Friday, December 10, 2010
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.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, December 6, 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Quibids millionth auction winner
So Quibids has announced the millionth auction winner today in their newsletter. This was sent to all the Quibids members. Here is the winner - Mr. Josh Neifert. Congratulations!
Quibids announced this competition quite some time ago. For obvious reasons, the exact auction that was the millionth was not announced. Like with so many other things at Quibids, this dependent heavily on your luck :)
So what does the winner get: $10,000 in hard cash! Also, Quibids wants to donate $1,000 to a charity of the winner's choosing. I am hoping the winner reads this NY times article by Mr. Kristof discussing the truth about charities and steers clear of the scum.
I think this is a significant achievement for Quibids as a site and proving this to be a successful and sustainable business model. I also think that Quibids has a long way to go and many improvements to be made to the website with time. There are still issues that I will be discussing as I review different auctions at Quibids. However, Quibids seems to be the most promising penny auction site out there, and personally I think is way above the more famous competitor Swoopoo. It is only a matter of time that Quibids catches up.
Quibids also seems to be launching an aggressive Facebook campaign by enticing users with free bids. Perhaps a post is due discussing this.
Quibids announced this competition quite some time ago. For obvious reasons, the exact auction that was the millionth was not announced. Like with so many other things at Quibids, this dependent heavily on your luck :)
So what does the winner get: $10,000 in hard cash! Also, Quibids wants to donate $1,000 to a charity of the winner's choosing. I am hoping the winner reads this NY times article by Mr. Kristof discussing the truth about charities and steers clear of the scum.
I think this is a significant achievement for Quibids as a site and proving this to be a successful and sustainable business model. I also think that Quibids has a long way to go and many improvements to be made to the website with time. There are still issues that I will be discussing as I review different auctions at Quibids. However, Quibids seems to be the most promising penny auction site out there, and personally I think is way above the more famous competitor Swoopoo. It is only a matter of time that Quibids catches up.
Quibids also seems to be launching an aggressive Facebook campaign by enticing users with free bids. Perhaps a post is due discussing this.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Quibids Review: Problem with Bidding
Quibids review is needed periodically to check the site for bugs and errors. Quibids is one of the more famous penny auction websites on the internet. Quibids recently announced their millionth auction, which is quite an accomplishment.
A lot of people invest a considerable amount of time and money into the site, so it is important that Quibids be free of bugs and errors. Unfortunately, that is not the case as my Quibids review in this section reveals.
Today, I will discuss the problem with Quibids with respect to repeated bids. This is not very common, but that isn't the point - it is still a Quibids bug/Quibids error that needs to be rectified.
Usually, if you bid twice in quick succession on Quibids, the bid is still registered. Of course you would not ideally want to do that because you are losing a bid quite unnecessarily. But see what happens if you do.
The image below shows a screenshot of an auction that I was following for the purpose of this Quibids review: (you can click on the image to enlarge the picture)
As you can see, the Quibids user tomtomintx seems to have bid twice, but the price remains the same. This is not the rule - normally if you bid twice successively, the bid amount still goes up. Quibids has a problem with this, which is what I want to review in this post.
Quibids review is important because users need to be aware of any strange happenings on the website. This is because in any penny auction, the difference between winning and losing is a matter of seconds, which Quibids does realize. However, if such bugs are not corrected, it can be a problem for Quibids users.
This doesn't seem like a serious Quibids bug but it is important because Quibids has a problem with bids placed in quick succession. In my next Quibids review, I will discuss a more serious Quibids bug that I am well aware of and a lot of other Quibids users are aware of as well. That has to do with different winners at the same time!
A lot of people invest a considerable amount of time and money into the site, so it is important that Quibids be free of bugs and errors. Unfortunately, that is not the case as my Quibids review in this section reveals.
Today, I will discuss the problem with Quibids with respect to repeated bids. This is not very common, but that isn't the point - it is still a Quibids bug/Quibids error that needs to be rectified.
Usually, if you bid twice in quick succession on Quibids, the bid is still registered. Of course you would not ideally want to do that because you are losing a bid quite unnecessarily. But see what happens if you do.
The image below shows a screenshot of an auction that I was following for the purpose of this Quibids review: (you can click on the image to enlarge the picture)
As you can see, the Quibids user tomtomintx seems to have bid twice, but the price remains the same. This is not the rule - normally if you bid twice successively, the bid amount still goes up. Quibids has a problem with this, which is what I want to review in this post.
Quibids review is important because users need to be aware of any strange happenings on the website. This is because in any penny auction, the difference between winning and losing is a matter of seconds, which Quibids does realize. However, if such bugs are not corrected, it can be a problem for Quibids users.
This doesn't seem like a serious Quibids bug but it is important because Quibids has a problem with bids placed in quick succession. In my next Quibids review, I will discuss a more serious Quibids bug that I am well aware of and a lot of other Quibids users are aware of as well. That has to do with different winners at the same time!
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.
My Quibids review here is about what is good and bad in Quibids, assuming you already understand the risk in Quibids.
The Good:
My Quibids review needs to be balanced and neutral, so here are some of the bad things about Quibids that might change with time.
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.
My 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.
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.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Quibids scam or not
Question: Is Quibids a scam?
Verdict: Not scam.
Quibids is a penny auction site, which is quite different from the regular auctions that you are aware of, like traditional auctions or even websites like eBay. Penny auction is a kind of Bidding fee auction, so each bid you place, you need to pay for it.
In spite of what the founder says, there are few parallels between traditional auctions and Quibids. Thus, you should know well the risks of Quibids before venturing to bid on the site. The simple fact is, it is a high-risk-high-return strategy. You might win big time or you might lose a lot of money without anything to show for. There are of course a few Quibids strategies that you can use (read my series on Quibids strategies on this blog) to maximize your returns, but the risk is still there.
That being said, once you understand the risk of Quibids, you will soon find out that Quibids is not a scam. They are here to stay and they have a successful business model. Quibids is not a scam because they will not withhold your winnings or not send you auctions that you have won. They also have plenty of cool features that are not aimed to scam you.
Bottom line: you can trust Quibids, but don't be so sure of your luck!
A number of penny auction sites have recently closed shop. One of the more famous group includes Swipebids/Swipeauctions. This was bad, but it wasn't surprising, considering the way the site was run. It was a totally unsustainable model and there was no way to make sure it was run profitably. I would say it was more like a Ponzi scheme, where all you do all day is to win more bids, which are essentially worthless.
On the other hand, Quibids has real auctions with real products, not just bids. People do win real here. In addition, I am amazed by Quibids in that it was able to come a long way since the first days. They do need to work on many aspects, including some better ways to advertise, but overall, I think Quibids is great and Quibids is not a scam. Quibids is legit company.
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