The web auction site Beezid

flippyshark · 04-19-2010, 08:38 AM

There are several similar sites around these days. I once spent an hour or two reading about them, and watching a couple of auctions (a MacBook Pro and a Sony HDTV) to see where they would stop. I noticed that the final stages of these auctions can actually go on for hours, with those final few seconds being reset again and again as the auction sites rake in those 60 cent bids over and over. You can end up babysitting such an "auction" for a long tedious time, OR sites sell auto-bid services so that you can lose money while you step away from your computer.

If you participate, it's very unlikely you will wind up as the one who gets a forty dollar iPad, but you might be the unlucky sap who spent fifty dollars trying. Most of these sites now let you apply those hapless dollars toward a full retail price purchase of the item you were after. Otherwise, thanks for playing and thanks for the cash, sucker!

Yeah, kind of like gambling, or playing a giant electronic claw game, but at heart, it's a really tedious and (for most participants) pointless way of shopping. That carrot of an unbelievably cheap goodie is admittedly a powerful one, though.

04-19-2010, 08:38 AM	#3
flippyshark Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 2,852	There are several similar sites around these days. I once spent an hour or two reading about them, and watching a couple of auctions (a MacBook Pro and a Sony HDTV) to see where they would stop. I noticed that the final stages of these auctions can actually go on for hours, with those final few seconds being reset again and again as the auction sites rake in those 60 cent bids over and over. You can end up babysitting such an "auction" for a long tedious time, OR sites sell auto-bid services so that you can lose money while you step away from your computer. If you participate, it's very unlikely you will wind up as the one who gets a forty dollar iPad, but you might be the unlucky sap who spent fifty dollars trying. Most of these sites now let you apply those hapless dollars toward a full retail price purchase of the item you were after. Otherwise, thanks for playing and thanks for the cash, sucker! Yeah, kind of like gambling, or playing a giant electronic claw game, but at heart, it's a really tedious and (for most participants) pointless way of shopping. That carrot of an unbelievably cheap goodie is admittedly a powerful one, though.
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