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Sunday, November 28, 2010

Quibids Review: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Here is my first part of Quibids review for my readers:

Quibids is a penny auction site, which is unlike other traditional auctions. If you do not know what penny auctions are, you can read about it at Wikipedia. Remember, Quibids is not a traditional auction site.

For those of you who are looking to answer the question of whether Quibids is a scam or not, here is a simple one word answer: No. However, my Quibids review is not about whether it is a scam, which it is not. You can read my post here to see why Quibids is not a scam.

However, if you happen to try the site out without knowing that it is a penny auction site, you might think it is a scam. This is why, don't join Quibids until you are sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

All penny auctions including Quibids contain elements of luck and risk, and can resemble a lottery.

Quibids review legit scamMy Quibids review here is about what is good and bad in Quibids, assuming you already understand the risk in Quibids.

The Good:
  • Not Scam!: This is the biggest good for Quibids review, simply because most penny auction sites are outright scams. Quibids has a sustainable business model. Quibids uses game theory and elements of psychology and economics and can make for a good business model, which it is. Quibids recently completed the millionth auction on the site. It is quite unlike sites like Swipebids/Swipeauctions that are outright scams.
  • Real Auctions: Quibids has real auctions, which means the auctions are not all about bids and virtual products. By real auctions in my Quibids review, I mean that what you can win is real and tangible. You can win a Quibids macbook or Quibids iPad or something smaller, like headphones or mouse, but there are physical products that you use. Many penny auction sites only have points and coupons to win, which are seldom tangible. Thus they work akin to a ponzi.
  • Fast Product Delivery: The product delivery from Quibids is fast. You will get what you win within a week or two. They are prompt with ensuring that the winners get their products well in time.
  • The 'Buy it Now' Feature: This feature of Quibids is unique and can be highly useful for bidders. If you fail to win a product, you can use the amount towards the bids to purchase it at the market value. This is a good feature that greatly minimizes your losses, especially if you are interested to buy the product you are bidding anyway.
The Bad:
My Quibids review needs to be balanced and neutral, so here are some of the bad things about Quibids that might change with time.

  • Weekend competition: The best time to participate in penny auctions is the weekends when people are relatively free. However, it seems that there are just not enough products for the weekend, and so everyone bids on the same few auctions. This causes immense amount of competition, and thus the customers end up losing a lot. Quibids is naturally aware that far more people participate in auctions during the weekends, but I guess they just want to book profits above the user convenience in this case.
  • Hidden charges: Let me be honest - I hate hidden charges and hidden fees everywhere, not just Quibids. They have a delivery cost that be totally unjustified. For example, they charge $2 for adding bid after you win a bid voucher from Quibids. This is ridiculous as there is nothing physical being transferred. The bids are added immediately to your account, so why the extra fees?
  • Misleading Information: There are several things in this category. For example, a lot of advertisements seem to be showing very high discounts without telling the users about the risk. This is why so many think Quibids is scam. I don't think withholding information is the right way to go especially at this stage. I'll probably write a whole post on this topic soon.
So that was my Quibids review and I hope to hear from you - what you like and what you don't, so I can take those into account for my next review.

8 comments:

  1. the added fees for bids are cc transaction fees.

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  2. I doubt that. For 15 bids, the fees is $1 and for all other bid packs, it is $2. This is inconsistent with cc transaction fees.

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  3. LIke at the circus games to win a stuffed animal - QuiBids has real prizes but the chances of winning are better at the circus. QuiBids probably makes 100% over retail on many items. In fact some of the products are probably given for advertising. The MACs are to get people to join and make QuiBids rich due to competition. Buy a lottery ticket and odds may be the same because people can rig the system by buying special purchasing tricks that cause others to lose.

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  4. Since you have the Buy Now feature, you can treat it like any other shopping site which also gives you a chance to win these products at a hugely discounted price. If not, you just buy at the retail price.

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  5. I won a lot of gift cards on Quibids. Less people bid on them making them easier to win

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  6. Stay away from this company. They were supposed to give me free 100 bids just for signing up to there web site and then they charged my credit card 60.00 dollars for the 100 bids which were supposed to be free for signing up.

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    Replies
    1. they were never free it says it when you sign up that its 100 for 60 dollars you just didn't read.

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    2. I saw it.. but a lot of people didn't cus that's all I hear everyone saying. .lol

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