BidCactus - A New and Different Type of Online Auction?

This article has become extremely popular for thieves. I can't even keep up with the DCMA reports and paperwork. I wrote it, I own the copyright, and I have granted no one else the privilege to publish it elsewhere. (C) nicomp, whatever.

If you like eBay, you might enjoy what's going on here. On the other hand, this might drive you crazy. BidCactus.com 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 Begins 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. You might be staring down a cartel of Matchbox collectors.

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:

1. Dunkin' Doughnuts $20 gift card
2. Home Depot $50 gift card
3. Apple iTunes $50 gift card
4. Wii Fit Balance Board, retail $99
5. $25 Visa gift card
6. $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.

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.

Bidcactus may be thriving, but this article struggles onward. Bidcactus may be withering. We don't care all that much any more. Our web filter actually blocks the site and categorizes it as "Gambling." Interesting, that is. We find ourselves too weary to subdue the filter long enough for additional research.

Lately we've observed TV ads for Quibids.com, another penny auction we think. "Qui" must be an shortened version of "Quick" and the bids part comes along obviously. Penny auctions slog forward regardless of the shortage of engaging site names.