BidCactus

Everytime I logged in to BidCactus they had just a few auctions. Eventually they closed their doors and another penny auction site is honoring bids. Right now we have 3 bid players in the industry... HappyBidDay, Quibids and Beezid. They have all been around for over 4 years.

While bidcactus seems legit, I have been bidding on it for over 2 years now, and have seen it go from legit to a scam site. I won relatvely regularly at first, then less often, to now not at all. Prizes end up costing way more then they are worth and I am convinced they have gone to house bidders driving up the price! Don't waste your time or money, trust me I've followed this site a long time, you will lose your money!

I won a Toshiba 46" LCD HDTV

It took me exactly 360 bids.

I spent $150.00 to buy bids, then I bid on 'Bidpacks'. I studied the site for about a week after, then I seen what I wanted and kept bidding until I won.

Very coincidental that I had exactly 360 bids, and it took me exactly what I had to win.
All together I spent $260.00
There is absolutely no way that you will win anything with less then 75 bids. I guess they sell them in such a small quantities for users who need to top up their accounts.

I had a problem with shipping though. They didn't have my phone number to schedule delivery, but when I called they fixed the problem right away even though it was my fault.

It's not a scam though it's not an auction site either.

It's a game of chicken. A total gamble.

What they don't tell is that every time you bid the auction is extended for 10 more seconds. They also don't tell you that the bidding history only shows the last ten bids so that you think the bidders had an easy and cheap win. They should be up

Lots of nice items, though have not won anything yet. Do feel they have bots and don't feel that's fair.

I started bidding at the end of December and if I had read these reviews probably never would have.

I am NOT an employee but I have had some luck with the site. You have to be careful that you don't get caught up in a war with someone and starting getting crazy.

I bought a 25 bid pack and won $100 visa and then a $100 Best Buy card. I have only won a few items since then but I did get the items the other day (two + weeks later) so it wasn't a scam like I thought it might be.

Don't waste bids buying bid packs and spending more than you win! People seem to get crazy on these kinds of sites so if you see it happening stop bidding on that item. Good luck.

Beware many people rate this a scam site:
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http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.bidcactus.com
(100 mostly bad reviews)
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http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/bidcactus.com
( lots of reviews rated a 1)
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http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/msgpage/bidcactus.com
(more bad reviews)

I agree that you need to have reasonable expectations for the site; Bidcactus suggests watching for a while before you try bidding, and in fairness, every learning curve involves mistakes, which as my uncle always said "cost time, pain, money, or some combination of the three." I am going to watch again to see if a "shadow entity" is really bidding "500 times" on a $50 gift card, but I don't see why an auction site would risk losing credibility when it is going to make money legitimately. Aside from that possibility, I see potential to win a few things that are worth the cash. If I were to make one criticism, though, it would be "why do we have to pay. 75 to bid? Couldn't it be. 10 for penny auctions, and maybe. 20 or. 25 for the. 10 auctions...? And is Bidcactus a CITI company? I get a CITI(bank) favicon in my address bar when I'm there. Who can tell me this?

Hey, guys! Do NOT waste your money on any of these auction sites which don't have the Buy-It-Now option. This options allows a bidder to purchase the product they had bid on for the RETAIL PRICE stated on the auction MINUS the $$ spent on your bids! Bid Cactus does NOT offer that so only ONE bidder can leave without feeling scammed! Neither does Bidfire.com... Two that DO are Bidazzled (which also raises money for a charity, so the bids cost more) and Quibids.com

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.'

My experience on Bidcactus was basically consistent with the majority on here, but I'm not convinced that there are Bid Bots. Clearly it is gambling and clearly there are a handful of users (screen names) that win the majority of items. Yes they sometimes do pay outragious over-bids (bidding 240 times at $. 75 each time to win 100 bids back essentially paying $180 to win back $75). The question is, are there a handful of "PRO's" who drive up the price to intimidate others and reduce competition of future auction bids or is the site creating BidBots to defraud consumers. I did win some smaller auctions but ultimately flushed about $150 down the toilet (the majority of which was prior to spending several hours observing the action). I participated in appx. 10 different auctions and observed close to 100. I'd say about 10% of the auctions are driven to 2x and even 3x the actual value of the item however about 70% of the time, the winner of the auction appears to save about 50-60% from retail. I watched someone (presumably a real person) win an Apple Ipad today for $6.81 (which equals 681 bids of which no more than half could have been placed by the winner - conservatively 340 bids for a grand total of $261.81). In conclusion, if your willing to take a chance, do your homework! Observe the action, find out where the site is based out of, continue reading reviews, but keep an open mind.

As with all new services, educating consumers and arming them with appropriate expectations is key. Much of the criticism penny auctions receive stems from the fact that few people win and everyone expects to get a great deal without much effort. Noone can fault the auction sites for channeling these human needs. It's called business. It is up to consumers to educate themselves by doing their homework, such as checking out review sites like http://www.pennyauctionguide.com. It's just like everything in life: luck favors the prepared.