<p>Has anyone used this site? It’s supposedly like Ebay on steriods-super fast bids keep prices very low-like a 55" TV for $50 or an iPad for $2. That seems really sketchy to me but it seems to be vetted by some reputable folks. D has her eyes on a camera way out of our price range but if this site is not a scam we could easily manage. TIA!</p>
<p>What are the odds of you actually winning? Near zero. Is it a GoPro?</p>
<p>I looked at it. I kind of felt it was a scam. You could easily spend money and get nothing.</p>
<p>Scam–there was a thread on CC earlier about it. Remember the old adage, if it seems too good to be true–RUN!</p>
<p>The issue with the site is that you need to buy those bids up front, so if you bid on an item and don’t end up receiving it - you are out that money. I do believe that they will legitimately send you items if you are the winning bidder, but chances of that are very slim. </p>
<p>Ok, that’s what I thought. Moving along…BB, D would like a digital SLR in the $500 range, which is not what we spend for the holidays. She’s enjoying her iPhone camera and has some photo editing apps, but would like to take it to the next level. Her friend has such a camera and she’s impressed with all the bells and whistles. But she did says she’d be happy with a point and shoot high resolution camera, as even that would be a step up.</p>
<p>I would check Kenmore Camera to see if there are any options among their used equipment or see if you can get a good holiday sale deal (or refurbish) at B&H. </p>
<p>You can probably get her a used starter Canon Rebel with a general purpose lens for under $300 at either place. She does not need the kind of cameras DadII spent his fortunes on! 
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<p>One thing about DSLRs is that they are bulky and need more care and attention than a “soapbar” camera. Will she be willing to lug a pound or two of extra weight that she has to protect from the elements? </p>
<p>I agree with the fact that a Canon Rebel is a great starting DSLR. </p>
<p>Good ideas, thanks. I have a friend who has an older Nikon she’s willing to gift me, so we can get some accessories. They have a digital arts lab in school so she’s familiar with using good equipment outside in Seattle, lol. I hadn’t seen the Dad II thread, but I get the idea-we’re not looking to break the bank.</p>
<p>sseamom, today’s fix on RueLaLa is a Canon “EOS Rebel T5” 18-55 IS II Camera Kit for $399.</p>
<p>It’s not a scam but it’s a strange auction format. You pay for every bid you place. Game theory-wise, it would make sense to place the last bid and take it, but unfortunately in practice that may often not be possible. If we said that in the last 3 seconds there are several bids, the highest will eventually win the item. Since many of these items have some objective value (standardized - whatever it sells for normally), it would make sense for someone to snipe these for some ϵ >0 less than that value, where ϵ greater than the bid price+shipping price+transaction cost+just a slight profit. Part of the marketing scheme here is to show these crazy low prices you “could” pay but they’re not realistic because based on the format almost all the bids on an item will be in the final few seconds of the auction, and you won’t see those prices just browsing through the site.</p>
<p>It’s very unlikely you’re going to get any item much cheaper than that. The only practical way this will work out for you is if you’re willing to bid very close to the cost for the item because you actually do want the item. It will not work in this format to buy these items dirt cheap and resell them.</p>
<p>Again, thanks. In asking around my Facebook friends, I found out that one of them has seriously upgraded in the recent years and will sell me an entire system for about half of what it would cost, even used. We’re going that route.</p>
<p>There’s some mis-description here: this isn’t eBay with a fixed auction time but a rolling auction. If you bid at the end, time is added, something like 10 or 20 seconds. If you look at auctions, you’ll see many bidders use “BidOMatic”, which is the site’s own automatic bidding process. That means auctions essentially automatically run until they reach the highest bid previously entered in “BidOMatic” and there’s no way to know what that is, though you could figure out a sort of when if you assume bids reach full price. I also note some buy it now prices are above retail, as in gift cards listed at $50 value are listed at a buy it now price of $71. That means these things just run until the entered bids run out. </p>
<p>The other part is that you pay for bids and the item. If you managed to put in 1 or 2 bids you’d be out 60 cents or $1.20 but what if you bid 100 times for an item you win at $200? That means you spend $260 (plus whatever shipping), not $200. And prices may go up by as little as a penny, which is meant to extract as many bids as possible: you might lose an item if the bidding stops and there is only 10 or 20 seconds to put in a new bid so you’re encouraged to use BidOMatic, etc.</p>
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<p>Hmmm… Was it always that way? </p>
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<p>Yes! For the record, I joined in the very beginning of the site when it borrowed an overseas model. To be clear, getting the winning objects shipped and delivered was NOT a problem. It was not a scam and the rules were easy to understand. I did land a number of useful objects such as an immersion blender, a rice cooker, and various kitchen tools for a few cents in bids. Adding the shipment cost did not change it was a bargain. I also bought batches of bids at discount and that fueled more bids. The 'trick" if there was one was to stay away from the popular items as one could spend lots of bids in competition to the “bots” and there was a theory that the site itself was using bots to drive up the number of bids. The other trick was to be active when the couch potatoes would get tired and that might have been at 6am or at 2pm. </p>
<p>After a while, I found that there were any more items worth bidding WITH a chance of success. I wasted my last 20-30 dollars and moved on. All in all, I probably scored several hundred dollars of decent items (several turned out to be gifts) for probably about 100 dollars at most. I’d say that all the success were in the very early days, and I believe that such sites are now dominated by “pros” – the same pros that probably ruined eBay through computerized bidding. </p>
<p>It worked and it was entertaining. Fwiw, I tried to convince Jym to join me, but she was wiser! But then she never got the blenders and cheap crockpots and knives. :)</p>
<p>Camera-wise–I bought a Canon SX50 HS --lightweight, 50 optical zoom (which is equivalent to 1200mm zoom).
Amazing camera for the price. (sales, discounts under 400) No lugging separate lenses (been there, done that for years–I used to do a LOT of photography). Small enough to stuff into a big purse if you don’t want to lug a camera case to events.
They have a new one out with 60 optical zoom. That’s optical zoom, not digital zoom. Amazing pix.</p>