Anyone try swipebids or penny bids?

[Horns11]

I've heard some recent success stories about swipebids from friends. Stuff like $50 Walmart gift cards for pennies, or computers for $50.
Basically, you pay every time you "bid," unlike eBay, and the countdown timer on the auction adds some time on. Whatever the price is when people stop bidding is what the winner pays for the item.

But how many times would you have to bid on a decent item in order to win it? I could see people just bidding and bidding for an iPad or something, only to find out that they just bid 200 times and paid $100 just to bid, and end up not winning the item! I see how this can be seen as a scam, but what are the actual chances of winning something? Makes you wonder.

Let me hear some success stories (or lack thereof).

 

[dalhorn1]

pure scam. first, they charge you a large "membership" fee hidden in the legalese. second, the auctions often will refresh right before they end, or, will reset the time limit with every new bid (often robotic bids from the company). A quick google on swipebids seemed to have brought up nothing but negative reviews of this company, as I am confident in assuming is the same for beezid and any other penny auction.

I know the "if it's too good to be true" line gets old, but in this case, that's what the company's business model is based on.

save your money and your time, and never consider any of these sites. I'm afraid of online fraud hitting me again, so I've never actually used one of these sites, but I've researched them a bit and determined that it seems like a good idea not to get involved with them.

 

[Perham1]

This type of bidding structure is very interesting.

The specific company involved has not gotten good reviews.

That does not mean the type of bidding is necessarily bad.

 

[KazooMan]

I agree about these being scams. Most of the firms are in business to sell bids - and most do not actually do a "true" auction. Several different state AG's (including our shop) are after them. And most of these firms do seem to use schills or autobidders to keep you bidding - which means you have to buy more bids. Don't do it. Winning is about as likely as getting your "free" laptop or $500 gift card.