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Sunday, August 1, 2010

Quibids Strategy - 2: Best Time for Bidding at Quibids

This QuiBids strategy is as much valid in 2013 as it was in 2010 when it was originally written. Like with any other penny auction, low competition is the key to winning at QuiBids, and if you know the best time to bid on QuiBids, then you know the least competitive times to bid at.

QuiBids is a penny auction site that helps customers shop for items in a penny auction model. Thus, by its very nature, the ease of winning and the cost of items depends on how many people are online at a given point of time and how many auctions are simultaneously going on. Using the right Quibids strategies, you can win some items for really less, like QuiBids Macbook for less than $100. This is not a QuiBids scam, though QuiBids does rig the model in its own favor (who wouldn't?)

Since the guys at QuiBids are smart people and they have access to tons of user data relating to times, they try to ensure that the bidding process is uniform throughout the day. This means by bidding at one point of time, you should ideally get no advantage when compared to bidding at another point of time. Another way QuiBids tries to make auctions more 'fair' is by restricting some auctions only to certain users, depending on criteria that are not public. This has caused some outcry in the past, but those are the rules of the game.

However, as I would have suspected, the QuiBids guys are not that smart after all :) No, the process is not as smooth as it ideally should be. QuiBids strategy of trying to have an average of similar users/items for bidding doesn't seem to work practically.

Here is a list of times that you should bid during and some times that you should avoid bidding. This is from my own personal experience as I follow QuiBids auctions very closely and see how they work. If you think these aren't accurate or you have a different experience with your own QuiBids strategy, please let me know in the comments below.

Do note that this QuiBids strategy for bidding is not universal and you are NOT guaranteed to win auctions. Penny auctions depend on a million factors that are beyond your control. Worse, it depends on the behavior of other users, which is totally unpredictable. Therefore it is impossible to have a QuiBids strategy that will always work, and anyone who claims the contrary is simply a sham. There are no 100% guaranteed wins at QuiBids or any other penny auction really.

Here are some tips that will help you get the right QuiBids strategies with respect to the bidding times.

Best Times:

  • Days: The best days to bid are Wednesday, Tuesday and Thursday, in that order. Some of the cheapest Quibids auctions have been won on Wednesday, somehow. There could be many reason for this. People are generally occupied with more important things during the weekdays.

  • Times: The best time to bid in Quibids is around 2pm-5pm, EST. If you live in different time zones, convert it accordingly. This time there are few people bidding and lots of Quibids auctions to bid on. The ratio of users/live auctions is usually highest during this period, which is what determines the best time as Quibids strategy.
Worst times:
It is important to avoid these times as there are just too many people who are bidding on a given auction.

  • Days: Weekends are the worst. Try to avoid them. There are just too many people who are free on the weekends and have nothing better to do than sit in front of their computers. You can see this yourself. Sunday evenings are perhaps the worst time for Quibids auctions from the user's perspective.

  • Times: The worst time to bid on Quibids is somewhere around the night. In EST, this comes to about 10pm - 2am. This time has too few auctions and too many users. Try to avoid these times.
Demonstration:
This is a recent addition to this blog post to demonstrate exactly what I am trying to tell in this blog post.


Cheap Plasma TV for $4.10, bidding on a Wednesday during 2-5pm EST

Cheap Plasma TV using QuiBids strategy correctly
Costly Plasma TV for $170.36 bidding on a Saturday night:

Expensive Plasma TV not using QuiBids Strategy
So now you know how important it is to bid at the best time in QuiBids. The competition on a Saturday night is going to be huge. Don't just look at the final price. Think of how many people had lost hundreds of dollars on this day trying to win this item. I am sure you can understand how relevant this QuiBids strategy is in order to help you win.

Let me know how your QuiBids experience goes after following these QuiBids strategies.
Also see QuiBids Strategy-1: Volunteer's Dilemma

54 comments:

  1. Hey, I'm wondering what your sources are for the Day of week and Time of day data? I find nights to be quite busy but haven't tried days, so I can't comment yet!

    I'm workin up a strategy, and I'll let you know soon :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nate, I do not have published data as such because Quibids doesn't publish it. What I gave was after personal research in the area and also some data from other users whom I trust. Quibids will contain a wealth of information for data mining, and not surprisingly, they do not want to publish it!

    Good luck with Quibids and let me know how it goes for you :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fact that you answered with "whom" leave me feeling very confident of your objectivity. Thanks.

      Delete
  3. Hi I'm new to quibids and I think that quibids is a really cool bidding site because people get great things for a great price but right now it is making me mad because I am trying to win an 64 gb IPad and I'm having the worse luck ever can you help me in any way? please tell me what I might be doing wrong and what I could be doing to actually have a better chance of winning please

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  4. I think you have some great insight and excellent suggestions. Timing is everything. I was able to easily win a few small items on Christmas day and had little competition. I am going to bid on Wednesday and see if I have luck with a larger item that I want.

    And to Robert- Don't get in bidding wars with people at competitive bidding times. Also, be sure not to bid too early in an auction for big items. Let other people exhaust their bids and wait until there are fewer bidders before you bid. Like the blogger says, bid during off times to increase your success. Winning is a combination of good strategy and plain luck.

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  5. when I bought my first bidpack i used the referal link, http://www.quibids.com/?refer=3274827 and typed in the coupon code "winbig" and got 5 extra free bids. just a suggestion.

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  6. @Robert, winning Big-ticket items like iPad can get competitive and you should be adequately prepared. Without knowing what strategy you are using it is hard for me to help you. You should read my other posts on Quibids strategy as well that I have posted.

    @Debbie, I really appreciate your comment :) Thanks for that! Good luck with trying to win bigger items. If you are not interested in using the Buy it Now feature, you might want to invest in bid vouchers first. If it is a big item, you might want to relax a bit during the initial phase - it is highly improbable winning those within a dollar or two, for example. Keep us posted about your progress!

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  7. @Everyone, I am working on publishing another post on how to win big-ticket items at Quibids like Macbooks and iPads. Do check that out.

    I am working on a number of additional Quibids strategies and will post them in the coming weeks. Please subscribe to my blog so you can keep yourself updated!

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  8. thanks everyone for your help and advices and i was wondering if anyone knew of some coupon codes that work to be able to get some free bids

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  9. robert, if you are a member already, there is no coupon code currently that will give you free bids. There are some other ways to get free bids. You can check out my posts on Quibids free bids here in the blog to know about them. Good luck!

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  10. Hi. I bought my first pack yesterday. My friend gave me the referal link: http://www.quibids.com/?refer=3604476
    If you use coupon code "offer1" along with this link you will get 50 free bids

    ReplyDelete
  11. ok people 25 free bids is no worth adding one more person to the site used to be good, no great now just getting crowded

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  12. Justin, I can resonate with your feeling. It used to be a much better place. I would really like to see more auctions, in line with the increase in number of members. However, I would also assume that it will be much more difficult managing so many auctions and winners. Again, I cannot back down just because Quibids gets crowded: I run my blog for everyone who is interested to know the secrets to win!

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  13. I have seen a product for Quibids that can make it way easier to win there and get this exact data with lot more detail.

    BidProApp for Quibids

    This is not a 'cheating tool', but rather high-info tools that help you digest everything going on and make smarter bidding choices.

    Just food for thought.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I must say I agree with the time of day! I was researching xbox's i wanted and noticed for sure that between 12:00pm-3:00pm is when all the $0.80-$4.00 xboxes were being won, and sharply the prices rose after that! I was shocked when I noticed this...but glad you confirmed it here! :)

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  15. I am glad you found the same! Welcome to the blog and feel free to drop by or subscribe to keep informed of all other Quibids secrets!

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  16. QuiBids is nothing more than an online casino! Pure Luck. People spend way more on items than what you could get them for (straight up) on ebay!

    So you spend a ton on bids for an auction on QuiBids and then you get the chance to buy it at the end when you find that you did not win... well, if you can understand, at the prices they sell for in their Buy It Now's, it is LIST price!

    So really, where did you win?? I can buy an iMac computer for around $1100 loaded and that same computer on QuiBids goes for almost $1600!

    I just do not understand most people that fall for the QuiBids and alike sites out there. Morons, really.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The reason some of us are able to win is precisely because there are "morons" who will throw money at an item (and then back away). Watch, be patient -- and you'll win!

      Delete
  17. Hello, I greatly appreciate your comments and am enjoying this blog. I have noticed that more and more people are using bidomatic and you find not one or two but 10 bidomatics to compete against. I don't even understand how one bidomatic wins against the other ones.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Penny Auctions are not auctions, officially or otherwise. The thing with Quibids is you get a CHANCE to win a product at much below retail and if not, you can buy it at full retail. I am sure no Macbook will ever go for $1600 at Quibids at least in the near future. However, the revenue generated for Quibids can certainly be higher. Much higher actually.

    @Wendy
    Thanks. I am glad you liked the blog. The thing with bidomatic at Quibids is there is a limit: 25 bids maximum. In addition, not everyone would like to use bids forever in the bidomatic. In the end, the last man standing wins: not the most pleasant scenario but that's how it is. You could read about some tips on beating bidomatic at my other post: http://quibidsblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/quibids-strategy-7-winning-against-bid.html

    Oh and to everyone, subscribe to the blog to get some really cool stuff that I am planning for my readers. I am planning to create a eBook with all the details and give it away FREE for my readers :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. I am new to Quibids.com so I was wondering how they made money on such a low bid. All you have to due is due the math. I was watching people bid on an apple laptop worth $1,799.00. The bid got as high as $274.00 which if you multiply $274.00 x 100 (which gives you the amount of pennies people are bidding on) x $.60 per bid= $16,440.00. Yes you read correctly, I didn't get the decimal in the wrong place. Wow, what a profit for quibids.com

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  20. These times are largely item-specific. Good bidding times for video enthusiasts may be bad bidding times for computer geeks. [The Saturday night example is skewed, being New Years Day night, when everybody is home.]

    When the best time to bid is depends on what you mean by getting auction goods on the "cheap." Is is better to spend 100 bids @ $0.60/bid to win a an iPad for $3.00 than to spend 50 bids to win the same product for $6.00? The math does not lie, the scoreboard does not lie.

    Regardless of the time of day, one needs to pay attention to auction dynamics ad bid accordingly.

    ReplyDelete
  21. @move2nv,
    Welcome to penny auctions :) Yes, even after doing the math, there are people who bid there because they do get products for cheap. If you are curious, check out the poll on my blog and you'll see how many bidders actually make a profit.

    @Daniel,
    I agree with you. Competition is all about winning with lesser number of bids. Auction dynamics is obviously what you need to consider. All I am stating is a statistical average: of course it varies with individual auctions. Weekends really are more competitive.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi Sid... Have you researched any of the programs out there selling that promote additional information on the bidding with Quibids? Example: Bid Pro App, Bid Centz. They are highly expensive on the surface and I was wondering if you know of other options like these. Thanks in advance, you have provided a valuable tool in this blog.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Steve,
    Thanks for dropping by and I am really glad you liked the blog.
    Coming to products like Bid Pro App and Bid Centz, I haven't had the opportunity to use them directly, so I cannot comment first hand on these. However, I would like you to know that the price differential can be HUGE in penny auctions, which means the same auction can end in 5 minutes or 5 hours which is impossible to predict. The average price will hardly provide you with valuable information. I am really not sure how much these trends will help anyway.

    About Bid Centz, I know this for sure: they blatantly plagiarize material from blogs, including mine. I had 5 of their articles removed from EzineArticles that were a blatantly plagiarized from my blogs. Even now, you will find copies of my articles at their site. All they do is "rewrite" stuff so you cannot file anything with Google. As a blogger who takes pain to write original high quality content, this just makes me mad. I suspect they pay low quality writers a few bucks for every rewrite they produce. I wouldn't be surprised if their product is equally substandard.

    ReplyDelete
  24. You never said anything about the time of month. I think this is HUGE! Look at the casinos... the biggest time is after the people get their welfare checks and social security checks at the first of the month. I'm thinking the best time of the month is the 2nd and 3rd week.

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  25. I haven't noticed a trend of changes within the month - that could be so. If I can find something, I'll be sure to add to the post. Thanks for the comment!

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  26. .60 a bid x 100 bids to the dollar = $60.00 spent per $1.00 item price. 55" LED TV just went for $480.00. Retail value is ~$3000.00, total bidders actually paid ~$28,800.00 for that TV. Amazing!

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  27. Joe,
    You will also find the same TV for $2. Calculate the loss on that yourself. Plus, not to mention the Buy Now feature which would potentially make Quibids lose money.

    ReplyDelete
  28. you need a easier way to get to the bidding. like (bidding)or bid here

    ReplyDelete
  29. www.grablo.com is an addictive, fun, super exciting, fast-paced auction site reinvented! Win hot, brand new, brand name products for pennies!

    Best part is: NO ONE LOSES!!

    Preregister now!

    ReplyDelete
  30. I wrote a software script in Python that will allow you to track auctions on Quibids. Check it out here: http://pennystats.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  31. i spent over 200.00$ and only won a 10$ shower head and i played at several different times and i just think that i was tooken for a fool its hard when they dont have like 2 fist time bidders auctions. i understand they need to make money but comeon they dont need to legaly rob people. They lead u to think that everyone wins but they dont my mother lost 180$ and got nothing for it. I think they should change they advertising. Also sorry for all the misspellings.

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  32. I noticed something strange about this site. If you do not sign in and look at the auctions you will notice many "no winners". If you then go to the menu item, "recently completed" and scroll thru the auctions you will notice many "no winners". However, if you log in, and look thru the auctions, you will be lucky to see any "no winners". If you go to the menu item, "recently completed" you will not see any "no winners". So, I conclude from this that when you are not logged in and see the auctions and the "no winners" they must be phony auctions place there to lure you in!! They would simply say it was only advertising and the only legitimate auctions are those you see when you are logged in!!!

    I also noticed 12 rows when I was not logged in but only 9 rows when I immediately logged in!! They must have deleted the "no winners" !!!

    I even checked the times of the "no winners" and then logged in, went directly to the recently completed and saw a similar item only seconds different in completion - but it was no a "no winner" !!

    Very, very, decieving. Suckers are born every minute - or in this case second.

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  33. Great advice! Thanks. Just wondering... are you aware of what the bidding is like in the early hours of the day from 2AM- 5 or 6AM, I am usually a night owl so I wouldn't be bothered to stay up and do a few auctions. :)

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  34. and also as my first day on quibids was a sunday evening i won two auctions, a 25$ giftcard with one bid and a $50 giftcard for 11 bids yes im a newbie but i found it wasn't THAT difficult on sunday evenings as people are getting ready for the week ahead- if they are adults- perhaps getting there childrens lunch ready etc. :) just a thought

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  35. I find that there is really no good time to go on Quibids, you either going to win or lose your money. I also notice they keep track of the products your are trying to win. Because when I go back on Quibids there will be alot of auctions with the item I am trying to win. But guess what I spend alot of money trying to win the auction but never win. I think they have it set up that way. I will like to know since you posted this blog currently what is the best time to go on Quibids.

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  36. Saturday, june first, an auction started at 2 PM for an iPad 4 th generation. 5 hours later, it was still going on as another iPad got on the block. Definitely not a good time on week-ends....

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  37. what do u think about the u choose auctions,value over 285.00 where when u look in the statistics, clearly a few have won the product 3 time, in a 28 day period. clearly breaking the rules??

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  38. Just started last weekend on this site...this is just like going to the Casino...you can spend $300 and not get anything for it!

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  39. Keith: That's a very bad strategy because it means you're not using the 'Buy it Now' feature of QuiBids. You have no one to blame but yourself in that case. Always always bid on items that you would be comfortable buying at the full retail price listed in the But it Now price.

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  40. Katarina: Interesting thoughts, perhaps that's true. It's hard to speculate. It turns out that the average age of penny auction users is much more than I initially thought. Good going and good luck!

    @Anonymous above: It's a documented fact that QuiBids will not show all auctions to all users. Like it or leave it. It was quite controversial several years ago but it's how it is right now.

    @Anonymous below: That's not true because you have the 'Buy It Now' feature that you can use.

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  41. Hey I am Ngamer, I need some help on bidding in MST, Utah, I never seem to find the right time to bid in my Time Zone and end up losing every time. Any idea to what times are best for me? I bid on Beezid.

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  42. Thanks for the blog, great tips. I was frustrated with Quidbids at first, but am learning what bidders to avoid and the best times and auctions to bid on. Vouchers are tough to win, but there are enough other auctions to make up for it. Great job here, thanks again.

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  43. I think the timer is a really screwed up, but perfectly legal, scam. It should be that after a certain price has been hit for the bidding, the timer only goes up by 9 seconds per bid, then later by 8 seconds, then 7, and so on. This way, it would be easier for us bidders to win. Though QuiBids would make less money in the short term, it would increase profits significantly in the long run, as people tell their friends how great and easy to win bidding is at QuiBids. Also, by increasing the amount of bidders on the site, they would be forced to hire more workers to help keep up with the auctions, creating more jobs and helping to grow the economy. Then, ultimately, more items would be put up for auction, resulting in more workers, boosting economy and reputation, and more profit$ for the company. I do like the system and have won things already at great prices, but some other things I do wish were different is the ability to report suspected robot-bidders, the ridiculous limits of 12 items per month, and the whole bid-O-Matic thing. Just a thought.
    -Matt

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Matt, I wouldn't say it's a scam because the site does exactly what it's supposed to do, and what it advertises it does. It's not designed to make it easy for you to win. The 12 limit was implemented to keep the 'power bidders' away because they use more of the intimidation tactics that scare away regular people from bidding, and that means less profits for the company. I agree with your overall suggestions that it would be easier to win if things were different, but the point of the site is to run a profitable business. Viewed from that lens, I don't think it's a scam at all, just a clever business model.

      Delete
    2. I didn't mean the whole site is a scam, it is a very clever business model indeed, but the whole factor of the timer countdown really discourages me from bidding on high ticket items because I can never seem to win, so I have to settle for the small stuff.

      Delete
  44. And either way, they have horrible customer service as far as PayPal goes. I filed a claim on the 9th and have not received any communication whatsoever from them. Luckily, PayPal will side with me and refund my money. QuiBids is starting to look worse and worse to me...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paypal has nothing to do with QuiBids. Please keep bidding ;)

      Delete
  45. when is the best time to start bidding on 'big ticket items'? a big ticket item could go on for hours and stretch into the 'worst time to bid'.

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  46. Also consider trying BidPanther. It helps you know all about the other Bidders. The page is http://www.bidpanther.com

    ReplyDelete
  47. Also consider trying BidPanther. It helps you know all about the other Bidders. The page is http://www.bidpanther.com

    ReplyDelete