BidCactus - A New and Different Type of Online Auction?
90If you like eBay, you might enjoy what's going on here. On the other hand, this might drive you crazy. BidCactus offers a new and unique approach to online auctions. Similar to the model used by RockyBid.com and Swoopo.com, this is not your father's eBay. Be prepared for a cross between bidding, gambling, and entertainment. Perhaps "bimbletainment"?
Pay to Play
Like Swoopo and RockyBid, , BidCactus won't let you simply sign on and begin bidding. Bidding costs money. Under the eBay model, all you need is a credit card and a willingness to bid on goofy stuff. Your BidCactus account is free, but you can't bid on anything until you purchase some bid credits. BidCactus charges 75 cents to place a bid. Bid Packages, called "bidpacks" start at 25 bids ($18.75) and go as high as 500 ($375). There's no goofy stuff to bid on, either.
It's all New
Only new items get listed on BidCactus. No used cars are listed. Customer voting (available to you and your fellow bidders) drives the the items that actually get listed for auction. Listed on the home page are several popular commercial items offered as candidates for upcoming auctions. When we last looked, the list included gift cards from Target, Exxon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. Essentially you're bidding on money. Imagine going to a live auction and bidding on stacks of plastic cash.
Bidding Starts at Free
Almost free, anyway. Every BidCactus auction opens at 10 cents with no reserve value or other sneaky caveats (are you listening, eBay?). Each bid increases the current price by either 1 cent or 10 cents, depending on the item. Unlike eBay, it's virtually impossible to lock up an item by bidding up the price. Since you're paying 75 cents a bid, it pays to bid judiciously. No bid history is available so you don't know if you're bidding against 1 person or the population of China.
The Life Cycle of an Auction
Unlike eBay, all the auctions appear to have a relatively brief life span; about 4 hours. Each item has a countdown timer attached to it. Given a page full of timers, each updating once a second, the tension is palpable. It's also tedious if you're watching 8 auctions that don't end for 3 hours.
During our visit, the current price on each open item was between 3 cents and 7 cents. Now and then a current bid jumped by a few cents.
We noticed an auction history widget on the home page. The same three glitzy high-priced items flashed cycled by every few seconds; Canon PowerShot SX10 (retail $399) for .45 cents, Garmin Nuvi 360 (retail $279) for $3.97, and a Samsung Notebook PC ($439 retail) for 45 cents. Repeated visits to the site suggest that this short list hasn't been updated in a week or two. Note: 3 weeks later, the auction history is unchanged. Is anyone watching?
An Interesting Quirk
Bidding on an item adds time to the auction. We watched a bidder swoop in at the last moment. The countdown timer for the item had ticked down to 1 second. As the the current bid jumped up by one penny the timer increased by about 40 seconds and began to decrease again from there. This puts a new spin on bidding strategies. Theoretically an auction could continue forever.
What's for Sale?
When we visited the site only eight items were up for bids. Two of those items were BidCactus bid packages. The remaining 6 items were:
- Dunkin' Doughnuts $20 gift card
- Home Depot $50 gift card
- Apple iTunes $50 gift card
- Wii Fit Balance Board, retail $99
- $25 Visa gift card
- $50 American Express gift card
What's Missing?
A detailed bid history might be nice. On the other hand, since each bid increases the current price by either 1 or 10 cents (depending on the item), the info wouldn't be as interesting as what we thrill to on eBay.
Auction history would be helpful. The only auction history currently available is the rotating set of the same three big-ticket items on the home page.
BidCactus: Is it worth the trouble?
Is it Worth it? We do the Math
You'll pay a minimum of $18.75 for the privilege of bidding. That buys you 25 bids. One winning bid on a $50 gift card puts you in the black immediately. of course, not many people have the discipline to stop after one victory. Conversely, burning 25 losing bids on a $400 laptop that ends up selling for 45 cents will be frustrating. Remember that you cannot change your bid amount; submitting a bid merely causes the current price of the item to increase by either 1 cent or 10 cents, depending on the item.
BidCactus describes itself as "Auction
Entertainment". That's hard to argue with. The GUI entertains, albeit
briefly. An auction does take place. Short of slipping in the last bid
before an auction closes, no strategy for locking up an item exists. At
least an online poker game offers calculable odds.
Strategy?
A
simple strategy; bid at the absolute last microsecond. Given that
bidding takes place online, that's difficult to do. After sliding in
that last bid, close your eyes and cross your fingers. You may not win,
but you might get a tiny thrill. Watch for bid sniping utilities to pop up, but don't put too much faith in them. The Internet runs on logic and math.
Will BidCactus Rival eBay?
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Comments
@Joseph: Do you feel lucky or just entertained?
I like it. Maybe a little bit of both. They said I should receive my cards tomorrow :)
@Joseph: That's quick. At least your not at the mercy of some eBay sellers who take foerver to ship stuff.
Has anyone else tried BidCactus? I wonder if the items up for auction are still the same.
Does anyone think this is really an auction? Obviously it's gambling first and foremost. The eBay way lets you lock up an item if you really want it or just bid and hope for the best. The fact that BidCactus EXTENDS an auction when a bid comes in is almost illegal. It's no fun at all.
Wow. Strong words!
Interesting concept. i think it's almost impossible to grow bigger than ebay but it's always nice to have an alternative. thanks. dawei888 :-)
im almost scared to try because it is gambling its really not an auction and you dont know exactly what others have one items for because they dont have the completed item like ebay does
bidcactus says one thing and does another. They say you can only win 3 items in a 24 hr period. But this last saturday ,I sat and watched people bid and some won 4, 5, and even 6 times in a few hours period of time. Also some of the names that pop up dont even make sense, I feel that there is alot of computer generated "people" that bid so the prices go up and then you have to bid more times thus making them more money. I would like to hear from other people and get their ideas.
It's good that only new stuff is auctioned.
I registered to bid on this site and noticed the same names bidding everyday for a week. These same names also won several times a day, so it made me think that it was computer generated. I am now skeptical of this Bidcactus because of that.
@dwilliams59 some people are feeling that way.
I again watched this bidding site and once again the same names are continually coming up, win84me, witchywoman, win4me. I find this supicious and decided not to bid on this auction site because I feel it is rigged. They continue to win constantly 3-4 times aday.
@dwilliams59: Hmmm....
dont like concept of buying bids and what i hear about same names
popping up winning all the time makes me weary.whats with buying
bids anyway.so i buy 25 bids and cant go over that also if u bid
last second then 40seconds are added onto bidding so some else
can bid on item or out bid u.sounds screwy to me.with ebay u make
last second bid thats it no more time added on. has anyone (besides
these same names that keep winning) ever won anything?
zoozle is better
I don't know if they actually ship.. I don't care if they are computers because I actually win :0. I won a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card and I haven't gotten any email or mail about it being shipped. So I am scared i wasted my $6. lol.
SCAM SCAM SCAM!!!!!!!
Don't waste your money!!!!!
Haha, I got the $50 Barnes and Noble card in the mail :) testimonials on youtube guys. They gave me 5 extra bids for the crappy crap. I won another one, I know how to win now, but I don't want to keep gambling, I got addicted and lost $50 at another website. Not a scam, but it will sham your money if you don't win in a good ratio :0
I strongly feel bidcactus uses bot on their site.I found lot of cheaper item like 25 bid package going for more and same user "snoopy" inflate the price as soon as some other bid.Does not make sense to me.On the otherhand i found Rockybid better.ATleast they are honest and from the bid you can make that out where as in bidcactus i feel something fishy.They put bot on some of their bidding and not all .So i would say Brian you must be lucky.
wow. i was going to give it a try, didn't realize they added time to it...how lame. Witchywoman definitely appears bot-like.
Thanks for the info. No thanks to BidCactus.
SCAM!!! I purchased the right to bid 50 times and paid $37.50. I started early in the morning, by 5 pm I was furious! I was very careful to bid at the last minute but kept getting outbid. I did not even win 1 bid! It's almost impossible! I did see repeated names the whole day thus making me believe they were computer generated. Also if this was an honest autcion site, you most likely would not win... there are so many people bidding on a few items that your chances are almost nil! If you do persist and keep paying so that you can bid even more, you may be out quite a lot of money! So, my advice... it's cheaper to pay for the item full price!
Just to add to dwilliams59's comments... I too saw those repeated names and this is 2 months later...( withchywoman...)
This is a joke. Get a life people. Thought it might be fun but dont even want to be glued to the site long enough to spend my first 25 bids. Snipers or idiots are placing 100 bids to win a 25 bid pack. How BORING! The only winner on any of the items is 100% bidcactus. I would rather go to a casino!
I watched the site for awhile and saw repeated names winning (like a lot of you)... of course those could be addicts with a gambling problem. People can buy 1500 "bids" a day and win up to 3 times a day (and up to 30 times a month). So you could see 1 addicted person bidding up a storm all the time... but not winning more then that. If you do see the same person winning more then you better start "Print Screen"ing and preparing to sue. Of course, if the site is doing this, and it is SMART, they'll change their Bot names daily.
Here is some math for you. EACH .01 that an auction goes for cost someone $0.75. Currently there is a $100 gift card on there going for about $9.00. $9.00 = 900 bids at $0.75... That auction is selling for $675.00 + $9.00 (900 x .75 = 675)! Minus the cost of the card and shipping and some site maintenance, and the site owner(s) made about $570.00 on that 1 auction! The owner/owners of Bidcactus are getting rich QUICK.
I have been on and off the site since it started. It seems legit. It's my guess that they were just going through growing pains. First letting everyone as many auctions as possible and then limiting wins to 3 a day. Like many of you, I saw the same names over and over, but now, they are limiting bidders to 30 wins a month. So, I'm seeing players like Snoopy and WitchyWoman much less. They seem to "play" themselves out early. I have won a digital camera, video camera and a few gift cards. Yes, the site probably made money off me, but in the end, I was the winner having payed much less than retail. And, I had fun doing it. Here's how I've won and I hope this helps you too...1) Wait until the "going going gone" phase to amke a bid. Bidding any earlier will only waste your bids. 2) Early in the morning when the auctions start around 9 a.m., around noon and between 5-6:30 p.m. ET seem to be like winning times. At least for me. There seems to be less people bidding then. That's when I've won.
Oh, and just to add to my last post, I did receive all my items pretty quick too.
Good writing
Good news. Stuff comes on time. Maybe it's working
PennyLord.com has a refridgerator for 99 cents.
I'm so glad that I came across this Hub! I was looking at BidCactus and wondering whether I should join. I think I'll avoid it now. Thanks!
Tried it. Won a $50 gift card with just the min purchase but prolly won't go back. Think the first win is a hook....bids seem automated. If these are real people, they're not paying attention to how much they're spending on bids. At .75 a pop, there spending more than the item's worth!!!
I joined today after getting a "MyPoints" e-mail on it. Spent $37.50 on 50-bid-pack. Won a $50 GAP gift card within my first 10 bids...but VERY INTERESTINGLY: the timer seemed to lockup at 7 seconds...I clicked "Bid Now" several times but the timer stayed at 7 seconds...no "going going gone" -- then my name stayed on it and I won. VERY SUSPICIOUS.
I then spent my remaining 40 bids on a $50 Best Buy gift card and ended up losing it.
Will see if I actually get my GAP card, and then will know if it was a total sham, or just a partial sham. If I get it, I'm only truly out about $6 after factoring in the price/shipping of the item I won.
:-)
CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!
Its a sham and Peri works for them he posts on other sites that talk negative about bidcactus. The same names bid over and over. I counted 120 bids from LUV2bid in less an hour for a $ 50 gift card. At the same time the bot was bidding on two other cards. In a period of 3 hours the same bot won 6 times. aliss2333 bot was bidding constenly at least 3 times a minute on 4 different items. Sure some people may win a card here or there but they are controling the results. I bet you these are the same people that create spam emails. They just found another way to make lots of money for themselves.
Ok, first off, you must recognized that this is a game of chicken. You want to be the LAST bidder and not waste your money on intermediate bids. The only way for this to happen is for everybody else watching the item to all think somebody else will make the next bid. At some point, nobody does and the high bidder wins. Its like playing chicken with crashing cars, but bidding pushes the cars further apart. Those who swerve, lose the game of chicken (unless nobody swerves, when everybody loses.) When nobody makes the next bid, somebody wins the item and everybody elses loses the money they spent on bidding. Understand?
Ok, that said, it follows that you are incredibly stupid to make the first bid sooner than the last second, because there is no way you are going to win anything for one cent. Yet, watching it yesterday I saw the same ID make the opening bid on six items at once. This is either a moron, a moronic computer, or a company shill. Remember that the site is making a bloody fortune, so most people lose a ton of money on bids. Think about the items that are nothing more than packs of bids. It costs them nothing, yet they rake in hundreds of dollars for each pack. This is not bidding, this is gambling. Very good gamblers win, everybody else loses, the site makes a fortune either way.
I have a friend that wanted me to help him with a site like bidcactus. In reading message boards like this one I found that a lot of people are concerned about scams. I own a rewards site of my own where people are paid points for taking daily surveys. I suggested that maybe I could offer bid packs as one of the rewards. This would make it possible to earn free bids on an ongoing basis. Do you think something like that would take the fear out of these new types of auction sites?
I wish I had seen this page before I wasted my $37.50. I started to bet with a user name saveDpets at $0.30 cents. And stopped at $1.15. I used $30 worth of bids and did not win the $50 AppleBee gift certificate. saveDpets actually started bidding when there was plenty of minutes and contined bidding with other names. So saveDpets spent at least more than $30 or even more than $50 to win the $50 Applebee certificate. Even if saveDpets is a real person, it doesn't make sense to spend more than $30 to win $50 I wish I did not waste $37.50. But it was fun and I wish I had a web site like bidcactus. I will be rich without much of work. So if you haven't try it but reading this web site. Spend $37.50 at AppleBee. You will have a nice meal for sure.
I just signed up with bidcactus thru MyPoints. If you look at the big picture it all makes sense. The owners of the site are buying the giftcards and other products at normal price or less, then they are posting them on auctions. Then the bidders bid on the product. While this is happening, there might be 10-20 people bidding on the same product at .75 per bid. So lets say there are 15 people bidding on a $50.00 Macys giftcard on a penny auction. And that the winning bid was $1.50. That means there was 150 bids at .75 each (150 x .75 = $112.50). Then the highest bidder will purchase the card at $1.50 plus shipping at 5.90, and will say that the higgest bidder placed 50 of those bids (50 x .75 = 37.50). So there for the owner of the site made $69.90 (112.50 - 50.00 + 1.50 + 5.90 = 69.90) off of that one auction. The highest bidder payed $44.90 (37.50 + 1.50 + 5.90 = $44.90) for the gift card. So pretty much simple math. As with any business, the owner of the site is making money, other wise the wouldnt be doing it. However, the losing bidders are losing there money, so pretty much you just gambling, if you win you win and if you dont you dont. However the winning bidders are saving a little. I have personally one 3 giftcards so far. I paid for 50 bids at 37.50 and with those won these 3 giftcards at 50.00 values each so i've done pretty good so far, however like all gambling at some point i will lose some money. Thats why it called gambling. You just have to be lucky that day.
Sound good, and thank for your shared on this hub, http://www.public-homeauctions.com/
Think about it people.
If you pay to bid, you are losing right
from the start. If you are so lucky to win for a small bid, an keep bidding you are certainly going to come up in the negative eventually. Sooo, I decided to try this site knowing that it was a lose lose situation. I won 1 bid, but in the end lost more than I won. I watched others bid for several hours, while quite interesting I can see some folks losing everything on this site. One "auction" finished at over 8.70. That was a one cent incriment format, did the math that is 870 times the .75 cents per bid, which adds up to a whopping $652.50 for a 50.00 item, plus the ship and handling charge. I would say pretty profitable for a 50.00 item don't ya think? Hoping all that read this will at least try this site with their eyes wide open!
Wow. I really should have done some research before just jumping into this site. I lost over 300.00 on this site. Something in me took over and I lost all control. The idea of possibly winning to just make a little bit back consumed me. I din't realize it but I had become addicted.
I totally agree that there must be some type of bot responsible for making these auctions go on and on for this little gift card. Its not fair.
I am currently watching a computer. It is over $54. One "person" TRUMP0070 has made more bids than the computer is worth...not to mention that fact that he has 3 items one since 1 PM today and is supposedly not able to win. Total waste of my money. I also signed up through my points.
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Joseph says:
6 months ago
I won a $50 target card, and a $50 Exxon card, after buying $37.50 worth of bids.