Brian .Dawson (.
Madbid gets a lot of stick on here for …
01/05/18 An update to this review! I have downgraded the review from 4 to 1 star, this is due to the complete lack of any decent Buy it Now offers on the site, this basically means you are throwing your money in the bin, its gambling and you wont win! Put it on a horse........ I contacted Madbid for comment and they sent a standard garbage reply, that they were attempting to find stock..... really! The original review is below........ Madbid gets a lot of stick on here for not very good reasons, mostly from people who don't understand how it works, or who think its a scam because, well they think anything on the internet is a scam..... So here is my honest review of Madbid, the good and the bad. I have been using the site since 2011, and it works on a normal penny auction format, i.e you buy bids or credits to use in auctions and each bid you or another player places raises the price of the auction by 1p, it also resets the timer to a given period say 30 seconds in which any other player can place another bid to out bid you. Eventually there will be one bidder left and the auction will end at whatever price the last bid falls at. The site make there money from the sale of credits to place bids, each bid costs up to 15 credits for the most expensive items, so that's about 18.75p per bid if the bidder has used one of the regular offers to buy his/her credits. Madbid is a popular site, its often very busy, and items can be bid into the hundreds of pounds, hence they can make good profits from the sale of items like iphones, Laptops and tablets, etc. On the other hand they can end up giving items away for pennys when no one bids, and it does happen, just not very often. Now if your new to the site and go on with say a £50 credit package, bought on a good credit offer this will give you 4000 credits (credit offers are normally buy one get between 3 and 7 free, hence buy 500 for £50 get up to 3500 free) these are displayed in that days notifications, so be sure to check them before you buy. If your plan is to bid on all the most expensive items one after the other, until you win them all, then great, but you won't. What you will do is watch your £50 very quickly vanish. The way to win is to pick an item, be realistic as to its value and how many credits you have, and then watch the item, look for quiet periods in the bidding, and then hope to hit it right, that means setting an auto bid at the right time, and hopping the other bidders run out of credits before you do. Its a game of wits and nerve, everybody wants to win an ipad for 10p, but that very rarely happens, but you can get one for £60 if your willing to put in the time to learn the site and your opponents methods. Prizes on the site range from Cars, Laptops and Iphones down to very cheap and nasty electronics made by companies you most likely have never heard of, if you win one of these things just be aware that there pretty much worthless poop! You also have to be very aware of the RRP prices that are displayed on the site, as some of them are very unrealistic and years out of date, its best to double check values on the likes of Amazon, so you know what the item your bidding on is actually worth. If you lose which you often do, you don't lose your money, it is returned to you in "Earned Discount" this is basically money to spend on BUY it NOW offers, or to spend on items in the shop. Madbid used to offer things like ipads and phones in the shop at good prices, but recently its been a selection of the cheaper stuff and bid packs. I would hope that this might change at some point in the future, that said there are some good items on BUY it NOW offers available if your quick to spot them, but bare in mind they won't be at high street prices, or even near them, but will allow you to use your Earned Discount on something you want. It has to be added that the BUY it NOW selection as of today 23/11/2017 is awful! Without a buy it now option you are basically gambling your money when you use the site, come on MADBID SORT IT OUT!!!!!! Delivery of items is very good and normally within a couple of days. Whats not so good is the cost of delivery which is between £4.99 for tiny items like an SD card, up to £12.99 for large items, or anything called a bundle! You accept that if you want to use the site. So there you have it, I would recommend them to anyone who likes a bargain, and a flutter at the same time! It is not a scam in any way, is it gambling? Yes but only in that you might not get the item you want, you will get something for your cash. I have done very well out of Madbid, and have had some unbelievable bargains but I have had the time to learn the game and know the bidders, if you can do that, then really a £60 iphone is not impossible after all.