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-   -   Telebid (https://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=195963)

Tomkat 13 Jan 2008 14:08

Telebid
 
I just discovered this site through an advert on facebook. I won't link to it, but I'm sure you can guess the URL from the thread title!

It's a pretty clever service, as it benefits the buyer and the seller both.

Essentially it's ebay (in terms of bidding), but all products are sold by telebid, not by other people. The main difference is that every time you bid, it charges you 50p. Every time someone bids, the bidding-time increases by 10/20/30 secs.

Products on there go for incredibly small sums. I watched a DS Lite go for £13.00, and a wii for £120.

The buyer does well because they can get a product really cheaply (if they don't behave stupidly and bid lots of times).

The seller does well because they get 50p for every bid, and the price of the product only goes up 10p with each bid. There's a DS Lite on there at the moment for £60 (people are still bidding) - this means that the company has made £300 on it without it even being sold*.

The only person (people) who lose out are those who have bidded but not managed to win the product.

This isn't some sort of stupid advert - I haven't used it myself. I just think it's a pretty clever way of doing things. I guess to have the highest chance of winning the product without spending loads on bids, you'd have to come in as early as possible (bidding starts at 7am).

It just seemed quite cool to me - I'm thinking about buying a wii and I might watch this site for a bit and try to get a good deal on one.




*£60.00 / 10p = 600 bids = £300 (50p per bid)

Recon 13 Jan 2008 18:08

Re: Telebid
 
Just wanted to say this site looks awesome, looked at some of the won auctions and i'm simply amazed people can be buying HD 42" plasma tv's for as cheaply as £100...can this be real?? Anyway i signed up(haven't bought any bids yet), if you did sign up TK let me know how you got on(if you won anything and if you did indeed get your product sent to you!)

Tomkat 13 Jan 2008 18:25

Re: Telebid
 
I'm still lurking and watching products - a wii went earlier for £125 which sounds ace but some people on there had bidded 20-30 times which is £10-£15 (50p per bid) - rather a lot to bid for something that you don't even win in the end.

I think the best time to bid is when less people are on.

I've looked at the terms and conditions and all that jazz, it's all legitimate - it's just the site makes loads from people bidding.

Yahwe 13 Jan 2008 18:33

Re: Telebid
 
people are so stupid :(

Unless we control ourselves we'll have Esther Ranson back before you can say "mommy please don't make me watch the scary lady talk about consumer scams"

Recon 13 Jan 2008 18:34

Re: Telebid
 
Yeah as sad as it might be i'm planning on a couple of 7am wake ups before uni this next week just so i can check this site out and lurk. Looking at the won auctions it appears to be as you say the earlier times(when less people are awake/on) you can get the best bargains. But good luck though in your bidding!!!

Tomkat 13 Jan 2008 19:25

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Yahwe
consumer scams

It isn't a scam you simpleton!

Alessio 13 Jan 2008 23:23

Re: Telebid
 
The concept seems pretty awesome.

Well, if you win an auction, you'll have to add the money you spend on buying bids to the costs.

Looking at the prices of the finished auctions I can only assume that your chances of actually winning a product are pretty slim. It's a bit of a gamble. You buy bids up front, which give you a chance to win a product. And with win i mean that you'll have to buy it. Chances are that you, like most other losers on that site, will spend your money on up bidding against eachother and never even getting a chance to buy a product. If a product is sold for £60 pound, and the site makes £300, then that would mean that atleast 9.6 losers spend £25 for nothing.

If you don't bid, then well, then you surely won't get anything after investing 25 pounds. If you wait for longer then 30 days your bids will expire.

If i'm wrong, and you don't have to compete against dozens of bidders who will make you waste your money by overbidding you constantly, which would mean that you actually would have a decent chance to win, then it’s proberbly a scam with some fake bidders winning items.

Either way, I seriously doubt that you will get what you want, even if it's real.

Tomkat 13 Jan 2008 23:51

Re: Telebid
 
Yeah I've already spent 10 bids and haven't won anything :(

It seems that most winners manage to get it by fluke, as the timer reaches 1 second and every other bidder assumes that someone else will click the BID button. When noone else does, that person wins.

Yahwe 13 Jan 2008 23:52

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomkat
Yeah I've already spent 10 bids and haven't won anything :(

we really should make you wear mittens all year round for your own good

Ramihyn 14 Jan 2008 00:09

Re: Telebid
 
Interesting concept, but basically Yahwe is right.

ps: i honestly wonder if they can legally forbid this "business method" as its kind of a lottery scheme

Alessio 14 Jan 2008 00:23

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

There’s a few key things that are different from other auctions you might have used online:

Bidding on our auctions starts at just 10p, with no reserve prices.
The price only goes up by 10p with each bid placed. (7p on international auctions).
If a bid gets placed in the final moments, we extend the auction by up to 20 seconds.
There’s a small charge for each bid placed: this helps us offer you such amazing bargains.
So for every £1 of the price you see they get £5 from just bidding. So lets say you have spend £20 on a bidpack. That would mean one alpha male would have lost his money without winning on every £4 of the price. But since most are international auctions, one alpha male would have lost his money without winning on every £2,80 of the price.

Phahaha!

Mzyxptlk 14 Jan 2008 09:57

Re: Telebid
 
Hey TomKat, I'm a Nigerian banker, and a distant relative of mine has left me lots of money. I need your help and bank account to launder the money. Let me know, thanks.

You Are Gay 14 Jan 2008 10:49

Re: Telebid
 
It seems like those quiz shows that are on late at night and charge people a pound a call "whether or not your call is selected".

Here is the website of one of the people who presented such a show.

djbass 14 Jan 2008 13:41

Re: Telebid
 
If you track the history of bids it seems there is almost always one user consistantly bidding via BidButler (automatic). Considering the cost involved in say 200 bids via the automated system and the cost of the item one has to wonder if they might be using 'plants' to keep the price above a certain minimum.

CjC 14 Jan 2008 14:12

Re: Telebid
 
This made some sense to me, I like the example:

Quote:

As I write this, Telebid has an auction running for an Apple MacBook. A quick Froogle search indicates a 'normal' price for that particular model of £822. On Telebid the bidding is currently at £222.46 and the bid increment is 7p: each time a user bids, the item price increases by 7p.

A quick bit of maths tells us it took 3,178 bids to get the price up to £222.46. Each one of those bids cost the bidder 50p to make. Are we starting to get the picture here? That's £1,589 of revenue Telebid has made from the auction so far, without actually selling anything.

For the sake of argument, let's say the auction ended at that price of £222.46. £1,589 + £222.46 = £1,811.46. So Telebid has made almost £1,000 of revenue in excess of the revenue it would have made if it had sold the MacBook in the normal way.

It is most interesting to consider the actual costs to the buyer: remember that bids have no value when it comes to actually buying the item. The money that the winning bidder spent on their bids has only permitted them to buy the item at the final price.

If we oversimplify this example and say that the auction has been a bidding war between seven individuals, each making an equal proportion of the total bids (454 bids per person), then the winning bidder will have spent £227 on bids to win. Once they have won, they can buy their MacBook for £222.46. So their total costs are £449.46. Still a hefty saving on the purchase price.

But spare a thought for the other six poor saps, who spent £227 on bids and walked away with nothing at all.

Don't spare any thoughts at all for Telebid, who are laughing all the way to the ****ing bank.
Hmm, think I'll personally give this one a miss...

planetoz 28 Jan 2008 00:45

Re: Telebid
 
Hey regarding Telebid rip off - now it aint - but you can lose some cash if you dont play it clever....... I joined 3 weeks ago and I have won won won won in fact i have wone 8 times in 3 weeks - example Play station3 59 UK pounds $100
Shop price 319 uk pounds - -----It cost me 33 pounds in bids at 50p each----- I therefor made 66 bids.......Total cost to me 59 + 33 = 92 pounds-------Bargain......Them at Telebid wont let you or me win more than 8 items in a month - --- so that others get a chance too ----I tried to get them to extend this but NO=------=BUT you can get stung as you can in a garage, heyn the main dealers charge like 80 pounds / hour and right now your probably paying over the odds on you phone.......thats life -------NOW you guys who out there who calculate how much telebid earns-----why----- my dentist makes 500k per year-----cause he is good - do i mind No....... So how do you win----well you look at the bidders list bu clicking on the product.... then you wait till there are only two left in a bidding war-----all the time you wait ready to bid.......YOU ONLY BID IN THE LAST ONE SECOND-----never at 5 seconds 10 seconds....thats the secret..... let the other bid before one second.-------If a bid butler is active, leave it till it stops.....you have to watch and wait and work clever......Plan to spend a certain ammount on Bids.........I love it....its easy cash......Better than blackjack or roulette......a better calculated risk......yes it is a risk BUT not if you play it right.......How long do I spend.....well normally 2 hours in the morning time and so far 9 days in total or 18 hours......Ive won 8 items and paid out in bets 310 pounds-----value of items won including HD TV , wii, PS3, Laptop, Total Value of goods 3290 pounds so my profit was 2980 - I put them all on ebay and sold for 1860 pounds------divide this by the 18 hours playing the bids------ YEP I make 100 pounds an hour------COOL or what.....Now you guys that can not see this -thats OK,,,,,I bet you though that your in debt. and find it hard to pay for luxuries.....Lifes a gamble....I have no debt, a very small mortgage......You have to play to win and not worry about how much they earn......One last thought Do you buy designer clothes ----- is that a rip off or what.....at least with telebid you get a chance!!!!

Knight Theamion 28 Jan 2008 00:49

Re: Telebid
 
I could make a post about option pricing theory here but I think it would be lost on most.

However the model as presented by telebid is ofcourse flawed and this has already been shown by Alessio.

Tomkat 28 Jan 2008 09:10

Re: Telebid
 
I could make a post about hockey but it would be lost on most.

You Are Gay 28 Jan 2008 11:28

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by planetoz
Them at Telebid



Oh dear.

djbass 28 Jan 2008 11:55

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Telebid
Oh noes we've been busted.. quick send in the bots!


Alki 28 Jan 2008 13:27

Re: Telebid
 
indeed, they probably have there own people pushing up the bids on items aswell
edit - they even sell money at a discount price!

Alki 28 Jan 2008 13:41

Re: Telebid
 
why does it add time onto bids, also why do they sometimes go up by different amounts aswell.
Whats the point of bidding in the last second aswell, it just adds time doesnt it?

Tomkat 28 Jan 2008 16:54

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Alki
Whats the point of bidding in the last second aswell, it just adds time doesnt it?

Because if you bid at the last minute, you're giving other schmucks the opportunity to click "BID" at the other times (so yours isn't wasted). If someone (say) only allowed themself 20 bids, then they'd have used them all up if they kept clicking it on the 5-second mark. Better to wait until it reaches 1 second, when there's a real risk of it being sold to another person.

Alki 28 Jan 2008 18:51

Re: Telebid
 
ah i get it now! well i knew most of that already, but didnt think of it as wasting other peoples bids etc

All Systems Go 28 Jan 2008 18:52

Re: Telebid
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by You Are Gay
Oh dear.

So it's either a spam bot or someone from up north.


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