jamil m.

It's important to know that proxibid doesn't actually sell anything. Proxibid is simply a platform for auctions and payment processing. It's the individual auctioneers who sell and describe items, set the shipping prices, and set the buyer's premium.

I buy and sell antiques, so auctions are a big part of my life. I like live auctions, but I also like online timed auctions, too. As a platform, proxibid is great. It's easy to search for specific items, specific auctioneers, regions, dates, etc. It's also easy to watch specific items.

What I don't like about proxibid is their auctioneer's policy. Auctioneers are allowed to charge whatever they want for a buyer's premium and the standard has now become 20%-25% which is just absurd.

That's bad, but that's not the worst thing about proxibid. The worst thing is auctioneers are allowed to run up your bids. So long as the auctioneer discloses it in the terms and conditions, the seller is allowed to anonymously bid on anything. Because names of bidders are anonymized, this comes very close to being considered "shill bidding" which is illegal.

Proxibid takes 10% from the seller's end, so the higher the hammer price, the more money the site makes. For that reason, proxibid has no incentive to change anything.

I still use proxibid because it's easy and convenient, but I only participate in auctions within my locale and ones with a low buyer's premium. There's no way to know if it's an auctioneers running you up or it's just a popular auction, so I only visit the auctions I know are reputable.

There are a number of red flags with hubzu and I strongly suggest reading all the reviews and see what patterns emerge.

First, hubzu astroturfs reviews. Look at the posting dates of the reviews, bad ones will be at somewhat regular intervals of a few days to a couple of weeks apart. Good reviews get dumped all at once, they're all one sentence long, and they all sound identical - even down to the obvious "English as a second language" mistakes. Reputable companies don't Astroturf review sites.

Second, hubzu turns a blind eye to shill bidding. Although hubzu's terms and conditions prohibit shill bidding to run up a price, it's obvious from some of these reviews that shill bidding is rampant on hubzu. When a reserve price has already been met and a bidder repeatedly outbids their own previous high bid, that is textbook shill bidding. It's illegal, but hard to prove. Since hubzu charges a buyer's premium, there is a disincentive for hubzu to weed out shill bidding.

Third, hubzu fees are exorbitant. In addition to the 5% buyer's premium there is also a $1000 "technology fee" on top of the $1000 bid fee. All of those fees are on top of standard real estate costs like title searches, closing costs, etc. In the end, buying property on hubzu is likely to cost 10-20% above the hammer price.

Fourth, hubzu has a communication problem. Buyer's and sellers do not communicate directly, they must use hubzu as an intermediary. The problem with that is hubzu is based in Bangalore, India and their customer support staff barely speaks English. When dealing with legal matters, it is vital to be properly understood. Hubzu falls woefully short in this area.

Here's a direct quote from one of hubzu's planted reviews, "easy to use very helpful with getting code and also give phone number to contact and 24/7 service good". Be honest, are those the polished communication skills you want relaying your thoughts and concerns in a real estate transaction worth hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Like I said, lots of red flags. Hubzu isn't reputable, transparent, or cost effective. And while it's not an out and out scam, there's a lot of sliminess about hubzu.

Paid for the 48 hour review. Received the valuation within 48 hours, but it was worthless. The "appraiser" got almost everything wrong.

He described the chair as "bobbin turned" when in fact it's "barley twist". Bobbin turning is an English style from the 18th century that looks like stacked knobs or spools. It can easily be replicated on a lathe. Barley twist is completely different in that it's twisted rather than stacked. It cannot be easily replicated on a lathe.

Even though my description to the appraiser identified it as barley twist, and it was clearly evident in the photos, he referred to it as bobbin turned several times *sigh*

The appraiser misidentified the age of the style - he called it a copy of a 17th century chair. It is not. It is an 18th century design.

He said the wood was most likely lime or walnut. While the wood may be carved walnut, it is most certainly not lime. Lime wood has never been an acceptable wood for furniture making and certainly not in Europe where lime trees don't grow.

He never identified the style

In short, the appraisal was riddled with amateurish errors, there was no history, and there was no explanation of why the appraiser thought it was a copy.

Complete waste of time and money. I was looking for a reasonably priced informed opinion. It was reasonably priced, but it wasn't informed. Overall, valuemystuff is valueless.