Pellau Magazine

Few things match the thrill of getting an incredible deal on an item we really crave. It’s a basic human response that we all can relate to.

That’s why auctions are so much fun – they present the titillating chance of scoring something for a lot less than we would expect. And that leaves us feeling great, because we now have the object of our desire and we have money left in our pocket.

Marketers know this and exploit it all the time –hence the profusion of sales, discounts, coupons, and the like… so much so, in fact, that we become numb to the tactic. People just don’t believe they’re really getting a bargain.

But now there’s a new online company that has actually figured out a way to sell new must-have consumer products for jaw-dropping prices.

It’s called Quibids – and it turns out that they are selling everything from the latest new Apple iPads and iPods, to MAC and PC notebooks, to HDTV’s and gift cards from the top retailers at prices as low as 5% of regular retail prices.

Now, of course, anyone in their right mind would be skeptical of such a claim – so we looked into it to learn just how they do it.

It turns out that both the prices and the products are real. Quibids runs a unique version of the traditional auction - when you bid on an item you actually get charged a small fee of about 60 cents. Collectively, the amount collected for all of the bids on an item allows the company to sell the item at a price far below actual retail and even below the wholesale price they paid the manufacturer for it.

Figuring out how many bids to place and when to place them involves a little strategy but on QuiBidsit’s actually a lot of fun. Each auction has a strict time limit and when you place your bid, the system adds a little time to the auction to see if any other bids come in. If you have the winning bid when the clock runs out – you win the item for that price. According to QuiBids CEO Matt Beckham, “Thousands of people are trying QuiBids every day – and then coming back again and again - so we must be doing something right.”

For the auction winner, the true cost of the item is slightly higher than their winning bid price because they have also spent a little for their bids, but this amount is usually modest, and the savings still work out to be spectacular in most cases.

And then there’s the “Buy Now” feature. This allows bidders who did not win an auction to still buy the product they want and apply the cost of the bids they placed as a discount on the regular product price. So, you still get the item and the bids you placed previously in the auction don’t cost you anything.

So, if you want real deals - like a new iPad for under $34, a new Nikon Digital SLR Camera for less than $24 or a new 46” LED HDTV for under $25 – check out the action at QuiBids.