Archive for the ‘MadBid News’ Category

MadBid’s Top summer movie picks!- JUNE

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Every summer Hollywood churns out some action-packed blockbusters so we can cool off at the cinema and watch our favourite eye candy struggle to save the world from near disaster in two hours.  This summer is no different with some big titles coming our way and the promise of wizards, mutants, robots, cowboys, aliens, classic comic book heroes, and those damn dirty apes! So these are MadBid’s must see movies of the summer:

X-Men: First Class (3 June )-

The fifth movie to come out of the Marvel comic series and the second spinoff origin movie X-Men: First Class, is a prequel to the core trilogy explaining the backstory of Xavier and Magneto and the founding of the mutant school for” gifted youngsters”. The film takes place in 1960’s America during the Cuban Missile Crisis and stars heart throb James McAvoy (Atonement, Wanted) as a young Xavier and Michael Fassbender (Inglorious Bastards, 300) as childhood friend and future nemesis Magneto.  So if you have ever felt less than normal come out and join your mutant fans to see how it all started!

Green Lantern (17 June)-

We can’t get enough comic book heroes here at MadBid! Watch this DC Comic film adaptation of the initiation of one intergalactic warrior with a supernatural ring.  No, not Gollum’s precious, but a mysterious alien relic that has unknown powers. It is up to pilot Hal Jordan played by Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, The Proposal) to restore the balance of the universe.  We are much more excited to finally see Ryan Reynolds in spandex for this film, after being confused by Seth Rogen’s super hero lead in The Green Hornet earlier this year!

MadBid Celebrates National Vegetarian Week

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

Were you one of our over 2,500 members to win a Gourmet Society 1 Year Membership Card this month on MadBid.com? This week is National Vegetarian’s Week so even if you’re not crazy for soy and tofu try out these restaurants where you can get a great meat-free meal for an even greater price with your membership card!

-Tibits

Westminster, Greater London

Food so fresh, super-healthy and absolutely delicious is on the menu at Tibits, London. Tibits, a fabulous restaurant serving food that loves you back, represents a fresh new concept in healthy eating. It’s as easy as 1,2,3 to get your five-a-day each nutritious meal contains your entire daily fruit and vegetable intake.

With Gourmet Society Card: 2 for 1 (3 courses)

http://www.tibits.co.uk/e/

-Simply Scrumptious Crepes and Shakes

Edgware, Greater London

Simply Scrumptious is an innovative and exciting crêpe and shake bar- an adventure for the whole family…you’ll find something yummie for everyone!

With Gourmet Society Card: 25% off total

http://www.simplyscrumptiousbars.co.uk/

-Roots and Fruits

Leeds, Yorkshire

Every vegan and vegetarian in the North East worth their chick peas knows about Roots and Fruits in Leeds’s elegant Grand Arcade. Serving up healthy, hearty and wholesome dishes from belly busting vegetarian brekkas to yummy GM free cakes to accompany the wide range of teas, the choice is vast and varied.

With Gourmet Society Card: 2 for 1 (Main Course)

http://rootsandfruits.net/

-Rainbow Cafe

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

A basement restaurant reaching down a traditional passageway exactly opposite Kings College Gates, Rainbow Café offers a warm welcome for Vegetarians, Vegans, anyone with Allergy problems or visitors who prefer to have no meat products for religious reasons.

With Gourmet Society Card: 2 for 1 (3 courses)

http://www.rainbowcafe.co.uk/

-L’Artichaut

Edinburgh, Midlothian

L’Artichaut is about eating well, eating fresh, following the seasons with fresh, organic and local products and importing the best of the Europeans markets. L’Artichaut aim to delight and satisfy the needs of vegetarian diners as well as giving the traditional carnivore an alternative experience.

With Gourmet Society Card: 2 for 1 (2 courses)

http://www.lartichaut.co.uk/

If you’ve not already got one of these vouchers then there are still plenty up for grabs, just head over to the website and look out for the vouchers in the Upcoming Auctions section.

Chelsea Flower Show

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011

One of the biggest weeks for inspirational gardening  The Chelsea Flower Show begins Tuesday May 24 for five days of elaborate and elegant garden exhibits in the 11 acres of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, London. Also known as the Great Spring Show, this red carpet event is the garden design equivalent of any haute couture fashion show.

Earlier this week VIP members of the Royal Horticultural Society attended the opening and preview shows. Among the 157,000 people who will visit the garden exhibit this week are distinguished guests including Her Majesty the Queen, Princess Beatrice, Helen Mirren, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vanessa Redgrave, and many other A-list celebrities and members of the Royal family.

Tickets to this event are already sold out, but you can see photos and video footage on the Royal Horticultural Society website http://www.rhs.org.uk/

So you can’t make it to the Chelsea Flower Show this year? B&Q asks “What could you do this weekend?” With a voucher from MadBid.com you can make your own garden look fabulous instead! B&Q has everything you need to you create your own garden to rival those in the Chelsea Flower Show – get started by choosing from their selection of over 1,000 different vegetable and flower seeds, fertilizer and compost or how about some gardening tools and you could get it for a bargain by bidding one B&Q vouchers from Madbid.com, the fun way to bid for a bargain!

And you never know maybe this time next year your garden will be featured at the show while you rub elbows with the rich and famous!

The Daily Telegraph Show Garden, designed by Cleve West, has been named Best Show Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

iPhone 5 Nano or Mini – cheapest iPhone on the market rumoured for less than £125

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

The iPhone 5 Nano or Mini is expected to launch this summer as the less expensive alternative to the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 Nano has many new changes from all the other iPhone models we have come to know so well.

This iPhone will be 1/3 the size of the current iPhone 4 with virtually no internal storage, making the new phone significantly lighter in your pocket and lighter on your wallet. Expected to retail at around £125 off contract and even less with a contract, Apple has made this phone so inexpensive by removing the most expensive part: internal memory.

These new phones will operate almost entirely off of Cloud-based storage through MobileMe.  This means that the iPhone 5 Nano will constantly be uploading, and streaming content, through the network. MobileMe is an Apple product that automatically synchs all your files across multiple devices. This online storage service acts as a virtual “locker” to store all your personal media including photos, music, video, email, contacts, calendars, and more.

Some aesthetic changes MadBid.com expect to see in the iPhone 5 Nano, apart from its new size, are an edge-to-edge display and likely no home button.  These changes will also increase the battery life of the phone to 14 hours talk time with 3G and 7 hours talk time with 4G.

A few little perks we found out for the internal workings of the new phone include voice-based navigation and face recognition security. With voice-based navigation you will be able to say your destination and instantly get directions. Face recognition security makes it virtually  impossible for someone to steal your phone when only the owner’s face will allow use of the phone.

Making life just a little bit easier for those of us who constantly drop our phones or leave them next to a nail file in our bag, the new iPhone 5 Nano has a shatter and scratch resistant screen.

It seems Apple has thought of everything to streamline our lives. To get your hands on one of these super small marvels for an even smaller price visit MadBid.com this summer when the phone is expected to become available. Can’t wait all summer? Try the 16 GB iPhone 4 in a live auction on our site right now!

iPhone 5 expected to launch September 2011

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

The latest Apple technology, the iPhone 5 is rumoured to be available to consumers in September 2011.

The new phone is expected to have a few cosmetic changes from the iPhone 4 including a metal back instead of the current glass backing which will reduce reception interference from the antenna, a larger screen boasting up to 4 inches with an edge to edge display, and a new LED camera flash moved to the right side of the phone opposite the lens to reduce redeye in photos.

But the new iPhone 5 isn’t just getting an external make-over, the inside of the phone is being upgraded too. Apple is expected to put their patented A5 Chip from the iPad 2 in the new iPhone giving it dual core processing power.  It seems however still uncertain whether or not Apple will bring 4G LTE to this new iPhone, or if they plan to wait to include that in a future model.iphone 4

We can expect the iPhone 5 to retail for somewhere between £510-612. The typical summer debut of new Apple products has been pushed back this year with the expected launch of the iPhone 5 in September due to the disaster in Japan earlier this year where the supplier of some key components of the phone was affected. More on the phone will likely be revealed at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 6 June 2011.

Some additional titbits MadBid.com have gleaned through the rumour mill include the inclusion of Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology in the newest iPhone, which essentially turns your phone into a credit/debit card.

Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology was founded by Nokia, Sony, and Royal Philips Electronics in 2004. This technology allows phones to transfer data from other devices at a close range, much like Bluetooth. If this technology is integrated as a part of the iPhone 5 as an e-Wallet app, as we expect it will be, your phone will then become your digital wallet with the ability to pay with your credit/debit cards, customer loyalty cards, and use coupons too. With this technology you may even be using your phone to get on the London Underground one day soon!

Also, the prototype of a smaller iPhone 5 model affectionately called the iPhone Nano is expected to launch this June as the least expensive iPhone model on the market. This smaller and budget friendly phone will have a shatter and scratch resistant screen, up to 14 hours of battery life, and Face Recognition Security making the iPhone Nano nigh impossible to steal.

With all this uncertainty surrounding Apple’s latest invention, one thing is certain: MadBid.com should be your first stop to getting your hands on the latest technology for up to 98% off recommended retail prices! Can’t wait until the end of the summer? We currently have the 16 GB iPhone 4 running live on our site.

So sign up to our newsletter that announces all the latest auctions and gadgets that we offer before they’re gone!

To subscribe:

  • Login to MadBid.com
  • Click on ‘My MadBid’
  • Then click on ‘Edit Settings’
  • Make sure that there is a tick next to: ‘I want to receive the MadBid.com Newsletter and notifications by e-mail’

Why is MadBid different?

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

There are a few sites around that offer auctions as a way of selling products – there are lots of different ways of selling and bidding. MadBid.com is one of them, but what makes MadBid different and why should you choose us?

Auction Types

  • Standard Auctions: There are sites like e-Bay where you don’t pay to bid and only pay the final auction price plus P&P. The price goes up in increments with each bid and whoever has bid the highest when the auction closes is the winner. With this type of auction items can often be second hand from individuals as well as professional sellers. Because it’s free to bid prices can go quite high and the discounts can be very small and so it is often similar to buying in any shop online.
  • Falling Price Auctions: These auctions have the price of a product decrease from its start price until it closes or sells out. A set quantity of the product is available and the first people to buy will win. So you buy it at the price you wish to pay, and wait for the auction to close – everyone pays the lowest price so even if you chose to buy at £100 if the price continues to fall and the auction closes at £30, you will only pay £30. You can get some good bargains, but they don’t tend to sell many brand names or high popularity products such as iPad’s, PS3’s etc.
  • Lowest Unique Bid: This type of auction requires bidders to buy bids and then place those bids to try and find a price that is unique. That means for a bid to be eligible to win no other bidder can have made a bid for the same amount. Bidders are generally able to place multiple bids and the number of current bids at each amount is typically kept secret. This type of auction can often be a guessing game as all of the details are kept secret so it can often be based more on luck than skill.
  • MadBid.com: MadBid uses a pay-to-bid system in which you buy a credit pack and then use these credits to bid. Using this system it means that we can sell products at incredibly low prices. There is skill involved and by developing your own strategy the bidding becomes much easier. We offer many high-end and popular products that customers really like to bid on.

Prices

So, with all these other types of auctions around what makes MadBid so good? Well unlike e-Bay where the prices can still go quite high or with only a small discount in price, MadBid sells products for an average saving of 87% off the retail price and all of our products are brand new and from reputable sources.

In one of our previous articles we mentioned some of the amazing bargains our users had got:

Xbox 360 with Kinect
RRP £249.99
SOLD FOR:  £69.19

PS3 slim 250GB
RRP £284.99

SOLD FOR:  £23.10

These prices include the cost of bids plus the final action price. Because of the way the MadBid auctions run we can sell excellent products at some great bargain prices.

Latest Gadgets

Also, MadBid is unique compared to many of the other auction sites such as ‘falling price auctions’ in that we offer many of the latest quality gadgets and technology such as the iPad 2, iPhone 4, Wii, Xbox with Kinect, Android phones, Galaxy Tab, Nintendo 3DS to name just a few.

We pride ourselves in making sure we are always up on the latest technology and so MadBid.com is the ideal place to get the latest gadgets for low prices. We often have products as soon as they are out and sometimes even start auctioning them a day or two before the official release!

Social

At Madbid.com we like to provide a shopping experience and for our customers to be able to interact with each other, share tips, make bidding strategies and have fun communicating. We have a very active Facebook page, forums, Twitter, competitions plus we have our Auction Peek and Sneak-a-Peek service which lets you interact with others by seeing their buying habits. We call MadBid ‘Social Commerce’ due to the extensive community and how you can interact with our other customers.

We have a large customer base and over 21,000 fans on Facebook alone. These customers interact with each other, help newcomers and provide a great community feel, reassure customers that MadBid is a legitimate business and we like to interact with our customers too.

We are always introducing new aspects of this side of MadBid, recently we gave our customers the ‘Easter Game’ which allowed them to compete for the highest scores and we had over 1000 entries and was a great talking point amongst the community and more recently we went out to see everyone waiting at Westminster Abbey before the Royal Wedding to meet new people and spread the MadBid love via the fantastic Mrs Madbid!

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So you can see why MadBid is different, it’s not just that we have incredibly low prices or that we have the latest gadgets it’s also our whole approach to auctions and involving our customers.  We’re so pleased that we have such a strong online community and many supporters and will continue to grow this aspect into the future.

If you’d like to know what’s happening at MadBid register or login and sign up for  our newsletter to find out when we feature the newest releases and what’s happening in the community.

Winner of the 2011 Ford Focus Zetec

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

The number 13 may be unlucky for some but not for one of our Madbidders, Gary. On 13 March 2011 he fended off other bidders to get a fantastic brand new 2011 Ford Focus Zetec for the mere bargain of £367.89 (includes cost of bids and final auction price)

Last week he picked up his car and MadBid’s MD, Juha Koski, was there to greet him and hand over the keys
Ford Focus Winner

Ford Focus Winner and Car

Winner in Car

Video and interview coming soon…

Is MadBid a Scam? We don’t think so!

Friday, April 8th, 2011

So sometimes people might think that because you can get products for such great prices from MadBid.com that it must be a scam – but we’re here to dispel that myth.

MadBid has so many credentials and reassurances behind it that it is impossible to think it is a scam or not a genuine website. Not only to we have a very large number of registered users but in order to trade legally in the UK we must comply with certain rules and regulations.

The important facts:

  • MadBid.com has had over 170,000 auction winners since 2008
  • We’re a UK based and registered company (UK Co Registration No: 6609609)
  • We run adverts on UK TV and in the press so we have to comply with strict ASA guidelines
  • All our adverts have substantiated prices with a paper trail, we have an article on this explaining how it works: Click here for more details
  • We run over 10,000 auctions a month
  • All our products are brand new and from reputable sources and suppliers
  • We have a lively and active Facebook page where all users can contribute their opinions and stories
  • We have a gallery of winners, where they can post photographs of their wins – so other users can see that customers do win and receive products – or why not visit our car winners on the news page and watch their videos. You can see that all of our winners are genuine and live in the UK
  • Madbid.com is registered with the information Commissioners Office (ICO)
  • Madbid.com is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, the highest security standard for online payments
  • We have telephone and e-mail for customer services – so you know that you are dealing with real people
  • Employees are never allowed to bid on the website and we do not have any automated ‘bot’ systems so that MadBid.com can bid on the site – all bids are from genuine and real bidders
  • We have been seen many times in the press with great reviews and we have a sample of these articles on our website so that you can see what these reputable sources say about MadBid.com

With all these facts it is impossible for us to be anything less than genuine, but if in doubt feel free to contact us of visit our Facebook page where you’ll be able to talk to other registered users about out service.

We have many things in place to help make bidding as fair as possible, we have:

  • ‘Winning Limits” which stop the big bidders from winning everything, see ‘Must Knows’ in our FAQ’s for these limits
  • We encourage responsible bidding on the website so that our users know how to bid in a safe and healthy manner
  • We have extensive terms & conditions and anyone not adhering to these will be dealt with so that they do not hinder the bidding experience of others
  • We even have advice from other bidders and winners on our Winners page and our News site – they give you tips and ideas on the best bidding strategies
  • We have the ‘Sneak-a-peek’ and ‘Auction Peek’ service which allows you to see how your opponents bid and how products have performed in the past – with all this knowledge it allows our customers to bid smarter and more strategically

We encourage our users to bid smart and bid responsibly, there are some amazing bargains to be had with on average an 87% saving on retail prices.

These are just some of the bargains (price includes cost of bids plus final auction price):

Xbox 360 with Kinect – RRP £249.99 – SOLD FOR:  £69.19

PS3 slim 250GB – RRP £284.99 – SOLD FOR:  £23.10

Louis Vuitton Emilie Wallet – RRP £240 – SOLD FOR: £21.28

Fiat 500 – RRP £9465.00 – SOLD FOR: £211.51

Those are all genuine bargains that have been won by bidders here on MadBid.com and there will be plenty more to come!

We also have MadBid.com in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Germany and we abide by and fully support consumer and commercial law in all EU states and the law of each member state where we operate.

Any questions?

Please feel free to e-mail us: customer@madbid.com
or
Call: 0845 680 9716

Our customer service line is open:

  • Monday – Friday: 10am – 5:30pm
  • Saturday 11am – 4pm
  • Sunday and Bank Holidays: Closed

Pay-to-bid – the inside scoop on prices

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

As the pay-to-bid style of auction is becoming more popular customers are becoming increasingly curious to how all the websites tick. There are several sites out there that offer this service and some are genuine while others are not. Luckily Madbid.com is one of those genuine sites and has nearly 1.5 million registered users and with over 10,000 auctions a month for users to bid on.

Often customers  say pay-to-bid auctions end on a low price and if you add the cost of bids the customer spent then it makes the product much more expensive, but here at MadBid.com we are very up front with the final price the auction ends on plus how much is spent on bids, if you ever see us advertising on the TV or in print our prices always include the cost of bids plus the final auction cost.

If you see an advert like the one to the right, in the paper, you will see that an Apple iPad 2 32GB sold for £23.30 – so this is what the customer paid in total – the final auction price plus all the bids they paid. Still sound like a bargain? We think so!

More items and their selling prices (including final auction price & cost of all bids that person used)

iPad priceXbox 360 with Kinect
RRP £249.99
SOLD FOR:  £69.19

PS3 slim 250GB
RRP £284.99

SOLD FOR:  £23.10

Louis Vuitton Emilie Wallet
RRP £240
SOLD FOR: £21.28

Fiat 500
RRP £9465.00
SOLD FOR: £211.51

RRP is the Recommended Retail Price that the company that makes a product recommend it is sold for.

Even with the bid amounts added the prices are still great and all the prices we quote in these articles are substantiated with a paper trail as we are required to do by the Office of Fair Trading, here in the UK where we are based, to make sure they are completely accurate.

Want a chance of getting the best bargain?  Listen to the other bidders; they give their hints and tips on our site: http://uk.madbid.com/winners – these customers will help you grab the best bargain you can.

news.madbid.com is evolving!!

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Ladies, Gentlemen and MadBidders!!

The MadBid.com news site is going to be changing over the next few weeks!! As well as the usual batch of latest tech news, we will also be posting product reviews, Q&A sessions with MadBid staff and users, our latest great offers and updates on innovations and site updates on MadBid.com….

So keep your eyes peeled and keep checking back.

The MadBid Team