BidCactus

Wow! I wish I had read these reviews before losing my $18.75. Penny auctions sound like such a great deal, but when you add up the 0.75 plus the penny you will pay each time you hit bid you're not getting a good deal. Plus every time you bid more time is added to the auction time. After sitting for quite some time and watching auctions that I thought would be ending I went through all my bids and have nothing to show for it but my own stupidity. I bought into this hook, line, and sinker. I hope this review can help save someone from the same mistake. Stick with ebay. At least those auctions end when they say they will, and you actually stand a chance of winning something at a decent price!

The marketing you can see below... $2 to buy a $50 card. Not true however. It's a penny auction so the value the card sells for in now way represents the cost to the winner. Each bid they place on the auction actually costs them approximately $. 70. Additionally, the site makes money off everyone who bids on an item whether they win or not, since you have to pay for your bids up front. Even more sinister are the auctions they hold to get more bids. Clever Yes - Good value? Absolutely not.

HI! WOW! SO I am not the only one. Started on Bidcactus two days ago and have also done a lot of observing in the last few days. It appears to me that there are 4 or 5 people that are "winning" most of all of the items... many times spending a lot more than the items are actually worth. I waited till about 3 in the morning and started trying to bid on a $50 gift card that was sitting at a penny till a few seconds left. The high bidder then started bidding in return as soon as I placed a bid... sometimes reacting faster to my bids than seems possible. I am definitely going to try and get my money back as I believe this is a SCAM! A a few of you mentioned that they have a policy of not being able to win but one in 24 hours. Is this true? I ask because again I noticed that those 4 or 5 people that were winning most of the auctions had several wins within HOURS!

It's a scam! Stay away! I just tried three different auctions and all three times the same thing happened! Each time there was one bidder who would instantly re-bid as soon as a new bid was submitted instead of waiting for the clock to get close to the end, which is the obvious way to go! Once they have gotten a few hundred bids or so the auction ends early and that person won each time! This happened on all three items I bid on! It was a complete waste of $75! Just stay away and save your money! They obviously have either people or programs bidding at the same time as you, and once they've gotten enough money they win their own auction!

This site is good for only one thing, and that is to make this company a ton of money. I have been watching it for more than an hour on a $100 gift card. There were more than 1200 bids ( each bid raises the price a penny), but the bids cost the bidders 75 cents per bid. So the company has already made $900 on a $100 gift card, and the auction is still going on. One "bidder", probably a bot or a company shill, has placed more than 90 of the bids at 75 cents each for this 100 buck item, and I have seen the same screen name of this bidder place dozens of bids on other items to drive up the price. In my opinion, this is a scam to be avoided. You will lose a ton of money.

I lost a bidding war against a guy or someone or something who bid about 300 bucks worth of bid on a $100 gift card. I purchased the gift card with there buy it option over 40 days ago and I haven't got it yet. There customer service is mean evil and careless. I told them I could use it before Thanksgiving but they keep screwing with me and telling me they would send me a tracking number shortly. Well, shortly has been 2 weeks and they still haven't mailed it out yet. Now, they say they may send it out sometime next week but won't tell me when.

I also went to the bidcactus site through a survey company and I bought the small bidpack just to try it out. It didn't take long to notice that there were a few names which ALWAYS bid more for an item than the item was worth

One bidder in particular placed bids on 3 different $50 gift cards, bidding over $100 worth of bids on each card. The bidder did not win any of the cards. I can not believe that anyone would be that stupid to sit and keep bidding those amounts without winning.

I watched for a 2 hour period... came back after a couple hours and that same bidder was still going!
I suggest emailing your senator and representative suggesting these sites be investigated. I am sure in the present economy that some politician would love to be a hero by shutting these con artists down.

This is complete bull$#*! look at this the bidding history shows one of there bots bid over 1000 times when it's $0.75 q bid this guy must be crazy dont waste your money after some time I noticed the same people were almost bidding and always winning although they make it really easy to win bid packages which you have to pay like $5 for a $0.2 bid package you won wasted $5 on this $#*! and it's been a week since the $#*!ed coupon I won wasn't shown up...

An update to my experience with Bidcactus.com... On 12/30/2009 I did receive my netbook that I won for $24.00 which included shipping. Seemed like a steal since the netbook retails for $329.95. But in order to win it, I bought bid packages worth $281.25 // Total amount paid $304.65// I definitely swear off this site. When something seems too good to be true, it normally is. The site definitely made back on the item I won with only my bids, so image the fortune the owners are making off individuals who don't win. I may have been lucky this rounds and I am not testing my luck again. My advice - 'if you must bid, bid with extreme caution.'

Absolutely a bunch of crooks. Never receiving items. It says it takes 15 days to get to you and it's been over two months and still nothing and they don't know when they will get it. I have over 50 items to be shipped and they don't have one single item to me and have no idea when it will be yet they are still offering the same items of for auction right now. I have a Facebook page called bidcactus victims. Please visit so we can talk to each other about whether anybody is receiving items. I asked on their Facebook if anybody has received their items and they erased my comments. I did it two more times and they blocked me. They don't want us talking. Remember "bidcactus victims" on Facebook.

So a lot of people out there are bashing this site. But honestly you can't play with assuming some of the risk. I have been watching the site for over a month before i finally bought into a 'Bid' pack... with 20 bids i managed to win almost $300 worth of merchandise.

You have to learn what you can get, you can't bid on things you don't need or want, and DONT spend your bids on the auctions for other bids... thats just stupid!

Pay attention to their busy times... and don't play! If there are multiple people bidding on one item, don't waste your time, come back tomorrow.

I got a digital camera and leatherman multitool for work. Total cost to me with shipping has been less than $60

I will continue to use this site when i feel it is worth the item up for bids.

This is the classic fraud. The site posts an audit that is over a year old stating that the auditor is relying upon management assertions. Management merely collects 75 cents every time that someone bids and then thy systematically outbid you using "bots". The BBB logo on the is also a gross misrepresentation. It means that they paid their dues. It doesn't say that they have had 39 complaints filed against them. The site undoubtedly ill be shut down sooner than later.

First of all, buyer beware! If your not ready to possibly lose some money, then it is not for you. There are always going to be big bidders out there, so you may as well avoid those auctions. If you only have about 50 bids, bid on the lower auctions such as $25 and under giftcards and 25 bids or less. This should increase your chances of winning. Next, take advantage of Bidback mondays and wednesdays! There are 12 net bids to be gained there. All in all, this is a pretty good site, just be smart and don't get discouraged!