BigDeal

Bigdeal... IS LEGALIZED GAMBLING IN AN AUCTION FORMAT... uses a LOTTERY business model

EXAMPLE: An IPAD WINNING AUCTION PRICE OF $ 109.38 FOR THE WINNER.

1) thats 10,938 bids at $. 75 a bid. BIGDEAL just sold an $899 item for... $ 8,203.50. This is the rule not the exception

2) 25 bids were made by the winner so add $18.75 to $109.38 for $128.13 winning price of $111.08 or 86% off retail.

3) for every winner there are hundreds if not more losers. (those that made the other 10,913 bids)

4) Sure, the winner got a great deal, but everybody else loses and needs to realize they are gambling with their bids. Just like in Las Vegas the odds always in the HOUSES favor.

3) So if you understand that BIGDEAL is really a casino and you are the gambler, then you understand what you are up against. And everyone knows, ONLY GAMBLE WHAT YOU ARE PREPARED TO LOSE.

4) So if you like to gamble then this site is for you. If not, then stay away because you will fall into a downward spiral spending good money after bad.

Please do not get carried away by the winning bidders.

I bought 30 bids, watched and attempted bidding on some items that I might consider buying. After a while, I realized that it's next to impossible to get those "as advertised" great deals.

In addition, this site is purely taking advantage of vulnerable human psycology from the large pool of people dreaming to get a great deal. If you look at the bidding history, for an iPad, the bidding history goes as long as 4000 bids, with $0.75 per bid, they are getting way more than the retail price to pay for the product.

It's a smart business model. However, it is deceptive, manupulative and dishonest in nature.

I urge people to pass the words for this site to your friends and families, and warn them about the facts of the site. I also sincererly advise the owners / founders / investors to close out this site immediately, to avoid more social and moral disturbance. Be aware of the consequence and do no evil!

A very disappointed citizen

I believe that this site can be great if you know what you are doing and you are VERY patient. I had success the first day that I signed up. I only bought 50 bids ( $37.50) and after watching an Ipad 64g wifi for 7 hours... (Yes I have to much time on my hands) I was able to come in at the end and win it for only $77.93( including 9.99 shipping). I used only 7 bids which costed $5.25. Winning auctions is simply a matter of luck and like I said EXTREME patience. That said... my chances of lucking out like that again are probably very unlikely.

The website is fair and does an adequate job of explaining the process. Penny auctions have been around for ages in the form of actual events which participators pay a flat rate to enter, or an internet based website in which participants opt to pay up front for their bids. I feel that most of the negative comments come from people who simply do not understand the purpose or mechanism behind this wonderful idea. I can say from personal experience that if one does not spend their bids wisely, they may want to opt for an auction which has a "Buy It Now" price, so those bids can be later applied to the principle price in the event of a loss in the auction. If you lost money with the site, thats probably your own fault for gambling with your money and not adequate researching the risk. I bought a computer for the full retail price listed ($299.99) when my bidding went too high, another time I got a BlueRay Nightmare Before Christmas DVD for just $0.85, and my friend got a new 16GB Nano iPod for under $5.

As of right now, for the money I spent on their site, I have gained more in merchandise value; and therefore am in the positive. However, if I were to attempt an auction tomorrow and spend a high amount of bids and not win the item, I would quickly be in the negative. So as of now, I have a positive review, I have used the website well and have gained merchandise at a great value as a result. If the opposite had happened and I was a sore looser, I would probably be complaining with the rest of the people on this forum. To you I say this, Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware.

BigDeal.com is an entertaining website. The people who call it a scam all lost money on it, as have I. The difference is that I took the time to read the disclaimers, the tips and their policies. I knew what to expect when I got on. I watched the bidding for a couple of days and started my strategy. I did win a few items at a huge discount, so I'm happy. The people who are screaming "FRAUD-SCAM!" did none of those things. They just jumped in head first. They lost, bigdeal.com won. READ THE DISCLAIMERS AND POLICIES FIRST!

Warning, warning, warning, do not use this web site thinking you will win a high price auction. I recommend to all new bidders to review past auctions for the item they are interested. For example, all large screen TV's have the same winner, and these winners are sales people with eBay stores making huge profits. I recommend not using this web site until they have rules put in place to help the small bidder to have a chance against the high power bidders. I give this web site thumbs down

I tried it few times and spend quite a bit of money to do it. They have some weird system which which would let you win. It is more like lottery then anything else. And they say you don't lose as you can redeem your loyalty bucks to get a discount on diffrent things from there store where the prises are already way to high even after the discounts. So at this site only one person can win that is the owner Big Deal, believe me or waste your money and see for yourself choice is yours.

Two bad things about the site. During the last 30 seconds of the auction if someone places a bid, the timer automatically goes back to 30 and continues this cycle. I just gave it a try and the auction took about 30 minutes to finish the last 30 seconds.

Also, each time you place a bid it costs you 75 cents but the auction only goes up 1 cent, giving the appearance that you are getting a good deal. If an auction is up to $1 that means that people have placed 100 bids (or spent $75), and you lose the money that you spent bidding.

Need to change my opinion. I really don't think you can win in the long run, but I think the answer is not with the site, but rather the people who play. I am convinced they don't use bots, but many of the regulars do. The site claims that they have software to find and eliminate bots being used by patrons. But I can tell you for a fact, it does not get them (or at least many of them). And why would Bigdeal.com really care. It drives up the number of bids, and they profit from them. Do yourself a favor, stay as far away from penny auctions as possible. YOU CAN'T WIN!

Not much good came out of my experience of thier website! When it sounds to good to be true then it is! This website has a lot of problems in that even when you look at items it start's to deduct tokens from you account even though you don't click on the bid tab. They claimed I did therefore they refused to refund all monies even though I did'nt bid on anything. Closed my account immediately and filed a dispute with Credit Card Company and filed a BBB Complaint! Will see what happen's. Take my advice and stay away from BigDeals.com like all the other people and myself who have been ripped off by the fly by night company. Stay with legit internet auction companies and not ones that take advanaged of people like Bigdeal.com does! They use bot's also look at the same bidders that win all the time!

Yes, BigDeal is no more than Big Scam! It's true that items worth hundreds of dollars can be sold there for a fraction of their retail value, but this is not as good as it may sound.

First, you have to buy a number of what they call "bid tokens", in order for you to bid. Each token represents one bid increment when used. They sell 50 tokens for $37.50 (i. E. $0.75 per token).

Below are some of the paid prices for some of the recently ended items on that site, so you can have a better idea of what is *really* going on there.

- 16GB USB Flash Drive, retail price= $29.99 sold there for $11.15 Since bidding increment is only 1c, this means that the $11.15 that was paid is actually 1115 (which is the number of bids)x$0.75(which is the actual value of each bid)=$836.25!

- A $100 VISA gift card (value = $100) was sold there for $22.55. Lucky is the winner of course, however, the $22.55 is actually 2255 bids x $0.75(the value of each bid)= $1691. 25!

- 30 of their own bid tokens (value of $22.50) was sold for $15.59, which is 1559bids x $0.75=$1169. 25!

I wonder if filing a dispute with PayPal or the credit card company would work. Has any one tried to dispute?

They claim its as easy as 1, 2, 3 yes to LOOSE your money, it took me about $10 to figure it out how it worked since it wasnt made easy to understand and figure it out. This site is a scam do not register or buy bids. This is site in no way an auction, when you buy bids and place bids you LOOSE the money even though you didnt win, for example on ebay you bid if your the highest bidder you pay and you get the item but you don't PAY for each time you bid, here you pay 75 cents for each bid meaning each time you bid you kiss your 75 cents good bye.

The "Royalty Bucks" at this website is a total deception! Here's what site's advertising says:

Every time you buy Bid Tokens on BigDeal.com, you get the equivalent amount of Loyalty Bucks. For example, if you buy $25 of Bid Tokens, you get $25 in Loyalty Bucks. Loyalty Bucks can only be used to get large discounts on popular items in our Rewards Store. Please check out our Rewards Store at http://bigdeal.com/rewards to view the discounts available for use with your Loyalty Bucks.

Here's how it works: At any point, click the "Redeem Loyalty Bucks" link located under the orange "Buy Bids" button. You'll land in our Loyalty Rewards Store. Select an item that catches your eye. You'll be able to use your Loyalty Bucks to get the stated discount on that item. For example, with $25 in Loyalty Bucks, you can get a $100 item for about $75.
Here is a clever way to use your Loyalty Bucks: buy $25 in Bid Tokens then use your $25 in Loyalty Bucks to buy a $100 item for $75. You've spent $100 and you have a $100 item + $25 of Bid Tokens. Your Bid Tokens are basically free!

You get an impression that you can spend your tokens' bucks for merchandise - not true - they only give you a discount (15-18% on average) off inflated retail prices - you can find their "discounted" merchandise for less at amazon or other online stores - total fraud and deceptive advertising.
P.S. - I've just checked my bank statement and found an unauthorized charge on my debit card from this site. Beware, Do NOT give them your credit card number!

Anyone having a problem with this company can file an online complaint with the California Office of Attorney General. Here's the address:
http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL

I'm new to big deal as of two days ago. I only bought 30 bids for $22.50 and used only 5 to get a digital voice recorder. My final price was $6.14 and that includes the shipping. I've got 19 bids left after throwing a few away with hopes of getting another item with a last-second bid. Even if I add the $22.50 to the $6.14 I paid for the item (which I really wanted), I got it cheaper than I would have if I had bought it somewhere else. I don't see any scam evidence although on some of the popular items the total number of bid placed certainly gave big deal a big profit.

I use E-Bay frequently and when I discovered this website I decided to give it a try. I was looking to buy a wii and some games and accessories anyway, so I bought some bids and went in determined to win. I was shocked to see a wii with 4 remotes and several games go for just over $7.00 just before I purchased my bids. First thought... too good to be true, especially since the time had just run out and noone was bidding against the high bidder. There were only around 7 or 8 bids total on the auction.

So I gave it a try when the wii fit plus with balance board came up. I actually waited up until 2am hoping to get a bargain, and since I was willing to go all the way, I had very high hopes. Every other item was selling at 75% - 95% off. I was bidding for over an hour. It was evident that no way was I going to get a discount. In fact, the retail price was set at $165 when you can actually purchase this item at Wal-Mart for around $100 and save the shipping. Still, I was in it to win it and the bid price + the cost of my bids at $. 75 each on the item was quickly approaching the retail price listed. I decided that at this point I just needed to get the win, as I was already committed, so I continued to bid and bid. The next thing I knew the person who had been bidding the whole time was gone and two new users began. They, of course weren't in it for anywhere near as much as I was. I continued bidding, but then all of the sudden the auction ended. I had placed my bid and it wasn't accepted and I lost. The other "person" won the wii fit for around $45 + the 3 or 4 $. 75 bids they placed. I'm not a sore loser, but something just doesn't seem right here. I was determined to place my bids to the end and when the auction ended prematurely I was very upset. I've seen a few other reviews here that stated a similar incident.

I still have close to 100 bids, but I think I will try for a refund. As for the wii fit... I had to pay the difference and ended up buying it for "retail" which was close to $70 above Wal-Mart or E-Bay prices. I will use my "Loyalty Bucks" up on gift cards. The Wal-Mart one is $90 for a $100 card, so eventually I guess it will work out in my favor. I wish you all better luck than I had. I smell a rat, but haven't used the site enough to know if it is actually possible to win.