As I suspected at the end of my book, reviews or analysis of penny auction sites could be old news after only a few weeks, and Beezid is a perfect example. A few months ago when I joined Beezid, it was fairly competitive but not full of people willing to bid 2, 3, 4 times worth the cost of the auction. I won a few auctions early, and then when people were busy with shiny objects, I won a nice auction with 2 bids.
This past month every time, no matter what time, I join a modest 25/25 auction ($25 gift card/25 promo bids), which is worth maybe $40 at most (given you only spend .16 a bid average at Beezid), half a dozen power bidders (or irrational bidders) join the fray, bid the price up to $3.50 in a heartbeat (which represents over 50 bids each, already past my limit), and then proceed to bid war each person as though we're in a fight for the death in Thunderdome.
Finally, they let some idiot win after 200, 300, 400 bids, which cost him 2-3 more than the price of the card, plus the final auction price which is, by now, over $6, plus the delivery charge, which is $4.
Insane. This happens every day, all day, with people who would rather win than save money and who are chasing off all the people who just want to get a good deal and adhere to Rule #1: TGIF (To Get It Free!)
This is akin to a bad poker player trying to buy the pot when he has a bad hand. Stupid, irrational, economically a loser, and pointless.
I cancelled my membership at Beezid. It's not worth a single second of my time anymore.
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