telebid.com

Advantages: Great products at *potentially* great prices
Disadvantages: Lots of money spent and no product won yet

...last decade. Yes, yawn... Telebid.com is yet another auction site you can use on the Interweb to buy stuff cheaply. Only this one works differently. While we all sit around watching eBay auctions and trying to bid in the last five seconds in the hopes that we'll beat somebody to a bargain, Telebid.com simply offers you the bargains by making you pay for bidding. It's quite a simple concept, really: each time you push the 'bid' button, it costs you ...
...worth pointing out here that telebid.com says the price rises by 10p unless it's an International auction, at which point it rises by 7p (the rough conversion in euros from 10 cents) but I have yet to see anything other than an International auction listed.) Confused? I was, too, but I persevered and here is what essentially happens: an item is listed on the website (let's say it's a PlayStation 3, for argument's sake) at the stunningly cheap price ... Read review

Advantages: Potentially huge savings
Disadvantages: Potentially huge losses!

Telebid is actually an extremely clever selling system. It basically consists of a group of people bidding for the chance to buy a product at a heavily discounted rate, either at a low fixed price or at 100% off. Whoever bids last, wins. But after each bid a maximum of 30 seconds is added to the remaining time, allowing another person the chance to bid. So whilst an auction may have 10 seconds remaining, it could actually drag on for another 7 hours. ...
..."bids" or credits, at 50p each. This is why they can sell a £1000 plus tv for nothing but postage and packaging costs. For every £7 that the price bid reaches, they have made £50 in purchased credits. So while the winner may pay nothing, there may have in fact been in excess of £2000 worth of bidding credits used. Now, whilst you may well be lucky enough to win an auction and get that tv for "free" you need to bear in mind the fact that each bidding ... Read review

Advantages: Some merit as an entertainment for those tired of fruit Machines
Disadvantages: Hidden costs, an expensive raffle, time consuming

Please Please, dont be fooled, this is NOT an Auction site. Before you spend a penny using this site just check out the way it works FULLY before you start. The point is that you are charged 50p for each bid you place and as soon as you do the finish time extends until there are no more bidders. Items sell for ridiculously low prices BUT, the final price the seller gets is paid for by the bidders who lose the auction (bids are not refunded). The ...
...and you prepaid account. Another too good to be true site thats exactly that.. It will probably cost you more in time and money than obtaining the goods from Amazon. Get a life , save up , but dont waste your dosh here !!. A few will be lucky and get a Bargain but most wont. ... Read review

This is the same system as tv bidding shows such as "biduptv" where you pay a premium rate to bid (in the tv show a phone call, on telebid you buy Bids), then in an "ebayesque" way your bid rises by pennys. A good example is a Nintendo Wii that went for £71.68. The required bid automatically increments by 7 pence everytime a bid is placed, which means 1,024 bids were placed for the Wii. Each bid is 50 pence, which means the site owners have actually earned £512 on that item. Neat profit for them. As usual if something looks too good to be true it usually is.

Advantages: none
Disadvantages: Will illicit more money from people than they intended to spend

I would urge people to be very wary of this web site. It purports to offer opportunities for bargains but it is in fact a very cynical gambling site. As someone who has studied psychology for a few years the whole operation is designed to elicit as much money from you as possible. It's revenue must be staggering. Most people will end up spending money without obtaining the product they have bidded for. If/when they do succeed I would say the eventual ... Read review