Recently I’ve also noticed a spate of websites that sell items on auction at a stupidly low price, which of course is another con! They run adverts on Google claiming that Mr.X won an Ipad for £14.52… well yes he did, and that’s how much he may pay for it, but the true cost is normally MUCH higher.
These auction sites work by selling bids, normally each bid will cost between 50p and £1, and each time you use a bid, the auction price goes up by 1p! So even though Mr.X won it at £14.52, that is 1,452 x 50p = £726 that has been used in total (but all the players, not just Mr.X, he just happened to be the lucky winner) just to play the game! most of these have bid robots, and LONG play times making it hard to get a true bargain, unless you know when to bid.
Another wrath of bid sites are the Lowest unique bid wins, urg! This is different to the auction style above, but just as bad for your wallet. Everyone buys credits to play, and you can put your lowest bid guess in per auction, however each bid costs X credits. Again this normally tally’s out to around 50p per bid. Your winning chances are pretty much a pure chance thing, there is mostly just luck involved.
To get a true bargain on one of these sites, you need to know what your doing, in my opinion stick with the main auction sites like eBay. Although rule #1 stick to your budget, there will always be another one!
