Pronounced kwi-bids as in half of the word ‘quick’, Quibids.com provides an interesting take on the auction format. I wrote a really short auction summary about this site already alongside a comparison to eBay, but after watching (and participating with) the site for the last couple of days, I decided to dive right in and write up a review.
There are many people out there asking if this site and others like it are scams. While it’s easy to think like that 
considering you can get products at huge discounts (sometimes as high as 97% off), you really need to look under the surface to find that this is completely legitimate! You may be asking yourself how a company can afford to give away products as such discounted rates and that is where the magic comes in!
UPDATE: One of my visitors came to me and said he wrote an eBook about Quibids and that it contained all sorts of tips and tricks on how to win items from Quibids, so I asked him to send me a copy. I’m probably the biggest skeptic I know, so I just had to see and I must say that it was actually a really good read! Of course there are no sure ways to beat the Quibids system, but there are some logical steps you can take to increase your chances. See below for a review on this eBook.
Is Quibids.com a scam?
The answer is NO. The game is played with mathematics, timing and a little bit of luck. You as the bidder can bid on anything you want and as much as you want, but be careful…each bid only adds $0.01 to the item and costs you $0.60. Confused yet?! I’ll go over all this is a bit.
Ok, since Quibids is a penny auction, it’s obvious that the bids only increase by 1 cent or in some cases, 2, 10 and 20 cents. The exciting part of this format is that the final values stay relatively low and you can sometimes walk out of there with a $700 item for about $20. Don’t be fooled though–this statement is very similar to saying you can walk into a Vegas casino and take $3500 off a roulette table by betting only $100. It’s doable, but the odds are against you.
How does Quibids.com work?
They sell you bids and then allow you to use those bids to bid on real products. These products are always very popular items such as Apple iPads, MacBooks, home theatre systems, Blu-ray movies, etc. This is so people are more likely to bid. Here’s how the site breaks down:
- You buy bids for $0.60 each.
- Each bid adds $0.01 to the auction price.
- You compete with other bidders.
- Each auction has a time limit.
- Any bids placed within the last 15 seconds brings the timer back to 15 seconds.
- As certain values are reached, this resettable timer is reduced to 10 seconds.
- If you are the high bidder when the timer reaches zero, you win.
After you win an item, you pay your bid amount plus shipping. Don’t forget to take into account the amount you spent on bids in the first place! One advantage that Quibids has over other similar sites is that if you lose, they let you take the total amount of how many bids you placed to put in as a credit toward buying the item at full price. But they get you here too because the “retail price” is sometimes higher than an actual price you might find at retailers or online shops such as Amazon.com.
How is this profitable?
In case you haven’t seen the business-end of things yet, here you go. Quibids is in the business of selling bids. For just about every bid, they make $0.60. I say “just about” because they do offer free bids, cheap vouchers to get extra bid packs and referral bonuses. But for the sake of this example, we’ll stick with $0.60 per bid.
If you saw an Apple iPad sell for $217.80, Quibids just made $13,068. This is how they can afford to lose money on
the sale. After the auction, they simply order you an iPad at retail price which depending on the model can be as low as $499 and ship it to you.
Of course, not every iPad sells for that much. I think the lowest one I saw was $17. Still not bad though, considering Quibids made about $1020 on that sale. The huge savings are passed on to you courtesy of the hundred other bidders that wanted that item as well.
My two cents
I’ve been on the site for about 3 days now and I’ve placed a few bids, but so far I haven’t won anything. I even chased a Blu-ray movie and got beat out because I couldn’t watch the auction. That leads me to my first comment. To play this game, you have to constantly watch. Of course you could use their Bid-O-Matic feature that will place bids on your behalf after you designate how many bids you want to use and what your maximum is, but you still have to be vigilant.
If you want to save your money, your best bet is to watch and watch and watch. Jumping in at the right time seems to be the only true way to win. When is the right time? That’s a tough question because it is easy to sit there and hope everyone else either gives up or goes to sleep. I even expected that people would be working and therefore unable to watch the end of the auction. This is not practical because this site is accessible all over the world, so no matter what day of the week it is or what time of day, there are always thousands of people on the site looking for good deals.
Plus, there’s no restrictions on who can jump in an auction or when. It might be you and one other bidder down to the wire and then all of a sudden, a new guy jumps in with fresh bid counts and maybe even more money than you. My advice if you’re planning on using Quibids is to bid on and win a few of the smaller items first so you can get familiar with the whole process. Once you feel comfortable enough, try something bigger, but always keep this in mind: no matter what anyone ever tells you, there is no “system” to beating this site and getting a good deal. You have to have a little luck and sometimes a lot of money.
Quibids Winners Guide
Anyone who follows my site knows that I never “sell” you anything. I’m here simply to voice an opinion and hopefully help someone along the way. With that said, you can rest assured that if I ever post a link on this site to a product it’s because I either own it myself or I have used it enough to make a comment on it. In this case, I was given a copy of this Quibids buying guide that is supposed to help you win at Quibids auctions. Naturally, I felt like this was just another spammy eBook that contain common sense knowledge and “strategies” that don’t work. I was wrong!
While there are certainly no ways to beat the Quibids system and ensure never-ending victories, there are a few things you can look out for and in time, you can theoretically increase your chances of winning. The eBook is 10 pages in length and doesn’t contain one picture. I mention that because without pictures, you get 10 full pages of actual text that will help you at Quibids. It was written by Mike Tjosvold and he sells the eBook from his Facebook page for $10.99 and that will end up being pennies compared to what you will save on Quibids.
For more information, view the Facebook page for the Ultimate Winning Guide for Quibids. If you decide to buy it, remember these two things: 1. On the PayPal checkout page, tell Mike that Ledfrog.com referred you and 2. There’s a money-back guarantee if you’re not happy with it.
It looks like the guy who wrote that guide just simply disappeared! Sorry…it actually was pretty useful.
My last piece of advice is that if you’re shooting for a big dollar item, plan to buy it at the retail price because you’ll hate yourself in the morning if you spent $200 trying to get a $500 iPad and didn’t end up paying the price difference!
good detail….
its great… another good one i found is ibid4mc.com . customer service is great.. shipping is quick… its not too crowded…. you actually have a chance to win
Quibids is a big scam ..stay away from it ….
they seel Ipad for 40$ that means 4000 bids have been put on it and each bid costs 60 cents …
which means every one has spent $2400 on it and the guy who wins it is lucky hope winner spends less than 1000 bids on it ….
Quibids makes $2400 and promote saying that they throw away ipads for $40 …..
Stay away from this Quibids.com
While you are right about the cost of bids, you're wrong about how the system works. If an iPad sold for $40.00, then there were a total of $2400 worth of bids placed, but not everyone spent that money. There could have been 100 people that placed bids, which on average, means that each bidder spent about $24 or about 40 bids. Of course these numbers can vary drastically per auction, but you get the idea.
At any rate, this doesn't mean Quibids is a scam. In fact, it's quite the opposite. It can't be a scam if they tell you what you're getting into before you start. There are no strings attached or any hidden terms, so it's like saying gambling is a scam, right?
WRONG! Sorry, If you take your TIME, you WILL win. I do know 1st hand, I have been using Quibids since about December, and have MADE at LEAST… $8,000.00 NO LIE. I have the photo's and the emails to prove it. Example: Stock pile BIDS! And only Bid on what's REASONABLE for your amount of bids…Watch the other bidders, very important! I'm making a 200%-300% selling most of what I win on Ebay! I win a $50.00 Dillards Gift card for between $1.25-$3.50 … Auction it off on Ebay! There you go! I've been at this since January, have won 4 Laptops, 2 LED-HD TV's , 2 or 3 X-Boxs, Playstations, … Can't list it all… AND the best thing I've won is a $1,579.00 RETAIL PRICED Scooter/Street Bike, I paid $119.00 … That's all I can really say, it's working out for me, just have to be very patient… ~Anne
Anne,
Can you tell us newbies if you're using an automatic 3rd party bidding pgm, do you stay on this site 23 hrs/day or what other method are you using to be so successful. It appears to me that 98% of the bidders are losing tons of money (even the top bidders) and the highest success rate I've found is 15-20%. Please give more details on your success if possible. Send reply to my email privately if you don't want to reply on this blog publically.
Thanks,
Shane@ComputerProsGA.com
Well, the first week I start biding in Quibids I loss about $285 I got frustrated, angry, sad, etc.. I was thinking on quit but i went one more time with $75 and I started to win and I don't think is all about luck, I think is due to the experience of gambling,
Quibids and the other sites like it are actually great ideas… for the sellers! Unfortunately only the web sites do the selling. As others have pointed out, the idea is to make money selling the bids. That is why the timer keeps getting reset, to extend the bidding so they make more money. The chances of you ever winning an "auction" are very remote and the vast majority of people just end up wasting the money they spend on bids without ever winning anything.
Avoid these sites like the plague. Go to a real auction like eBay.
listen this is a scam the company has their own people watching and playing the game with u they keep bidding against u to keep u spending ur hard earned money cause they arn’t losing nothing not even 1cent and they will make u think ur gonna out bid them till u have nothing left to bid with and they put the last bid in and win they got hundreds of people that watch the board more than u do and sometimes u might be bidding with 4 to 8 of them their like floorwalkers at a store and the house always wins
You are all wrong, if i pad goes for 600 dollars retail and it sell for 40 dollars there are 2400 dollars in bids placed but u have the buy it now option. this is an option used if you use bids on an item and it is sold between bids or if you meet the retail price befor there is a winner in the sale.you just pay shipping. So if 4 people use the buy it now option the only profit is in the shipping and the diffrence between whole sale and retail and anyone who does not use the buy it now option.
If someone used the buy it now option, they have to pay the Quibids price minus the amount of money they spent on bids, so Quibids doesn't lose anything in this transaction. The reason they don't lose anything is because the "retail" price listed on their website has its own markup. I once saw an iPad that sold at the Apple store for $629 get listed on Quibids with a $749 buy it now price.
So unless this practice has changed, I can promise you, Quibids is still making tons of money on every item they sell.
I agree that these sites are great and smart ideas "for sellers" They make a fortune. But it comes out to being a win/win. The only downfall is i DO believe some are scams. I have personally used numerous pennyauction sites. I have been with bidrack for a while with no problems, but quibids I have to say, wasn't to happy with, same goes for beezid. Again, I have read mixed reviews. My take quidids / scam.
First of all, by "sellers", you mean the penny auction companies themselves, right? Because there are no other sellers like on eBay.
Aside from that, please explain the scam. If you are under the impression that you're being ripped off or that the business model is setup in such a way that the "buyer" always loses than that's your opinion, but this still doesn't prove that a scam is a play here.
I can remind you that a scam is when you're duped into doing something that may or may not cause you some type of loss, be it financial, emotional or legal. The point is, Quibids makes no qualms about the business they operate. They tell you straight up what you're getting into before you lay any money down. If you call Quibids a scam, that's like saying every casino in Vegas is a scam…again, you might feel like this because you lose your money, but both statements are incorrect. Quibids.com and Vegas casinos are NOT scams.
So in essence all this is, is a big on line slot machine.
You are correct! Quibids is essentially providing a game of chance for those willing to try their luck at winning an item for much cheaper than retail.
I won a Samsung 32" 1080p LED HDTV for $6.88, does it get any better than that!!! Love this site, easy, fast, and always grab a good deal! Thank you Quibids!!!
Congratulations!
When signing up for the site – you will be billed $60 – unlike most reputable sites, it doesn't make it clear in the slightest you are signing up for their "starter pack". It's a very clever business model – just don't click through (like I did – and I sooooo know better))____Next time I'll stick to poker thanks.
Haven't signed up yet- read nothing about a $60 fee what is it for- just signing up or what- thought siging up was free and you bought bid packs when and if you wanted them-like to know more before I sign up.
I've never heard of a $60 fee either.
In my case the total was $67.20, after combined local and federal sales tax (HST). Like others here have already mentioned, I too did not see any proper indication that my credit card was about to be charged just for signing up. I immediately sent a message to their support center to explain I purchased in error (though I actually feel I was tricked) and asked if they would be understanding enough to refund my money. Two days later (today) I receive an e-mail telling me that I haven't bid on anything yet. Then further down the page a it states,
'You can also visit our support center if you would like to refund the bids that you've purchased. Please select “Returns or Refunds” as the subject. '
In my first message there I recall not finding any kind of menu of stock subject-titles to choose from. However, in checking the support center again just now, I see there is now such a menu present. I will now send my message to them again, this time selecting the "Returns or Refunds" subject. I just hope this time I get somewhere or that this won't be just the beginning of a scammer-style 'run around'. In either case, I'll follow up by posting again in this thread to say if I got anywhere with them this time or not.
this is big scam & bullshit.These people are making fool.pls don"t waste your money.
Where is the Refunds or Returns section,, which page on their site??
Sorry for the late reply, but there's an entire section just for returning items and so forth: http://www.quibids.com/help/faq/11-Shipment-Retur…
Sorry for the late reply, but there's an entire section just for returning items and so forth: http://www.quibids.com/help/faq/11-Shipment-Retur…
Those who are new to penny auctions, buy a starter pack of bids, bid all of them by recklessly bidding (they don't understand they're bidding recklessly) and then leave the site mad most of the time call penny auctions a scam. Quibids actually has a unique and good user experience for all bidders once you begin to understand penny auction and the bidding process.
I started penny auctions on Swoopo.com which is now out of business. The site really was a bidders dream and nightmare for newbies. The reason you had to be educated about bidding and know when to bid, how to bid and the biggest threat for newbies on Swoopo was who you better know who not bid against. Being a newbie to Swoopo it was impossible to know who not to bid against. The bid sharks on Swoopo where successful bidders who were selling some if not all their take and when challenged were willing to pay double even more to take a product and protect their reputation of never quitting a bid. They could afford to because once established their mere presence on a bid caused other Swoopo bidders to take note and often times their savings was well over 50% even taking products at over 85% off retail on a regular basis. Swoopo was a winner take all site with no bid credit to buy a product if you did not win the auction. Believe it or not most serious bidders actually had a fighting chance on Swoopo as compared to Quibids because even a beginner has a natural ability to survive a bid process by bidding but only if their a serious bidder. Swoopo regulars had fairly basic tactics, they either started a bid to basically stake claim to it or stepped in using a scare tactic of quick strategic bids against a bidder they knew as a quitter or thought might be scared away. If you didn't waiver to their take over tatic they left. Knowledge, resources, time and reputation were king on Swoopo with reputation superseding all for Swoopo bidders but it took the three ingredients I mentioned first to build a reputation for winning on Swoopo.
Quibids is different because the "Buy Now" bid credit feature on Quibids promotes bidders to be more serious bidders and therefore creates a more competitive environment. Bidders on Quibids can still build a reputation but it will never be affective as building a reputation of Swoopo simply because if another bidder is willing to bid till the "Buy Now" limit and purchase the product with their bid credits even a well seasoned successful bidder is along for the ride but likely at some point will go into defense mode or simply see it through to win it or use the "Buy Now" feature themself. In reality successful bidders on Quibids will leave a fair amount of bids on the table unsuccessfully bid and factor them as simply a cost of winning other bids for a substantial savings once their name recognition begins to resonate with other frequent Quibidders. So reputation still has some resounding qualities on Quibids but is not nearly the deterant as it was for Swoopo simply because every single bidder has the option to purchase any product they bid on.
BTW after watching Swoopo for several weeks, establishing a plan, signing on and purchasing bids I did win what I signed on to win on my first ever bid. I saved over $70 off from Amazon's price which was better than any of my local retail stores price when I won. The product was valued at an MSRP of $299, Amazon's price was $249 and I paid total costs of the bid's ending price, my bid investment and S/H $180. I was stoked but then the real challenge of penny auctions begin. Bidding on products I'm not so passionate about and that's when a penny auction bidder's real understanding, knowledge and strategy begin to take shape. I won't reveal any secrets and the ideas I have floated are fairly general. The bottomline penny auctions are risky, fun but risky but you can win and you can lose. If your going to bid on penny auctions you must have a plan to minimize financial loses and protect your bids which essentially are one in the same. If you learn to protect your loses which will take time and loss to determine you can become a successful bidder a bring home much more product than a dollar will buy in a retail market. That said not everyone is a successful businessman and not everyone is a successful penny auction bidder. Food for thought: know when to stop if you simply succumb to the fact fanicially you cannot afford to spend money on any penny auctions or shop for that matter winning too many great products that even at a great deal you cannot afford. There are those who walk away screaming, "SCAM" but there are also those who become addicted to playing (bidding) and winning and losing. Just have a financial plan and abide by it.
Quibids and the other sites like it are actually great ideas… for the sellers! Unfortunately only the web sites do the selling. As others have pointed out, the idea is to make money selling the bids. That is why the timer keeps getting reset, to extend the bidding so they make more money. The chances of you ever winning an "auction" are very remote and the vast majority of people just end up wasting the money they spend on bids without ever winning anything.
Avoid these sites like the plague. Go to a real auction like eBay.
regards
Prize Bond Formula