Quibids: New items, new promotions

Quibids has been actively churning out new products and deals for its customers. This is natural, because with the hype, Quibids can make healthy profits off just one item.

For example, a few weeks ago, Quibids had a promotion offer selling a car. That's right, it is a big deal! Quibids put its market value at $20,000. The car was Honda Civic Coupe LX. This is the auction page screenshot after the winner was declared.


As you can see, the item sold for $1740.78, which is a significant saving for the winner. Unfortunately, there is only one winner and everyone else loses. In any auction, there are only two winners - the auction winner and Quibids!

Lets us calculate how Quibids rakes in the money through these auctions by doing a simple calculation from our side.

The auction is a 2 cent auction, and the total value the car sold at is $1740.78.
Thus the total number of bids placed by all Quibidders is 174078/2 = 87,039.
Total revenue for Quibids from this auction = 87,039 X $0.60 = $52,223.4
Total profit for Quibids from this auction = $52223.4 - $20,000 = $32223.4

From a single auction, Quibids has made over $30,000 in pure profits! Quibids claims a small revenue, but really, I am sure they rake in the moolah. The company wants to be open but is surprisingly closed like most other penny auction sites. Quibids is not an outright scam but if a company makes so much money at the expense of its customers, it is something to pause and ponder about.

Now, let us see how much all the Quibidders except the winner, merkmerk, have lost.

Total number of bids placed = 87,039
Bids by the winner = 2,044
Total bids lost = 87,039 - 2,044 = 84,995
Total value of lost bids = 84,995 X $0.6 = $50,997

Thus, in this single auction, all Quibidders combined lost over $50,000! Unbelievable, but true. Quibids and other penny auctions seem to be worse than gambling, where even compulsive gamblers will have a limit to their losses.

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


Costly Plasma TV for $170.36 bidding on a Saturday night:


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

Quibids scam: Why no Paypal?

Quibids scam propagates in multi-directions and there are several issues with this. In this post, I am going to discuss the Quibids scam with respect to the Paypal issue.

There are many customers out there who want Quibids to accept Paypal. But Quibids always refuses Paypal. Why? The reason is not difficult to understand - Paypal has a policy of return when the goods are not delivered. This means if I buy something from Quibids using Paypal and they scam me into it, there is a way for me to get my money back using Paypal. Unfortunately, this is not the case with credit card transactions. Because Quibids is scam, it doesn't allow Paypal.

I will retract my words if Quibids is able to allow Paypal transactions. I know this is not going to happen because Quibids strategy is not really a win-win but simply a win-lose where it is the customers that ultimately lose. It is like a giant casino where the house always makes money no matter what. And a few lucky customers might make a few bucks, but really it is nothing compared to what the casino makes.

If Quibids is not scam, they should start accepting Paypal. I know Quibids scam and got suspicious the moment they said no to Paypal. All respectable online businesses use Paypal. If Quibids is what it claims, then it should do the same. Quibids should start accepting Paypal if it is legitimate. Unfortunately for the customers, this is not the case.

Quibids scam doesn't allow it to use Paypal. This is one of the Quibids strategy to keep trouble at bay. For example, if you lose a lot of money out there and want a refund, Quibids ensues that there is no way for this to happen. This is why it doesn't allow Paypal. Quibids macbook might be selling for $200 but in the process, Quibids makes a whopping $11,800 profit. This is for just one Quibids macbook. There are thousands of items listed each day. You do the math.

If Quibids claims it is genuine and honest, it should start accepting Paypal. If Quibids is scam, then it should not allow Paypal. The answer is there to see for everyone.

Update: Quibids is now accepting Paypal! That is good news. Quibids scam can be in many different ways, but not through this route! Read my Quibids review to learn more.

P.S. Update: I had a few complaints that they are still having problems with Paypal. I contacted Quibids support and here is their reply:

Hi Sid,

We do indeed! You can use (and inform your followers to use) this link for PayPal: https://www.quibids.com/store/firstbuy.php?paypal=1

Please let us know if there is anything else we can do for you and have a great day!

Sincerely,

Kera
QuiBids Support

Quibids Scam: Stay Protected

Quibids scam is important for all the Quibids users and the truth is, it is not a scam in the traditional sense, which makes it hard to detect. For example, if you win on Quibids, they will not scam you by not sending the item. However, like all other penny auction sites, Quibids sure can scam you in a number of other ways. Quibids scam can destroy users if they are not aware of it. I have seen users lose hundreds of dollars and end up not winning the item. Is this the great Quibids scam? Well, not really, but as users, you need to stay protected for your own good.

For those who are unaware, Quibids is a penny auction site that charges you for each bid you place. In addition, you cannot bid any amount that you want: You MUST bid in increments that are fixed for each auction. Quibids scam works essentially like any other penny auction site - they bring in great money to the website, a single winner might make some profits and ALL the remaining bidders will lose money.

Quibids scam is not obvious to many users. Firstly, you should be aware of the bidding model and the business model of the site. They make money when you lose money, it is as simple as that.

Do I hear you shout "Insane!" Well, it is true. Quibids scam works because there are people out there ready to lose money. Are you wondering how?

It is simple. Irrespective of the number of bidders, there will be one and only one winner. This means the more the bidders, the more the website makes. Thus if it is a 1 cent auction (not at all uncommon at Quibids) and the price goes to $100 (again quite common), the website has made a cool revenue of $6000! Unbelievable, but true. And this is just for one auction. Quibids scam runs hundreds of auctions each day. Do the math and you know how they are rolling in money. Their costs are small and negligible - the price of the product will at most be a hundred dollars. Heck, they even charge huge money for shipping!

On the note of shipping, it is outright funny that Quibids charges $2 for shipping for simply crediting bids if you win a bid voucher, which is done immediately. That's right, for something that takes place automatically, charging $2 is sure a Quibids scam that is insane in my opinion.

To stay protected, read my blog entries about Quibids strategy, which explains how to better your chances of winning an auction. Note that these are not at all foolproof and you can still lose a lot of money, but the probability of a win will certainly increase.

And readers, do keep me informed about your progress. Good luck and steer clear of Quibids scam if you don't want your fingers burnt. Instead, go to eBay and find some great deals out there! If you want to gamble, go to Las Vegas and spend an awesome night there. Quibids scam can be costly beyond imagination.

Quibids Strategy - 1: The Volunteer's Dilemma

Quibids strategy is nothing straightforward or simple because the strategy is also dependent on the actions of other people. In other words, there cannot be the 'best' Quibids strategy because the best will depend on the other people. Therefore there is no golden bullet that will ensure you get your Quibids Macbook for $50!

However, there are certain instances and patterns that you can catch, and these will give you a good head start. The main point to note is, the Quibids strategies that I discuss here are probabilistic, which means you are NOT guaranteed to win. However, I will try to demonstrate my strategies with examples.

I plan to make a series of different Quibids strategies to help my readers, depending on the response. I hope something will be useful to you as well.

Understanding the Volunteers dilemma as relevant to Quibids strategy

So the first strategy I discuss is to do with the famous Volunteer's Dilemma of Game Theory. Let me first present the explanation of this as relevant to Quibids. If you want to know more about these concepts, please follow the above links to Wikipedia.

In Quibids strategy, a volunteer's dilemma occurs when two or more competing players are bidding for an auction and then there is another person who steps in. Seems simple enough? Well not really. Read on!

Let us consider a simple case first - say players A and B are competing for the prized Quibids macbook. Both their strategies are simple - bid at the last moment before the timer runs out. Each one follows this strategy, so that when the timer is about to go 0:0:0, they hit the bid button so they are the current winners. This is a fairly obvious Quibids strategy but not of great interest here but may be I'll discuss this in more detail some other time.

Now suppose a third person C comes in and bids. What should you do? Who among you, A and B, is supposed to bid? Let us see the thought process. A says, "If I bid now, B will anyway bid again after me, so I don't want to waste my bid. Let B bid and then I'll bid after him." Seems logical right? Well the problem is, B is thinking the exact same thing! This creates huge problems for both because each one wants to save their bid and in the result, neither of them bids and C becomes the winner!!

Does it sound too far fetched? No, it is not! Volunteer's Dilemma is a common occurrence on Quibids and if you want to know about Quibids strategy, this is a very strong one. One immediate advantage to you, as C, is that with only a few bids you can win a great deal. Therefore if you are lucky, you can get your Quibids macbook too, as is demonstrated in my real example below.

Example

Ok, so let me convince you this great Quibids strategy that I discussed actually works. Here is a real example from Quibids on an auction that I was following but not participating in. Here is a screen-shot of the example. Remember it is taken from a real Quibids auction.



See the screenshot? A Quibids Macbook for $30! Seems too good to be true, right? Well, even the winner would not have known that his Quibids strategy for this win was actually the volunteer's dilemma that I discussed here. Let us understand in more detail.

The main players in this auction here - rhazdra, Ithackery, and billcristina. The others were secondary players. Now they were battling out the auction among themselves when all of a sudden some new player Lalig comes along. What do they do? Each one thinks about saving a bid and assuming some other person from the remaining 2 will bid, and neither does. The new player walks away with a brand new Quibids macbook for $30!

I hope my example has shown you how powerful my volunteers dilemma Quibids strategy is.


The Quibids strategy: Step by Step

Here is a step by step guide to help you maximize your earnings on Quibids. I am sure it will be of great help if you are looking to win Quibids auctions or a steal.

• Choosing the auction: This current Quibids strategy that I discussed works best for smaller auctions, so reserve the other strategies for your Quibids macbook. Instead, try these out for smaller items like cameras or earphones or anything within $150 ideally.
  

• Following the auction: The volunteer's dilemma Quibids strategy should not be applied immediately as the auction begins. Instead, it works best when an auction is in progress and you should wait for the right moment. Sometimes it never comes, but don't worry - you have to move on to another auction. This is better than losing a lot of money, right.
  

• Understand the auction: As you follow the auction, look for a situation wherein two or more players are battling it out by staying till the last minute. This is important to note because otherwise the players will know that they are locked in the volunteers dilemma and therefore bid accordingly. The trick is they should both be confused - should I or should I not bid.
  

• Repeat if needed: The volunteer's dilemma Quibids strategy that I discussed is no foolproof method and you might have to wait and repeat. However, if you are looking for the really cheap goods you can get through Quibids, then you wouldn't mind waiting would you?
  

Let me know your success with this Quibids strategy and leave your comments.

Quibids Review: Everything you need to know about Quibids

Quibids is a Penny Auction site that allows you to bid on items and get them for cheap. Many have asked me to write a QuiBids review for their benefit, so this was long forthcoming. Of course, like so many things in life, the seemingly cheap way might turn out to be mindblowingly costly but hey, that's life!

If you want to know about Quibids, please check my Welcome post here. To directly visit Quibids, Click Here. To see a Video explaining QuiBids (the official video), Click Here.

The question I get asked often is "Is QuiBids scam?" and the simple answer for it is ... well ... depends! Yea, I know that's not the simple answer you are looking for, but "it's complicated!" That's why I have decided to write this QuiBids review for the benefit of everyone.

QuiBids is a penny auction, which means it might at once appear to be a scam to some people. For the sake of those who do not know about penny auctions, here is a simple description:

A Penny Auction allows you to buy items apparently at a very cheap rate. The way it works is users place a bid on the item like a traditional auction, but they have to pay for each bid they place. Also, they are not allowed to place any bid they like - they can only place a bid slightly higher than the existing price, usually in steps of 1 or 2 cents. This allows the Penny Auction site like QuiBids to rake in money through the bids, which enables it to sell items for cheap

Your expenditure on the site is the sum of what you pay as the item price you won at the auction at QuiBids and the amount you spend in bidding. Make no mistake, this amount can be extremely high! They charge you $0.60 per bid, and you might have to place hundreds of bids to win an item, so you can never be sure how to even out. I will put up some strategies later on for my readers in any case.

As for whether Quibids is scam, they will not scam you as in if you win, they will certainly get you the product at the right place. However, the penny auction model is not well suited for everyone, so it might apparently appear that it is a scam. If however you consider penny auctions worth your time, here are my thoughts on Quibids Review -

The Advantages

QuiBids has several nice features compared to other Penny Auction sites. Here are a few of them.

• Number of Auctions: This is certainly a big plus here at QuiBids. There are literally hundreds of auctions every day here, as compared to a a few or a maximum of tens of auctions on other sites. This naturally translates into a more enriching experience and you have more choice for what you can buy. You can also choose your own convenient time to visit the site since there is something or the other of interest going on all the time.
  

• The 'Buy It Now' Option: So here is a wonderful option that QuiBids has for their customers. If you are losing too much in the bidding process, you can have that amount counted towards buying that item at the full retail price. This is a great feature if you are bidding for something that you would even otherwise want to buy. Of course it would end up costlier than the best deals you can find, say, on eBay but at least it reduces your risk. Use this option wisely.
  

• Customer Service: They are still a new site, so they retain some sense of customer service. You can see their representative answering questions posed at their forums and blogs, which is a good sign. I did contact them on a Saturday and didn't hear back from them for a couple of days. Perhaps they might improve a bit here?
  

• Honesty: Now this is a tricky part. I cannot be 100% sure about this because I have never been to the company or talked with the CEO or their employees. However, from what I see around at the site and also at the interviews of the CEO, they look like an honest bunch of people. For one, there do not seem to be any automatic bots playing in the bidding process, which can cause significant losses to the honest players. This is a great step for the penny auctions industry.
  

• Promise for more: The site keeps changing and introducing new features, which keeps the excitement level high - something important for a penny auction site.

The Disadvantages

Nothing is perfect in the world and neither is QuiBids. There are several ways the site can improve and here are a few drawbacks/disadvantages that I see.

• You can lose a LOT of money: Which is another way of saying, you can lose a ton of money for nothing. I have seen people bid unsuccessfully for items costing $15, upward of $50, which is just a sheer waste of money. Be careful and wise while bidding. I'll put up a strategies post soon enough.
  

• Higher bids: As the site grows in popularity, I have seen more and more people coming here for the same items. There is no proportionate increase in number of items at the bid. This means increased competition among the bidders and a VERY high profit for the site, which of course means a lot of people are going to lose a lot of money here.
  

• Hidden fees: I am no fan of hidden fees but QuiBids takes it to a new level. You have to pay a varying amount for delivery of the item, which is aboslutely hate, considering the site makes thousands of dollars selling items costing a few hundred bucks. What's worse is the fees keeps varying - I don't suppose a gift card worth $200 takes more for delivery than a gift card worth $15, but QuiBids seems to think otherwise. I HATE this.
  

• Site Delays: I have not experienced it personally but people do seem to complain about site delays. In a penny auction, each second counts and if you are unable to place your bid at the right time, you can lose significantly. A lot of people seem justifiably pissed-off with this.
  

• Virtual Bids: This is another aspect I absolutely hate. When I PAY for the bids, they say it is virtual because I used the 'Buy It Now' option and I don't get them counted towards future 'Buy It Now' options. This needs a serious revision if they want to make any logical sense to be around.
  

• Too many Limits: They prevent you from winning more than 3 auctions a day, more than 8 auctions a month, more than 1 high costing item a month and you cannot win the same item twice in a month. These limits seem too stringent. Penny auctions are also for fun, which means they can relax the limits for some cases at least - perhaps the smaller valued gift cards or the auction for bids packages.

I will be updating this section as I think there are many other advantages and disadvantages here. If you have anything to contribute, please be free to mention them and I'll include those appropriately.

Welcome

Welcome to QuiBids! Wondering what QuiBids is? Read on!

QuiBids is a Penny Auction Site launched in October 2009. QuiBids is open only to US residents as of today. The CEO of QuiBids is Matt Beckham.

What distinguishes QuiBids from other Penny Auction sites is that they are honest and not here to rip you off. They are here to build a successful business model though like all Penny Auctions, you might lose a lot of money if you are not careful. However, if you understand the risks associated with Penny Auctions and want to try your luck, then QuiBids is the right place to start.

A wonderful option with QuiBids is they allow you to buy the item you lost in the bidding price, which covers for the lost money during bidding. Such a feature is greatly helpful to all those who are not looking to dig gold at the site and who genuinely want the item they are bidding for.

In addition, as of today, they have a great customer service support. Hopefully it will remain so in the foreseeable future too.

QuiBids also has one of the largest auctions available at a time, which means you can have loads of fun and great deals throughout the day and night. This is unlike many other penny auction sites and also speaks about the confidence they have in their business model.

Let's keep discussing about QuiBids and penny auctions in general. Follow this blog to know more about QuiBids and penny auction and if you have anything to share, please feel free to do so. I shall be very glad to hear from you guys.