Bidpigs

I went to this site because of a few good reviews here on site jabber. I'm not at all thrilled with Bid Pigs. First of all, you have to pay just to bid. I purchased one of their discounted bid packages for $30.00 which gave me 50 bids. Each bid cost me $0.60. I decided to bid on something and had to continually bid because someone had automatic bids on this item. I ended up spending over $15.00 in bids, not counting what I would have had to pay for shipping of the item, to receive a $25.00 retail item I could have purchased locally without shipping and I STILL hadn't won the bid. I calclulated the odds of me winning this item for just a bit less than retail and it just wasn't worth the stress of continual bidding. Since I had already wasted $15.00 or more on bids and having nothing to show for it, I ended up using the "Buy Now" feature for the item. I didn't lose my $15.00 but, between what I paid for the item and its shipping cost, I ended up paying more than the item was actually selling for at my local stores. Calculating this, I paid almost $28.00 for an item that retails for $25.00. I was a few dollars in the hole instead of $15.00 in the hole and nothing to show for it. I am not sure if this is the intention of the site owners. Also, I'm a little suspicious of the 'bidders' who are bidding so highly on things. The purpose of a penny auction is to buy things for pennies on the dollar. It doesn't seem to be working out that way for most. Also, there are so few auctions, maybe 3 a day. Some of the items are good but others are meh. I don't think this site will last too long. I MUCH prefer ebay. I can bid there and if I don't win anything I don't have to pay anything. I can get a much better value over there.