THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

An auction or a lottery?

By , 03:46 AM

Have you seen the commercials for http://www.quibids.com where they tell you that you can purchase retail items in an auction format for pennies on the dollar? Yeah, right!

Who is selling these items? Is it peer to peer like ebay? Nope. The site themselves is an online retailer, like amazon.com. So they lose money by selling items for pennies on the dollar? Yea, right!

They simply have a lottery disguised as an auction for each item with lots of vigorish for the house. How much I don’t know. Heck, even if it is small they still make lots of money by selling millions of items at retail prices.

How does it work? Simple. You buy bidding dollars. If you win the item, you get it for pennies on the dollar and you go bragging to your friends how great the site is. If you don’t win the item, you lose your bidding points that you paid for! Only a few bucks, better luck next time. And the site generously offers to let you spend your bidding points on purchasing the item at their retail price plus shipping and handling. If you choose that option you don’t lose anything on the auction.

These things burn me up, as you know. My blood boils just thinking about it…

(12) Comments • 2011/03/23 • News • Personal

Page 1 of 1 pages

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THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

An auction or a lottery?

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