Bids That Give Review: Charity and penny auctions?
There are so many terrible things that happen to children all over the world.
Right now a little boy is dying of hunger, a little girl just got sold by her mother and is being forced into life as a sex slave.
Right now children are being physically abused and then there’s so many children who are just left by themselves and there’s no one there to love or care for them.
I dunno why bad things happen to innocent little children but they do. But here’s what I do know, all of us can do something about it.
You see, that’s our number one purpose. This company was founded to be a true partnership between those children, the childrens charities it supports and its affiliates who make it all happen.
– Randy Jeffers, founder of BidsThatGive
No doubt we’ve all heard the emotional sales pitches of the various charities that attempt to solicit donations from us to put towards the various causes they represent.
Today we look at one MLM company who hope to use these same emotionally appealing sales pitches to get you to join and participate in their penny auction business:
Our company, BidsThatGive – where every bid helps a kid, is a “global business model” designed to help underprivileged children with every bid that is purchased or given away.
Read on for a full review of the BidsThatGive MLM opportunity.
The Company
BidsThatGive are a MLM penny auction company. Founded by Randy Jeffers (photo right), BidsThatGive appear to be operating out of the state of Nevada in the US, however the company website (bidsthatgive.com) currently has a private domain registration.
Whereas BidsThatGive appears to be the auction side of the business, the company also offers an attached MLM business opportunity which they call a “Private Sharing Profit Company”.
The domain ‘privatesharingprofitcompany.com’ was just recently registered on July 1st 2012 and shares the same private domain registration as bidsthatgive.com but as of yet isn’t active.
Meanwhile Randy Jeffers has a colorful MLM history spanning several company launches:
- Destiny Telecom (launched in the 1990s and shut down in 1997 after regulators and authorities got involved between 1996 and 1998)
- WOW Mobile (founded in 2010 and bankrupted in 2010)
- Liberty International (founded in 1999, also bankrupted in 2010)
Following the bankruptcy of Liberty International and WOW Mobile, Jeffers launched the Liberty Freedom Network which still appears to be doing business today (marketing restaurant coupons).
The BidsThatGive Compensation Plan
Like all the other penny auction based MLM companies popping up all over the place, the Bids That Give compensation plan focuses on the purchase of bids by retail customers and Bids That Give affiliates themselves.
The bids available for use on the BidsThatGive penny auction are retail bids, wholesale bids and subscription bids.
Retail Bids
Retail bids cost 65 cents each and are available for purchase by BidsThatGive retail customers. The purchase of retail bids by customers attracts a 20% commission payable to the BidsThatGive affiliate who referred the customer to the company.
Wholesale Bids
Wholesale bids are only purchasable by BidsThatGive members, or “Bid Ambassadors” as the company refers to them. Bid Ambassadors purchase wholesale bids for 50 cents each and give these away to customers they have introduced to the penny auctions.
For each wholesale bid purchased by a Bid Ambassador, BidsThatGive award him or her 1 point in the BidsThatGive “Daily Profit-Sharing Pool”.
This pool is made of up to 50% of the company’s profit (bid purchases, auction winner fees and Bid Ambassador membership fees) and is calculated daily. The more points a Bid Ambassador has, the larger their share of the profit pool.
Payouts via participation in the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool are capped at $3,000 USD a day Monday to Friday and $5000 USD on Saturday and Sundays. A $20,000 global cap also exists, but excludes wholesale bid commissions (commissions on downline wholesale bid purchases).
Qualifiers for earning in the daily profit pool are the acquisition of two retail customers (to dump wholesale bids on), the purchase of at least 10 wholesale bids and publication of a BidsThatGive advertisement anywhere on the internet, providing a link back to BidsThatGive for daily verification.
Subscription Bids
Subscription bids are bids given to Bid Ambassadors when they pay their membership fee each month. They can be used only on “Ambassador Auctions” and don’t generate any points in the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool if they are given away to customers.
Wholesale Bid Commissions
Wholesale bid commissions are paid out on the purchase of wholesale bids by Bid Ambassadors in the downline of BidsThatGive members.
The commission amount paid out is dependent on the membership level of the qualifying Bid Ambassador and is paid out on three levels (Bid Ambassadors directly recruited are level 1, Ambassadors level 1 recruit are your level 2 and Ambassadors your level 2 recruit are your level 3).
- Contributor – 5% on levels 1 and 2 and 2.5% purchases
- Guardian – 7% on levels 1 and 2 and 3.5% on level 3 purchases
- Benefactor – 10% on levels 1 and 2 and 5% level 3 purchases
- Ambassador – 12% on levels 1 and 2 and 6% on level 3 purchases
Subscription Bonus Pools
The BidsThatGive Subscription Bonus Pools are made up of 50% of the monthly membership fees paid monthly by Bid Ambassadors.
Shares in the Subscription Bonus Pools are determined by a Bid Ambassador’s downline’s subscription volume. That is to say the more a Bid Ambassador’s downline spend in membership fees each month, the larger the Bid Ambassador’s share in the Subscription Bonus Pools will be.
Levels in the Subscription Pools use a unilevel compensation structure, meaning that members you directly refer are your level 1, members they refer are your level 2 and so on and so forth.
The qualifications for the various BidsThatGive Subscription Bonus Pools available to Bid Ambassadors are as follows (note that Group Volume (GV) counts membership fees paid, personal wholesale bid purchases referred customer retail bid sales by your downline):
- Community Pool (made up of 15% of monthly subscription fees paid) – recruit 2 Bid Ambassadors with pool share determined by the membership fee volume of your first 2 levels
- Mentor Pool – (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – recruit at least 5 Bid Ambassadors who spend at least $100 a month and have a downline generating $2,500 in bid sales and paid membership fees in total
- Visionary Pool (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have at least 4 Mentor Pool qualified Bid Ambassadors in your downline, also pays out a matching bonus on Visionary and “VIP Pool 1” Pool earnings generated by your downline
- VIP Pool 1 (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 15,000 monthly GV for 1 share, 30,000 GV for two shares and 45,000 GV for three shares
- VIP Pool II (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 25,000 monthly GV for 2 shares, 50,000 GV for 3 shares and 75,000 GV for 4 shares, also qualifying for VIP Pool II increases matching bonus to include VIP Pool II earnings by your downline
- VIP Pool III (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 35,000 monthly GV for 2 shares, 70,000 GV for 3 shares and 105,000 GV for 4 shares, also increases matching bonus to include VIP Pool III earnings by your downline
- VIP Pool IV (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 50,000 monthly GV for 2 shares, 100,000 GV for 3 shares and 150,000 for 4 shares, also increases matching bonus to include VIP Pool IV earnings by your downline
- VIP Pool V (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 75,000 monthly GV for 2 shares, 150,000 GV for 3 shares and 225,000 GV for 4 shares, also increases matching bonus to include VIP Pool V earnings by your downline
- VIP Pool VI (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 100,000 monthly GV for 2 shares, 200,000 GV for 3 shares and 300,000 GV for 4 shares, also increases matching bonus to include VIP Pool VI earnings by your downline
- VIP Pool VII (made up of 5% of monthly subscription fees paid) – have a downline generating 250,000 monthly GV for 2 shares, 500,000 GV for 3 shares and 750,000 GV for 4 shares, also increases matching bonus to include VIP Pool VII earnings by your downline
- Presidential Elite Ambassador Bonus – have a downline generating at least 1.5 million GV a month, first million GV qualifies you for one share with each additional million GV after that another share, also includes a $50,000 a month bonus
Presidential Ambassador Bonuses
Once a BidsThatGive Bid Ambassador has a downline generating at least 750,000 GV a month or earn $100,000 themselves a month, they qualify for what is called the Presidential Ambassador Bonus. Presidential Ambassadors are subject to a $250,000 a month hard cap on earnings.
The Presidential Ambassador Bonus allows the selection of either a Porsche Carrera or Mercedes-Benz CL550 car, a $10,000 Neiman Marcus shopping spree and $100,000 “lifestyle bonus” paid out quarterly.
Additionally, Presidential Ambassadors are also qualified to open up a new Bid Ambassador position directly above themselves (meaning they effectively recruit themselves).
This second Bid Ambassador position has no monthly income limit and is able to earn all bonuses and participate in the Profit-Sharing Pool scheme in the same manner as a new Bid Ambassador is.
Upon this second Bid Ambassador position qualifying as a Presidential Ambassador for a yearly quarter, a choice of either a Bentley or Lamborghini car or yacht (up to $225,000 in value) is made available as well as a third Bid Ambassador position (placed above the second Bid Ambassador position).
As with the second Bid Ambassador position, this third position has no income limit and starts again as a new Bid Ambassador would. Upon this third Bid Ambassador position qualifying as a Presidential Ambassador, an orphanage is built in the Bid Ambassadors name (up to $250,000 of company money is spent on an individual orphanage) and a fourth Bid Ambassador position is made available.
When the fourth Bid Ambassador position achieves Presidential Ambassador qualification and maintains it for a yearly quarter, a “church, school or hospital is built in the name of the qualifying Bid Ambassador (again, up to $250,000 of company money is spent on this).
Retail Stores
In addition to the penny auctions, each Bid Ambassador is also given a BidsThatGive retail store, stocked with items by the company.
Bid Ambassador’s earn commissions when they sell items through their bid stores, calculated as the difference between the wholesale price and retail price the items are purchased at.
Note that retail stores are only offered at the “Benefactor” and “Ambassador” Bid Ambassador membership levels ($100 and $250 a month respectively).
Car Payment Program
BidsThatGive’s Car Payment Program pays out $1,200 towards a new or used car (up to 3 years old) to Bid Ambassador’s who accumulate 60,000 points in the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool scheme.
Bid Ambassadors that qualify for the Car Payment Program are given the title of “Mentor” and must maintain Mentor rank for four weeks before Car Payment Program payments begin.
Joining Bids That Give
Membership as a Bid Ambassador in BidsThatGive has five different price points:
- Contributor – $10 a month with 20 subscription bids, $1000 capped maximum investment in wholesale bids
- Guardian – $50 a month with 100 subscription bids, $5000 capped maximum investment in wholesale bids
- Benefactor – $100 a month with 200 subscription bids, $10,000 capped maximum investment in wholesale bids
- Ambassador – $250 a month with 500 subscription bids, $25,000 capped maximum investment in wholesale bids
Note that capped maximum investments only apple to external money a Bid Ambassador brings to the company. Using Daily Profit-Sharing Pool payouts to re-invest back into the company via wholesale bid purchases (to increase Daily Profit-Sharing Pool point balances) does not count towards this limit.
There is also a free Bid Ambassador membership level available, however free Bid Ambassadors are unable to participate in the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool.
Conclusion
Perhaps something to do with the stigma that often accompanies the MLM industry and the companies that populate it, for some strange reason BidsThatGive proclaim in their marketing material that they are “NOT MLM!”:
Curiously BidsThatGive make this claim despite the fact that they offer referral purchase commissions on multiple levels, contain MLM style membership ranks and qualifiers (group volume and personal volume) and utilise a MLM unilevel compensation structure to calculate qualification on all of their bonuses.
Yeah, and this isn’t a review on BidsThatGive so much as it’s just a bunch of words on a computer screen. Sure thing guys.
The ‘we’re not MLM despite obviously being a MLM” peculiarity aside, compensation plan there are some new additions to the MLM + penny auction niche, but still many of the red flags that are glaringly apparent in rival companies and their compensation plans.
For starters, it’s difficult to look at the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool scheme as anything other than an investment by company members that pays out a daily return.
The only people able to purchase wholesale bids are BidsThatGive members so 100% of the purchasing here is internal consumption. That in itself isn’t a red flag when you consider the retail bids available but it is when you consider the Daily Profit Sharing Pool mechanics.
Effectively BidsThatGive Bid Ambassadors are rewarded daily directly based on the amount of money they themselves invest into the company.
You can call this investment “the purchase of wholesale bids” or whatever else you want but it still constitutes money being transferred directly by company members to the company with the expectation of an eventual return that exceeds, dollar for dollar, the initial amount invested.
Throw in the relationship between how much money is thrown in determining how much of a share in the daily returns offered, and that’s a pretty big red flag right there.
Remember that re-investment in more bids is naturally encouraged to grow point balances and thus increase overall daily profit shares, so effectively it’s not just the initial investment made that determines profit shares, but rather an ongoing contribution via members to increase this balance.
I couldn’t find any mention of point retirement so I’m not sure if there is one, either way though whether points retire or not, members still need to increase points.
With point retirement the reason so is obvious, to replace the bids lost and grow the overall point balance. Without point retirement the need to continue to grow point balances becomes a competitive issue. If one members point balance stagnates, their daily profit share will effectively decrease as other member’s total point balances increase.
“X” points today won’t yield the same daily return as “X” points in a week time when you factor the diminishing value of each point due to overall continued generation of new points in the pool via new and continued investment in wholesale bids by new and existing Bid Ambassadors.
Thus I’m also not entirely sure what’s up with the whole misleading “you get paid to advertise” marketing nonsense either. Quite clearly without an initial investment and ongoing investment in points, you don’t get paid via the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool, whether you publish a daily ad or not.
Given that wholesale bid sales by members are pumped into the Daily Profit-Sharing Pool, quite clearly the advertising for retail customers becomes a token gesture with Bid Ambassador’s far more likely to seek out new investors to pump money into the scheme (remember, they get a referral commission paid out on three levels when their downline purchase wholesale bids and simultaneously invest in the Daily Profit-Share Pool).
The BidsThatGive income caps are interesting in that I believe it’s the first we’ve seen in the MLM penny auction niche however it’s far from a viable sustainability solution.
As I see it the earnings cap only serves to cap passive investors who are attracted to BidsThatGive. Those that recruit new Bid Ambassadors and encourage them to invest (working BidsThatGive like a traditional MLM company), effectively remove a cap on their earnings after hitting the Presidential Bid Ambassador membership rank and generating a new Bid Ambassador position that is uncapped earnings wise.
That said passive investors are still able to bring in $20,000 a week which still equates to 1 million a year in earnings (minus re-investment in wholesale bids).
Note that the term “passive investment” is used as I imagine it won’t be long before lead generators start marketing the sale of “customers” to BidsThatGive members the same as they do for the other MLM penny auction companies.
How many customers a Bid Ambassador needs as they grow their point balances and effective daily ROI I’m not sure as I didn’t see any limit on dumping wholesale bids on customers in the compensation material I cited. In hindsight I suppose this is because Bid Ambassadors are credited with points for merely purchasing wholesale bids, rather than giving them away and/or having customers use the bids.
As for the whole children’s charity angle, that appears to be more of a marketing gimmick than anything else. There’s nothing stopping anyone in another penny auction MLM company from donating to charity and I see its inclusion as serving only one real purpose, that being to allow members to use the predictable ‘but what about the children we help?’ strawman defence to address any criticism directed at BidsThatGive and its business model.
I suspect the same might also be used as a pre-emptive deterrent for any regulators that might investigate the company (a very real possibility that might easily be hastened given Randy Jeffer’s MLM history).
“Government attacks children’s charity donators” looks much better than “Goverment shuts down unsustainable business model largely funded by members that paid out ridiculously unsustainable daily returns”.
All in all I think BidsThatGive is going to struggle to attract actual retail investors and instead will just wind up paying daily returns largely funded by membership fees and wholesale bid purchases by members.
This assumption is strongly supported by the fact that BidsThatGive’s bonus pools are funded by 50% of monthly membership fees paid. Surely if the company had any confidence in the retail side of the business they’d be funding these pools with profits generated by retail customers purchasing retail bids?
Then of course there’s the membership options which pretty much equate to the more membership money you pay each month the more BidsThatGive will let you invest into the scheme and earn via daily ROI.
These points alone pretty much tell you where BidsThatGive are planning to acquire most of their revenue from and sadly doesn’t look well for the long-term viability of the company – legally or otherwise.
Note the daily profit share cap is the inverse of Zeek, where the expected auction revenue on weekends is more than weekdays.
We see this hold true for lotteries, sportsbooks, online poker, and online casinos. But Zeek would have you believe they generate more penny auction revenue on weekdays.
At least these guys attempt to be transparent, even if the business model equates to a Ponzi.
After months of analyzing Zeek, another RPP (Revolving Ponzi Pool), now in the name of innocent children? Nooooooooo!!!!
My head just hit the ceiling, and Oz just spilled coffee all over his shirt and keyboard. It’s the scam (bids) that keeps on giving.
Sorry Oz, I know how you feel about the clips, but it’s time to buzz the tower!
Sounds like someone decided to copy Zeek Rewards almost verbatim. I didn’t see anything about a requirement for posting a daily spam ad, though.
But if they’re supposed to give away bids, then such a thing is probably inevitable, unless affiliates just follow the Zeek model and invent the customers themselves.
Once again I am seriously impressed at the time you put into your work. You have just once again saved me hours of trolling over multiple sites and gossip and also brought something to my attention that i otherwise might have not known about..
I find you level of review informative, fair, balanced and restrained. You could slash and burn a lot of these deals but you dont and you would be well within your rights to do so but you dont.
Good stuff
I now have you on my hot list for info because the content saves me time. And time = money.. And with money you can leverage your time. So in realty this is a great money making site for me.
I just cant find the signup and pay money link…:)
well done.
C
It’s best described as Wazzub + Wazzub Charity + Zeekler + Zeek Rewards.
What a monstrosity! 😀
No way after Liberty Freedom. How many people did they #*&@???? They took the money and ran. They should be embarrassed to hide behind children..
Everyone look at Randy’s history. BAD BAD and very BAD. Do the research. Randy how is the WowTV going?? So many lies. JR,MF and WW how can you do this again??
The article is okay, but the description of the com plan is not completely accurate. I would encourage you to do some more research before you post the details.
To be clear, as someone has already posted above… the weekend payout is less than the weekday payout. The commissions are only to 2 tiers. Nonetheless, my real drive to post a comment is more about the integrity of the owner and the vision of the company.
I have been a leader, consultant, and trainer in the home business industry for several years. Additionally, I am a child psychologist and specialize in trauma within the foster care system; most of my work has been within the residential care system (a fancy term we use in the US for an orphanage).
Knowing how much money is at stake with all of this, I applaud Randy for taking this on and support a population of children that really need the help. Randy has been working with these kids for years, and has personally spent millions building several orphanages that house hundreds of kids. Do the research, he is the real deal.
As for the integrity of Randy, I am still waiting for the first person to prove to me that they lost money in WOW.
Now, I have heard from several people who were making 10’s of thousands a month who all of a sudden had no company. I do also know several people who still collect a check from Liberty; who by the way have never missed a commission payment… ever!
I think if you do the research, you will find that there are many powerful business people and company owners who have failed in the past and gone one to make massive success…. seems to me many large names out there have…. anyone afraid of being a business partner with Trump? How about the many presidents we have had who were absolute failures in business.
One more thing…. It is strange how no one is basing some of the other owners of companies on here…. given some of their backgrounds…. just saying.
It is according to the comp plan material I cited. Bids That Give missed their announced July 4th launch date so to the best of my knowledge haven’t publicly released any updated compensation plan material.
As a sum total yes but not day to day (unless they’ve changed something).
This was mentioned in the review, did you even read it?
Ah, well that explains the waffle above then. You’re here to cheerlead.
The integrity of the owner and vision of the company form only a small part of a MLM business opportunity review. Of far more importance is the business model.
If you want to cheerlead for Randy Jeffers and hope that somehow rubs off onto the penny auction investment business model then you’re probably in the wrong place. Far more weight is given to the mechanics of the business model than whether or not a company uses a dubious compensation plan and hides behind charity.
Randy Jeffers could be Santa Clause and it still wouldn’t change the business model Bids That Give are using.
Yes, I’m doing the research in asking YOU, the one who brought it up:
What’s the NAME of the Charity (Foundation or whatever it is), and WHERE is it registered?
If you have some information about the “several orphanages that houses hundreds of kids”, please add a little information about those too?
Normally, we don’t say “He has personally spent millions” if the money has gone through a charity foundation. A charity foundation owns itself, and it’s the charity that spends the money and not the person who founded it. A person with integrity should know that?
So I’ll guess you meant “He has personally founded a charity foundation that has spent millions building several orphanages”, not “He has personally spent millions”?
WOW went bankrupt in 2010 or something?
Case number 10-65955-AER7 (28 pages bankruptcy filing, scribd.com)
The bankruptcy filing reference number was found here:
http://www.businesscomplaints.org/showthread.php?p=2901
It seems like T-Mobile lost nearly $2 million?
This is one of the worst bankruptcy filings I ever have seen. Not bcause of the amounts involved, but because of all the info that is missing.
* No income in the last 2 years?
* No known creditors, other than T-Mobile?
* No assets, other than $641.
* No accounting in the last 2 years?
This bankruptcy should immediately raise some red flags, and be investigated at a federal level for bankruptcy fraud.
My first impression here is that the integrity doesn’t stick very deep? Comments on Troy Dooly’s website indicates he has paid some people, but scammed lots of others.
http://mlmhelpdesk.com/mlm-wireless-news-update-randy-jeffers-stands-by-liberty-freedom-network/
The expression “he has paid” referred of course to Randy Jeffers, not to Troy Dooly. 🙂
It might be possible to get some information from the reps who was cheated the last time, in the Liberty International bankruptcy and in the Liberty Freedom Network.
From Troy’s site:
@JC
I have found the name of the Charity Foundation myself – libertykidz.org – but I haven’t found WHERE it’s registered yet.
What I find interesting is people in Bids that Give are sending the link to THIS review, so as to get people to join! After reading all this, I don’t se this as something I want to jump right into.
Well well well,
I’ve got 10k just waiting to jump into bidsthatgive when it opens…. But this is what I have been searching for info about the owner.
And after reading he ran with money that’s a big red flag! I will not be joining this businesses now maybe put $100 buck into it but that’s it lol…
INFO on LIBERTYKIDZ.ORG
R. Jeffers owns the domains libertykidz.net, .com, and .org.
Website was created by 1&1 who essentially use a WYSIWYG interface for building websites. For the non tech savvy, its the same as saying you basically need ZERO tech skills to develop a professional website.
http://www.whois.net/whois/libertykidz.org
http://www.whois.net/whois/libertykidz.com
http://www.whois.net/whois/libertykidz.net
This will be fun
For anyone wondering about how Zeek’s recent shutdown will affect the other MLM penny auctions, the answer is probably “NEGATIVE”. The effect will probably be devastating within a few weeks from now.
The small ones have been heavily dependant on the big one (with Zeek being “the big one” here). Zeek’s shutdown showed that only 2% of the money came from the auctions, while 98% of the money came from the affiliates themselves — “purchasing sample bids” as an initial investment.
Zeek’s collapse will probably lead to a short term growth, from affiliates trying to find a new opportunity to monetize on their existing downlines from Zeek. The collapse will probably also lead to a growing number of affiliates trying to get their initial investments back, affiliates in the small ones.
If the penny auctions didn’t provide much revenue in Zeek, how is it in BidsThatGives? Affiliates paying money in doesn’t create much profit for the affiliates as a group, it will only redistribute money from new affiliates to the old ones.
Affiliates spending bids in auctions doesn’t generate much profit, either. It’s only a recycling of money, where the same money is used over and over again.
GUMPs Good Unexperienced Money People, the ones who invests from their savings accounts, needs something to BELIEVE IN to be willing to invest their money.
In Zeek, they really needed to believe in the idea about “how profitable penny auctions are”. That idea has failed now, so now the GUMPs themselves will probably start to ask critical questions about the business model.
My prediction for the small MLM penny auctions is tougher times, with tougher questions from existing investors and prospects, where the flow of money coming in will decrease rapidly and cause cash flow problems — within a few weeks from now.
It means I am predicting that one type of behaviour will have much more impact than another type of behaviour, i.e people jumping ship from Zeek won’t be enough to compensate for the decreasing stream of GUMPs.
The numbers from Zeek (January 2011 – mid August 2012):
* 3 billion points “liability”
* $600 million total collected from investors, in real MONEY
* $375 million paid out to investors, in real MONEY
* $225 million frozen in bank accounts when the scheme was shut down in August 2012, when the signs of a collapse had been clear for a few weeks already.
In other words:
* 3 billion points is what the investors believed the company owed them in dollars, what people believed the company had generated in profit for them.
* $600 million is what the investors initially had paid in
* $375 is what the company already had paid out to old investors, money drained from the system.
* $225 million is what they had in reserve
So if a newly recruited investor pays in $10,000 here, and receives 10,000 points in return, the real value backing up those points are only 7.5% = $750, what he theoretically can expect to get back if the scheme continues (assuming 100% withdrawal).
The shutdown will improve his chances for getting more of his money back to 37.5% = $3,750. Since many investors won’t file complaints, the chances are much better.
Many of the investors have probably only invested a low amount of money, and they are more likely willing to accept the loss rather than spending time on a complaint.
Wondering if you have anything new about this company. Has the same pay plan as Zeek but a few differences such as the cap on money made per day. Also is not in the US so the regulators can’t take the money if they really want to.
A little confused and looking for information on it all. Especially since Zeek got shut down by the SEC.
Will the changes and the “products” they are supposedly offering going to be enough to keep the wolves at bay?
Really looking for real opinions backed by a thought process other than “I hate blah blah blah” 🙂 Critical thinking responses only please. Trying to learn here and open to real knowledge. Thanks.
@Sam
Given that these guys haven’t officially launched yet, pending any changes to the comp plan neither being based offshore or capping daily earnings changes the fundamental investment scheme nature of the business.
You invest $x and expect a >$x ROI over a certain amount of days. Where does this ROI come from? New affiliates.
That was what was fundamentally wrong with Zeek’s business model but until the Bids That Give auctions actually officially launch, cannot be ascertained.
What can be predicted though is that with a months long extensive pre-launch campaign, there’s no hope in hell a new penny auction site is going to offset the pre-launch investments made by Bids That Give affiliates.
Given that at this time the company has no other sources of revenue (can’t generate retail revenue if you haven’t officially launched your penny auctions yet), it’s a safe bet that at launch and following into the forseeable future Bids That Give too will be largely paying out existing affiliates with new affiliate money.
This and this alone is what brought down Zeek Rewards, everything else is just noise.
Thanks Oz. That is what I was needing to hear. I thought the same thing just wanted another opinion.
M Norway. I am a victim of Zeekrewards and lost a chuck of money. Joined two months ago. Where do I go to file a complaint?
Do you recommend I get a lawyer or save my money. Any advise or direction you or anyone else can give me will be greatly appreciated. Will never take that road again!
For those who invested money in Zeek, I actually joined Zeek on 7/23 and sent a cashiers check to North Carolina for $1000. I was informed by one of the gentlemen who brought me into the business that the folks at Zeek had not cashed/deposited all the cashiers checks they received.
I went to my financial institution today to inquire about the cashiers check I sent them and low and behold they had not cashed it. After about 30 minutes and filling out some paperwork with a personal banker, my $1000 was deposited back into my bank account.
With all that being said, check with your financial institution and see if the folks at Zeek cashed your check. There is a possibility you could be lucky and get your money back. I was a lucky one!
The thing most are missing is that if you can create an attractive auction site, then it is possible to create a profit. If you don’t believe me, just check out Quibids. They are doing just fine. As a matter of fact they are running about 6000 – 8000 auctions per week depending on the time of year and all they do is advertise.
Who says that Bids that Give can’t generate customers by advertising. And hey, if they don’t generate any customers, then guess what…they don’t pay out. If Zeekler had done this rather then paying bogus payouts then maybe they would be in a different situation today. Who knows.
The point is, how do you know what the future holds? It’s silly to be uninformed and talk about a company before it has even started. Why don’t people let the company launch and then make their judgments. Anything else is just uneducated opinions.
Do those that judge before they even know what they are talking about really think that they are an expert on the subject? What’s worse is those that listen to them. What a bunch of mindless followers that can’t take a moment to logically put things into perspective and come to a conclusion intelligently.
Maybe it is a weird internal longing, or just stupidity when people pile on about something or someone they haven’t a clue about, only to realize to late that they just jumped off the bridge with them.
It’s sad really, because too many people put stock into comments written by other who haven’t a clue only to miss out on some really great opportunities. I’m not saying that Bids That Give is one of those opportunities, but I’m not saying it isn’t either…not yet!!
Why, what the company said about how they operate is not enough to go by?
What about you guys who did put money into it? Are you putting in your money based on “uneducated opinions” i.e. “faith”?
At best, you’re “pot calling the kettle black”. Worst case, you have a denial issue. I’m not sure where along the spectrum you are.
You certainly got that right, Pokey.
@David
Quibids don’t ahve the huge liabilities a points/share based MLM compensation plan introduces. Comparisons are thus irrelevant.
History shows us that MLM penny auctions don’t attract retail customers. Retail activity in Zeek Rewards (1 million plus members) was revealed to make up just 2% of the daily ROI paid out.
Time is irrelevant when analysing a business model. You don’t need to wait for a company to launch to follow the money.
The same bullshit was trotted out by Zeek Rewards affiliates. We all kow what happened there.
To all the haters. The point was no one really know what will happen untill the site goes live. Is anyone willing to bet their life on it that the know without a doubt the site will fail. I dare anyone who is being honest to say so.
The point is that until the site launches every opinion is just that and should not be taken as fact until proven. I am not saying this to the people with their opinions, but rather to the persons coming to this discussion to get real information.
I don’t care what peoples’ opinions are simply because they don’t mean anything and everyone who commented knows this. Like it or not, all arguments are in vain untill there is fact presented. None has been presented yet.
Just because another company failed doesn’t mean another can’t succeed. The ignorance of people would normally be shocking, but now a days it seams to be the norm.
This is a warning to those who want true questions answered and my message is don’t take any one’s opinions for fact, including mine. Do your own REAL research from those who truly know. Do real research and avoid idiotic discussions such as ones like this. Try to get unbiased opinions.
None of these opinionated people are even in Bids That give and haven’t a damn clue. They have been burned from some other company or simply don’t have the guts to try something and this is their way to get back at the industry and justify their lack of courage or ambition which keeps them broke and on the couch.
Why you would ask them what they think or know says a lot about you for asking. If you truly are looking for answers you won’t find it here. Try going to the company website, examine the comp plan, and then make your own decisions based on fact, not on speculation.
It’s ok to read these comments for fun but please get a real education. Don’t take these idiots’ words for it.
Why not? A business model might be a great mathematical mystery to you but it can easily be studied and analysed whether a site is live or not.
They do if they’re based on a compensation plan and business model, or were you talking exclusively about opinions such as your own, which amount to nothing more than emotional drivel?
The business model is known and has been analysed and discussed. Pray tell what else is there to know?
You don’t need to be in a company to analyse and deconstruct its business model.
Been there, done that. Infact this review and resulting discussion was the end product of that very process.
Thanks for playing.
Fair warning: keep your panty twisting ranting out of any future replies or they’ll be marked as spam. You aren’t convincing anyone of anything throwing your silly little ad-hominem insults around.
Sure it is if you are getting it from the company; also known as getting the info. from the horses mouth. Are you smart enough to follow this? If you go by what the company says, it says it will be a success, so obviously you (Chang) are going by YOUR OWN OPINION and not what the company says. That’s the point.
I put my money in based on the facts at hand from the company and not from a stupid comment from people who have no idea and can’t even tell you what the comp plan is. That is the point also.
Not sure what denial issue you are talking about, especially when I am not saying that Bids That Give will be a success, but rather why don’t people let it play out first, then make the call.
It might be a failure. To call it one before it even starts is just to assume and we all know what assuming does to people. Shall I spell it out for you Chang?
You’re kidding right?
Here’s a clue:
The source material for this review and accompanying discussion was Bids That Give’s own compensation plan material.
Good grief.
Golly gosh, young “David” must be a real life psychic to be able to figure all that out just from reading posts.
Now now, careful littleroundman or David’ll surely issue you with “a warning”.
You don’t want that, believe me.
Why don’t you tell me what the comp plan is if you know it so well OZ. If you can do that then you win. The thing is though you won’t because you don’t know.
I don’t care if you trash the company. I only ask that it be done after you have real results. Yes you can analyze all you want but it is all theory. You have now proof. Whats worse is you can’t even admit you have no proof. Are you really that thick?
You want to use Zeek as the model that failed but what about all the other Auction sites out there that have succeeded? Oh, I guess they don’t count!
My original point was that it is possible for an auction site to be successful if done well. Are you saying this is impossible? And please answer my question,it is a simple one. I still have faith that I am not speaking to a complete moron.
(this is what happens when cheerleaders barge in here without reading anything)
If you’re reading this then I already did, it’s in the review on this very page.
It’s not theory because the compensation plan is tangible and analysable. Furthermore it’s extremely similar to Zeek Rewards, which is a demonstrated failed Ponzi scheme.
1. Other sites are irrelevant.
2. “Auction sites” are not the topic of discussion here, nor are they reviewed. MLM penny auction opportunities are.
Of course not and I never did. Coupled with a MLM style Ponzi points compensation plan however and it’s mathematically guaranteed they will eventually fail.
“Done well”, now who’s breaking off into hypothetical tangents?
Lucky you, I lost that a few replies back.
I guess Oz is still writing out the comp plan for us all. I can’t wait. Make sure you throw a few ponsi comments in there as well.
By the way where would you suggest to find out the facts about a company comp plan if not from the company itself? Just curious where you get your info.
The source material for this review and accompanying discussion was Bids That Give’s own compensation plan material.
So you don’t consider company’s own website to be “fact”?
Obviously your research is flawed because you are incorrect about the comp plan. It was pointed out in an earlier comment from a person named Jeramy. That in itself confirms that your so-called research is flawed. I challenge you to go back and check again, but I am sure you are too stubborn to do so.
Also, why is the success of another auction sites irrelevant? If the success of the site is vital to support the affiliates pay then I say that has everything to do with the success of the company be it an MLM or not. Why is this so hard for you to admit? Did you ever see the Zeek site?
It was a joke and it wasn’t surprising that it couldn’t maintain. I maintain my point that if an auction site is a good one, it is possible that it could work. I’m not saying it will but it could. That has been my point but everyone wants to rule out that possibility. Is this not a possibility? C
Nobody named “jeramy” has commented on this article so all it really confirms is that you can’t read.
Stubborness has nothing to do with it, the review is accurate and I wholly stand by it.
You’re welcome to point out any flaws, but despite crapping on about them you’ve failed to point out one.
Because this review and discussion isn’t about the viability of an auction site, it’s about the viability of a MLM business model attached to one.
Nobody is disputing whether auction sites work or not, rather the attaching of a Ponzi points business model attached to one.
And for the record, Zeekler was a working and functioning auction site. It’s just that people were far more interested in the Ponzi points Zeek Rewards compensation plan, rather than participating in auctions they’ll most likely lose money on.
Bids That Give is using a near identical Ponzi points plan to Zeek Rewards, you do the math.
Or you can sit there carrying on about everyone just not getting it waffle waffle waffle.
I do consider the company’s own website to be fact. the fact is though that you have misrepresented the information that you supposedly got for the companies website.
Just get it right and admit that it is a possibility that if they have a profitable auction site that they could maintain. this doesn’t mean they will pay out like Zeek, because Zeek, as we both know, was a lie not based on true profits.
You are just bad talking another company because of what another company has done. You don’t really know what will happen until it happens. Hopefully you will admit this. If not, can you please tell me what next weeks lottery numbers will be. thanks
Sorry, you are right for once. It was JC and he commented on the 12th of July.
M’aww “misrepresentated it”. First it was ‘you just made up the review” and now it’s “waaah you misrepresented the comp plan” :rolleyes:.
Wassamatter, compliance team told you not to use the big bad ‘I’ word? The Bids That Give compensation plan and analysis here is accurate, just because it might be at odds with your marketing spin doesn’t make it otherwise.
Again, the compensation plan analysis is accurate and you’re welcome to point out and flaws you find. Instead though you just continue to spout of generalities backed with no facts.
By definition, an auction site attached to a Ponzi points compensation plan cannot be mathematically profitable.
Ponzi points introduce a liability against the purchase of every bid because affiliates expect a >100% ROI for each point earned. This in turn creates an impossible liability that the company cannot pay out as eventually new member investments can’t cover ever-increasing owed point ROIs.
And before you crap on about “nothing is guaranteed”, as demonstrated in Zeek Rewards it’s an implied ROI guarantee, without which nobody would bother investing in wholesale bids (or whatever a company might call them) in the first place.
And neither is Bids That Give. Members join, invest in wholesale bids, bing-badda-boom hello SEC and cue affiliates like yourself with the ‘ohhhh but we didn’t know” sob stories.
That might be the case if an analysis and review was not done on Bids That Give’s business model and compensation plan.
Given that it was, that kills your (yet another baseless) argument.
JC’s points were addressed in full and he was never heard from again.
We’re going around in circles, either point out any specific inaccuracies you see with the compensation plan review or stop wasting my time.
(Ozedit: either point out any specific inaccuracies you see with the compensation plan review or stop wasting my time)
your inaccuracy is the fact that you are basing your opinion that Bids That Give can’t be successful simply because it is an auction site that could not make enough money to maintain itself.
I mentioned that there are several auction sites that make a profit and you discarded them simply because they are not an MLM. It is possible that Bids that give could make a profit and pay their affiliates.
It might be modest and it probably will be. I’m sure the guys in Zeek who were makeing $100,000 a week would have been just as happy to make $10,000 a week and still have a company.
The problem was their site sucked and they had no daily cap, thus they planned poorly. Maybe they never even intended to stay in business. Just don’t lump all similar business in the same boat.
Let me be crystal clear, Bids That Give as an auction site is not being discussed here – only the MLM side of things is relevant.
Functionally, the MLM side of things is near identical to Zeek Rewards, and that is already a proven Ponzi business model (well before the SEC shut them down).
Rightfully so.
Actually the problem was, using a MLM business model near identical to Bids That Give, that 98% of the money paid out to affiliates in the Ponzi points compensation plan was affiliate money.
It had nothing to do with the auctions or them “sucking”.
As history has proven, if you run a Ponzi points MLM compensaton plan with a penny auction the penny auction becomes irrelevant. You will attract Ponzi players the world over and you will ultimately be running a Ponzi scheme.
Money flow made Zeek Rewards a Ponzi scheme. In using a near identical Ponzi points scheme, Bids That Give’s compensation plan is far more than just “similar” to Zeek Rewards, and with it comes the same Ponzi points money flow problems Zeek had.
I will type this very slowly for you!
I maintain that if an auction site can be profitable enough, it can support any type of structure be it an MLM or not. It has nothing to due with being an MLM and everything to do with being a profitable auction site.
The question at hand is will it be profitable enough to pay its affiliates without relying on subscription fees from the members, which I would agree would make it a ponsi scheme.
The odds could be against them especially after the fall of Zeek. It still remains to be seen though, and will not be until it launches. So why not give it a break and see what happens and then comment from a position of knowledge not a position of assumption.
Tell me, David, when you sat down to type your response, did you call for a engineers’ report on the condition of your chair before you sat down or did you “assume” it would be safe to sit in ??
“Assumption” is what lets us function as human beings.
In fact, we have a name for what happens when our “assumption” mechanism goes out of whack.
We call it “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” and pity those suffering from its’ symptoms.
Serious readers will take Oz’ experience based observations in the spirit in which they’re delivered and use them in forming their own opinions.
Trolls, with little or no real world experience in what constitutes a suspect MLM “opportunity” on the other hand……………………………………………….
@David
No it can’t. Not when we’re talking ever-increasing Ponzi points.
Ponzi points exponentially increase to infinity over time and so too does the liability against each point.
Penny auction profits do not increase exponentially to infinity.
The sooner you understand this the sooner we can move on.
How did my prediction about “tougher times for the smaller MLM penny auctions after Zeek’s shutdown” turn out?
I predicted it on August 19th (comment #15), as a response to a comment in one of the Zeek-articles, from one of the former Zeek-affiliates asking about other penny auctions to jump to.
From your comment, it seems like “Bids That Give” and “Private Sharing Profit Company” still are in pre-Launch stages? It means they haven’t had any real profit to share yet? If they have paid out anything, it has been paid from the membership fees and/or the members’ investments.
Sometimes it’s better to just ignore information from companies, and use common sense instead. “We will become a success if you give us your money isn’t very promising.
You forgot “WHEN it will happen” and “IF it will happen”? The correct expression should be “No one really know WHAT will happen, WHEN it will happen or IF it will happen, when the company finally decides to go live — and no one really seems to care, either”.
That seems to be exactly what you should be looking for in a company before joining it? All the excitement connected to the “Will it ever go live?” and “Can we expect anything at all to happen in the near future?”. There’s clearly an intense feeling of excitement involved here.
And if they don’t pay out, then no one will feel affected by that? People are expected to join just for the pleasure of avertising?
I have an alternative method for EXCITEMENT, picked up from a computer game several years ago. You will need 2 chairs, and sit in one of them when you wake up in the morning and during the daytime, while you can sit in the other chair in the evening until you go to bed.
It will certainly generate a feeling of excitement if you repeat that pattern for several weeks, and then suddenly change the pattern and sit in the opposite chairs during daytime and in the evening. So you don’t really NEED all the excitement connected to Bids That Gives.
Im reading this blog and it need to be updated. The company has change there business model and structure it not just a solo penny auction like others. They have change there comp plan as well.
As of the 26th September 2012, the compensation plan presented to the public on the “Bid Ambassadors” website is the same as the one reviewed in this article.
Tyrell is right, The compensation plan reviewed above is outdated and you need to do more research.
It’s been outdated since Sept 16th. Which also means everything that you were going back and forth with David on from Sept 18th on, was based on an uneducated opinion.
“Bid Ambassadors” is the affiliate website for Bids That Give. The compensation plan detialed on that website is the same as reviewed here.
You’re telling me Bids That Give have been publicly misrepresenting themselves to prospective members for 2 weeks now?
Until the website is updated, this the compensation plan presented to the public.
The problem you are IGNORING is we have NO PROBLEM with auction, but the MLM side is what makes the whole thing legal or illegal. Zeekler would have ran fine if ZeekRewards is NOT a Ponzi. Zeekler turned out to be merely a COVER for the ZeekRewards Ponzi.
Thus, pointing at one side of the business and keep saying “that side’s legal” is basically ignoring part of the reality.
Again, my question to, well, anyone, is: If a penny auction website is so freakin’ successful, then why does it need any kind of MLM affiliate compensation plan connected to it anyway?
Look at all the successful penny auction sites and they don’t have them. All the penny auction sites with ponzi schemes attached appear to be there only for the purpose of being a front for the ponzi scheme, with the ponzi investors being the only players in the auctions.
I mean, seriously, if you had a wildly successful penny auction site bringing in millions of dollars a month, why would you want to share any of that with people in an affiliate program?
The other penny auction sites (not MLM, not Ponzi) do indeed have great affiliate programs. Some let pay a flat fee for new customer, while others oay a % (such as 20%) on all bids that are purchased by people you refer.
Think of the income potential if you had a good review site (how do you think those forums and newsletters about PA’s make money?) or did traditional online advertising such as adwords with long tail keyword.
There is plenty of money in PA’s and in traditonal affiliate marketing. So you have to question why an MLM front is even necessary? Of course, we already know the answer as we saw with Zeek.
Oz,
It’s not misrepresentation. It’s called switching over to the new platform. You will see the updates soon but know that the information you have is old and outdated.
No it isn’t. Not until it’s the same information being shown to the public.
You tell me why after an alleged 2 weeks this new compensation plan still isn’t on the Bid Ambassador website? And you’re going to tell me that’s not misrepresentation?
‘Oh hello there, you want to join Bids That Give after reading our compensation plan? Hang on a second, the one on our website isn’t accurate and hasn’t been for some time…‘
If this new plan is ever put up I’ll be happy to go over the changes.
This is the same model of Zeek Reward. Some of people from Zeekreward teamed up 1 month before Zeek reward had been closed by SEC.
People need to avoid this misleading. They are still advertise this action. SEC need to close this model of business and put them in prizon to avoid the same model’s growth.
If they really are switching over, they should have taken down the old one and say “new comp plan coming soon”.
This creates a couple scenarios, but they all involved stupidity, laziness and fraud in various degrees.
Bids That Give appear to be gearing up to rebrand themselves as “Bids That Give 180”.
Nothing concrete at this stage other than possible changes to the comp plan (don’t have anything specific yet) and a new website (“btg180.com”), registered on the 25th of May and currently displaying the message “coming soon!”.
Essentially, this is Zeek Rewards on steroids from what I gather. They are masking the fraud behind a “charity for children”. The character behind this whole deal is shady at best.
Why people continue to fall for these get rich quick schemes is beyond me. Sadly, several of my family members lost $5k each with Zeek Rewards, now those same members are being duped again by doing the Bids That Give deal.
I warned them about Zeek and as it turns out I was right. I warned them again about this BTG, and I’m sure eventually, I’ll be right again.
Sheep will blindly follow…
Well the BTG180 website has launched sometime over the last week but apart from the brand change and new website, I can’t see anything different.
The comp plan uploaded to the BTG180 website looks identical to the Bids That Give plan.
If they’re serious about rebranding, putting up a page explaining what’s changed will probably be of benefit to visitors to the site wondering what was behind the name change.
…unless of course they’re only changing their name to escape the digital footprint of the Bids That Give brand.
180? Is that supposed to imply a 180 turn? 😉
That’s what the new logo certainly implies, but doesn’t look like they’ve changed anything. The only thing I can think of is they’ve just migrated the Bids That Give website over and haven’t updated anything yet.
Jeffers is a slimeball scammer. Im not sure how he cons so many people into his bullshit mlm businessess.
run away from BTG NOW
Never trust a charity-based MLM opportunity:
patrickpretty.com/2016/02/26/bidsthatgive-operator-listed-oregons-biggest-tax-scofflaw/
Those who support this Randy guy and his wife. I know from being around them enough that they are con artists and run scheme after scheme hoping to be millionaires.
Their charity in Thailand is nothing, NOTHING! Go to Thailand and visit.
They use other charity places there and market as theirs here in the US.
randy and his enforcers who con people into thinking they were helping children in need will be held accountable and will have to answer for this.
May God have mercy on your soul.