new 'alternative' auction sites

[ringthane]

All,
Various radio shows have been advertising these new 'alternative' auction sites where one can, supposedly, win items at a fraction of their retail price, ie, iPads for $50, MacBooks for $100, etc.

how they work, roughly -- each bid costs you to place it. Each bid increases the auction by a set amount of time.

Two such sites are skoreit.com (advertised on C2C) and beezid.com (advertised on Savage).

Skoreit.com claims to save an average of 69% off retail. Seems to good to be true, but I can see the model working if each placed bid costs a user and that goes to cover the auction site's spread.

Anyone here use one of these sites?

[ringthane]

Followup -- I just signed up at skoreit.com to take advantage of C2C's "coast" promo ($10 of free bids, iirc). The bullshit part -- I sign up, and upon account validation I go to redeem the "coast" code. They then ask me to enter a valid cell phone number where a sms/text message will be texted to me with the redemption code. My number won't be used for marketing purposes, blah blah blah.

This is bullshit. I don't have a sms plan (to save money) so every text message costs me.

Maybe I'm weird, but i like doing things like this to see how these sites monetize their models.

[onan]

I signed up for quibids (sp). Seems to be the same model... cost $60 to join, didn't really pay attention to the small print. Kinda figured it was money to cover operating costs. My mistake... big mistake. Each bid is 60 cents which doesn't seem to costly until the quick realization that bids are coming in left right and center. In a nutshell... it cost me $60 to realize "if is sounds too good..."

Save your money; save your time. They are all scams.

[Stevenqbosell]

Google penny auctions - there is a strategy, but it really seems like way too much hassle to be worth it. I've heard horror stories on the penny auction sites - sometimes it's peoples own fault, but a lot of the time, the SYSTEM itself is just way too inconsistent and variable.

Ebay's still miles ahead of these peny auction sites, despites ebays shortcomings

[ringthane]

I just spent an hour 'watching bids.' For starters, those free 16 bids can get blown in 15 seconds flat. *If* you get a good deal on bid packs, and *if* you watch the bids and get a feel for it, you might be able to score frequent wins on $50 gift cards for $1, maybe occasional Kindle or Nook for 50¢ etc. But like you said, the effort/gamble required just doesn't seem worth it. I've seen $50 cards go for 17¢, 50¢, $1, $2.25, etc -- you just never know. It's like poker... how willing are you to protect what you've already placed in the pot?

i wonder how many of the folks at these penny auction sites that 'win' gift cards for pennies on the dollar then turn around and sell them at places like http://www.plasticjungle.com/

Our society is so awesomely fucked. Maybe we need a reboot after all.

[doomnukem]

Quite bored seeing all these eBay clones popping up and most of which are ugly as. The only ones I am actually interested in looking at are some of the start-ups which have actually attempted to bring something different to the table. A few of my favs below.

www.buzzmart.com is a good one.

Addoway is also an interesting one.

maybe penny auction websites like swoopoo but I still think most of these are scams.

[FrankS]

Tried b zid, the bidding fees came to as much as the item I purchased. I still use eBay, and for the items I can't buy on ebay, I use http://www.ealtbay.com Ealtbay. You can buy legal items that are banned on eBay there, it is a great eBay alternative.