Talk:MadBid

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MadBid appears to be in administration now. When going to MadBid.com, an administrators message comes up, stating that Cork Gully have been appointed administrators as of 27th June 2018. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C5:3300:FF00:1CF0:5776:58:450F (talk) 21:24, 19 July 2018 (UTC)

I've gutted this because it was a promotional puff piece

In my opinion it is complete swindle, I wonder why anybody would try to describe the activities of this "company" in neutral terms. A simple example of the "auction" of a "Macbook Pro 13" met Retina display", worth € 1.272 retail advised customer selling price, learns that MadBid earns, at a "bid" of € 250, already € 15.000, apart from what the "winner" wil pay if the auction comes to an ending. Why consider this as a decent firm, and describe it likewise? I would think we have better and more serious items to discuss. Wikipedia should not cover suspected activities like this one, without clearly stating that it is suspected. Do we have to prove that?? --Xela46 (talk) 13:41, 4 October 2014 (UTC)

I suspect this is being watched by a paid shill of the company (user:Caibo901 appears to be a single purpose account), so here are the edits I've made summarised so specific disagreements can be discussed:

Deleted claim about savings from lede, as this was promotional and based on a primary source (PDF document hosted on Madbid website).

Altered the following phrases from being written like advertisements to a more encyclopaedic tone:

"Credit packages range in price from £14.99 to £374.99, and individual credits can cost as little as 10p"

"The "Earned Discount" feature converts money spent on bids that don't win into a discount that can be applied towards purchases on a variety of products across the MadBid website."

Removed the following extraneous pieces which seemed almost entirely promotional:

"In some auctions the winner may opt to convert the auction value into MadBid credits instead of purchasing the auctioned item."

"Instead of losing bids resulting in losing money, with the "Earned Discount" feature, every credit spent in auctions gets saved so that the value can be used to purchase one item or multiple items."

"MadBid has also created "rookie auctions" for new users to familiarise themselves with the website. Rookie auctions only allow users who have never won an auction before to participate. If a new user purchases credits and does not win in any of the MadBid auctions in their first day, the credits from their first purchase (up to 500 credits) are automatically recredited within 24 hours."

"as well as exploring future use of commercial data for market research purposes."

"Auctions in which high value goods have sold for a fraction of their recommended retail price have brought MadBid extensive media coverage. A 2008 auction saw a Mini One automobile, valued at £12,135, sold for £6.83. These auctions have also been covered in the media, from the Mini auction being featured in the Sunday Times, to £500 Tesco voucher’s going for 1p covered in Woman's Own magazine and MoneyWeek"

Removed the following section as it contradicts an early sourced claim, and repeats a description of the mechanics:

"While bids cost between 0.20p to 0.80p, and every bid increases the product price by 1p,"

I've left the ad banner on because I'm still note entirely happy it's an encyclopedic piece and it could probably do with further attention SkepticalNumber (talk) 23:17, 4 April 2014 (UTC)

Agree the article has been pretty much whitewashed, stuffing in peacock terms etc. Although the much earlier version was a long way from perfect I'd be tempted to revert to that. --86.2.216.5 (talk) 20:48, 7 May 2014 (UTC)

Reference to German laws

This section is poorly translated into English and should be proofread by a native speaker, e.g. "control" for "kontrollieren" ;-) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.254.250.109 (talk) 20:29, 4 February 2015 (UTC)

Agreed, I believe the section is nonsensical and does not provide enough relevant info nor enough independent research to warrant its place in the article. If the claims are reviewed by a native speaker and validated through verifiable sources then the claims should be added again to the article. Cada mori (talk) 22:51, 16 March 2015 (UTC)

SCAM ALERT =

German here! This website is a total SCAM! They buy ads on prominent websites in Germany and try to get users to buy "bids", but you can't actually get anything cheap there. Would be nice if the article here reflected this, sounds waaaay too legitimate today.. 2601:600:8200:95F:4D18:4F10:A81:7B8F (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:11, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

Dead link

Ref.5 http://webellion.net/Madbid_Review.pdf has died and gone to 404 heaven. I don't know how to add a dead link flag. Centrepull (talk) 10:24, 18 June 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120402073025/http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/18/6345481-an-ipad-for-282-or-illegal-gambling to http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/18/6345481-an-ipad-for-282-or-illegal-gambling
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20120108182818/http://www.bbb.org/us/article/bbb-names-top-ten-scams-of-2011-31711 to http://www.bbb.org/us/article/bbb-names-top-ten-scams-of-2011-31711

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