Beezid

Last updated
Beezid
Company typePrivate
IndustryE-Commerce
FoundedJune 6, 2008 (2008-06-06)
FounderMax Bohbot
DefunctOctober 11, 2016 (2016-10-11)
Headquarters,
Area served
United States, Canada
ProductsOnline Bidding Fee Auction with "Buy It Now" option & Store
Number of employees
50

Beezid was a Canadian online retailer and penny auction website located in Montreal, Quebec.

Contents

History

Beezid CEO Max Bohbot had previously worked on developing other E-commerce websites, and decided on the bidding fee auction model after observing its success in the European market. Following nearly a year and a half of development, Beezid launched in October 2009. [1] The company's name is a play on the word "bid," using a form of slang similar to izzle-speak. [1]

On September 30, 2016 Beezid auction site was placed on standby. [2] Beezid confirmed the site is no longer functional on October 11, 2016 on their Facebook page. [3]

Auctions

Beezid's auctions require the purchase of bids to participate. Members purchase bids in "Bid Packs," with the cost per bid ranging from $0.00125 - $0.90. [4] [5] Bid packs can be purchased in sizes ranging from 30 to 16,000,000 bids at a cost of $27 to $20,000. [6]

Auctions open with several hours on the timer; each bid placed raises the auction price by a penny, and, in the final seconds, additionally resets the timer to a low value, to allow other members to bid. [5] Placing a bid uses up a bid from the pool that a user had purchased, meaning that the cost of placing a bid is relative to the per bid price of the bid pack that you purchased. [7] When the timer reaches 0, the auction closes and the last member to place a bid wins the item. [8] Since there can only be one winner for each auction, participants can end up losing money while bidding without winning an item. [9]

In October 2012, Beezid added a "Buy It Now" function to their auctions where, should a participant not win an auction, they can choose to pay the retail price for the item and have the bids that they used in the auction returned. [10]

Store

In November 2013, the Beezid Store opened as a retail extension of the penny auction site, offering the same merchandise found in their auctions that could be purchased directly rather than having to be won in a bidding fee auction. [11] The Beezid Store additionally allowed the members to sell their auction wins from Beezid directly. Upon winning an item, a user could choose to sell the item instead of claiming it, and other website visitors could then purchase the items in the store. [12]

Critical reception

Beezid had drawn criticism of its business model for requiring the purchase of bids to participate, and for not disclosing the cost of bidding in their advertisements. [5] Only one person could win any given auction, while the website profited from the bids spent by all the losing participants. Even the winner paid the cost in bids needed to win an item over and above the closing auction price. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auction</span> Process of offering goods or services up for bids

An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition exist and are described in the section about different types. The branch of economic theory dealing with auction types and participants' behavior in auctions is called auction theory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dutch auction</span> Type of auction which begins with a high asking price, and lowers it

A Dutch auction is one of several similar types of auctions for buying or selling goods. Most commonly, it means an auction in which the auctioneer begins with a high asking price in the case of selling, and lowers it until some participant accepts the price, or it reaches a predetermined reserve price. This type of price auction is most commonly used for goods that are required to be sold quickly such as flowers, fresh produce, or tobacco. A Dutch auction has also been called a clock auction or open-outcry descending-price auction. This type of auction shows the advantage of speed since a sale never requires more than one bid. It is strategically similar to a first-price sealed-bid auction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online auction</span> Auction held over the internet

An online auction is an auction held over the internet and accessed by internet connected devices. Similar to in-person auctions, online auctions come in a variety of types, with different bidding and selling rules.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English auction</span> Type of dynamic auction

An English auction is an open-outcry ascending dynamic auction. It proceeds as follows.

Shop at Bid was a British television shopping channel that ran daily auctions and later fixed price demonstrations. It was the world's first channel of its kind. It launched as Bid-Up.tv. The channel was owned by Bid Shopping.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bid rigging</span> Form of procurement fraud

Bid rigging is a fraudulent scheme in a procurement action which enables companies to submit non-competitive bids. It can be performed by corrupt officials, by firms in an orchestrated act of collusion, or by officials and firms acting together. This form of collusion is illegal in most countries. It is a form of price fixing and market allocation, often practiced where contracts are determined by a call for bids, for example in the case of government construction contracts. The typical objective of bid rigging is to enable the "winning" party to obtain contracts at uncompetitive prices. The other parties are compensated in various ways, for example, by cash payments, or by being designated to be the "winning" bidder on other contracts, or by an arrangement where some parts of the successful bidder's contract will be subcontracted to them. In this way, they "share the spoils" among themselves. Bid rigging almost always results in economic harm to the agency which is seeking the bids, and to the public, who ultimately bear the costs as taxpayers or consumers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bidding fee auction</span>

A bidding fee auction, also called a penny auction, is a type of all-pay auction in which all participants must pay a non-refundable fee to place each small incremental bid. The auction is extended each time a new bid is placed, typically by 10 to 20 seconds. Once time expires without a new bid being placed, the last bidder wins the auction and pays the amount of that bid. The auctioneer profits from both the fees charged to place bids and the payment for the winning bid; these combined revenues frequently total more than the value of the item being sold. Empirical evidence suggests that revenues from these auctions exceeds theoretical predictions for rational agents. This has been credited to the sunk cost fallacy. Such auctions are typically held over the Internet, rather than in person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auction sniping</span> Bidding at the last moment as an auction strategy

Auction sniping is the practice, in a timed online auction, of placing a bid likely to exceed the current highest bid as late as possible—usually seconds before the end of the auction—giving other bidders no time to outbid the sniper. This can be done either manually or by software on the bidder's computer, or by an online sniping service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Auction theory</span> Branch of applied economics regarding the behavior of bidders in auctions

Auction theory is a branch of applied economics that deals with how bidders act in auctions and researches how the features of auctions incentivise predictable outcomes. Auction theory is a tool used to inform the design of real-world auctions. Sellers use auction theory to raise higher revenues while allowing buyers to procure at a lower cost. The confluence of the price between the buyer and seller is an economic equilibrium. Auction theorists design rules for auctions to address issues that can lead to market failure. The design of these rulesets encourages optimal bidding strategies in a variety of informational settings. The 2020 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson "for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bidding</span> Method of competitive price determination used in auctions, stock exchanges, etc.

Bidding is an offer to set a price tag by an individual or business for a product or service or a demand that something be done. Bidding is used to determine the cost or value of something.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Online travel auction</span>

The term online travel auction is a system of buying and selling travel products and services online by offering them up for auction and then awarding the item to the highest bidder. The need for travel auctions emanated principally due to the high cost of travel. This high cost is also what led to the growth in popularity of low-cost carriers, a concept initially pioneered by Southwest Airlines, and later mimicked by Ryanair.

In economics and finance, the price discovery process is the process of determining the price of an asset in the marketplace through the interactions of buyers and sellers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swoopo</span> Auction website

Swoopo was a bidding fee auction site where purchased credits were used to make bids. Prior to changing its name to Swoopo in 2008, the website was called Telebid. In March 2011, Swoopo's website became inaccessible, and a notice page claimed that Swoopo was experiencing "technical issues." In February 2012, DealDash obtained the domain name for Swoopo.com. The penny auction was invented by Lloyd Liske and William Buckell when the site was first created and known as telebid.com. At that time the site received bids by phone and charged to transfer their bids to the internet site. This is where the format of paying to place a bid started.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reverse auction</span> Auction with one buyer and many potential sellers

A reverse auction is a type of auction in which the traditional roles of buyer and seller are reversed. Thus, there is one buyer and many potential sellers. In an ordinary auction also known as a forward auction, buyers compete to obtain goods or services by offering increasingly higher prices. In contrast, in a reverse auction, the sellers compete to obtain business from the buyer and prices will typically decrease as the sellers underbid each other.

DealDash is a bidding fee auction website. It was founded in 2009, and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calor licitantis</span> Irrational over-bidding in an auction

Calor licitantis is a Latin phrase, the literal translation of which is, "heat of soliciting." The functional use of the phrase in both modern times and antiquity is "bidder's heat". This is also known as "auction fever".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MadBid</span>

MadBid was a Gamified eCommerce and online auction website registered under Marcandi Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 2008 by Juha Koski, Madhur Srivastava and Daniel Rovira. The company operates in ten European countries including the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, and Australia. However, in August 2018, Madbid closed down and ended all sales.

QuiBids.com is an American online retailer headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It is a retail website that operates as a bidding fee auction, also known as a penny auction. The company has been sued under allegations that it is a form of illegal gambling and that its advertising is misleading. It advertises the price products are auctioned at in QuiBids cash and compares them to US dollars without disclosing the different currencies being used. It is estimated that their auction website went offline after the beginning of October, 2023

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ebidding</span>

An ‘‘‘electronic bidding system ‘‘‘ is an electronic bidding event according to defined negotiation rules (eAgreement). A buyer and two or more suppliers take part in this online event.

<i>Madden NFL Mobile</i> 2014 mobile video game

Madden NFL Mobile is an American football mobile sports game based on the National Football League, developed and published by EA Sports. An entry in the Madden NFL series, the game was released for Android and iOS devices on August 26, 2014.

References

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  2. generator, metatags. "BEEZID ON STANDBY HOLY CRAP". pennyauctionsforum.com. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  3. "Beezid - Dear Beeziders, We realize that by now you must... | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-01-21.
  4. Ellis, Blake (June 24, 2011). "House-bound Lindsay backs Lohan Penny Auction Site". CNN Money. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 Steele, Chandra. "Can You Really Buy An iPad for $1.00?". PCMag.com. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  6. Worley, Becky (19 September 2012). "Hidden Dangers of Penny Auctions". Yahoo News. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  7. Worley, Becky (19 September 2012). "Hidden Danders of Penny Auctions". Yahoo News. Retrieved 19 June 2015.
  8. Zimmerman, Ann (17 August 2011). "Penny Auctions Draw Bidders With Bargains, Suspense". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  9. "Penny Auction Sites Could Cost a Chunk of Change". Fox News. Associated Press. 27 March 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  10. PR Log http://www.prlog.org/11989294-buy-it-now-added-to-beezidcoms-massive-repertoire-of-features-most-in-its-industry.html . Retrieved 28 May 2015.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. "Beezid Revolutionizes Online Shopping With New Store". prnewswire.com/ (Press release). Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  12. Lee, Amanda (November 2013). "Beezid is No Longer JUST a Penny Auction". Penny Auction Watch. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  13. Grant, Kelli B. "The Truth About a $3 iPad". Market Watch. Retrieved 13 April 2015.