 bids left out of the 75+10 (free) bids, they key here is strategy. You have to know when to hold back and when to let other run up the price so you swoop in at the end and get a good bargain! So far I have purchased $100 worth of gift cards for half price with bids left over for today. It’s like gambling….and addictive….love it!
Sean said
It may not be a scam technically but I know they have their people on staff bidding like crazy for the expensive items. They make their money off the bids. If an item goes for $180 and at $0.02 increases. They have made $5400. The Imac that these people were bidding on retails for $1800. QuiBids buys the item off amazon at retail and pockets the rest. Writing in the shipping notes, (A gift from QuiBids). Pretty ingenious but if they have their own people bidding on these items non stop and without hesitation they will inevitably win the auction and wont have to even buy the Imac for anyone. Pocketing the entire $5400. This site wont last because there is no way to regulate it from scamming the public. They will probably make a few million before it gets shut down though.
Fahz NMSU said
@Sean …. thank you for your comments
1. “… their people on staff bidding like crazy”: If you have reference to this, that would be great. This may get the company to shut down.
2. “QuiBids buys the item off amazon at retail …”: Again here, a reference would certainly strengthen this argument. If this is true, this is just sick.
3. “… no way to regulate it from scamming the public”: I think there’s a way. Payday lending seems legal but has been banned in many states.
Anonymous said
From what I understand of the company, they don’t really have any employees, so how could they be “… their people on staff bidding like crazy”? I live in Oklahoma and my understanding is that this is a small company, and I doubt they have the time to sit there and do that.
Eric said
Really? Shillman1 and Shillman 2? definatly employees raising bids.
Philip Downer said
By all means, correct me if I’m wrong. All I did was read the registration page to know that QuiBids wasn’t right for me. From my understanding, if you lose the auction, you can use the bid money that you spent toward the purchase price of the product. So if you were looking at purchasing the product – at full retail cost anyway – it might not be a bad deal.
Here’s what QuiBids says on their FAQ page:
If you are the top bidder when the timer reaches zero, you win! You then pay the ending auction price plus shipping. If you do not win, you lose your bids that have been placed; however, we offer on most auctions a “Buy it Now” feature! This feature allows you to put the money spent in bids on the item towards buying the item. An example is illustrated below.
Let’s say you spend 30 bids trying to win a $30 product, but you don’t win it. You’re 30 bids are worth $18, so if you exercised the “Buy it Now’ for that item, you would pay the value price of $30 less the $18 in bids you spent trying to win the item. Thus, you could go ahead and buy the item for just $12 in this example.
This feature limits the risk in participating in our auctions as we offer the “Buy it Now” feature for the majority of our auctions!
Sunny said
QuiBids is a 100% fraud site,
I was bidding for a product, suddenly I saw my friend id bidding against me.
where we both are at same place, qibids using offline users ids to bid on products.
Its a fraud site and fraud people behind the site.
Stay Away…………….
Chris said
QuiBids has an automated bid placer that allows offline users to bid if they wish on items that they specify. Are you sure your friend didn’t set up his profile to bid on some items?
Anyhow, I’ve been watching this site for a few days. I’ve seen about 1/2 of the items they sell actually loose them money even counting the .60 for every bid placed. As an example, there was a Kindle E-Book reader that sold for $3.28 @ $.02 bid increments. That means that there were 164 bids placed, and at .60 per bid, that made quibids $98.40 plus the winning bid of $3.28 for a grand total of $101.68. The retail price for this item is well over $200 meaning that they likely lost their shorts on this auction. However, most of the auctions work out in their favor by a modest amount and occasionally, they make a lot. All in all, I’m convinced that a patient, disciplined, and smart user could get some really good deals shopping this way.
GB said
Yes, a patient user might get a good deal — but for every
such user there are many that get an expensive bad deal.
Anyway, these positive response posts look bogus. For
example “about 1/2 of the items they sell actually loose [sic]
money”. The CEO of Quibids has been quoted as saying this.
edward said
Am I nuts for thinking this, or am I right. What if a bidder waited until, say, 50 or 75 bids had been placed befor he or she started bidding? Wouldn’t that make more sense than getting into an early bidding war with someone?
Tom said
You know about the rules, you can do the math, but how can you outsmart it? Well you alone will not. You need at least the help of 1 or 2 friends.
First rule, know when to back off. If you see people bidding with the bid-o-matic, back off. Let them drain their points. If you see two people doing a bid war, back off. Only approach bidding if you see single bids, and only bid between 1-5seconds mark.
Don’t bid early, look at the previous won price, and use that as a reference to when to bid.
With 1 or 2 friends, wait till you’re at the peak of the auction, you and him can go on a bid war only to let each other win. Winner walk away with a great price, loser must buy the product retail. Reselling it for a cheaper price with a small lost is still better than losing all of the bid points.
mpddc21 said
Just won a sony tv valued at 900 at sony website? quibid value it at 700.won it 4 $12.98 plus 35.00 4 shipping? they say its being shipped from sony warehouse? let u know how i make out?
Fahz NMSU said
Congratulations mpddc21! You could have told us about the number of times you bid, including the ones for other good you didn’t win, because that would be included in the cost.
I am not indicating that QuiBids is a blatant scam but Madoff scheme also had very very few big winners.
Anonymous said
Yeah, but he can still use the money in those other bids… Soooo, what’s the problem?
mynameisrob32 said
ummm, no he can’t.
gmtt said
I wonder why all other potential bidders would quit when the price was just at @ $12.96 for an item which worth $900, and let you got away with this price? Were they all sleeping?
StevenX said
Must’ve been when the “bidding employees” were on smoke break. As for good reports about QuiBids, like on any other website it’s pretty safe to assume they’re written by employees.
mpddc21 said
i spent 80 on a 250bids and lost then iput that 80 on buy now and they put that 80 towards the price of a 160 so i bid 114 times and won i guess i just got luckie i still have 117 bids left. i dont like the idea of quibid but i will let u know how everything turns out
Stas said
SCAM SCAM SCAM (mathematical Screw-You to the buyers). AVOID!
It costs $.60 to place a bid, so you think you are getting something cheap but end up spending $30-$40 on just bids and still end up being outbid. You can only bid in small increments (1 to 5 cents). The site is a scam for the bidders and a cash cow for the operators. For example Amazon Kindle recently sold for $112.10 (retail$259) – sounds good for the winner, but to reach $112.10 in 5 cent increments it would take 2242 bids!! So since each bid costs 60 cents, the bidders wasted $1345.20 for a $259 item!!
Another example – They sometimes auction off bids, yes those same bids you have to buy and spend to try to win this auction. An auction for 50 bids (a $30 value) recently sold for $14.10, at 2 cent increments people WASTED 705 bids for one person to win 50. 705 bids at 60 cents each = $423 for $30 worth of bids
SCAM SCAM SCAM
How do you even know that you are being outbid by real people? It could be robot account owned by the website that outbids everyone last second in order to increase the number of bids and the website’s total profit. (this is obviously a specialation, but it could very easily be true)
I remember living in Russia and seeing street scam artists that used a similar technique. You would be walking down the street minding your own, and walking by a group of people playing some sort of game, you be offered to not even play in a game but just press a button to determine an outcome of someone else’s game.. So this wheel is spinning and and all you have to do is stop it. You say to yourself “sure, what do I have to lose?” You press a button and BAM!!! Congratulations, somehow you won a free prize worth lots of money! BUT before you can take it home you just have to outbid someone that was already playing the game (actually a scam artist accomplice). The winner of the “big war” would get all their bid money back, except for 10% house cut, and the loser would walk away with nothing. The house cut is just a cover to make the game seem more legit, because you would NEVER win. No matter how much you would bid, you would always get outbid by the other player, and the only way to not lose your pants is to walk away..
So my advice for this site is WALK AWAY.
NOTE: To be fair – if you win an auction by placing only one bid, you are getting a great deal. But there is always someone there ready to outbid you, and at the end everyone who does not win ends up losing a lot of money. Sometimes even the winner ends up losing money if he has placed enough bets – they stack up pretty quick at 60 cents each!
jared said
That is why you bid smart and don’t get crazy with it. If you are smart you can get a great deal on great items like i have been lucky enough to do. It is ridiculous that you call it a scam, it is no more a scam than a casino. If you don’t like the site than don’t use it, what is the point in writing up useless comments about it? Defend your opinions with facts and it will carry more weight.
mynameisrob32 said
It is a scam because they have “people” bidding in their interest.
mynameisrob32 said
Here’s my story, you decide.
Last night (after days of researching) I decided to jump in and give it a try.
I bought the 45/bids package and started at “the beginners auction”…won 25 bids, with my first bid…(ok I’m happy) so, I started watching a couple big ticket items (macbook pro and iPad)…I started watching 2-4 hours it took, for it to get up to over 100 bucks…next thing I know, someone won the $1800.00 mackbook pro for just over $100.00 plus bids…ended up costing user roughly $500.00 after shipping etc. I was like wow…saw tons of these examples.
So, I decided to bid on the iPad (recently sold for 100, 200ish) so I thought surely it wouldn’t go for much more than the Macbook Pro, which, at retail, is 3x the price of iPad…so at around $120, I jumped in.
There were waves of people bidding furiously within the 8 HOURS or so of bidding, some came and went, 3-4 guys where there for most of the time (they were bidding like crazy…they had to be over a thousand dollars and they were not letting up…
I, on the other hand, bid really good for a long time, only bidding when it got down to 1 sec. and was only into it for around $100 by 2a.m. then I noticed my bids seemed to be going faster than what I was actually using…i’d bid, look at my “bids remaining”, and then look again, to see like 5 missing…(even though I didn’t bid)…double checked with my girlfriend…because I couldn’t look away from the counter long, and couldn’t see any pattern or way to prove it…she saw it happen a couple times…
ok, so, whatever, nothing I could do but keep going…It took seven hours to get to get the price to about $200 and now I was in for $200 worth of bids as well…I was now starting to believe I was going to end up paying more than retail, which really is $535ish (after tax) from Apple…and just knowing I wasn’t going to stop until it was mine.
At around 4:30 a.m. things were slowing down. It was me and like 2 other guys (that had a lot invested…I swear the one guy, THURSTY1 had to be in for 2k, buy the way he was bidding for 9 hours…like: I’d bid once for every ten of his…
I went to buy more credits and my card was declined, (not quibids fault), my bank (come to find out today) put a hold on my card for fraud suspect…even though I was nowhere near my spending limit or # of transactions allowed. So, guess what happened next…
NOT EVEN TEN MINUTES LATER… (Time it took for me to get my girlfriends card, for more bids) someone with only 30 bids came in and won the item….the THURSTY1 guy only bid once or twice more in that time and let the “new guy” win. WHY, when he was bidding strong up to that point would he just give up?
I’m not saying for sure that Quibids is a scam or that it’s their fault my bank declined me (which luckily, after a heated phone call to my bank, I am getting my $290.20 back) but things ere VERY FISHY…VERY FISHY, from the way bids were going down, to my bids going faster than I was using them, to a near 10 hour auction suddenly ends, right when I run out of credits, even though there were still 8-10 bidders fighting (2-3 hardcore…and the rest “newcomers”).
I may not have clearly recounted the whole story correctly, but I am positive there is SOMETHING going on…not a sore loser (and I am getting my money back) but there is DEFINITELY SOMETHING SHADY GOING ON OVER THERE IN OKLAHOMA.
They tell you to start small, most likely to butter you up for the big score…then they have some sort of bots or friends doing the bidding from there (I AM POSITIVE, but can’t PROVE IT).
I will def. NOT RECOMMEND this to ANYONE> RUN AWAY!!!!!!
Fahz said
Hmmmm … 1st time bidders tend to win? …. so that they’d come back and bid for something bigger, $wise?
Dann said
Again, gotta agree with Jared. Why are you crying about how much money the sire makes? And if you pay attention and learn completely how the auctions work and use your head you can still get great deals. If a person isn’t that bright to begin with, they’re most likely to lose their money no matter what they do and they can’t be helped. And if you don’t believe that’s how it works you need to grow up. And NO, I don’t advocate ripping people off, but it’s the consumers responsibilty to do their homework as well. Everyone has a choice on whether or not to sign up and use these sites. No gun was held to my head when I signed up.
Jet said
Guys… simple solution. Scam, maybe…, however you are in control of your money and can police your own spending. Use this simplest in logic. Don’t bid looking to get a deal. Bid on something that you are going to purchase at some point at a retail store. Price compare, if the “Value Price” is in the ball park, then go for it… but don’t start early as in be the first few bidders.
A friend of mine feels it’s a scam because his intent and expectation was to get a Hawaiian trip for like $200, Value was $3500. Wrong attitude, When we asked if he was in the market for a trip, he said no, but i wanted it for $200 bucks. *face palm*
My experiences so far, I purchsed some radios for hiking, I was going to buy them anyways at Big 5. I bid on these radios. when I got carried away (it was my first attempt to win), QuiBids popped up reminding me of the cost of my bids and that I was near the value price when you calculated the bids + shipping + current auction price. So I used the “Buy it Now”. Bam, I have my radios that I intended to buy and didn’t get a discount. Oh well, I also didn’t LOSE any money either.
I search for items I WANT to buy, not just whatever comes up. I have been meaning to get an inflatable mattress. One comes up, I start the auto bidding feature they have. If I lose, oh well… I’ll buy it, I woke up the next day, and found I won with a combined cost to me of $15.82 (Cost of bids 9 x $.60 = $5.40, S&H = $9.99, Cost of item at auction end: $.43 = Grand Total $15.42) Value on QuiBids (Value on it was $140 after S&H and Tax) The Same bed is at Wal-Mart for $129 as of this afternoon.
So in the end…it’s how you go about using this SHOPPING SITE. Only buy what you are already looking to purchase. If you get addicted and act foolish gambling while EXPECTING to get $1000 cameras for $10 and think you are entitled to it… your bad.
mpddc21 said
got the tv today the one i posted 4 12.83 retails 4 999 then tried to bid on something else and lost 150.00. will not go back to that site just got lucky with the tv
gmtt said
QuiBid is not technically in SCAM, they are just street smart, but it is YOU who can outsmart them by not falling into their legal SCAM.
Lets do some math from QuiBid perspective. Let’s say an item cost $100 (fair market value. QuiBid will buy it for, say $80. @60 cents/bid they need roughly 134 bids. Do you think it is difficult to get 134 bid when the bid price is showing only $13.80 (at 1 cent increment)? So the behind the scene they have collected all their money while you and me are seeing the price $13.40. WOW! So cheap- bid again, bid again and again… while QuiBid is laughing at you face! Now, in the worst case scenario, if the bidding cost+bid price+shipping does not still make up their $80 mark, they may even inject their internal bid to win and not to sell this time (I am not saying they do it but I cannot assure either lf they won’t do it !). So you see, the business model is a SCAM but legal. Even eBay does not charge to bid. I do not know any auction site that charges to bid ( I just do not know, if there is any I will shy away from them). So the bottom line is, it is YOU who can stop those who are trying to make you fool!
VJP said
I was just browsing for 8GB SD card in the web and got some reference to Quibids from other site. I just thought why can’t I try to bid from Quibids. At worst case I was ready to buy it using buy-it-now option if I loose. I just got lucky and won it for $0.80 + $2.50 shipping. I was skeptical if I receive the item. But I received it after 10 days and it’s perfectly in good shape.
I did bid couple of other products and won a few and lost a few. My advice is bid to the item that you are going to buy anyway. Otherwise don’t even think about bidding thinking that you may win a 32″ TV for $1.
I don’t think it’s a scam. But may be in future when more and more people start bidding, then there will be a very lean chance of winning any item. As of now for any product you need to fight with 5-6 other bidders at any given time. In future it may be 10-20 bidders, may be more.
I still don’t understand if Quibids and swoopo are same company. Because Quibids seems to have same kind of look and feel of swoopo. In swoopo.com, it says “Patent pending”. If Quibids is a different company, then there may be a chance that Swoopo can sue Quibids at any time. Anyone has any idea about them?
Irina said
SCAM – I AM A PROGRAMMER AND YOU CAN SET UP THE PROGRAM BEHIND BIDDING TO OUTBID ANY USER LAST MINUTE AND REPEAT IT UNTIL THEY WANT TO – IT IS THE SAME AS GAMBLING. INNOCENT USER LOOSES!
Is Quibids A Scam? said
Quibids may not be a scam outright but there seems to be some similarities.
Quibids Scam said
I don’t think they scam you in that they take your money and run with it. However, they don’t look like a site on which you’ll get a good deal. They have too few items for the people on the site. I would look for other penny auction sites.
Dino said
To me i think it a scam cause why you have to pay for bids… look at ebay it free. ofcourse every company dont want you to know that. So they can just lie into getting your money and if you run of off bids you have to buy more, and i think that where they taking our money at if you realize it.
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jason260k said
Quibids is an absolute scam I proved it!!!
Scam in the sense that they have automated bidders working for them placing single bids and I proved it. I just lost 27 bucks testing it out in the wee hours of the morning. I found that their computer would match my bid everytime. As soon as I clicked off the bidding it would end immediately. I bid at certain speeds and tempos and I didn’t wait for the timer to go all the way down like a human would do, and just bid really fast thus wasting money to test it out and their computer outbid me everytime at the same tempo as a single bidder not the autobidder. If it was a real human there would have been variances. The same user names continuously won the items that no one was bidding on trying to drive up bids. As soon as I started bidding on any random item the same ID would pop up and out bid me then when I stopped it was won, cause there were no more real bidders and low win prices look good for them. I mean an HDMI cable for $10 retail and I was outbid like clock work. Its a huge scam. Don’t play until they can regulate it. I wouldn’t have a problem with it if it was real people and you knew it, cause you could out smart them but a computer you just cant. They let a few winners go just like a casino but they are in full control. In a casino you at least know the game, in this arena its like playing black jack and they took all the face cards out of the deck. peace
Fahz said
…. it takes more than that to prove it.
I also recently got a comment from Penny Auction List’s founder.
http://nmresource.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/quibids2/#comments
We can ask him for clarifications.
Dann said
Nice, Jason. Now THAT’S doin your homework. I get so tired of hearing people cry scam about everything and getting pissed because a company has found a way to make a ton of $, but always on speculation and hear-say, but never bothering to find a way to prove it. Or at least uncover enough to make their argument make sense. Again, good job.
Quibid Fan said
I have been using quibids for a few months. I have never bid on a big ticket item, but alot of small ones. I have spent $105.00 including bids, shipping and item ending price. But have $135.00 worth of items. Not a great profit not something for nothing but hey it was $30 less than I would of paid in the store.
Oh yeah 6 I won cheap and 3 I used the buy it now.
Cudds said
“If it sounds too good to be true….it probably is.” If someone could find all the websites they advertise on to see what kind of demographic they are advertising to, then you could see what they really want out of people. If they are advertising on sites were older people go (probably super easy to scam) then that will give us all a better idea.
Fahz, Dan and Jared. Right. I’m sure you guys would really stick around to dispute comments. Would you not want more people bidding on items so that you can win them at a lower price? E-mail me if I can get a job disputing comments.
Shelli said
Let me start with I think everyone, site and seller, should be able to make some money. I have been watching the Ipads 16gig wireless NOT 3g!!! for 2 nights now I’m all for bargain shopping but I’m disturbed. .60 a bid .01 increment doen’t sound bad until right now the bid is 160 yes i’m rounding it is still bidding. For single bids…@ .60 per bid not including multi bids THEY have already made $9600. That isn’t including the price of the winning bid or shipping. For a item they list for 730.
If you walk into Best Buy right now it is 499.
Something don’t smell right in denmark!!!!
Akiva said
Bottom line – if you are bidding on an item you’d be willing to pay the listed retail price (plus shipping) for, you can’t lose; if you don’t win the auction, just click “buy it now” and get it for retail price (which means you spent nothing on bids). It’s a small risk for a large upside (get the item much cheaper than retail)
If you drop $150 on bids for a product you don’t plan to buy at retail, on the other hand, you’re kind of dumb – there’s a huge risk you walk away with nothing.
Akiva said
BTW, here’s what I’ve done so far:
Bought an 85 bid pack for $45 (pack was $45 for 75, and as a first time buyer I got 10 free bids)
Bought a 25 bid voucher for $2.20 (including all handling fees, which I don’t know why they charge for bid vouchers; the answer, of course, is “because they can”)
Bought a $15 gift card for an additional expenditure of $3.79 (I had used about $14 in bids before giving up and selecting “Buy It Now”, so I spent roughly $17 on a $15 gift card)
Won a $50 gift card for $.46; with shipping and handling costs, it came out to $2.95, and I spent $12 in bids.
Bought a $50 gift card for an additional expense of $32.69 (after spending $19.80 in bids, meaning that I spent $52.49 for the gift card)
Net-net, I spent a total of $86.63, and am walking away from Quibids with $115 in Walmart gift cards (which I intend to use to purchase items I’d have bought anyway). That’s a 33% return on my money which, frankly, is better than any stock you could conceivably invest in would get you.
Of course, had I not won the $50 gift card at $.46, there’s a chance I would have walked away with a small loss (say, spent a total of $70 for $65 in gift cards, counting the handling charges and my cost of bids [had I not won the $50 card at .46, I would have continued bidding it up until I used all my bids and then purchased it at full value, leaving me out the $36 in bids and the additional buy it now costs and fees]).
Again, bottom line – if you handle it right, buying bids on Quibids is an investment with a very high upside and low downside.
Fahz said
It sounds very much like gambling in casinos: If we handle it right, we’ll win big … but the masses tend to lose.
JamaicaBeach said
Quibids is not a scam, however it is anything but ethical.
First off, why would I pay .60¢ a bid to raise my bid by only .02¢? Come to think of it, why should I PAY to bid, let alone repeatedly, for something that ultimately if I win, I’m going to have to then fork out more money for?
I’m no stranger to auctions, having bought horses, ranch implements, electronics and whatnot at auctions.
However, at a live auction, if the House gets caught having ringers in the audience placing bogus bids to simply drive the price up, the House ends up having big-time problems.
Like several others, I’ve noticed some amazing coincidences that there’s always a bidder against you, no matter what time of day. Funny how when you “toss in the chips” with your last bid, there’s always one more bid–then the auction suddenly stops.
What a coincidence.
I was curious about Quibids, so I bought a couple of bid packages, found a couple of items, and began bidding. On one item, I tried to bid smart, and again, there was always that one other “bidder” who would outdo you everytime, costing you another .60¢ bid to stay in the hunt.
On an auction where I bid somewhat recklessly, I too noticed that I would place one bid, but would be deducted three, four and sometimes FIVE bids–draining my total. E-mails to their tech support went unanswered.
And finally, on a couple of items I bid on–and lost–I e-mailed them and requested a list of the bidders and user names. They outright refused, citing “privacy concerns.”
Bull you-know-what.
It’s a great money-making site, no doubt. It’s an even better testament to PT Barnum’s famous observation (paraphrased) of “There’s a sucker born every minute and two to take him.”
MyName said
thanks for your comment, this is exactly what I wanted not to hear about a site like that. It raises too many questions and after reading your comment and some more I decided not to buy into it.
congrats for actually making the move and ask them to clarify the bidders and the number of bids disappearing, most people conplain and don’t do much about it.
Enlightning! thanks again.
Larry said
After spending to much time on this site, IMO, it is a scam. The other night after midnight I was watching a 100 bid pack for quite some time because one “user” bid form the start to the end of the auction and won. The strange thing was he spent exactly 280 bids to get the silly 100 bid pack. Why would anyone do this? Maybe the guy was drunk, I don’t know, but I saw the same circumstance repeatedly throughout the night. Even on 15 free bid vouchers “users” would spend more than they were going to receive. Perhaps it is just a coincidence, but I’m spending my remaining bids on something I was going to buy anyway and call it quits. It’s a real time burner anyway.
Another point to this, “is it a scam or is it not”, that I have not seen raised as of yet. The fact that quibids clearly makes it’s money from bids and not from the selling prices puts suspicion on Quibids and couple that with the fact that so many people believe it’s a scam you would think they would make the auction history more transparent. Ebay certainly does this and still maintains the privacy of the buyers or the sellers. So they can’t say it’s a “privacy” issue. With Ebay, I can see other items the person has won as well as what they have sold. I can even see the entire history of the auction whether I won, lost, or didn’t even bid. Quibids does nothing of the sort which fuels suspicion that they have “bots” or “shrill” bidders engaged. Quibids will say of course that there are no “bots” bidding, but do they do anything to prove or eliminate the suspicion that there are not? A legit business would do everything it could to disprove or show that such was not the case. Not so with Quibids. It’s a great scheme tho. Best advice as been given by others. Use the site to buy what you were going to buy anyway. Otherwise, stay away or pay!
Steve said
I think the only reason someone would place more bids than the bid package is worth is because they are using voucher bids, which are worth $0 in buy it now. The site will prevent you from placing paid bids that have a total value exceeding the value of the item and force you to buy it now.
MyName said
Steve,
Please, tell me all about this voucher bid thingy… what is the process?
I’m trying to figure out this ingenuous business.
I don’t think it’s a scam, I think it’s very smart but it raises way too many unanswered questions and is way too opaque to appear trustworthy.
In need of clarification…
NSLogan said
I believe the company is bidding on the items themselves to jack up the prices. If it sounds to good to be true, as I have always been taught, then it most likely is a scam. One thing I noticed was, they don’t tell you you have to buy your bids up front with a credit card. 75 bids is 45 dollars, 100 bids even higher, and then 150 bids even higher, and that is where they are making the money off the people.
I also think all the comments by people on the site are made from the company. All postitive ones, and you have to email them your questions and comments before they get posted on their site. The want to screen out al the negative comments of the people to make themselves look good.
SCAM, SCAM, SCAM!
Buyer Beware of places and sites like these.
torero said
Hello all,
Couple of things i agree with,
1) QUIBids personnell has been making comments on this discussion board, quite obvious given the tenaticy stressed on defending certain obvious arguments
2) I agree on the bidding pattern where , certain ghost users appear to accelerate the bidding rythms and jacked up the amoung of bids spent by paying real customers. This is a concept widely used (privacy clauses prevents anybody from having the legal grounds to obtain proof) However if you spend some time studying the patterns you will see how even in low value items, these ghost users are present to secure the accumulated statistical margin. The fact that a lot of people dont question it and only a few do allows them to do what they are doing.
I have no problem with cross-gambling but i do have it with ilegal protected bidding. It took a while to take Madoff down, same principle.
Just an informed opinion.
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sami said
its a scam because NO ONE bids smart. Its a site that uses the common human weaknesses, the ability to not walk away. If you have 100 people “thinking” they are going to win a product then they will keep bidding. They will always make money. Its not a scam, its actually kinda smart. But the whole idea of it is sickening. 1 person will come out happy while 99 other people lose a lot of money.
its like gambling at vegas, some people don’t know how to stop. You can’t just be like “hey man, play it smart”. The ability to prey on the weaknesses of people is the ability to make a profit.
And I love how they have employees that come in on some of these sites that say “hey now quibids is actually a legit company and it works out well you just have to be smart”. Like wow, either they have loyal employees or they are getting paid too much for letting anyone defame their website.
its a sick website.
MyName said
Sami,
I agree that they are using people’s irrationality and greed to make money. Just like a casino would do. Or the absolutely legal governement owned lottery you can find at your favorite 7/11. Still people buy into it, go figure!
But if they do it legally, I think it’s ok as one has the choice to play or not. It is a business, hopefully for them, they make some money.
Employees answering questions and refuting arguments is common practice. Every sensible company needs to monitor their customers’ opinion. Maybe they should do it more overtly (it would make them more trustworthy). I must admit that they haven’t convinced me yet. There are some grey areas that need to be clarified like the suspicion of ghost bidders, bots, and bids disappearing faster than actually used. THAT is the major issue they need to address.
The issue is not that people are greedy enough to want a $1000 item for the low price of $9.99. That is the reason why this business started in the first place. QuiBids saw an opportunity in opportunistic people.
Like farms, grocery stores, restaurants see an opportunity to serve people’s need to feed.
But, let’s not digress.
Jdawg said
Sooo heres an experiment I intend to do this weekend.
First off heres some background info.
I plan on buying a 300dollar item on amazon.com Quibids sells giftcards anywhere from 10bucks to as high as 100-200 (from what I’ve seen anyways)
What I intend to accomplish is this:
walk away with 300dollars worth of gift cards at either 300 dollars the cost or hopefully cheaper. I’ll let ya’ll know how I do.
Also some folks in this thread have already stated the obvious but again, use quibids or whatever other site you want to use to buy the item IF you already have the money to buy it outright anyways. What the site offers is the ability/chance to get the item for far cheaper. so for example, if you have the money to go out on Friday to buy a Playstation 3 for 450bucks, check out quibids first, see if they have any Playstation 3′s goin up for sale, if they do, buy some bid vouchers and sit tight and bid wisely on that PS3. Once you reach a certain amount of bids that is slightly UNDER the cost of the PS3 and you still havent won, go ahead and just BUY the item instead. You lose… NOTHING, however, if your lucky enough to get it at less than 450bucks you just saved SOME cash. (so in other words when you start to hit close to the 750 total bids just buy the damn thing instead of maintaing the bid war)
J T Tom said
Quibids like Jumbo Closeouts are not by definition auctions. They are illegal lotteries and should be shut down imediately! Report it to the Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov.), Oklahoma Attorney General and California Attorney Generals Office. Jumbo Closeouts is operating out of 2658 Grifith Park Blvd. #381 LA,CA 90039
Calypso said
I won a few inexpensive items on Quibids and every single item was shipped to me in an Amazon.com shipping box. So is Quibids part of Amazon? If, as someone said earlier, they purchase the items at retail from Amazon, do they just use the same boxes?? No, because the shipping LABEL is printed with my name & address as recipient, and AMAZON.COM as the shipper. So now I want to know what one company has to do with the other?
O.I.C. said
First few minutes after siging up for an account with Quibids…I won a bid. After that, I just wasted away $47.07 to lost bids. It’s funny how after I signed up for a Quibuds account, I immediately won a small bid then after that nothing. If it’s too good to be true, then more than likely it is. Get me once, shame on you…get me twice, shame on me. I deactivated my Quibids account.
Cruizin said
Yes it is a scam.
I purchased points and used them, believe it or not I actually won a bid for a $50 Target gift card. The problem is that was back on July 10th, over 2 months ago and I have not received the item yet.
I’ve emailed customer service serveral times. They always reply and apologize and promise to send it out, but nothing yet.
SCAM!!! Buyers beware…
jay said
Quibids is a very smart company or scam !!!! This is an auction where it cost $.60 per bid to win a great items. I spent 20hours on an Apple Macbook that sold for over $255.00 and I DID NOT WIN. Here is the BIG picture: they made over $18,000 dollars for a $1,400 laptop (25,500 bids X .60 = 0ver $18,000). Few hours later another Macbook SOLD for $3.43. WOW !!!!!! BEST OF LUCK !!!!!!
GeorgeWBush said
Don’t let yourself be sucked into this crap. They are only feeding you what you want to hear. As legitimate as it is, you’re going to regret signing up for this site if your motive is to profit off the auctioned products. If it were as easy as it looked to win cheaply, QuiBid would be losing money and out of business.
If you are wise, you will use this site as several people have stated above as only an opportunity to bid on items you are willing to purchase at retail value. Best case scenario is you may win the item at less than retail and save some money. Worst case scenario is you buy it at retail. Simple as that.
Anyways, here are some thing’s I noticed on the site that are kind’ve sketchy.
1. I’ve watched the same people on different auctions make more than 50 bids (thats 50*0.60cents per bid = $30) while still losing them in the end. Either they have a serious gambling problem or there is something else going on behind the scenes. Either way, it’s no fun to lose $30 on multiple auctions and I saw that happen with multiple people.
2. Most of their expensive products, with each bid increasing the price by 1,2,5, or 10 cents usually sell anywhere from $10 to $20. Yet, their quoted “recently sold price” of the product is always some baloney phony price like 5 cents. As if anyone actually gets the crap for 1 bid and pays 5 cents. Any auction I’ve seen always has around 10 people in it bidding.
3. I just saw two bidOmatic accounts going head to head against each other without the auction timer going anywhere close to zero and then a supposed human player bid in between their war. Must be stupid or something’s fishy.
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on……shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.
alan said
why would anybody bid with less than 2 seconds to go anyway? bidding with anything higher than that tells me it is a scam. or you have some very dumb bidders or maybe “auto bidding” by the company
.
quibidsuser said
Watched someone use at least (what I could count) 118 bids to try to win 100 voucher bids… Auction ID: #382550880. Whether they used voucher bids or not, can’t tell. Whether they used ‘BuyItNow’, can’t tell. What I can tell is that the 118 bids user went early-mid auction and stopped. Dumb bidder? Artificial inflation? Some other scheme or even good deal? Not sure. I’ve won stuff for cheap, but you have to watch out, it does definetly show signs of a scam when 118-minumum bids are spent to win 100-maximum bids… This is not the first time I’ve seen it, only first time I’ve actually counted, so I’m sure it’s happening a lot more and will be watching a little closer in the future too.
Name said
Does anybody on this site know anything at all about business? If a company doesn’t make money on the product or service they sell, they can’t stay in business. Simple as that. So, if Quibids makes $1000 on a product then good for them. That’s how they are able to stay in business. That’s the way a business is run. If you think that that is a scam think about an insurance company. If an insurance company has 1,000,000 customers that each pay $1000 per year (that’s low ballin big time) to insure their home, car, health, boat, ect… and there isn’t a single claim made the entire year, they just made $1,000,000,000. That’s One Billion Dollars…free and clear. That’s gambling at it’s best. I’ve paid over $20,000 in car insurance and have never had a claim in my life. Will I get any of that back? NO. Now if Quibids does have employees or bots bidding against actual customers than yes, that is a scam and they should be shut down immediately. No company should be so greedy they need to pull that kind of crap. And if anybody has proof that that is happening, let people know about it. Otherwise, if they are deivering the product to you that you won and you even only saved 25% on it, then you came out with a good deal.
Fahz said
Again, I like to compare this to predatory lending. It could be legal but desperate or less informed individuals may fall prey to this scheme.
Nubar said
Believe me, I could write out my whole experience. I am double-majoring in psychology and accounting, and im someone who did a ton of research before using quibids – STRICTLY AS A TEST. They false advertise, rip people off in an extremely clever way, and brainwash them into thinking they are winning. . .
Example; Guy buys 80 bids for $48.00, bids on a 16gb memory stick ($21 on Amazon.com) but advertised as having an original $54 price tag, guy wins it after becoming addicted to hitting “BID” because he unconsciously is greedy to win that damn auction, ends up spending $36 on the all the accumulated “bids,” which he doesn’t even notice or care about anymore because he just “won” a $54 memory stick for $5.44 plus “only” $5.99 for shipping. He’s all excited; but during all that excitement it completely flies over his head that he ACTUALLY just spent $46.43 on a $20 usb memory stick.
So, he bought 80 “bids” for $48, used 59 of them (.60 per bid x 59= $35.40) spending 35.40, plus the $5.44 winning bid, plus the $5.99 for shipping. GUY ACTUALLY SPENT $46.83 on the 16gb USB stick that runs $20 on amazon. And he still has 21 bids left-over, WHICH will drive him into another bid, force his greedy unconscious mind to probably buy more bids, get ripped off again, and do this until he eventually looks at his bank statement and scratches his head wondering why he has been charged $500 from Quibids.
Adam Smith said that all humans are greedy beings by nature. – QuiBids uses this exact mentality to use and cheat consumers into feeling good by making it seem as if you’re winning. Ya, you’ll win, right when you least expect it, you’ll win. Its all planned, controlled, and well-though-out.
Please avoid falling for the trap, OR try it yourself and see what i mean with your own eyes.
Its nothing but a bad gamble.
MyName said
Right Nubar!
It looks like a bad gamble. Still, as in all auction/gambling situation GUY got an adrenaline rush, a bit of excitement and a sense of achievement in the process and it’s less risky than skydiving, really!
But I hear you…I just spent 2 days in Vegas and I am amazed by the amount of money they suck from you there and by the amount of money people are willing to waste.
Some food for thoughts as you are business/psychology person, you may have a kick looking into the following theories and concepts:
GUY already bought the bids upfront so they are considered PLAY MONEY like chips in a casino. (Still, you can cash your remaining chips in a casino…)
Then GUY bids on an item and loses money unless he wins the auction so GUY wants to win the auction: LOSS AVERSION (e.g., look at Tversky and Kahneman PROSPECT THEORY).
and even if GUY sets a threshold for the price, he still goes on bidding because he already invested a bunch in it: ESCALATION OF COMMITMENT.
Of course you can also look into GAME THEORY.
This is a very good case to use in the classroom.
It looks like gamble but then again all bidders still can buy the item at QuiBids “retail price” without losing bid money. I think that is what legally covers them from being considered a lottery or a casino and that is probably why it automatically prevents you from going overboard on your bids by leading you to “buy-it-now” at the retail price.
So they make money:
(1) on the bids people buy upfront and give up when they lose the auction and do not “buy it now” or when they unsubscribe without using them;
(2) on the interests of your “investment” in bids;
(3) on the difference between the “retail price” you pay when you BUY-IT-NOW and the price they will pay at AMAZON (as it seems to be where the packages are sent directly from);
(4)They may have some commission arrangements with Amazon but it might only be a supplier among others…
(5) probably some other ways that I can’t think of right now.
After reading all comments, they seem legit for what I can see. Still, 2 things that looked fishy to me:
(1)the suspicion of having false or automated bidding from the company. That is definitely something to look into.
(2)the suspicion that your bids disappear faster than what you really bid, yikes! Of course that is a no-no.
(3)the fact that you buy bids for a price and that those same bids increment auctions at another price. So, if when you “buy it now” it takes the actual 60 cents value,I guess it’s OK. If it takes the .05 or .10 dollar value then it’s not ok.
But then again, they seem to have some bidding on the bids themselves so the bid value fluctuates too.Tricky!
I think it will be very hard to say it’s a scam unless one can prove that there is something illegal in one of the 2 first points.
So far, what I see is an extremely clever business and an ingenuous model, I would have loved to work on that one!
Oh! and another good read that you may enjoy: Predictibly irrational by Dan Arielly.
So I guess the recommendations I have seen before still hold: don’t bet unless you are willing to pay THEIR advertised “retail price” (which seems to be higher than the price at Amazon) and do your homework before bidding!
Have fun!
herthesia sinclair said
This is a free market, if this company is making so much money, why don’t they have more competition. Maybe having a company with bid prices of $.30. Are the set up costs too expensive, there do not seem to be any specialized services offered.
Quibids said
I don’t think the set up cost is too much, but they do have many employees who need to be paid. Many of them are customer support, but still.
Also, there are tons of penny auction sites out there, so yes, there is competition. It is not about the bid costs alone, in fact that is a small part of the equation. End of the day, if you are looking for the cheapest deals, you need to look at legit penny auctions that are new. Both legit and new are very important.
Brian said
The other part of their equation that seems to be ignored is you, the bidder, having to buy blocks of bids to start with, that means that they are sitting there making the interest off of your money until you actually bid or spend it. A scam? No, all of their requirements and actions are posted and you have to agree to the terms before you can buy and use bids. So the key, as was already stated is to find the street price for that item, and see what the combination of bids and bidding price you are willing to go for, make sure you include any shipping and taxes on both you buying it from Amazon or a typical retailer might be and the same from people like Quibids, then use those numbers to see if and when it’s worth it to go through Quibids or someone like them. I don’t begrudge people like Quibids making their money off of the bids or the interest, I do take offense to consumers who want to blame someone else for their own laziness in not reading or taking the time to understand what they are agreeing to. You need to be responsible for your own actions or inactions, if you spend or spent foolishly why should someone else be held to blame when you would gladly accept the prize if it went your way?
If they are based in the USA there are laws that prohibit them from presenting false bids . The same holds true for Ebay and any others in live or electronic auctions.
MyName said
I agree!!!
Enough of this growing sense of entitlement and this ugly tendency to blame everybody but ourselves. Yikes!
Clifford A Phillips said
I was trying to win the Canon 2Ti valued at $1699.99. Gave up found someone “iamoutofwork” I think for little over $160.00. This was on the 13th Feb, 2011. I tried to use my card on the 14th & 15th on another item not involving Quibids. Was told card number was invalid. Have not gotten in touch card company to find out why card was turned down. Will do this first thing Tuesday 2/15/11. Bye for now.
Quibids lawsuit said
Don’t be so sure that it is legal. I just came across a blog that discusses a recent class action lawsuit against Quibids: http://quibidsblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/class-action-lawsuit-against-quibids.html
I wouldn’t be surprised if penny auctions in general are treated as gambling in the US. I think the result of the lawsuit will clear many things up.
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laura said
SCAM. These penny auction sites use autobidders which bid up prices for bids you have to purchase. The auction ends prematurely as the autobidder, Quibids, buys the item for: Quibids and you have been scammed X amount of dollars for an item that Quibids never intended to sell you in the first place. If that isn’t the definition of a scam what is? False advertising. Rigged Auction. Quibids deserves to be sued, fined, stricken off the internet.
aaron said
Search “Quibids are Scammers” on facebook and like me please!
NYSusan said
Laura: are you sure they are all “auto bidders” I use bidrack and have won some great stuff. ipod $32, camers $65, and a purse for my girl $2. Yes I have lost a few auctions and I’m sure they are making a fortune. But i got all my stuff.
Allison said
I’m sorry, but I went thru all of these posts, and all I see is a bunch of pissed off people who got screwed out of their money. Quibids is not an auction site more of a numbers and waiting game. I studied the site for quite some time before investing ANY money. (and they let me, which says a bit too). You all must be extremely paranoid to think they have people working for them 24/7 to hike up the price in a bidding war against you. Have you ever stopped to think you’re in a bidding war with another idiot like yourself, and once you both have wasted X amount of dollars trying to outbid, some other (patient) person has been sitting at their computer waiting for you to tire then swoop in on the deal. When you loose money it’s painful and you always try to put the blame on someone else, but really you need to look at your own actions that caused this.
Oh and in regards to the lawsuit pending. We are the land of lawsuits, there isn’t a company around that someone hasn’t tried to sue.
Art said
Just read about this site in our local paper – basically an article about the fact the government here had looked into this and decided they aren’t technically breaking any laws (that they know about)
I could be wrong but …
I don’t believe they have any items at all …
I think they buy the items after you win and have them shipped to you…
So all they sell is lottery tickets…
if all you are buying is ‘bids/tickets’ a chance to win an item – how is that not gambling… isn’t that a lottery ticket? If you lose you are offered the chance to buy the item for retail minus what you spent on bids – so exactly the retail price. If you choose not to buy it you essentially bought ‘losing lottery tickets’.
After reading all of this (especially the bits about items bought never being received) it appears to me that they just list all of the items on Amazon and then when you win something they buy that item at retail from Amazon and just have it sent to your address by them as they arrive in Amazon packaging apparently. (If item not received they technically wouldn’t have had the item in the first place to be able to send you another)
Because of the bidding system they employ they make a massive profit on any items with genuine bidders… bidding wars that make them thousands of dollars (losing bids) on single items they don’t actually have in the first place…
I haven’t checked (sounds soooo dodgey I don’t even want to go to the site at all) but if the ad info – pics and text for each item are the same they may simply be using a program to draw all the item info and pics, prices etc from Amazon, and not even have to individually create the listings.
Fahz said
Hey @Art …. they are still operating – I guess they are still legal or we do not have solid evidence to prove otherwise. Whistle blowers … any comments?