Timotheus Update: This post was originally published on 8 Sep 2020 on my previous website – Passive Online Revenue. Due to rebranding and consolidation of the two sites, the post is now on this website and published on 3 March 2023.
Quibids Review – Scam or Legit?
Quibids Review
Penny auctions can have you spending money but you can still end up with nothing. Or you may bid and win an item thinking you made a great deal. But did you really? Here is my Quibids Review – Scam or Legit? to help you find out the truth.
So, what are penny auctions? How do they work? And how can you make money at these sites? Or can you even make money?
Are there any red flags to watch out for with Quibids? And if there are, what are they?
So, do not join this penny auction site yet. Read my entire review to make an informed decision.
The immediate section below is the overview of this review. For the full review, continue after this next section.
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Quibids Review – Scam or Legit? – The Overview
Name: Quibids
Owner: The site is allegedly owned by QuiBids Holdings LLC
Website URL: quibids .com
Price: Free to join
Quibids Review – Scam or Legit?
What is Quibids ?
This is a penny auction website. It advertises that users can get big ticket items at really low prices. For example, one of their ads claims that a new iPad, that normally retails for $499, was offered at $22.54.
Who Owns Quibids ?
It seems that Quibids is owned by a few holding companies. Or at least that is what the information in the Internet revealed. The company itself is based in Oklahoma.
What Are The Packages & Prices For Quibids ?
Browsing the site is free. So is registering an account.
To participate in the auctions, you must purchase bid packs. As the prices of bid packs can change over time, I will not mention them here. Please visit their website for the prices for the bid packs if you are interested.
Refund Policy
The claim on the site is that any unused bids can be refunded. You have to contact their customer support team.
But, there has been complaints from people about getting refunds. See the Problems section further down this article, under the sub topic – Many Complaints.
Who Is Quibids For?
The claim is that this site is ideal for those who are looking for great deals and offers. For example, big ticket items at low prices.
But is this true? See the Problems sections below for more information.
Also, from what I see, this site may attract people who are looking to make money by doing something similar to retail arbitrage. What do I mean? I explain more in the How to Make Money with Quibids section further down.
What Are The Prerequisites For Quibids ?
Apparently, there is no entry barrier. Just have money to do bids.
How Do You Join Quibids?
According to the Quibids 101 on their website, you simply register an acccount with Quibids. You do this by clicking on the ‘Join Now’ button.
You will receive confirmation email. When you confirm your account, you are ready to buy bids and join in the auctions.
How Does Quibids work?
As mentioned, Quibids is an auction website. There are items on auctions at the site. To win an item, you have to place a bid.
Bids are like game tokens. Each bid token at Quibids costs $0.60. Every time a bidder places a bid token on an auction, the sale price increases by one cent. The final sale prices is the price a winning bidder pays for the item.
Let it be noted that there are other fees that Quibids will add to that final sale price.
For example, Quibid values a new iPad at $22.54. Every bid will add one cent to the sale price. Let us say the item receives 1,000 bids. At the end of the auction, the last bidder can buy the item for 1,000 bids x 1 cent per bid, which is equal to $10.
Important Note! – The bidder who won the auction do not actually win the item. They only win the right to buy the item, at the set price that correlates to the number of bids the item received.
Do you see the lure of this? But it is not what it seems. Continue reading to find out more.
How Do You Make Money from Quibids?
One of the ways to make money from Quibids is to buy products at low prices and resell them at higher prices. This is something called retail arbitrage. Of course, most people doing retail arbitrage targets sales times at major stores and resells them.
I wrote an article about how to make money from Amazon. Inside it, I explain about retail arbitrage, which is one of the ways to make money at Amazon. To read more about this, click on the image below.
But you cannot do retail arbitrage with Quibids. This is because you cannot really get products at low prices. Read the Problems section below, and watch for the sub-topic – You Are Actually Paying More.
Click on the image above to find out.
What are the Pros of Quibids?
- Free to join
What are the Things Quibids Did Well?
Buy It Now
The Buy It Now options allow you to buy an item you are bidding on. And you can purchase it based on the total amount of your failed bids.
For example, for an iPad that costs $499, you have a total bid of $100, Quibids will sell it to you at $399 when you opt for the Buy It Now option.
This sounds great except that you are actually getting it at the normal retail price that you can get at Apple or any of their authorised retail stores.
And take note that you have to pay Quibids tax, fees, shipping and handling costs. As such, you will be paying more for your item than you would at Apple or a retailer like Amazon.
What are the Cons of Quibids?
- You are actually paying more for products
- You lose money even when you do not win an auction
- Some products do not come with warranties
- Many customers complaints
- Not easy to get refund, some say no refund
- It is like gambling
What are the Problems with Quibids?
It Is Like Gambling
Most auction sites work in this way – an item is up for action, and people bid on that item. At the end of the auction, the highest bidder gets that item at the price he or she bid.
The other bidders do not lose any money. The bids they placed were just bids. When they do not win the auction, they do not need to pay the amount that they bid.
Quibids is different. All the bidders lose the money they bid on for an item. It is like gambling in the sense that every one is putting their stakes on the table. Only one person wins.
At the end of the auction, all the bids are paid to the house. In this case, it is Quibids.
You Are Actually Paying More
The prices of the products actually cost more than it seems.
Every bidder must buy a once cent bid at 60 cents. Let us discuss the iPad mentioned above for this example.
When a bidder is able to win it at the claimed offer price of $22.54, this means that there were 2,254 one cent bids. Each bid cost $0.60. When you do the math, 2,254 x $0.60 = $1,352.40!
That is way above the retail price of $499!
And that is if the final bid price is the same as the offer price of $22.54. What if it goes much higher?
Here is a YouTube video where a user recorded a live bid.
This is what the user said:
“I recorded this video with an Ipod Touch 5th Generation and held it with my 2 hands and briefly with 1 hand.
They have bots bidding or people who work for them bidding to run up the prices and take your hard earned money and bids. In this video you will see how there were over 830 bids placed for only 50 voucher bids, no real human would bid that high and no normal human would use 175 bids to just win an auction for 50 voucher bids so you be the judge.”
The auction ended with the final bid at $8.32. So that was 832 one cent bids. Each bid costs $0.60. This means the winner bought those vouchers at a final cost of 832 x $0.60 = $499.20.
Crazy, right?
Oh, and notice that the timer keeps reverting back to 10 more seconds?
No Warranty
Many of the items offered as Quibids may not come with the warranty of the manufacturer. For example, Quibids is not an approved retailer of apple. As such, the Apple products you buy on this site will not have any warranty.
So, when something goes wrong or your product gets damaged, you will not be able to get it repaired for free or exchanged.
Many Customer Complaints
There are many customer complaints on the Internet about Quibids. You can search on the Internet and you will find many sites with complaints from the users. Here are some examples with screen shots from those sites.
The following two are just some of the complaints left by Quibids users on a website known as Product Reviews.
This complaint is just one of many where users alleged that they were unable to get refunds. The complaint was left on a well known site called Opportunity Checker.
An authority site known as Trustpilot received many complaints about Quibids. Here are a couple of them.
Of course, I acknowledge that every business will get their fair share of complaints. You cannot please everyone.
But, when there are too many complaints, then you have to take notice. Excess amounts of complaints is not a good sign.
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Quibids Review – Scam or Legit?
Timotheus Final Thoughts
VERDICT: Legit business bordering on Scam
It is a legitimate business as in it is registered, and offers a service. But because of the above problems, I have to say it is bordering on being a scam.
I am only saying this because I would like all my students, mentees and readers to be aware, and be careful of Quibids.
One of the most negative points of this site is that you actually pay more for a product. As Passive Online Revenue is about looking for opportunities to make money, this is not a good choice.
Especially if you intend to do retail arbitrage. You can definitely not buy at low prices here.
What Do I Recommend?
I do not recommend this site and its service.
If you are doing retail arbitrage, you can get products at low prices from many other choices. But do take note that doing retail arbitrage is very time consuming. You will still be trading time and effort for money.
For me, I have tried private label, dropshipping, FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), affiliate marketing, and even running a digital marketing agency. Out of all these, I find I like affiliate marketing the best.
To me, affiliate marketing is the closest to creating passive income. You build a blog or website. You promote products. When people buy, you earn a commission.
There is no need to manage inventory, shipping or customer complaints. Just create content, and watch the income come in a passive way.
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Timotheus
Your Online Business Coach