[squiggs96]

I love the idea of QuiBids. I actually wish I had started it.You buy bids for about 60 cents each. Each time you use one of your bids the price of item goes up by 1 cent. So in effect, every time you've bid, you've spent 60 cents.

For Ben's math, if an iPad sells for $99, that means 9,900 bids were placed. The person bidding placed between 1 and 4,950 bids, assuming they placed somewhere between the last bid and every other bid. QuiBids makes $6,039 in revenue (9,900*.6 + 99). The person who wins the process gets to buy the iPad for $99 and has already paid for all of their bids.

If you don't win the process, you get the option of taking the amount you spend on bids and put it towards the retail price listed in the auction. So if you bought 100 bids for $60 and you spent them all on an iPad and didn't win, you could purchase the iPad for $539 ($599-60). If you are already going to purchase the item, it is worth it to try, and at worst you buy the item at full price, like you were going to anyways.

The company is upfront of this, and those that say it is a scam are usually ones who have not fully read all the rules. It's not like an eBay auction, so when people see auction they may think the terms are the same. One of the big instances wear people cry foul, is when a person is bidding on multiple items and/or at weird times. You are allowed to set up your bids on items. You can put a setting on a specific item for a specific amount of bids (suppose 100). Every time you are not the high bidder, and you have bids left, the computer uses one of your bids to make you the high bidder. When you run out of bids you stop and if no one else bids you win. There is a maximum of 20 seconds between each bid. If there are no bids the item ends.

Full disclosure, I have not bought any bids or bid on any items on QuiBids. I did look into it for a long time, tried to find good buying times, good items, etc. In the end, it would take too much work in order to make it worth my while. I was also worried I'd start buying too much stuff on their site. I still think it's a great site to run, but as a consumer it's not for me. It's well run, completely transparent, and must make money hand over fist.