Bidding Gone Bad

A  recent e-mail from my daughter Jill caught my eye. “Check this out … It’s pretty cool,” she wrote. Being a well-trained Mom, I investigated a website called Quibids.

In case you’ve not heard of the site, it’s an auction format: Basically, you buy “bids” and use them as tender to purchase products — mostly electronics, appliances and gift cards. I was skeptical, of course, but the Better Business Bureau symbol allayed my fears. To be honest, I was also finding it hard to ignore the “wins” being posted. A MacBook Air sold for under $30. Oakley sunglasses went for less than a dollar. Monster Cable Beats pro headphones sold for under $15.

Ever a student of retailing, it seemed I was obligated to buy some bids and give this a whirl. And, to be completely honest, I had my eye on the Dyson Animal Canister (it may seem like an odd item to covet, but I have three cats and this vacuum cleaner is reported to be “the best”). Priced at around $500, it’s certainly not at the top of the Reda family “must buy” list, but I figured that if I could bid my way to a fur-free home, it would be a win-win for all.

So I took the plunge and bought some bids — 100 for $60. That should have been my first clue, but I told myself I had to pay to play. I started bidding right away, hoping to score the Dyson in a matter of hours. Each bid raises the price by a penny and I quickly learned about the bid-o-matic option — which, best I could tell, was a really fast way to use up a whole bunch of bids.

Several hours in I realized that this was going to be more difficult than I’d imagined. Watching my bid count drop precipitously, I turned my attention to a less-popular item among my bidding competitors. In a matter of minutes I scored my first win, a Kalorik waffle maker. It typically sells for around $35, but I got it for 7 cents — plus 9.99 for shipping and handling. And there was a bonus: 25 extra bids added to my account.

With one win and some extra bids under my belt, I rallied; that Dyson was going to be mine. I bid with a vengeance, figuring it was just a matter of time before those “amateurs” would succumb to my personal quest to rid my home of cat fur.

I didn’t get the Dyson; somebody else did for just $27.55! Trying to make myself feel better, I shared with my son the economics major that I had “won” the waffle maker for just 7 cents. “Let me get this straight,” Nick said smugly, “You paid $70.06 for a $35 waffle maker? Good job, Mom.”

Trust me, I know why some members of the Animal Kingdom eat their young.