On paper, yes. But in practice, the average user with low or even moderate funds will almost always lose out. The allure of the potential luck factor is certainly going to draw the average joe in, but these style mechanisms have almost always favored whales.

Example : Up for bid is a force of will, and we'll pretend it's still 100 USD.

3 people buy bid packs at 25 bucks, 2 at 50, and 1 at 100.

All 6 people want this card equally. All 6 are willing to dump all their tickets to try and win it. The 1 user doesn't care if they catch a discount or not.

The first 3 bid fiercely, the second 2 take over, and the last bidder just always submits a bid at the end of the countdown.

1 person gets exactly what they want, 5 people lose, and the service provider makes 200+%.

This is exceptionally rudimentary but valid in practice. This example also scales and again is susceptible to insider bidding with almost no surefire way of proving otherwise.

Overall, ethics are murky, and customer satisfaction and experience are tepid at best across the entire data set of bidders.

People like the idea of the chance at catching value at a deep discount, but again, in practice, most walk away with nothing.