madbid.com

[garethEds]

I've just seen an advert for madbid.com on the TV and took a look at the site. There are references to the BBC and other media outlets saying how good it is - but has anyone here signed up for it or other similar sites?

 

Good idea or con? Have you won an auction?

 

Gareth

[Steve21]

Never used it, but from what I understand it's simply luck.

 

Lowest "unique" bid wins, but you "always" pay your bid.

 

If you bid same as someone else your money is lost.

If you bid unique but higher than other uniques, your money is lost.

 

Not much chance of winning, but if you do you'll get a bargin, as the company will have made 10times more than the profit is worth etc etc

 

Steve

[featured_spectre]

One person I know bid £3.16 for a Ford focus, and won.

[elsiegee40]

I'd be surprised if the BBC recommended a site

[dwhyte85]

I used a competitor site once, mainly as I was interested... the problem is you don't know how many people you're bidding against or whether they're just shill bidding to make you bid more. You don't know that the guy at the end who's won is actually a person or an account of MadBid - either way you spent your bids and could spend say £30.00 and end up with nothing.

 

I've heard a few friends say they've won things but nothing as big as a car! To me it's kinda like gambling/luck based... or maybe determined with a big bank account. I never won anything but the site Telebid was 50p a bid so i was trying to conserve my bids.

[flyinghaggis]

I've just seen an advert for madbid.com on the TV and took a look at the site.

 

 

Ive never used the website but having seen the tv advert it looked like a scam to me! Whenever any company is offering you an offer that seems too good to be true there's always a catch......

[garethEds]

Thanks everyone. It's what I thought - I'm staying well clear.

 

Gareth

[Michael]

It's referred to as a penny auction, so you pay £1.00 per bid (unless you buy in bulk) and it adds 1p to each auction, hence the low prices.

 

I have to be careful what I say - but, it wouldn't be too difficult to engineer a script that keeps resetting the countdown clock. Once an item has matched or exceeded its real price, then the auction can complete. You could argue this is gambling rather than bidding. Unlike other auction sites it's not clear whether you're the highest bidder. It's all down to timing, which is exactly the same as gambling.

 

For an item worth £100.00, you'd need at least 100 bids which would display an auction price of £1.00. When the auction is complete, you'd pay the winning price of £1.00 on top and eventually your goods are sent to you. I've heard of people waiting for months for their won items to arrive.

[Sylv3r]

As a bit of experiment and boredom I stuck £300 on Madbid and won the following:

 

GHD Hair Straightners

£100 worth of Lottery scratchcards

3 x Mens Aftershave

Dyson Hoover

Kettle

£50 Argos vouchers

£50 cash

 

This I admit was when the site first started off - 18 - 24 months ago so it may have been a lot quiter and easier to win. I more than enough get my moneys worth, but decided to right from the start that £300 was my limit. Some of the stuff I won I didn't really want but made a nice tidy profit on ebay selling it on.

 

Everything was brand new and came generally direct from Amazon after a day or two.

[flyinghaggis]

Saw an interesting article about this the other day.

 

Revealed: How MadBid buyers can end up paying twice the price | Money | The Guardian

 

As others have mentioned it's more of a gambling site than an auction site.

[Arthur]

As others have mentioned it's more of a gambling site than an auction site.

Definitely gambling.

 

How penny auction websites can leave you with a hole in your pocket « The Guardian

 

Dr Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University, says bidding on these types of auctions is gambling: "Winning a penny auction is essentially chance-determined and does not depend on any discernible skill – a person can bid again and again with no certainty that they will ever win the product. If there is no real skill in participating and it is essentially a chance activity, how is this not a form of gambling? The vast majority of people who bid on penny auction websites do not get anything for their money, except the hope of winning."

[GeekyPete]

If you have to pay to bid, it's a stake. It's a gambling site, plain and simple.