QuiBids LLC Is CLEARLY a ripoff EVEN if run fairly as claimed by the company. Internet

Though the obviousness of the ripoff at QuiBids is discussed explicitly in responses to some of the postings, it did not strike me as being all that clear from the title of anyone's post that the post concerned the fact that the way QuiBids works cannot possibly be good for the consumers on average.  So I want to make that point briefly.

The price increases by only $.01 per bid; but the cost of placing such a bid is much more than that - up to $.60 per bid.  Yes, there are ways to get bids for somewhat less than that; so, for the sake of argument, lets say $.50 per bid.  Now, if you look at the number of cents in the selling price of an item and multiply that by $.50, you will get a number that is many times the retail value of the item - even if the selling price is only a small fraction of the item's real value.  Clearly QuiBids is making a huge profit on every item sold - not on what is bid, but on what has been paid by non-winning bidders for the privilege of bidding.

The only way a consumer can benefit from this auction method is by being lucky enough to place the last bid on an item without already having wasted a lot of money making previous bids which were outbid.  But there is no way of knowing when that will happen, even if the auction is being run fairly.  Thus you are at best gambling on when other bidders will give up.  

QuiBids likes to point out that you can get credit for the cost of all your bids on an item if you wish to purchase the item at their "value" price.  However, a little checking around should convince anyone that QuiBids "value" price (plus S&H) is far from being good deal for these items.  Once a bidder has already spent nearly as much on bids as that "buy now" price, it would be the more rational way out; but it would be hard to argue that anyone making bids at QuiBids was behaving rationally to start with.

I know many folks have accused QuiBids of cheating in various ways.  I would actually doubt that any such cheating is going on because, in order to profit enormously from this sort of auction, they don't need to cheat!.  They are depending on folks' gullibility to get involved in a type of auction which is guaranteed to rake in far more in the cost of making bids than the merchandise is worth.  It is better for QuiBids to conduct their business fairly and avoid any basis for prosecution as long it remains legal to conduct this sort of auction.  A strong argument can be made for the government to outlaw this form of auction, as it is grossly unfair to the consumer.  In all the accepted forms of auction, it is not normal for the bidder to have to pay for the privilege of placing a bid.  Normally, any costs are incurred only by the seller and/or the winning bidder.

It is a matter of concern that a person who works for QuiBids has been active in editing the Wikipedia article about QuiBids.com.  If true, that is unethical.  Nevertheless, the Wikipedia article does include plenty of negative information, including the statement, "According to Reviewopedia.com, penny auctions are a bad deal for the consumer and should always be avoided."