MacBid a Gamble or a Swindle in the Metro?
Posted by Catch Friday at Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:53:00 GMT 
Categories: cults
Tags: scam madbid swindle complaint
Categories: cults
Tags: scam madbid swindle complaint
I walked into Fulham Broadway Tube station in London this morning and picked up a copy of the Metro newspaper, a free paper full of today's news, and full of advertising which included a full page ad on an auction house (Madbid) boasting the latest gadgets ie iphone 4, ipad, MacBook Pro for ridiculous amounts!
A thought went through my head 'noboby is giving anything for free' and this must be a scam. The big claim Save 80% on your favourite products.
I decided to dig - looking at their website their terms and conditions appear a bit vague though long.
They are owned by a company called Marcandi Ltd and according to Advertising Standards each time a bidder bids it costs them £1.50, so if you were to sign up as a member and then become a bidder (participant) and you bid 15 times for an item - you would have to pay £22.50 on top of the closing auction price - this is obviously what they don't tell you in misleading advertising isn't it!
So in their advertisement in the Metro the iphone 4 is priced at £38.61, which means that 3,861 bids have been received, and according to that may mean that 3861 times £1 could equal £3,861 no wonder they are making money!
Professor Mark Griffiths of Nottingham Trent University views Penny Auction sites like Macbid to be gambling, but Juha Koshi disagrees and he suggests that it's a game of skill and would not form under any circumstances under the definition of gambling. I wonder if you would disagree?
Sarah Pennells, Business reporter, BBC News suggests that ebay where you can bid for free is more appealing than online penny auction sites like Madbid, which Tony Northcott of the Trading Standards Institute believes some people may spend more than they realise on bids.
Rana likened Juha Koshi's argument quote
as the most surprising disagreement since Madoff disagreed with proposed hedge fund regulation. Five reasons why these auctions are really lotteries:
1. The gambler pays for every "bid", each bid is essentially a non-refundable ticket
2. The final price of the item bears minimal relation to the value of the item on the open market
3. The lottery operator (or seller) gains most profit not from the winning bidder but instead from the number of bids made (or tickets bought)
4. The operators argue that entry needs significant skill. Actually I agree - in the same sense that choosing lottery numbers requires significant skill
5.Sometimes the winning price is the lowest unique bid, that essentially proves it
It's obvious. If the supposed regulators cannot work this out then they are either incompetent statistical morons or subservient slaves of the gaming industry.
[note: yes I know that choosing lottery numbers requires some "skill" to avoid picking the obvious numbers that other people are more likely to have picked
Madbid recently launched Bids4kids and contribute 1% of it's revenue to the Childrens Trust, and somehow I do not think that the charities they raise money for, quite know what they are involved in, do you?
However a lot of money has gone into Madbid from some very important people so I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt, wouldn't you?
According to one Penny Aution Review "An international penny auction site called Madbid has been pretty much taking people’s money and selling them the hopes of getting a discount on brand new products. Unfortunately, rarely does that hope actually turn into the reality of actually winning anything with them. I tested them out myself, and was really disappointed by how hard it was to win anything on their site."Disclaimer: Some of the information presented here may be opinion, agrigated or statistical but we disclaim all libility with regards to acuracy or factuality or fitness of purpose. Additionally we do not claim to have speleld anything correctly...
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