BidCactus review: Auction site is a con!! 170

Thanks for posting. I have been looking at this site without buying, and it really looks to me like a gambling site masquerading as an auction site. I say this because:

1) People who lose at traditional auctions generally walk away empty handed without having spent anything, except perhaps a small membership or entry fee. On Bidcactus, you can lose virtually unlimited amounts of money without ever winning an auction.
2) People who win at traditional auctions generally pay for the item itself, whereas gamblers spend money by throwing their chips on the table hoping to win. On Bidcactus, the final sale prices are minimal, but all those losing $0.75 bids add up fast.
3) Auctions typically make money through item sales or by taking a small percentage of the sale price from the seller. Gambling enterprises make money from losing bets.
4) Winning on Bidcactus has an element of basic strategy (bid at the last second), but it seems to be mostly luck. Few people on eBay would stop bidding on a $50 gift card because its price hit $1. While traditional auctions also contain elements of unpredictability, the person with the greatest chance of winning is the one willing to pay the most for the item, not the one who lucks out.
5) A surprising number of items on Bidcaster are cash equivalents (either bid packs or gift cards). Play cash to win cash. Need I say more?

These are just my opinions, of course. In Bidcactus' defense, their site clearly explains how the bidding works and how they make money. They even recommend watching several auctions before jumping in. Barring any laws to the contrary, I have no issues with betting-for-fun sites. However, I am still a bit disturbed by the idea of people jumping into this with an auction mindset as opposed to a betting mindset (as you appeared to do). The methodology of Bidcactus has significant differences from typical auctions. I would prefer to see this site promoted more as a play-for-fun site (with perhaps some pages added to explain problem gambling and where to get help).

After reading your story about losing $75 and 8 hours of time (sorry to hear that), I have concluded that this is the most likely outcome for me as well. I am going to pass. Again, thanks for posting. This has been a really good reality check.

I was a high performing bidder on bidcactus. I can't disclose my bidder name but have won numerous items!
Although I received some low cost prizes - i.e -$20 Dunkin Donuts Gift Card, $25 Barnes n Noble Gift Card

I NEVER RECEIVED THE SAMSUNG TV THAT I WON

I NEVER RECEIVED THE APPLE MAC MINI I WON

I NEVER RECEIVED THE $100 AMEX GIFT CARD I WON

STAY AWAY- KIP (supposedly a Customer Service Rep) & Marjorie (part Owner) ARE SCAMMERS!

I recently came across the site and decided to watch and see what happens. I saw two people, named gold777diamond and alisa2333 win WELL more than 3 items in a day. There was one time when these two people were winning all 8 auctions. And gold777diamond would bid on something the second they posted it, which to me seems REALLY fishy since who bids at the very start when they know everyone waits til the end and then the clock adds time? Either this person has billions of dollars to waste, or it's someone hired to increase prices and take money with lost bets. This person always also seems to win the "bid on bids" items. Seems like a huge scam to me.

Its a scam and this proves it.

http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2009/09/penny-auction-owner-asks-for-fake-members/

It's a game of chicken. Instead of swerving your car because you think the other guy won't, you make the next bid because you think nobody else will. (You want to make the last bid, all others just cost you money.) Simple as that. Some very good gamblers win the items, everybody else loses their money and the site makes a fortune. Also, I have no doubt it is crooked because of the prevalence of one ID making the first (incredibly stupid, never-winning) bid immediately after the item is listed. Obviously a company shill, either human or computer. THERE IS NO WAY TO SEE WHAT SOMEONE ELSE HAS WON, so unlike e-bay, there is no way to see if a bidder is legitimate or fake. I vote for a lot of fakes who either work for the site or are the site computers themselves. Either way, don't waste your time and money unless you are a rich masochist.

I wish I had seen this complaints board before I too had lost money at bidcactus. After spending to much money and time, it became obvious that most winning bidders had an autobidder program placing their bids.

I just stumbled onto Bidcactus.com today. I bought 25 bids for $18.75 right away. That money was gone in less than an hour. After about 1/2 hour of watching the different bidders, I started to think it was a scam. Now, about 12 hours later, I'm back on the sight watching again. All I see are the same people winning the auctions. I truly believe this sight is a scam and hope that you won't buy into it like I did. I just wish that i would've saw this sight before blowing money on it! I hope that this will help deter you from making the same mistake that I did. Keep your money 'cus it's really not worth it.

I have a friend who wanted me to help him with starting one of these auction sites. So I have been reading message boards to see what people think of them. There is a lot of concern about scams. I have my own site at surveysandprizes.com where I give people points for taking surveys which they can use to get rewards. I suggested to him that maybe I could set up one of my rewards as free bid packages for his auction site. Do you guys think that would be a viable way to take the fear of scam out of these types of sites? This would basically allow people to earn free bids on an ongoing basis.

http://bidcactusisascam.blogspot.com/2009/08/pennyauctionwatchcom-owner-is-convicted.html

http://bidcactusisascam.blogspot.com/2009/08/bidcactuscom-and-pennyauctionwatchcom.html

http://bidcactusisascam.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2010-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=3

Steve01, as the owner/editor of Penny Auction Watch http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com

I will tell you that I AM not a convicted felon, I have never committed a crime. Your blog is a blatant lie/defamation of my website, me as a private person, Zoozle, BidRodeo, Rockybid & Bid Cactus all of which have actually shipped people items.

Take a look at Bid Cactus' Alexa ranking, 6, 701 in the US, and you will see why there are so many bidders.

If any of you have questions regarding any penny auction site please feel free to join the penny auction forum at http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/forum

My best regards,

And as for you "Steve, " ''Gertrude" whoever, I'd like to know why you are spreading blatant lies/slandering me all over the Internet.

"Its a scam and this proves it.
http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2009/09/penny-auction-owner-asks-for-fake-members/"

Tony, that post that you posted does not prove anything nor does it even mention Bid Cactus.

I totally agree, this site its a scam, sometimes the word DONE (which is used when you have won something) suddenly appears and the right next 1 or 2 seconds it goes away and people keep bidding. I have seen it and it has happen to me. I could not prove it because i did not have a picture, or a video, of it, so i couldnot do anything about it. So my advise if you are going to bid please put a video camara right in front of the screen, so they dont fool you.

If only I had found this page earlier I wouldn't have joined BidCatus. For those of you who don't understand what everyone above you is trying to say, let me break it down for you.

You don't buy each bid for $0.75 but rather packages of bids ranging from $18 (what I bought) to $75 (for 100 bids).

Each bid only adds a penny to the auction but 10 to 15 seconds to the clock which allows other bidders to outbid you easily.

I lost all my bids but watched an auction with an initial time of 15 mins go on for 2 hours. This particular bid ended at $5.80 which means 580 bids were used. The site made a profit of $435 - still a $300 profit for a $100 giftcard.

Boy, I wish I would have thought to check this "SCAM" out on line also. I purchased the $18.75 package for 25 bids and that was gone in no time, with no wins. This was after I watched the auctions for 2 days to see how it was done. Silly me, I purchased a 50 bid package for $37.50 and still no wins. I was convinced that if I could just win a bid package, I would be ok. I was studying again today and was thinking of purchasing again. I think I will just cut my losses and move on. Wish there was something we could do or some way we could prove this is a scam.

Thanks for being here for me to read. Me too could see the con side and the good side. I could see all the money they were making at 75 cents a bid. But hey those packs are not equal to 75 cents in each auction. But could I win one of those packs? How much would I have to spend at 75 cents each to just WIN a pack? At least 25 wins, likely more like the bigger packs. So now how many other people bought a minimum of 25 packs today like me almost? "Other people" just made Bidcactus a ton of money. And some of the prizes you win, were bought by Bidcactus at a discount for buying in bulk probably.
That's why the increments aren't that high, because it takes so much for one to give up on it, in the meanwhile how much did each of those bids cost? I watched an auction so close for a $50 gift card that one particular user spent 22 bids, stopped at 59cents and it finally sold at 75 cents, like 16 bids later. That's more than half of the 25 bids ($18.75 worth) I ALMOST bought today and just ONE auction. and even if ten other people were suckered into buying 25 bids, $18.75 x 10 = $187.50 paid for that $50 card 3 times over. Do the math with 100 people, it paid for all those gift cards today and that WII given out daily.

Participation in Bidcactus like most things has a learning curve. I started in August and bought 100 bids, and 75 bids. Won NOTHING. But because I view it sort of like gambling, which is not available in NC and I know for certain that on line gambling is fun right up until you try to collect winnings, I thought what the heck and bought some more bids, $75. For that I won two $50 cards (barns & noble and Macy's) and a $25 blockbuster card and 25 bids all of which were received via UPS. A month later I bought total $300 in bids, won $860 in various cards, a 32" panasonic TV, a Kitchen Aid blender and a set of expensive steak knives. All of which have yet to be delivered. Considering the oldest of the above is 5 days old I will wait to report the receipt. There is definitely a learning curve, and a good time to bid. As far as I am concerned the jury is still out. Oh and I won about 800 bids for less than 50 dollars. So I still have over 500 bids.

Why does anyone care about how much the penny bid sites are making?
Isn't that the point of all auctions wether it's a penny auction or Ebay?
Or any business for that matter! The point is to make money, not give
things away. If you don't want to spend your money on a chance to win, don't purchase a bidpack!
Do you purchase lottery tickets? You know how much you are willing to spend on
a chance to win X amount of money. This is basically the same thing.
Figure out a strategy and how much you are willing to pay for something and stick with it.
After reading many, many websites and posts, there are lots of real folks posting about
winning and getting bargins. However, I am concerned about some who say they won
big items, i.e TVs, WII etc and have not recieved them. It also concerns me that you can watch one day
and see the same bidders all day long, but come back every few days for amonth or more
and never see those bidders again. I'm not convinced it's not some kind of scam with the site having fake bidders. But I certainly don't care that the sites are making money if all bidders are legit!
Once and if I decide there's not "fake people" bidding against me I'll probably join in the fun!

I have played the game at bidcactus for about 3 months off and on. I "won" a 32' panasonic tv RECEIVED and a Kitchen Aide Blender and a set of very expensive steak knives. ALL RECIEVED. Most of the gift cards I "won" and I am ahead of the game. There is a "learning curve" for which I paid BUT it is entertaining and IF you have some guts and self control you will come out ahead. The question is just like any other game "can you win"? Only your decisions will make the difference. I have talked with "Kip" who is very genuine and helpful. I have been discouraged by my own stupidity BUT I will say the return is GREAT if you can figure out the game. Good luck to you all and this is the very last post I will make regarding this site because I am not interested in more competition LOL

I too wish that I had read these comments prior to spending my $75.00 (2 purchases of 50 bids). Back on 10-24-09 I watched "NIGHTHAWK987" win 5 autions from 9:01 PM thru 11:15 PM. The last auction was for a 50 bid pack. The 50 bid pack has a value of $37.50. This guy bid 188 times, I counted them. The 188 bids at $0.75 each would have cost him $141.00 to win the $37.50 pack of bids. IS THIS GUY A SHILL OR AN INSIDER WORKING FOR BIDCACTUS? Maybe he's just got an endless supply of bids? I also watched a 26" Sony Bravia with a retail value of $499.99 recieve 2, 566 bids. Do the math... 2, 566 bids at $0.75 amounts to $1, 924.50. This sight has SCAM-SCAM-SCAM written all over it. Beware.

I can say when I saw they wanted 75 cents per bid, I immediately contacted them to have my account closed and removed from this site. I have been to many auctions around the US from city auctions, auto auctions, as well as a seasoned "Ebay" and Amazon auction participant both on sales and purchases.

No way should anyone ever have to pay to bid ever! You see this, run. Either the facilitator of the site is to ignorant to run a business, or is trying to SCAM everyone who would dare participate. These are the only 2 answers. Of recent I have even stopped using costoco, sams, and direct buyer clubs, since there isn't any savings with these people either, that can't be found in this economy, and you are only paying them to give you a price you can find all day long with any research.

Got to love "White Collar Crime" and there isn't any jail time since they tell you they are taking your money and don't expect anything in return.

oh come on. Its easy to see that most of the bids on this site are bots. the company that runs the sites can easily have bots bid against the real bidders. therefore they don't have to send any of the items out or get caught.

I watched for a few days then bought a bid packet of 25. I still have 17 left b/c here I am stupid for even buying it watching others (mostly newbies) still bidding as we speak on a bid pack of 25 that is now at $3.82 & still going & a 75 bid pack went for 3 bids bc at least 2 people fighting over this 25 one. It just closed at $3.87. It's the same few people bidding on these getting them sky high, this is ridiculous. When I first joined there wasn't all this bidding on them, they were going for pennies but at the time I didn't have the money to buy bids. It would've been worth it then but definitely not now. Shipping for a gift card is almost $6! The 2nd concern is do you even get your win? As I've read some of your comments you're better off if you stayed away & I wish I'd looked for info about the site earlier.

I have been a Bidcactus customer for about 3 months and have won and received many very nice items including a HDTV worth $800, Calphalon cookware, a telescope, a printer, and over $2500 worth of Giftcards. Yes there is a learning curve and yes the site has occasional problems, but the silly notion of shills borders on ridiculous. If there are shills, I do not see where they win very often. Because of this their bids are meaningless to Bidcactus. Granted, there are idiots who will bid and overbid because of testosterone overload issues, but usually these bidding wars result in one or both of the people involved coming to their senses or running out of bids, and the auctions eventually are won by a newbie who happens to be in the right place at the right time. I was involved in some auctions where the site showed that the auction had ended and that I had won, but a few seconds later the auctions restarted. When I complained to Bidcactus, they explained that there had been some issues with a couple of their servers and that the auctions had not actually ended because of some timing delays on these servers. Bidcactus was kind enough to credit my account with the Bids that were placed on those 2 auctions. If you take the time to read the instructions and disclaimers, you will find that they reference what will happen in these rare instances and are very thorough in this explanation! I understand the site and love Bidding there. I encourage everyone who has read the complaints above to heed the warnings and please stay away from the site because this makes it easier for me to keep winning the items that I have been winning.

I tried it today in the hopes of getting a good deal, talk about scammers! I use up all my bids and won nothing. Thank goodness it was only $20, but still why doesnt the bid end when the timer goes off, instead of restarting it. Seriously I dont have time to sit there and gamble money away for nothing. I'll stick with ebay, at least there if I lose I dont lose money too.

bidcactus should not be called an auction site, but a gambling site because that is just what it is.Now calling it an aution site is a misrepresentation which lured people like me into buying ang buying more bid packs but never won an item.I spent $115 in less than 3 hours hoping that i would at least win an item. This is totally unlike me. I bid at ebay, i do not spend more than i bargained there.
Bidcactus is a total fraud. And why doesn't their auction end when they say it would, making it difficult for people to win a bid while they lose money.
After i lost all my money yesterday, i could not sleep through out the night. that was all the money i had and not really sure when i would get another money. I hope i'll forgive myself.
IT IS A TOTAL SCAM. DO NOT EVEN LOOK INTO THIS SITE!

I recently watched a person bid on a box of candy before halloween retailed 49.00 i think, a person bid as soon as it was placed on auction, as end came near folks started pounding on him.Come on guys, I would not want you to see my screen name pounding a guy for a bag of candy but they did.The cards are endless let someone win for christ sake. When you see someone on the auction in the beginning don't be a bid hog and let it go another one is on the way.When you see a bid hog moving all across the board relentlessy trust me wait a bit because they will soon run out of bids.They don't know the game. Then they are pissed they did not win. Show a little respect, , , You really got to have thay george forman grill?, , , , And then you got the preson as mentioned above that have money to blow again let them have it but dont back down so easy. This is a fun game and the site is making a killing because of stupid bidders that jump in the game at the end hoping the other that was there from the beginning will soon run out of bids. Matter of fact i have favorite bidders, , , , PICKEL, DONNY, AK54, ect. They have style you respect them and i will bet like me they will recpect you as well, , , , HAPPY BIDDING

I also noticed the same names bidding on everything at all hours. I tried at 2AM and 6AM and 11PM and the same names were still there. This just proves the point that they have a bot or an group of insomniacs bidding all the time in order to get the poor dopes trying to get a break for Christmas gifts lose their money. And I agree that this is not a bidding site. This is a gambling site and that's where their downfall will be. I purchased 2 $18.75 bid packs and got nothing but frustrated. I saw the same people walk away with the all the items. More than likely they worked for them and will return the same items up for bid and proceed to draw in more dopes and make more money. The only way to win here is to STAY AWAY! bobolacrespo

Hello everybody,

It seems that some of you are unsatisfied with your experience on Bidcactus.com. While we appreciate your feedback, we would also like to address any issues you may have.

First and foremost, Bidcactus never has and never will partake in any form of cheating or scamming. This includes the use of "bots", intentionally adding time to the clocks to stop an auction from ending, or otherwise tricking or deceiving users. Keep in mind that not only is this unethical, it is also terribly illegal. Any company conducting business in this manner would be shut down immediately and its employees would spend more time and money in prison than they ever made.

There have been a few misconceptions about how the auction timers work. When the clock nears zero, any bid will add 15-30 seconds back to the clock to allow you or other bidders to respond. This makes it so that no one can "swoop in" at the last second and steal an auction from you just because they have a faster finger. If there is any confusion about this, we encourage users to watch the site before playing so as to get a feel for how everything works.

For those of you who have questions or feel that you may be dealing with an issue not addressed here, we greatly encourage you to contact our Customer Service by e-mailing info@bidcactus.com or by calling 1-800-BID-8711 between Monday and Friday, 9am-5pm EST. We listen carefully to any suggestions or ideas our customers have to make the site a more enjoyable experience, so if there is anything at all we can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you and good luck!
-- Justin

I totally agree... I wish I'd seen these posts before I was suckered into buying $18.75 worth of bids... A total waste of time---d0n't waste your money here... It's either a scam or a gambling site... Stick with EBay!

I too spent $20 and left with nothing to show for it on this site. However, I watched enough going in that I knew it was a gambling site by another name and that I would probably lose (it was moderately entertaining, but not enough to get me to spend more $). But I did observe enough to figure out what the winning strategy is.

I noticed some bidders win multiple times, though no one who won more than the 3 items + 3 bidpacks limit.

It was 1 am, so maybe fewer people on. I saw $50 gift cards go from $0.38 (38 bids x .75 = $28.50 + .38 = $28.88 + S&H to webite) to $2.80 ($212.80 + S&H). The number of times a bidpack actually went for fewer bids that it was worth was smaller than those that went for 10X their worth.

The key to winning on this site is somewhat simple...NEVER bid at the last second. If your bid is accepted, time is added to the clock, and you will be outbid. If you click to late, you don't win either. Instead, watch a few "auctions" to their conclusion. The general pattern is someone will position themselves as the high bidder, then the timer will enter the 'red zone' of the last 10 seconds. There is usually a flurry of bids at the last second, after it dies down, the former high bidder will enter a new bid to take the lead again. The reason is simple, the only one who can win is the high bidder entering the 'red zone'. Any bid accepted while in the red just adds more time to restart the cycle. Watch any auction and you will see that the eventual winner had the high bid up there for those last 10 seconds.

This explains some of the odd behavior you will see, like two people in a bidding war even with 20 s still on the clock. They are fighting over the 'right' to always be the high bidder while the timer counts down--each time it gets to under 2 s, there is a chance that either no one will bid, or they will miss the timing, allowing the current high bidder to win.

This is also why you'll see bids put in right when the item comes out. It's one of the small group of bidders who have figured out the system staking their claim to that auction. As the time gets closer, other smart bidders will pop a bid in to gauge how serious they are, maybe even have a small bidding war. And as the auction gets down to the red zone, you'll see the same name repeatedly take high bid to ride into the red zone. The smart bidders will try to knock each out of that spot with mini bidding wars, but getting into protracted bidding wars does neither of them any good as they are wasting bids without getting to ride high bid status down to the red zone.

In short, the goal is to use your bids to try to be the high bidder when the timer goes below 3 s (to going, GOING). Most times, a flurry of last minute bids will knock you out, so you use one more bid (when timer is black) to start over. Other times, another smart bidder will try to take over your spot, and you might have to use some bids to fend them off. Again, NEVER bid at the last second. That's what the crowd does, and if 3-4 people all bid in the last second, you only have a 25-33% chance of being the high bidder of the crowd, and even then, the dominant smart bidder of that auction will just knock you out while you foolishly wait until the last second again.

Remember, the way the system works is that a bid at the last second ALWAYS adds time to the clock. So you HAVE to be in the highest bidder spot through the whole red zone to win. That means NEVER wait and bid at the last second. The ones bragging above about how much they've won are playing it smart, and letting the last minute bidders put in the majority of the bids, but never be in the position to actually win.

they definitely look like they have fake people bidding. I watched someone make 118 bids on a 50 bid item box. Yeh right. Do not waist your money on this site. In gambling you at least know your odds- I think this is highly unethical and I would like to join anyone who wants to take them down. This is not a true auction- just a bunch of scammers stealing money.

I read all the rules and was smart enough to realize this is a scam, but had to 'play' just for [censored]s and giggles. I'm a gamber (love me some casinos!), so I bought the $37.50 pack and was laughing the whole time at the people trying to win something. I spent it all in a couple of hours, and did most of my 'bidding' at the end because I got bored watching the 'game'. After seeing the same names (over and over) bidding (over and over) on more than one of the 'auctions', I came to the conclusion that either:
1) The site has bots
2) The site has paid shillers
3) The site has TONS ofidiots people spending more than it would have cost them to outright buy whatever they were bidding on.

Ooops.. my bad. Guess html code for srikeout idiots or idiots doesn't work here.

They rake in a huge amount of money. ALso, some website are complete fraud. They place their insiders to bid and at the end their people win with the Genuine members losing. Having some pity on genuine members they let them win some cheap items like Wii remote controller, Gift cards, etc
Also, I visited at http://www.pennyauctioninfo.com and there too I found the reviews about various website.

I wished I had read the above posts before I joined Bidcactus. It is just a waste of money.

At least on eBay, someone actually wins. At Bidcactus, the site always wins.

I understand all the anger and frustration toward Bidcactus (or similar "auction" sites). But DO YOUR HOMEWORK before buying bids on this site or anywhere someone WANTS YOUR MONEY. When I find something that seems "too good to be true" it usually is, but I always google the company for reviews/complaints, so at least I'm making a well informed choice.

I can't say much to those who won items and never received them or about fake bidders, but the BidCactus website states (under About Us) that it is "a fresh approach to auction entertainment".

Anytime I see the word ENTERTAINMENT I know it's unlikely I am to see any return; think the lottery, think casinos. I've learned the hard way (i.e. the expensive way) to RESEARCH THOROUGHLY anyone/business/website/offer before I use my hard earned money on anything that says "entertainment" . I'd get more "entertainment" lighting money on fire than with BidCactus.

BidCactus may be a scam, but I think it's more like gambling - see previous comment about gambling. That's what it seems like to me anyway (and I read everything on the website and even created an account...thankfully didn't buy any bids).

Remember this one thing: NOTHING IS FREE

Then ask yourself: WHO IS PAYING FOR THIS or HOW IS THIS BEING PAID FOR?
Usually it's not the business itself, otherwise they'd go out of business...which means it's probably you or me.

I'm sorry for those of you who lost a lot of money and time, but that's the same way I learned that when it comes to advertising almost anything goes...so I ASSUME IT IS A SCAM UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE.

As with all new services, educating consumers and arming them with appropriate expectations is key. Much of the criticism penny auctions receive stems from the fact that few people win and everyone expects to get a great deal without much effort. Noone can fault the auction sites for channeling these human needs. It's called business. It is up to consumers to educate themselves by doing their homework, such as checking out review sites like http://www.pennyauctionguide.com. It's just like everything in life: luck favors the prepared.

I actually think this site is more easy to win. I tried about ten different site like bidstick.com and swoopo.com but there were way too many people bidding. I feel if they can have like a state lottery so that each state has their own bid sites then there could be more chance to win. I been doing off and on on bidcactus and I did win some gift cards.