Quibids vs eBay: Where to Shop for Discounts

Quibids vs eBay is a question that a lot of shoppers face especially during the holiday season. Both these websites are well established in their field and it can be a tough choice to make. Both eBay and Quibids offer some really great discounts and deals. So how do the two compare?

The auction models of eBay and Quibids are totally different. Quibids is a penny auction site, which is a bidding fee auction model. On the other hand, eBay is a traditional auction site which more people are familiar with. Every bid you pay in Quibids is charged at $0.60/bid. On eBay, the bids are totally free and you only pay if you win the item.



There are some main differences between Quibids and eBay. The most important difference arises in the bidding model as mentioned above. Also, eBay is much more general in that there are millions of more items on eBay. On this count, Quibids vs eBay becomes a meaningless question because you can literally find everything on eBay.

The items that you find on Quibids are quite limited. However, for the items that are sold on Quibids, you can get far higher discount on Quibids than eBay. Here, we are talking about discounts of up to 90% and not 5-10% that you might be lucky to find on eBay.

However, as expected, there is a catch. You will need to pay for the bids that you place, which means you can lose money even without winning. This is an impossibility at eBay. If you do not win the item, you lose nothing.

Thus to answer the question of Quibids vs eBay for the products that are sold at both the stores, it really depends on you. If you like taking some calculated risks, you should try Quibids. If you are risk-averse, prefer eBay. If you want to try Quibids, read my post on Getting free Quibids bids before joining so you can make some good profits right from the start.

Also, if you like Quibids, you should certainly try out the other penny auctions as well. This is because sometimes Quibids can get really competitive. The newer penny auction sites have fewer bidders and thus lesser competition, so your chances can be improved. Also, a lot of them give you free bids while joining, so you might just win something out of these free bids, which would be great - to win hands down without any investment.

The post talked about Quibids vs eBay and some differences that you should keep in mind. There are risks associated with Quibids, but the rewards can be sweet.

Quibids Free Bids on Christmas

Quibids gave away free bids on Christmas. There was however a catch: it gave those free bids only to some users and not others. It seems that neither the heavy spenders nor the rare visitors were the lucky group. Personally, I never received any free Quibids bids on Christmas.

However, if you visit the Facebook page of Quibids, you will see some people thanking Quibids for their free bids. This seems disappointing that only a few people should be given free bids while others are denied. I was hopeful that I would get something from them for the New Year but no gift. Nada. They did send out an email for wishes, but that's no good now, is it?

So how did Quibids decide who would get free Quibids bids?

Quibids Doesn't Want to be Identified as a Penny Auction

So I was just looking for penny auctions in general and not just Quibids and stumbled upon a very interesting thing - Quibids doesn't show up in Google if you type penny auctions!I find this quite interesting. After all, Quibids is perhaps the biggest penny auction site on the internet today. Quibids had the millionth auction recently, which is a great achievement. So why doesn't Quibids show up for penny auctions in Google?

There are many possible explanations for this. I assume that Quibids doesn't want to identify itself with the other penny auction sites. I assume this is because Quibids wants to stand out from the rest of the crowd. In addition, penny auctions seem to have a bad connotation attached today with so many of them, like Swipebids, turning into outright scams. Also, there are new penny auction sites opening up in every nook and corner of the internet. Perhaps Quibids doesn't really want to be seen in the same league as these.

What I also find interesting is that there is no Quibids ad showing up in Google for the keyword "penny auctions". Quibids is an aggressive advertiser and I have seen Quibids ads everywhere. In fact, I discovered Quibids through a similar advertisement a very long time ago. However, Quibids doesn't even want to advertise to people looking for penny auctions. This is indeed surprising because I am sure a lot of penny auction searchers can do with a far better version of Plundr and Beezid.

Quibids Details: Phone Number, Address etc

This post is just to provide more information like Quibids phone number and address to those searching for it. Quibids is a relatively open company as compared to tons of other penny auction sites.

Here is some information about Quibids. This is taken directly from their BBB page.

Quibids phone number: (405) 253-2038
Additional Quibids phone number: (405) 253-3883
Address: 1601 NW Expressway, ste. 1500
Oklahoma City, OK 73118
CEO: Mr. Matt Beckham
CFO: Mr. Jeff Geurts
Director of PR: Ms. Jill Farrand
Employees: 100

BBB Rating: A-
Total complaints received by BBB: 88

Quibids Trap Page: Different Auctions for Different Users

There are allegations that Quibids is using a trap page to direct different users to different auctions. This is alleged to be a Quibids scam and not legit by some. The reply that Quibids customer service agent gave to a user doesn't help matters much either.

So what is a Quibids trap page? Simply put, there are different pages for different users so that there are different auctions for different bidders. I think the way it goes is that Quibids collects the data from different users and classifies them in different categories. The bigger bidders who spend and bid aggressively are grouped together into one category, so that they compete with each other and not smaller bidders. So if you are winning a lot on Quibids, you will find it harder to win in the future.

The Quibids customer support reply says that they have different auctions for different people to maximize their winnings. This is obviously untrue because they want to have the aggressive bidders bid with each other, because otherwise they could win most of the items and leave others unhappy. This would also reduce Quibids' earnings. While I don't think this counts as a Quibids scam, it does seem suspicious. I think they should mention this somewhere on their website, because otherwise it seems misleading.

So how do we know that Quibids is actually using a trap page? Simple - clear your cookies and note all the auctions that are present on the page. Now log in with your account and you will find that there are different auctions present. Not cool. So you might see some auction when you are not logged in and then all of a sudden when you log in, this auction could disappear for you.

Is this a Quibids scam? There seem to be some legal implications but I am not really sure. There is only hype at this stage. I don't think there are any lawsuits filed. You can read the entire discussion on PennyAuctionsWatch article.

You can try this out yourself - clear the cookies and you will see different auctions than when you are logged in. I think Quibids saves cookies to determine how much you win and which auctions to show. Better still, if you have a friend somewhere else, you could compare notes on which Quibids auctions you both see.



So what do you think about this Quibids trap page? Is Quibids scam? Is Quibids legit? The penny auction watch comments seem to suggest otherwise, but certainly you cannot believe all the rant on the internet.

Quibids Featured Auctions

Quibids is rolling out new features and new auctions once again. This time, they are coming up with Quibids Featured Auctions. This is a weekly featured auction that will be a big-ticket item. For this week, Quibids has announced Samsung Ultimate 3D Bundle as their featured auction.



One good thing - Quibids is not holding this featured auction on a weekday. This is good for bidders because weekdays can be really busy at Quibids with lots of bidders and thus a reduced possibility of winning. Instead, they are putting up the Quibids featured auction on Thursdays. There will be a new auction every Thursday, so be sure to check this out.

If you are looking for Quibids strategies and how to win these big-ticket items, be sure to check out my posts on Quibids strategies here, here and here.

Good luck bidding people! And hopefully you can all win something good for Christmas.

How to win on Quibids 2: Worst Time to Bid on Quibids

I have already discussed the best and worst times in general in my post here. You can also find my Quibids strategies - just browse through the most popular posts on the right hand side.

Here, I want to give some details about the worst time to bid on Quibids.

The worst time to bid on Quibids is in the night, about 10pm-2am EST. However, this worst time frame is expanding. I would say, don't bid till up to about 5am EST. Here is why:

A number of people who bid on Quibids do so at night because that is the time they are free. Quibids does realize this and usually has more auctions during the night. However, there are almost never enough number of auctions for all the users, so the nights are very competitive. Now, I know many people are nocturnal like me and will stay up late to bid on Quibids.

Quibids has only a very few auctions of late during the nights - around 4-5am EST. Here is a recent screenshot of Quibids around this time. As you can see, there are only 6 live auctions on Quibids at this time. There are, of course, many users online, so they all tend to bid on a few auctions, making this time very competitive.

So I would say, avoid bidding on Quibids at night. This is especially the case when you are in EST. This time zone is at a disadvantage for this particular time frame. If you thought you can wake up till 4am, remember it is still 1am Pacific Time, so there would be many online. You cannot be late in EST but you certainly can be early. In fact, mornings are a good time to bid on Quibids. Thus if you are in EST, perhaps you can put the alarm in the morning and try your luck!

Quibids free bids on Birthday

Here is an interesting fact about free Quibids bids: You get 5 free bids on your birthday. This seems like a really cool feature at Quibids. This was confirmed by Quibids CEO Matt Beckham in one of his interviews. Just wanted to share this with my readers.

Quibids Stock, Quibids CEO and other information about Quibids

Is Quibids stock available? As of today, no it is not. Quibids is not a publicly listed company and therefore there is no stock of Quibids that you can buy on the market. Quibids CEO is Matt Beckham. He gave an interview to PAW about an year ago, which can be an interesting read for anyone interested. You can find the interview here. Quibids was launched in October 2009, so it is not a long time.

For Quibids stock to be available, the company will have to get listed. For this, first it should establish a good track record. Another problem is that many consider penny auctions to be similar to gambling. This is a legal gray area and I don't think there is consensus on this issue. Personally I don't think penny auctions are comparable to gambling, but then I am no legal expert. In the United States, online gambling is illegal. Obviously, this is an issue not just with Quibids but with all the penny auction websites in the market today. Still, Quibids has a long way to go before it gets its stock out and is traded on the market.

Quibids Review: Error with updates

This is my Quibids review regarding the Quibids error with updating auction information. The section Is Quibids scam discusses about Quibids in general (answer in a nutshell: Quibids is not a scam). Also, you can read my comprehensive Quibids review

I previously discussed an error with Quibids regarding display of double bids. The problem is not serious and hardly matters. However, today's error is far more serious.

Quibids is a penny auction site where every second matters. In fact, every 100 milliseconds matter because so many people bid at the very last moment. Therefore, it is very important that Quibids has a mechanism to handle several almost simultaneous bids without problem. However, this is not always the case.

Here is a Quibids review of the bidding process when there are multiple bids just when the timer is about to go to zero. See the image for yourself (you can click on the image to enlarge).


As you can see, this is an auction for a 250 bids voucher at Quibids. The information to the right hand side doesn't match the information shown near the bid! It is not very common but still it is a Quibids error that needs to be addressed soon and efficiently. So if the auction ends now, who is the winner - jthom19802 or dzrthart? I assume it is the one with the higher bid, but still, it can be confusing and misleading.

In Quibids and most penny auctions in general, the difference between winning and losing is everything. If you are playing the waiting game and looking to bid at the last moment, there are many who will do the same. A lot of bids at the same time is something which can be hard to handle.

In the end, however, I'll give it to Quibids that they are one of the most efficient penny auction sites I have seen in terms of handling huge bids at the same time. That being said, there is always scope for improvement and I hope Quibids corrects this error and I won't have to bring up another Quibids review for this purpose!

Get your Quibids free bids now!

If you are looking for Quibids free bids, here is how to get them.

Note: This is only for those people who do not yet have a Quibids account. I know not many of my readers are in this situation. For those who are already members and want some free Quibids bids, check out my post on Getting free Quibids bids.

For those who are yet to register at Quibids, here is how to get your free bids:

1. Log in at Quibids
2. Enter the code WINBIG during the registration process. Congratulations! You now have 10 free bids to start your Quibids journey.
3. Go to the Beginners Lobby. Here you can get some more bids through bid vouchers for very cheap. These auctions are only for beginners and not for everyone, so you have a very good chance of winning. Don't forget this method of cheap/free Quibids bids!

Quibids Review: Misleading Price Information

There are several posts where I talk about Quibids review. Quibids is a great penny auction site that is legitimate, which means they are not closing shop after robbing you, like so many other sites on the internet. However, that doesn't mean that everything they do is good. There are things I don't like about Qubids, which is the purpose of my series on Quibids review.

Here, I want to talk about Quibids price as shown for the items that are previously won. What I mean is, when you open an auction for say 100 Quibids bids, you will see, on the left hand side of the page, information about how much the item was sold for recently.


In the image above, you can see that Quibids 100 bids voucher shows for selling at $0.01. Wow, now that can be some misleading information! Of course, this is the lowest price it can go to, but as all Quibids bidders know, this is HIGHLY unlikely. Quibids wants to attract more people by showing cheaper prices for products. Of course they are not lying because there was an auction that did sell for so cheap - see the image below.


However, these events are extremely rare, and can easily mislead new Quibids customers into expecting this to be the price. Experienced Quibids users may easily see through this.

The average price, I am guessing, will easily be 500 times or more! Here is a typical Quibids 100 bids auction:


What I don't like is that Quibids changed this very recently. Up to a few months ago, they would never try to show the cheapest auction price in the 'Recently Sold for' section. This is a recent change. In fact, I remember at the very earliest times, they would deliberately put a very high price here! The reason I think was because if they put up a very low price, people might suspect it to be a scam. However, of late, more and more people seem to know about penny auctions.

I like Quibids because it is different from all the rest of these sites. However, by towing the line by showing the cheapest price as that for which the item was recently sold, Quibids is simply losing the tag being good and honest. There are many positive changes in Quibids too, which I like, but this is not one of them.

Quibids Strategy - 4: Using Quibids Bid Vouchers

This is part 4 of my series on Quibids Strategies. You might also want to read Part-1, Part-2 and Part-3.

So this part of Quibids strategy is for a specific case: If you want to win the item but don't want to purchase it at the market price.

There are many Quibids bidders out there who do this - they don't want to use the 'Buy it Now' option. Please do note that this is an awesome feature of Quibids that you should definitely check out and use as often as you can. However, you might be there on Quibids just for fun and would want to win the auction without actually 'needing' the item. Thus you would not want to buy the Quibids Macbook for thousand bucks, but you might still want to bid and try to win this item.

If there is a such a specific item, then you should use this strategy of using bids to purchase bid vouchers. The trade off is that Voucher bids do not count towards 'Buy it Now' bids. However, since you are not that specific about this, you might as well try to optimize your overall bids as opposed to using only paid bids.

For this Quibids strategy to work, you need to know what kind of bid vouchers work best. Quibids currently offers bid vouchers of 15, 25, 50, 100 and 250 bids.

Aim: To win an X bid voucher for less than X bids.

This is not hard to understand: suppose you can win a 250 bid voucher by spending 100 bids. In effect, you are getting 150 bids extra. The price of course is that you used up 100 paid bids and got 250 voucher bids, so be aware of this trade-off at all times.

What bid vouchers work best? In my experience, it is very hard to win 15 bid vouchers for less than 15 bids. However, it is relatively simple to win 50,100 bid vouchers within 50,100 bids by using my Volunteer's Dilemma strategy. Thus, the best bid vouchers are 50 and 100 bid ones. The 250 bid voucher can get quite competitive. You can use my Waiting Game Strategy for this particular bid voucher.

The additional costs involved in the voucher bids is to take the final price into consideration and also the shipping and handling charges. For example, if the final price + shipping/handling comes to $3, you need to account that as 5 bids lost.

Thus if you decide to bid and win an item without any regard to Buy it Now feature, then you should definitely employ this Quibids strategy. This strategy will help you to get the maximum out of your Quibids experience. This is in effect a way to get free bids at Quibids, but it is not really free - you have to work to win the bid vouchers.

Note: Bid vouchers are relatively safe, because if you don't win it, you can always use the Buy it Now for the bid voucher! So suppose you are bidding on a 100 bid voucher and you place 100 bids but don't win it. Nothing to worry - by paying the service charge of $2, you can buy it just like you would purchase normal bids! This is the good thing with Quibids vouchers.