Buy Now Explained
You can read an overview of our Buy Now feature at our Help page. If you are still unsure about Buy Now, then please allow us to familiarize you.
We built the Buy Now feature to guarantee that nobody ever loses any money on QuiBids, so long as they commit to buying the item at our value price. Of course, there are people who will spend up to almost the item's value price, not win the auction, and subsequently fail to exercise this feature. At that point, why wouldn’t you just Buy Now? We strongly encourage our users to use this feature if you’re not the lucky auction winner.
Here’s how it works.
Let's say you want to bid on a $100 gift card. In this auction, you place 60 Real Bids (at $0.60 a bid multiplied by 60 bids, that’s $36). Assuming you didn't win the auction, you may exercise the Buy Now feature, and in so doing, make up the difference of $64 to purchase the gift card. You haven’t wasted any money doing this, so long as you committed to buying the card at the value price. BUT, if you didn’t use this feature, the $36 you spent on bids goes to waste.
Working with the same example, let’s say you spent that $36 on the auction and won. You then won your $100 gift card at a 64% discount.
Once you purchase the item, we’ll process your order as soon as humanly possible, with the assistance of computers, that is. So even faster than humanly possible, really.
Keep in mind that only Real Bids may be applied toward a Buy Now purchase and you must place at least one bid in an auction to use the Buy Now feature. Voucher Bids don’t count toward your discounted purchase price. These bids include Voucher Bid auctions you win or use the Buy Now on, free bids we give out for a certain number of days, and/or other promotions we offer. Voucher Bids are also credited for claiming badges, playing games, and referring friends.
Periodically we hold promotions where we give out Real Bids and when we do, we’ll be sure to inform you. Also, you’re able to see where you can choose the Buy Now feature below an auction's opened page. You can view this whether you’re logged in or not.
We hope this clarifies the Buy Now feature more thoroughly. Don't hesitate to contact Customer Support if you’d like further explanation, or browse the articles in our Blog. We're always glad to help you understand our site any way we can!