A Brand New Bavaria 33 Yacht for Under £1,000?

[all@sea]

I saw this 'new craze' on the TV News and wondered if anyone had tried it yet. It seems to be some new kind of auction where you can't bid any more than £1,000 for a new Bavaria 33 Yacht.

It's obviously a genuine offer as it was on the News as the latest buying craze, but it still seems too good to be true. I'm thinking of having a go, but wondered if any other member has first.

Bavaria Yacht - Bavaria 33 Cruiser Yacht for less than £1,000

 

[all@sea]

I'll take silence as a no then!

 

[Seashoreman]

You post at 0403 and wonder why no replies by 0835. I am loathe to open this as it sounds a little fishy.

 

[Sandy]

You would need to pay me far more money that the offer price to sail that shed.

 

[Aeolus]

If it seems too good to be true….

 

[JumbleDuck]

I saw this 'new craze' on the TV News and wondered if anyone had tried it yet. It seems to be some new kind of auction where you can't bid any more than £1,000 for a new Bavaria 33 Yacht.

I've had a look. The ostensible way it works is that you "bid" anywhere between 1p and the maximum they set, and the highest unique bid wins. The catch is that to win you are likely to have to bid many times, and you have to pay for each bid. How much you have to pay, I don't know, because having read the spectacularly long and convoluted terms and conditions I would rather wax my legs than give these people my email address.

Basically it's a complicated sort of raffle.

 

[Norman_E]

Basically that is a form of gambling, where you don't even know the odds. The auctions do not close until enough paid for bids are received, in other words until the promoters have received all the cash they want in excess of the cost of the item being "sold" and the auction is not time limited. The other issue is transparency. In a real auction the highest bidder wins, in these so called auctions its the highest unique bid, which gives plenty of scope for fraud if the organisers wish. They are probably totally honest as there is a lot of money to be made just charging people to bid. The odds may of course be better than the National Lottery, or not, and I wonder if the promoters are paying Lottery Duty (12%) on the sale of bids?

 

[Colvic Watson]

From their web site:

You can win with a Free Bid, but to be active (and therefore eligible to win) a member must have placed at least one PowerBid in this auction. This is how we are able to give away these amazing deals!

Remember you only need to place one PowerBid to be eligible to win - all the rest can be free bids.

Members can participate in our auctions on two levels. They can be regarded as similar to the National Lottery, where the price of a single PowerBid is your 'ticket' - and just sit back and hope that one of your bids turns out to be the winner.

Or it is much more fun to be proactive and use tactical bidding to 'Gazump' other bidders and give yourself a really good chance of winning. (Click on the question mark next to the 'Bidding' box for more information on bidding strategy).

Bid Points can be obtained from the 'MY ACCOUNT' menu at the top of the page.

If you have both Free Bids and PowerBids available you will be asked which you want to use when you next click on 'Place Bid'

 

[Highndry]

Apparently it's brand new and in it's original box. The box must be worth a few quid!

 

[nigelmercier]

There are a number of these "auction" sites, all with crazy prices. But as said above, they are more like a lottery than an auction.

 

[all@sea]

Thanks for the comments. All very negative I see. No mention of how great it would be to make over £90,000.00, which is what attracted me! :encouragement: (I looked for a 'greedy' smiley but couldn't find one!)

There are a number of these "auction" sites, all with crazy prices. But as said above, they are more like a lottery than an auction.

From their website:-

This is not just another type of lottery. It is an auction and the odds are excellent. Like any other auction you can make absolutely sure you win with the right bidding tactics. Well, almost. Depending on your opponents, of course! (Click on the question mark next to the 'BIDDING' box for more information on bidding strategy)

Seashoreman You post at 0403 and wonder why no replies by 0835

Sorry, gotta be picky. You didn't look at the date. I posted at 0403 two days earlier.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Thanks for the comments. All very negative I see. No mention of how great it would be to make over £90,000.00, which is what attracted me!

If I had a suspicious mind I would note that you joined on 4/3/14 and that three of your five posts since then have been bigging up this rather dubious looking gambling game. Can you point us at any of the news reports which in your first post you claimed lent legitimacy to the idea?

 

[Tranona]

Sorry, gotta be picky. You didn't look at the date. I posted at 0403 two days earlier.

That is because, being a new member your first posts can take 2 or 3 days to appear as the mods have to approve them to make sure they comply with forum rules. Time will tell whether they made a correct decision.

 

[CreakyDecks]

Thanks for the comments. All very negative I see. No mention of how great it would be to make over £90,000.00, which is what attracted me! :encouragement: (I looked for a 'greedy' smiley but couldn't find one!)

I reckon the best thing we can all do for you is not make any bids.
That will greatly improve your chances of winning the "auction" :encouragement:

 

[Highndry]

So when does the 'auction' finish?

 

[Steve_N]

So when does the 'auction' finish?

As posted above..

"The auctions do not close until enough paid for bids are received, in other words until the promoters have received all the cash they want in excess of the cost of the item being "sold""

 

[Sandy]

"The auctions do not close until enough paid for bids are received, in other words until the promoters have received all the cash they want in excess of the cost of the item being "sold""

Heads they win, tails you lose.

 

[Highndry]

So the word auction shouldn't be used anywhere near the process. It's a lottery with a potentially infinite number of tickets sold. I'm amazed the moderators allowed it to be promoted through the forum.

 

[nigelmercier]

... From their website:-

This is not just another type of lottery. It is an auction and the odds are excellent...

MRDA.

It works like MadBid, a total con.

 

[Norman_E]

MRDA.

It works like MadBid, a total con.

Whilst it may not be a total con there are aspects of it that make me very suspicious. The way bids work is that there are free bids, and paid for bids. Only the latter can win the prize, but the former can stop a paid for bid from winning by matching it. What therefore stops the promoters from using the computer that stores the records of all bids to reveal paid for bids and match them with free ones so that the bidders see that their bids have been matched, and are encouraged to pay for another go? If I read this right bidders can see whether or not their bids have been matched, which makes it clearly in the interests of the promoters to encourage maximum free bidding, or if they are really dishonest, to do it themselves.

Edit. I see that you can win with a free bid, but only if you have a paid for one, so how many free bids can you make for each one you pay for? This can only really work for its promoters if enough bids are paid for. On this "auction" it would take 9,000 plus bids at £10 each (if that is the price) or 18,000 plus at £5 to break even. I cannot imagine even 9,000 people bidding, so I expect that this business is driven by getting a smaller number of people to put in multiple paid bids.