Online Bidding Websites

Experience: "Hey man! you won't believe me, I just got a laptop just for 54$. What a surprise. I am so happy"

Advertisement: "People all over the world making good decisions to get their products with a very good rate than in the market. You can get an ipod for 3$. You will get the latest mobiles for 10-12$. If you need a laptop, just pay 20-30$ and take home one from your favorite brand"

Guys,

Coming to the point, what do you think about the above statements? The first answer (right now on your mind) would be something like this - "He he, are you kidding?" or "No way man, Its Scam, keep away from these sites". No, neither of these statements are true. It's true, yeah very much.

But I would tell you to keep away from this. Why?

What is the reason behind this advice? Are these sites are scams? No, these (almost all the online auction centers, online bidding, live bidding centers etc) are not scams. They really give/deliver you what they promise. These websites are 100% trustworthy. But still you must keep your eyes away from such sites (personally I say this is a crime).

Lets have a close look at these type websites. What they exactly offer? They offer products of various brands (don't worry they never lie, these products are genuine) for sale through a bidding system on their websites. So as normal the one who place the highest bid will get the product. All he or she wants to pay extra is the shipping charge. Yes.

But what is this bidding system?

There will be hundreds (even thousands some times) of people are online in these kind of bidding websites for participating in online bidding. My two questions.

(i) have you ever noticed that we have to pay approximately 0.5 Euro or 0.70 Dollars for each of the bids?

(ii) Do you know why the bidding increment is just 5 cents? Do you think that its because these websites love their visitors and hence they provide the products at a lower price spending money from the 'owner's' pocket?

Not, its not that. Lets go through a live bid. For example suppose me, you and two other guys are only online now for a particular bid. Say it is for an apple ipod which costs 70$ approx. on the real market.

Bid Starts at the price 0.05 dollars (5cents) bid increment is also 5 cents. So we start placing bids. Suppose you have 50 bids with you (as I have mentioned above you have to pay apprx. 35$ for this or say 30$ for buying 50 bids pack) and I'm having 200 bids with me (I paid 120$ and got this) the other two guys are having 100 each (costs them 60$ each).

So after a few minutes (bid interval is 15 seconds so if ten minutes are passed totally 40 bids are placed) your bids pack is empty. :( and you are out of the bid, but still the bid continues with three of us ( me and the other two guys) So again after a few minutes approximately 20 minutes these guys also got empty. So I may win the ipod for just 17.55$ (number of total bids are your 50+their 100 + 100 + my 101 So 351X5 cents) Wow!! I could get an ipod which costs 70$ just for 17.55$. Awesome!

Is this the same feel you have? You three are sitting idle wasting your (30$ + 60$+ 60$) funds. I also put a 60.05$ for bidding. So totally the online bidding website has acquired a total of 210.05$ just for bidding and I have to pay again a 17.05$. Everything else you please guess. LOL