Zbiddy? Is it really 70% to 90% off retail

[widgeon13]

Just got and email from them, they say drastic reduction from cost on all new products, iPad, cameras, other electronic stuff. Anyone ever use them?

Does the old saying apply, if it sounds to good to be true probably is??

[stomachmonkey]

These types of auction sites have been popping up more frequently lately.

The 1st one that I recall and posted about here is Swoopo.

Basically what happens is you buy bid packs in bulk, 10, 20, 30, 40 etc...

Each bid costs you money so for arguments sake let's say they are $1 a piece.

Each bid on an item increases the cost by 10 cents, (or 1 cent in a penny auction).

Now lets take a retail item like an iPad. Again keeping it simple let's assume the retail cost is $500.

Bidding starts at 10 cents. 2,000 people bid on it so the winning price is $200.

Assume you are the winning bidder and you bid 10x's. You got an iPad for $210.

But there were $2,000 in bids so the auction company just made $2,000-$500+$210= $1,750.

[krystar]

yea sounds like that stupid quibid commercial on tv.

[techweenie]

We had a company like that advertise on Fast Lane Daily. They gave us all $25 worth of account "money." It was an interesting game where the bidding closed after a certain number of seconds without a higher bid. You only spent what the pack of bids cost you. The actual price of the item was irrelevant, so if you were masterful and lucky, you could buy the minimum number of bids (say $25 worth) and "win" multiple items. Auctions didn't "open" until enough people had put up an ante that the company was already making 200%.

It's basically gambling. But it's a good business model for the operator. You can -- as stomachmonkey says -- easily see how much they net on every item sold.

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by techweenie

But it's a good business model for the operator. You can -- as stomachmonkey says -- easily see how much they net on every item sold.

I honestly don't have an issue with the company making money.

I think it's an interesting approach.

Consumer can get good value with low risk and company makes money.

I do agree it is similar to gambling in a lot of ways. I can see people blowing wads of cash chasing a deal.

When swoopo first came out I blew $50 figuring it out simply because the concept intrigued me.

What I found was it was highly time zone/time of day dependent. There were patterns in the bid cycle that corresponded with daily events. It looked like morning coffee, arriving at work, lunch time, after dinner, before bed were the most active times. But you had to be aware of the the time difference between right and left coast.

For the most part the really good deals happened between 1-3 am pacific time. Left coasters had gone to bed and right coasters had not woken up yet.

It also appeared that they would "seed" deals for those time periods so they could honestly say someone got a $1,000 laptop for $20.

[sammyg2]

Ain't no thing as a free lunch. You'll end up paying one way or the other.
They are not going to give stuff away for near free. they are not going to exist very long as a business if they don't make a profit.

It's prolly the same scam as with quibids.
Log onto Quibids and open an account, and they will instantly charge your credit card $60.
No asking for approval, no asking if you're sure or if you approve, just zap! You've been charged $60. They say "it's in the terms and conditions, didn't you read them?

But they give you a bunch of bids for that $60, which you will will waste trying to buy stuff.
It's like paying for air.
The only things you'll have a real chance at willing are the things that are already close to retail.

They got really pissed when I forced them to refund that money or I'd turn it into the credit card company. They got so mad they threatened to "suspend my account"!

LOL, oh no, don't do that!

[stomachmonkey]

LOL, you entered credit card information and were surprised that you were charged?

I can save you some time so you don't need to read the T/C's in the future.

If anyone asks you for a card up front, expect a charge.

[widgeon13]

Thanks for taking the time to explain. Think I'll stay away.

These types of auction sites have been popping up more frequently lately.



The 1st one that I recall and posted about here is Swoopo.



Basically what happens is you buy bid packs in bulk, 10, 20, 30, 40 etc...



Each bid costs you money so for arguments sake let's say they are $1 a piece.



Each bid on an item increases the cost by 10 cents, (or 1 cent in a penny auction).



Now lets take a retail item like an iPad. Again keeping it simple let's assume the retail cost is $500.



Bidding starts at 10 cents. 2,000 people bid on it so the winning price is $200.



Assume you are the winning bidder and you bid 10x's. You got an iPad for $210.



But there were $2,000 in bids so the auction company just made $2,000-$500+$210= $1,750.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey

LOL, you entered credit card information and were surprised that you were charged?

I can save you some time so you don't need to read the T/C's in the future.

If anyone asks you for a card up front, expect a charge.

You got an e-bay or paypal account?

[stomachmonkey]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

You got an e-bay or paypal account?

3rd party facilitators.

Different business model.

But I agree, banging your card automatically without clear notice is a scumbag move.

I just looked at their T/C's, they were updated 8/2/11 and there does not seem to be any mention of the automatic charge so I'm going to assume they got a ton of chargebacks which would effectively put them out of business. If your chargeback ratio is too high the CC co's or merchant provider will cut you off.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by krystar

yea sounds like that stupid quibid commercial on tv.

The Quibid girl is a cutie, but I haven't seen her in a while. It seems suspicious that one penny auction site starts advertising heavily at about the same time that another one stops altogether.
Google "penny auctions" to get the story on these places.

[azasadny]

It's a ripoff. You have to pay a fee somewhere. Remember that if it seems like too good a deal, it isn't....