Ever use QuiBids, TrivBids, etc.?

[Opti]

I noticed the ad for QuiBids on the banner ad and saw a TrivBids ad
in a flyer I get regularly. Has anyone used them?

It seems like a great deal for the hosting auction site but I wonder how often the consumer wins. In the banner ad here on ProBoards
it advertised a Apple iPod touch sold for $19.53. I'm guessing their
business model is similar to TrivBids in which each bid is for $0.01
but it costs the bidder $0.60 to make the bid.



So, say QuiBids makes 1953x.6 + 19.53 for the sale, $1191.33 gross
for that item. Sweet profit for QuiBids.

[mithrin]

I've seen similar sites before. Your math shows how bad a deal these sites are. They are selling items for several times more than retail when all is said and done. Sure, some people get lucky and happen to get an item below retail without spending huge amounts on the bidding process, but in the long run, the house always wins. Just like any other form of gambling.

The most likely result if you try one of these sites is that you'll spend a bunch of money putting in bids and end up with nothing to show for it.

[midjd]

It's only $0.60 per bid? On another site (Beezid? How many are there?) they were charging $0.99 per $0.01 bid. I seriously thought about setting up one of these sites after I saw what the probable takehome for the site host was, but I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

ETA I'm sure once you'd already spent $100 bidding on something, it would be very hard to walk away emptyhanded... apparently the clock gains some time after each bid, which just draws it out even more.

[hockeygrl]

I know that several of these sites are under investigation for fraud. They have sham bidders out there who work for the site owners who keep bidding up the price to keep the bidding going - especially the ones where the clock resets every time there is a bid in the last 10 minutes or whatever time frame they set. You can download tracking software to determine the IP where bids come from - it is pretty eye opening. What a scam!

[ty]

Stay away from them. There use to be other sites like that that were shut down and even sued for robbing the people.

How their bids work is,
1: you pay them money so you can bid on an item. you get so many bids per purchase, or so many dollars.

2: after you bid, then right away there is a ghost bidder biding against you to get you to run up your cedit card bill some more so you can continue biding.

3: you will not win an iMac, iPhone for 1.99. Watch the clock on their screen and you will see it continously resetting itself, even when you are not bidding.

These people are crooks and I don't understand why these people haven't been shut down.

There is also another ad you might have seen where a lady claims to have made $5600 a month working at home. f it were that easy, don't you think all people would be staying at home and doing what she's doing. however, the atch there is, once again "pull out your credit card and pay up for the information" on how she makes her $5600 a month at home job.

If it sounds to good to be true, and in these cases it is. Stay away from them and do not give these people your personal information. They wll charge your money and laugh al the way to the bank with it as well.