Ok this is not to try to promote an advertiser or anything, but I was just curious if anyone here had tried this Swoopo.com auction place yet? (not gonna link it, just type it in if you want to see it) Frankly it looks like it has to be a scam to me. Or else there has got to be some catch that ruins it. Anyone tried it, or heard anything about it?
it isn't a scam...but people don't realize what they're doing when they use it either. the auction timer goes down like normal, but any time someone bids it adds like 20 seconds to the auction. you have to BUY your bids. so you buy them in like packs of 50...50 bids...$50. so literally, each time you bid -- you're paying them and you're increasing the time of the auction. that is how they make their money. someone will win that item, it probably won't be you. just like the lottery.
My wife told me that this was coming to the US months ago and it took me forever to understand what the hell it is and how it works. She said that its been in Europe for a long time and is quite popular.
what a great business scheme, this is brilliant, why couldnt i think of stuff like this, darn it it's also kinda funny how people wait until 1-2 seconds are left to place a bit, conventional thinking makes them feel like they're the winner, but *boom* 10 more seconds added... haha brilliant stuff
nice concept actually i think its a good idea you have no idea how many times that i have been outbid at the VERY last second by someone on ebay or they put in a bid increased my max bid really high when I thought it would be a lot cheaper. something like this prevents this and ensures that a price that is suitable to both the seller and buyer is acheived
popcorn bidding.... evil!!!! I will have to look at the site, but I don't buy auction items much anymore.. so i probably won't use it
I'm confused. The 'how it works' section says the prices move in 15 cent increments, but the 42 inch monitor on the front page is moving only 1 cent at a time?
hehe...I just found that out. That is just insane! They're selling a ~$1000 tv/monitor for (current price) $22.90. So, by my calcs at .75 cents per bid... 2290 x .75 = 1717.5 1717.5 - 1000 = 717.5 At the current price, Swoopa would pull in over $700 in profit. That is insane! What a great website and idea to feed on the frenzy of stupid consumers.
Just tried it out after seeing it her on the BBS. I don't like the idea that you have to buy bids in bulk, but I ended up trying it out and went with the small package of 30 bids for $22 and change. I spent about 15 bids on a Macbook and a 16 Gig Flash drive. It pissed me off the fact that they add 15 seconds everytime, however I'm happy to announce, I'm the proud owner of a brand new 16 gig flash drive. Retailing for roughly $40+, I picked it up for $4.90. Sweet deal if you ask me, even if you take into account the 15 bids spent trying to get it.
It's like a lottery in that you have to be lucky and persistent or you're out of cash. It's very insidious.
LOL I just looked at a 'finished' auction.. ..where a Sony Bravia 40" 1080p LCD sold for *only* $91.58 ..and at 75 cents per bid, and this was a penny auction.. which means there were 9,158 bids or so.. which comes out to approximately $6,858 paid for the bids on a tv with a full list price of $1899. Wow. Now I don't feel so bad for them when I see someone buying a PS3 for a combined cost of about 75 dollars, bids and price.
Oh my god, these guys who created Swoopo are ****ing geniouses. Why can't I think of something like that?
still for the person who won the tv at 91.58 lets say they spent 100 bids for it so an extra 75 bucks in bids. Thats still 166.58 total cost for the winner for a 1899 tv and that is an amazing deal. of course the real losers are the ones who bid and did not win. but the inventors of this site are geniuses I wish I thought of something like this a lot sooner. You make massive profit on each item thanks to the people who do not win the item and the winner of the item usually does get the item at an amazing price even after the costs of bids
Yes. I checked that particular item though, and the winner put in over 1500 bids. Dude spent almost $1,200 on his bids alone. So, yeah, he paid about $1,300 on a tv with a list price of $1,899 Of course, this is probably the same TV that Fry's advertises as $1,699 (Before $400 savings!) LOL But yeah, it would be sweet to be someone who did not have to pay a ton on the bids. One that happened in the middle of the night, I saw a guy put in only 2 bids and got an 80gb PS3 for $38. Dayum
