Shopping Discussion

fantasticbid.ca experiences

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  • Oct 1st, 2009 2:11 pm
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Deal Expert
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Aug 22, 2003
15540 posts
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Niagara Falls

fantasticbid.ca experiences

Anyone have any experience with www.fantasticbid.ca ? It looks like it could be interesting as you buy bids instead of paying auction fees. From what I can figure out it's the company itself that auctions stuff and the shipping is flat fee and reasonable. I have to admit though, it looks too good to be true in a way when watching the actual auctions and what stuff is selling for...
Thinking seriously about the 4 S's...Sun, Sand, Surf and ... Booked for Sept in Mexico and booked Samana DR for Jan!
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Deal Expert
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Dec 11, 2005
20136 posts
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Seeing how they can't even create a professional website, I don't think I would trust them with any kind of money or identity information.

(hint: Check the title of your browser window!)
To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. -- E. E. Cummings
Deal Addict
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Sep 24, 2007
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Strange concept. You "buy" bids at 67c to 74c, and bid on stuff you then have to pay for :?: :?:

Every bid brings the price up by a few pennies, so it's quite easy to get confused and really overpay for this stuff. If you buy an item for $1, but bid 10 times on it, it ends up costing you like $8 or so. To bizarre for me.
Deal Expert
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Dec 11, 2005
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My above commnent aside, onc eyou read around on their model, it actually does make sense...

IE, I see this laptop for sale for $4.80. You are like WTF?? How can they make money?"

The trick is, you are NOT bidding $1.06 for that laptop. First, you have to buy bids. So if I buy 10 bids for $8 (the lowest amount you can buy), that is 80 cents per bid. Each time you bid it "increases the price a few pennies". Let's assume they mean 2 cents.

So now let's say I use all 10 and bid the thing up to $5, and I win. Wow, I just got a laptop for $8 plus $50 shipping! I think. But.. how much did THEY get? They got something like 500/2 = 250 bids at 80 cents / pop, or $200. A bit low, but possible they make money or break even, esp. when you take into account the high shipping.

Anyway it is an interesting model and potentially legit but I will keep an eye on it for a bit before I try something there, to see how it shakes out.
To be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. -- E. E. Cummings
Deal Addict
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Oct 9, 2004
1453 posts
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Not a bad business model as brunes said - if I understand it correctly.

basically, the winner gets a great deal as the other bidders are in a way, subsidizing your win as their bids cost money. It is almost like gambling in a way -

I think I may try it out when more reports come back about it. The fact that their website title is index .php|title doesn't instill much confidence
Deal Expert
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Aug 22, 2003
15540 posts
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Niagara Falls
Well I bit the bullet. I registered and bought some bids. I actually found the website because we got an insert in our ValPak advertising it. I have my eye on a few things so we'll see. Hubby is eyeing a 42" plasma with $120 shipping but I'm not that brave yet. I think I'll try my hand at something really cheap to begin with...
Thinking seriously about the 4 S's...Sun, Sand, Surf and ... Booked for Sept in Mexico and booked Samana DR for Jan!
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Oct 17, 2006
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I spend the last 15 minutes watching this website, everytime someone place a bid, the time gets extended. Interesting...
;)
Deal Expert
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Aug 22, 2003
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Niagara Falls
Yep, a bid in the last 10 seconds resets the time to 15 seconds. You can also use the Bidding Buddy to automatically place bids.
Thinking seriously about the 4 S's...Sun, Sand, Surf and ... Booked for Sept in Mexico and booked Samana DR for Jan!
Deal Expert
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Aug 22, 2003
15540 posts
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Niagara Falls
Dammit, 42" plasma sold for $4.13 plus $150 in shipping/environmental levy. I wish I wasn't such a chicken *****. :mad:
Thinking seriously about the 4 S's...Sun, Sand, Surf and ... Booked for Sept in Mexico and booked Samana DR for Jan!
Deal Guru
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Apr 23, 2007
10206 posts
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Mississauga
this is a scam
check out paintballbidwars on youtube
same thing
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|Dance.Flirt.Music.Chill|
Sr. Member
Jul 20, 2005
604 posts
45 upvotes
swoopo is the major one that started this business model, you can google "swoopo+scam" and you should find everything you need to know about it.

Here's a good post by someone
yahoo answers wrote: Swoopo is a scam in the sense that it is an online gambling site posing as an auction site.

However, Swoopo is not a scam in the sense that they will steal your money, they have a legitimate (although misleading) model. Just don't be fooled into thinking that the site has anything to do with auctions.

They use terms like bids and auctions when in reality, they are an online gambling site where the game is a bit like a cross between a raffle (lottery) and a game of chicken, the the prize is some item you receive (if you win) at an extreme discount.

Leaving aside all this "auction" talk (who are they kidding?) the game works like this. Each game has a prize, and a clock that counts downward to zero. Think of it like this. Everyone who wants to play the game (or the bidders, if you will) is, in a virtual sense, putting dollar bills in a stack, since each "chance" (or "bid" although that term is misleading) costs $1. (50 pence for the UK Swoopo)

When the clock reaches zero, whoever put the last $1 on the stack wins the item, but each time a dollar is placed on the stack, 15 seconds is added to the clock. It's easy to see this game makes a lot of money for the house, or Swoopo. Each bid is like a raffle ticket. You are paying $1 for the small chance that no one else will put $1 on top of it before time expires. Keep in mind the players, or "bidders," can use an automated bidder called bid butler. When multiple people use these, they can instantly bid back and forth dozens or hundreds of times, adding minutes or hours to the clock. Swoopo tells that this is a "strategy" and sad thing is that people seem to be buying it!

You might be asking, "Why is there a price if this isn't an auction?" The funny part is that for a lot of the "auctions" there is no price! These auctions have fixed prices, (the "100% off" have a fixed price of $0.00), and you can see from these that the price displayed is, more or less, just a counter for how much Swoopo is pocketing! Take for example a high end digital camera with a fixed price of $79 plus $12 for shipping. The "price" on this "auction", which I am looking at now as it is still active, is $828. This number is completely irrelevant unless you are interested in how much Swoopo is making. Since that number increased one "bid" at a time by $0.15 and each of those "bids" costs someone a dollar, that means there have been over 5500 bids! $5500 in Swoopo's pocket and the game is still going! You can see how it is no problem for them to send the lucky winner a $1500 digital camera for less than $100 when they made so much money from the game.

Some of the games are not fixed price, and so the winner of the game wins the item but has to pay $0.15 for each "bid" that was placed. On these games there is, I guess, (and I am being generous here), some semblance of strategy, since each subsequent bid is worth a little less. For example, the first bid on a $300 XBOX 360 is a chance to get a $300 item for $0.15, but the 100th bid is a chance to get a $300 item for $15.00, which is worth a little less. I guess the strategy is to wait until the price is high enough to weed out a lot of players and thereby increase your chances, but PLEASE keep in mind you chances are still SLIM!

In conclusion, I would call Swoopo a scam, but that is just my definition. It is what it is. It preys on human weakness, and lots of them.

1. Desire to get a good deal. (At first glance you are buying something at an incredible price, right???!!!) You can see this is their main hook as all of their ad material is just history of past games showing how some lucky fool snagged a Wii for $20 or an HDTV for $200.

2. Throw good money after bad. (You bought 20 chances, and someone kept jumping in with 5 seconds left! I don't want to have wasted $20, so I'll get $20 more in chances and keep trying!)

3. Gambling is fun. (No real need to elaborate here)
Another link: http://ezinearticles.com/?Swoopo-Scam-R ... id=2034717
Deal Guru
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Apr 23, 2007
10206 posts
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Mississauga
carldufourm wrote: So is it legit or not? Cause it sounds interesting.
no!!!!!!
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|Dance.Flirt.Music.Chill|
Deal Addict
Jan 19, 2007
3526 posts
19 upvotes
Toronto
XxXSnake23XxX wrote: no!!!!!!
That's a pretty good business model...for the company that is. They could potentially make like over 1k on a $250 item even. But it is like a lottery I guess, and you're likely to throw away quite a bit of money on it....
Deal Addict
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Oct 19, 2007
1075 posts
61 upvotes
this isn't a scam in the sense that someone DOES end up getting the prize.
I would say this is just *misleading*.

Oh well, not gonna bother trying my luck on these sites as i consider myself to be a horrible gambler (unlucky > :( )
Newbie
Aug 15, 2009
1 posts
After 2 months bidding on FantasticBids.Ca, I have won several items but have only received a few. It takes at least 3 weeks to get your item after being the winning bidder. The last item I received was a gas powered R/C sports car. When I opened it,it was clear that the car had been banging around inside the box as the plastic fasteners were not attached and lay at the bottom of the box which allowed the car to punch 2 holes in the car's box, :evil: although not through the shipping box. The car itself seems fine but I haven't used it as I will be selling it. I also received a Kodak Zi6 camers that arrived in a bubble envelope that wasn't so "bubbly" anymore and the camera's box had tears on the seams making it hard to sale as new. I haven't
looked at the camera since I want to sell as unopened and just praying it's not damaged, I won an ASUS GPS and was then told by FantasticBids that they couldn't get me one as it's no longer in stock and wanted me to take what they called an upgraded ASUS gps from the one I won. Although it had a bigger screen then the one I won, it didn't have voice command like the one I won and I declined it a few days ago and havn't heard anything from them since. I also expressed my concerns to them that the products I received from them didn't seem to be in the best condition as mentioned. Again I have been met with silence. I'll let you know more about the products I receive as I also won an Ipod Touch, Garmin GPS and Digital SLR Camera and Acer Netbook. All in all I've won more then I've spent,but it will be hard to sell all the stuff and make a profit if things are mailed in poor condition. I've seen a lot of stuff go really cheap but the best I did was the Garmin GPS for $40 in bids and $20 for delivery. Not bad for a $200 GPS if I actually receive it. I'll post again to let you know how the rest arrives and how FantasticBids treats me. For now I've stopped buying bids until FantasticBids emails me a response to my concerns. Just a last word,,,,,I have also entered into bids where I've dropped a couple hundred dollars in bids and came away with nothing. It's gambling........plain and simple and should be regulated.
Banned
Jul 12, 2009
7 posts
Markham
seems like everytime I bid on something - there is always a run on the bid - when I am not looking or not bidding items seem to sell really low....not complaining but you can sure spend some money and come away with nothing. good luck - it sure is enticing!
Member
Jul 20, 2005
322 posts
3 upvotes
Hmmm... I just got scammed when I signed up... says get 10 free bids, only got 5
nvm... get 10 once you win first auction
Newbie
Sep 30, 2009
1 posts
I'm an experienced bidder on fantasticbid.ca and to tell you the truth it felt really good when I win some auctions. I have been playing there for quite some time now and it really takes up your time and money. I also know some people who play on the website and have paid double,triple or quadruple times the price of the item.

I have received the items that I've won but got 4 of my items deleted. WHICH REALLY SUCKS! and the owners don't even try to resolve it.

Also, if you don't pay for the item within 15 days they delete the auctions that you haven't paid for, from the auction win date. They don't even email or notify you about it.

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