Penny Auction REVIEWS – Which Penny Auctions are the BEST Bargains?

Apparently Steven M. Mendelsohn a gentleman from Arizona who has no idea how penny auctions work decided to bid on Bidcactus.com. Steven M. Mendelsohn forwent reading any of the disclaimers or rules and decided to jump in and start bidding, Now anyone who has ever bid on any of the sites on the net will tell you more then likely there are plenty of other people looking to get a great deals just as you are and with the world wide web as vast as it is you had best be sure that there will be competition.  Mr  Steven M. Mendelsohn has only one person to blame and its not BidCactus.com its himself, for quite simply getting involved with a company and an auction platform he quite did not understand.  Mr  Steven M. Mendelsohn has now set off to try and capitalize on his supposed loss and enjoin everyone around the country to himself and “sue”  Bidcactus.com.

So either  Mr  Steven M. Mendelsohn is an attorney himself or he plans on shelling out thousands of dollars for an attorney to represent his interest in Bidcactus.com. This situation will unfold in either 1 of 2 ways,

Situation 1,  If  Bidcactus.com did not clearly label and provide a terms of service for the user to sign which is in fact a legal disclaimer then there is the potential for serious legal repercussions on behalf of BidCactus.com.

Situation 2, Bidcactus.com declares bankruptcy and Mr  Steven M. Mendelsohn, will have in fact lost even more money,  either ways Bidcactus’s business platform is about to be tested.

A lawsuit was filed on February 11, 2011 against 6 major penny auction websites- Swoopo.com, OohILove.com, BidCactus.com, Quibids.com, Beezid.com, and BigDeal.com. You can view the lawsuit document here in PDF.

According to the document, these penny auction websites are violating US gambling laws.

“This action alleges that Defendants operate illegal Internet gambling websites, by permitting persons to play games of chance for money and/or make a wager upon the result of a game or contest.”

Also quoted from the lawsuit document-

“Defendants conduct of charging consideration for the chance to win prizes (or something of value), violates all 50 state laws prohibiting unauthorized gambling.”

Currently, both Swoopo.com and OohILove.com (both owned and operated by Entertainment Shopping, INC) have shut down their websites. Although Swoopo claims it’s down due to technical issues. Swoopo also has another class action lawsuit filed against them in California, Hernandez v. Entertainment Shopping, Inc. The California lawsuit was filed March 21, 2011.

What do you think? Should penny auctions be considered illegal gambling?

BidCactus.com finally opened its doors to Canadian bidders, and as a way of marking the milestone, the penny auction site is auctioning off a very special item that’s sure to tickle Canadians and hockey fans in general.

Up for grabs is a an authentic hockey puck hand signed by Wayne Gretzky himself, a collector’s item any sports fan would love to get his, or her, hands on.

Here’s a description of the item from BidCactus.com:

Own a piece of hockey greatness with this authentic Oilers puck hand-signed by Wayne Gretzky! Presented by Steiner Sports, leading providers of sports memorabilia, the puck comes enclosed in a glass display case and includes a Wayne Gretzky Authentic Hologram. Valued at $399.99.

Aside from the special edition hockey puck, the auction also includes 99 free bids. Why 99 and not 100 bids? If you’re a fan of the sport, then you’ll surely know the number’s significance.

BidCactus normally auctions off gift cards and the occasional consumer product, so for a novelty item like this signed hockey puck to be available on the site is a fresh change. However, bidders still have to deal with the site’s steep shipping rates. A single gift card ships for $5, so if you were to win 8 cards, you’d have to pay a total of $40.

Website: BidCactus

PAI Member Rating:

(13 votes, average: 3.08 out of 5)
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Bidcactus has carved out a niche for itself in the Penny Auction Arena as the leader in auctioning off gift cards for use at a wide variety of retailers around the country, it seems as though if your in the market to get a gift card at a great price bidcactus could be the site to get it, bidcactus also offers a european style auction platform which gives bidders plenty of time to bid on there items, There traffic chart seems to suggest, that bidders from time to time should be able to procure good deals on the days with the lowest traffic. Members/Users of BidCactus feel free to comment on our traffic theory on Bidcactus.

Update 4/16/10:

Unlike other online penny auction sites, bidcactus specializes in auctioning off gift cards that can be used with a wide variety of retail outlets in the country. Available on the site are gift cards from Home Depot, Macy’s, Applebee’s, Kohl’s, Target, and many more. If you’re looking for a way to do some bargain shopping at these establishments, bidcactus just might be for you.

Like most online penny auctions, bidcactus only auctions off brand new items. While retailer gift checks seem to be their specialty, the site also has other items up for grabs, such as home & kitchen appliances, mobile phones, laptop computers, HDTVs and many more. Bids on the site are priced at $0.75 each, $0.25 less than the bids on most penny auctions. Bidpacks are “sold” at 25, 50, 10, 250, and 500 in number.

Bidcactus’ rules stipulate that a bidder can only win a maximum of 3 items per month. We did some sniffing around and found that some bidders with the same usernames won more than 3 items. This issue has led some bidders to accuse bidcactus of using bots to raise the bidding price of some of their items. Shipping is also an issue with the site, as one bidder found out the hard way. Shipping for each of bidcactus’ auctioned gift cards costs $5. With this certain bidder winning a total of 8 gift cards, the site shipped them all in one envelope and charged $40, essentially keeping the $35 for themselves.

As with most online penny auctions, a lot of people have complained about spending hundreds of dollars just to bid on certain items and not win anything. This is understandable, since bidders sometimes come with the mindset of bidding non-stop in order to win. More often than not, you’ll only waste money that way.