New to the US market is swoopo.com an auction site, but not one like you know and hate love like eBay. No, swoopo is a very different and interesting concept. The price you pay is the cost of bidding plus the ending final price. Confused?
Each bid costs $1. Yes, you pay to bid. You can buy bids in groups of 20 up to 500. So every time you bid, you are charged $1. Now the flip side of this is the prices are very low on goods. For example, a 2nd gen 8gb iPod touch just went for $73.80 (final sales price, who knows how much that person spent in bids to claim it). They seem stocked with lots of gadgets, laptops and even jewelry.
But wait, there is more
It gets more interesting. The rules are bids are increased in $0.15 increments. So, that iPod grossed the site $565.65 (final sales price divided by the number of bids plus sales price). Each bid pushes back the auction timer 15 seconds giving others a chance to respond to the bid. Bidding starts for each product at $0.15, which is figured into the above equation.
It looks like the company will do OK. Getting paid $565.65 for a $229 product says there is some power in this model.
Scammers?
Like anything though, some people believe it is a scam.
“This site is a complete joke! It is just a big SCAM. I stared at the counter until it went down to 1 second hit bid, and NOPE I didn’t win…”
One commenter on that complaint site says swoopo isn’t a scam, and he himself had won several laptops at amazing prices.
Buyer beware. Let us know in the comments if anyone gives this a whirl. Math majors only, please.
Site [Swoopo.com]
I signed up today and have been looking around. It def. seems open for abuse as stated above. This can be manipulated so easily by them. It still nonetheless a very convincing business model. The site seem to have gone down at around 7pm. No idea why. Luckily I never trusted it buy anything but did watch it alot today contimplating the idea of it.
I signed up today and have been looking around. It def. seems open for abuse. This can be manipulated so easily by them. It still nonetheless a very convincing business model. The site seem to have gone down at around 7pm. No idea why. Luckily I never trusted it buy anything but did watch it alot today contimplating the idea of it.
I don't think it is a scam in that they are honest about how the site "works" but in truth this website is a lottery. It should be (and will be) shut down by regulatory authorities. It is a gambling website or a lottery, not an auction website. Very sad to take advantage of people like this. I hope they are forced to give every dime back and the CEO and execs go to jail.
MK – a lottery might be a good way to describe it.
Manipulation (like Nestor says) is a big threat from above as it is in the sites interest to keep the bid climbing.
Fascinating concept that I bet is costing folks a lot of money. I'll see if I can get an interview… and report back in.
If it looks too good to be true,it probably is.0.15 for high-end electronics?I wonder if one did get a great "deal",if you'd ever even get the merchandise?
Russ, the business model makes sense so you figure they'd ship you something.
But go into it with your eyes open. The savings you get are thanks to others failed bids.
In any event it brings a new line of thinking to auctions, and eBay could use a rival…
Which reminds me, Trade2Save should be getting ready for a launch real soon. Check them out at trade2save.com. They could demolish eBays electronic auctions.
A good question for your interview would be, Do they have people or automated systems within their organization bidding to on thier own products to ensure an auction contiues until they turn a profit.
Pat, interesting idea. I found this in the terms and services: "Employees and relatives of employees of Entertainment Shopping, Inc. are not eligible to participate in Swoopo auctions under any circumstances." That does not answer the bot question though.
There is an auction right now for $1,000 cash, one of their 100% off auctions (the winner doesn't pay the final price, they just get the money). It currently is bid at $1210.95. Now, my math says that is $8073 swoopo grossed at $1 per bid, each bid moving the amount 15 cents. And it has gone up another 3 dollars in the time it took me to bang this out. That another $20 for swoopo. Unreal!
Lottery is sounding more and more like a good description. What do you think?
The $1000 cash auction noted above ended 2 days ago. The winner placed 4,492 bids, none of them free bids (you can also bid to win more bids, called freebids, though they seem harder to win than most of the merchandise). As it tallies it on the page, they spent $4,492 in bids to win $1,000. This person did it all by using their automated system called Bidbutler as well, lending even more to the bot possibility. That's the sort of thing that makes this look like a scam. I don't care who it is, nobody is THAT dumb to overspend like that.
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/-1-000-cash-/101339.html
The winner did not place 4,492 bids. That was the total number of bids placed.
It is a 100% free auction, so the winner does not have to pay the bid price. The winner only pays for the shipping fees, which are nothing in this case.
i just won a canon digital rebel. i'll post back if they deliver it to me. this is a gambling site in disguise. i blew a total of $1000 on the site before i won the $700 camera, but i'm sure most other people are doing a lottt worse. i'm not going back. the guy who spent the $4k (according to prev comments) to win $1k probably just got carried away as many gamblers do. the more you invest on an item, the less you're willing to give up since you always get the feeling you only need to invest a few dollars more to recoup atleast some of your lost money.
@Ray- thanks for owning up to overspending on the site. I've been granted answers to some of our questions from swoopo CEO. Expect an update soon!
Please do let us know if/when the Rebel shows up.
First, let me say that I work for Swoopo, in the Cupertino, CA office.
Second, I think you did a good summary of how our auctions are structured. There are 4 main types though. 1) Regular – winner pays bid price. 2) Fixed Price – winner pays a fixed price as stated at the auction start. 3) 100% off – winner does not pay bid price. 4) Penny auction – winner pays bid price that increments at $0.01 per bid. There are a few other types of auctions that you can read about in our help page – http://www.swoopo.com/help.html
Third, I wanted to let you know that on 70% of our auctions, Swoopo does not make enough money from bids to cover the cost of the product. So, it is a bit of a gamble for us in hopes that we can cover all of our product costs (and other overhead costs) with the remaining 30% of the auctions.
@Chris Bauman
Third, I wanted to let you know that on 70% of our auctions, Swoopo does not make enough money from bids to cover the cost of the product. So, it is a bit of a gamble for us in hopes that we can cover all of our product costs (and other overhead costs) with the remaining 30% of the auctions.
*******************************************************************
Well, I don't believe that at all. I'm watching the auctions now. and here's an example. It's for MGS4 (PS3). The price right now is $21.45, which is 143 bids (or $143) and the game only costs $59.99, which Swoopo probably got for $49.99 or less. By the time this auction ends the bidder would have probably paid an average of $25 each and the winner probably a lot more, plus the price of the game. The fact that people are playing $ anywhere from $1 – $400+ and not getting anything for their money, screams SCAM. I don't know if this is legal or not. If it is, I'm sure many, many other people will duplicate it. The only way Swoopo really loses out on this is if a lot of people don't sign up. If you only have 100 people registered on the site, most of these auctions will go for under $5.00, because no one will be around to bid on them. I'll be waiting for that day. I wish I could see how many people are logged on to the service prior to bidding. LOL!! Even if there are a lot less people registered, Swoopo can easily pull a lot of the auctions, so they don't lose as much money. Anyway, this is a serious SCAM, but I would live to see JG Mason Interview about this. It should be interesting. Great con-concept though for ripping off people. I can only imagine how much Swoopo will make during the holidays. I did register, but didn't realize you had to pay for bids, until I tried bidding on a auction. Then I laughed at the price for bids. The price is way to high. Should be like $0.05. A lot more people would sign up for this and much more people would bid. Hence, they would actually make a lot more money. The way it is now, people are going to get fustrated after shelling out all that money and getting nothing for it. Then they will stop bidding and leave. Swoopo will still make a fortune in the long run, but I think people will eventually hate the site.
DO NOT give in to Swoopo!! It is PURE EVIL!! It has to be illegal. If not, then it should be. This might as well be called gambling. It is rather misleading and provides false hopes in my opinion. It is designed to sucker you out of your money. In my book, that's a scam. Save yourself the time and the hundreds or maybe even thosands of dollars and STAY FAR AWAY!!
Don't be afraid to file a complaint. This has to be reported immediately. After all, they are stealing your money!
Please file a complaint:
http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx
This site is great. It is not a scam! Check it out!
www.kcbidz.com
I wish to point out a fraud issue here
Beware USA bidders – if bidding on a laptop auctions;
your bids are sometimes used to compete against Europeans bidding for a DIFFERENT item but under the same Auction ID. Two different laptops, different specs but using same auction ID and combining the bidders to compete against each other and push up the price. Then only one prize issued
Check this out – if you open up two windows on your screen:
swoopo.com (USA) and compare with swoopo.co.uk (UK). Seem to be same auctions / different currency BUT:
Check out the laptops and you will see two different lots under the same ID – double the amount of interested bidders – only one laptop issued at auction end = FRAUD
Further to above post, check out these two auctions that were running – two different laptops were being auctioned and the bidders were being combined;
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/sony-vaio-vgn-fw140e-16-4-core2duo-vista/104131.html
http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/acer-aspire-8920g-18-4-core-2-duo-notebo/104131.html
Two laptops being auctioned but under only one ID – twice the number of interested bidders from different countries forcing up the bids placed. Were 2 laptops givenat auction end? NO!
What did the winning bidder “mask001″ receive? A SONY VAIO 16.4″ AND an ACER 18.4″ ???
Or was only one item given? If 2 laptops are being offered they should be under separate auctions and both issued. This is fraud – be warned.
I have used their site lots. Won $1400 worth, spent $3600 worth – its a pure lottery or gamble
*** Disclaimer – I work for Swoopo***
How is localizing a website's language a case of fraud?
And, to speak to your latest fraud theory about different laptops under the same auction ID – You are correct that there is only one winner. However, it is based upon availability of the product in the country in which someone is bidding. In the case of Auction ID: 104131 we placed comparable wide screen laptops under the same auction. If you were to go to amazon.co.uk and try to find "Sony VAIO VGN-FW140E" the results would come back negative. But, perform the same search on amazon.com and voila! It is available in the US.
I found myself in exactly the same position as Simon. I saw the ad in Gmail and was drawn by the amazingly low prices that were featured. But then I got that, "Hmmm… what's the catch???" feeling and started doing a little research. I'm extremely glad that I happened upon this blog. Thanks everybody!
Chris Bauman – you misunderstand my point, didn't take the time to read it thoroughly, or maybe, you were just asking a totally different NEW question of your own –
"How is localizing a website’s language a case of fraud?"
Answer could be "Its not, – or at least it shouldn't be."
However
"How is de-localizing the Swoopo website a case of fraud?" Well,
have multiple Swoopo websites, each advertise a different spec. laptop , combine all the interested parties under one auction ID then only award one of the sold items. (So much more profit than auctioning 5 laptops under 5 separate auctions to the same bidders.) – But be sure to advertise that all five laptops have been awardeded when really only one has – Surely no-one will be smart enough to pick you up on this technicality. This is simple breach of trading standards – the products being made available are being mis-represented to the public.
Thank you Jared for totally understanding my point and highlighting the different values of the laptops in his combined auction.
When Swoopo was Telebid and operated in only UK and Germany they had some auctions that only appeared on the German website and some auctions that only appeared on the UK site – due to product availability in each country. There were also many common products available on both sites. They should stick with this. If a laptop is only available in the US then have a separate auction that only appears on the US site.
Or why not take it one step further – auction 5 different cars – one in each country – say A Chrysler in USA. a Ford in UK , a Peugeot in Spain, a BMW in Germany – get every one interested in their own country and then when the auction closes just give away only one car. The country where the winning bidder came from. But to cover up the fraud advertise on the five websites that 5 different cars have been awarded – and HOPE and PRAY nobody cottons on.
Why localise Swoopo worldwide – more bidders, more profit espcially if you can keep it the same few prizes being awarded. But you can not mis-represent them to the puplic to mislead them. I like Swoopo – i just don't like this aspect.
Nice tool for Swoopo. It shows you all bids, not only the last ten.
wikiwif.de/bidwatcher.php
@walter – Can you please advise how this tool works, unfortunately the language is German on the site.
Visit this site! It's cool and trustful !
The prices are really cheap indeed and the chances of winning are huge.
IF you spend so much money with swoopo and get a product for more that worth, with kcbidz you always you have a good deal and you will pay less than 90% off retail price!
Ok people here is the scoop on Swoopo! You pay for your bids up front which the minimum is 20 max is 500 there called bidpacks each amount of the bidpack you buy is $1 per bid number 20=$20 etc.. once you get in to bid this is the TOS:
( Each new bid resets the ‘remaining time’ for an auction up to, but not above, the displayed countdown reset value (usually, 10, 15 or 20 seconds). The one exception to this rule is when two Bid Butlers bid against one another. For more information, please consult the ‘Help’ section. The auction ends when the remaining time reaches zero. The user who was the last to bid then wins the auction. All other bids on the item expire and will not be refunded. The last bidder is determined based on the records in Swoopo’s database and Swoopo’s decision regarding who is the last bidder shall be final (save in the case of manifest error). When the bid butlers are on and several go at it they will run the clock up not just a few secs like it says it where it wont go over 10,15,20 secs it can go up hours if it wants to you would think the amount of bids per 10-20 sacs would add together ie.. 10 bids at 15 secs would be 150 secs or 2mins 30 secs but I have seen it several times jump up 30 mins or more. Also if you calculate the prices on this ea. Bid costs you $1 regardless of your win but only moves the bid price up $.15 at this rate if the product costs $500 retail & Winning bidder price has reached say $300 that means 2000 bids have been made on this item @ $1 a bid that’s $2000.00 they made just on bid money not to mention the $300 the bidder will pay on the purchase granted some auctions the winner may not pay anything for at the end or a small set fee but they don’t care about that they made $2000.00 – wholesale cost not retail and they are looking at a nice profit of at least $1500. There is no way this can be legal I have tried to email these people about problems with this site it freezes up and quite a bit but here is their ploy on that (A system outage has occurred if no bids can be submitted for items due to an unforeseeable disruption in a system. In such a case, auctions will be temporarily halted and the remaining times for the auctions, the current bidding price and the current highest bidder will be maintained. After the disruption has been resolved, the auctions will be continued and 10 minutes will be added to the remaining times for the auctions. Temporarily halted auctions are clearly indicated. Bidders who are bidding on temporarily halted auctions shall have no right to a refund for bids used or other costs incurred.) This is crap I have been on here a few times and the site pauses and freezes and sometimes it does what it says but then I have lost auctions because of it and I have a feeling that they have people on here to make the bids go up there is no regulation of this site no one contacts you back on your email complaints I have sent a few and no response. It boils down to this who has spent more on their bidpacks and how long you are willing to stay on this computer and keep bidding on something because if you have been bidding for HOURS & its down to the wire and you think everyone has given up and you make your last bid hoping to get it and someone new just woke up logged into it noticed the bid, makes one bid because the last bid you made upped the time 10-20-30secs or a big jump due to bidbutler they have time to pardon the pun swoop in and take it with $1 bid after you spent say $50 in bids and all night sitting up and guess what you don’t get anything except your out $50. It’s a scam if you ask me stay away!!!
I signed up, after a mate said he won a PS3 for £80. I didnt hurry up to buy any bids, because i wanted to check it out. I did a load of research, and watched the site for several days. Yesterday i figured i'd try my luck, just waste £25 to see what happens.
And after i started bidding, i noticed the cracks in this "business model". Worldwide bidders? Bidbutlers? Thats not the way to do it.
@ Chris Bauman:
I know this would ruin your christmas bonuses and your CEO wont be able to buy that new porsche he really wants, but maybe give yourselves a more respectible name and do the following:
-Remove BidButlers.
-Localise auctions. (UK = UK only bids.)
-Reduce the time added to every bid. (seriously, WTF?)
Im aware that swoopo doesnt give a damn about the customer and is a business entity doing its best to make a profit, but its just going to make swoopo look a lot worse. Maybe thats what you guys want. Hell, I might just invest in my own business idea that would actually be a lot more legitimate, i'd still make a nice profit, and people wouldnt be cheated, and wouldnt feel cheated.
Infact, i'd suggest locking an auction. Basically, have a set auction – with 20 slots. each person pays £5 to get a slot to bid. Then, they pay 25p per bid, and the auction amount increases by 5p per bid. The 20 would enter the bid, and bid up as normal, and with a maximum of 20 people bidding and no bid butlers – everyones a winner. The company would make a nice profit, the people would have a better chance at the bidding, and everyone can understand and take the risk as they wish. And make it localised – I dont like the fact that i have to bid against several thousand people around the world, makes me feel cheated. If its a localised bid, its a better chance for all, and people would actually be more interested because they'd feel they have a better chance.
But nevermind all of that. I have a bad opinion of swoopo, and intend on educating anyone that asks on the negatives of the site, and do my best to steer people away from this online marketing scam.
http://www.kcbidz.com is much better than swoopo. You will never pay more than retail price even you spend $50 in an auction.
for example: KCBIDZ auction an iPhone 3G unlocked for $7.68.
You need to bid between $0.01 and $7.68.
Let's say that you invested $50 in this auction and
your winning bid is $1.23. You pay for an iPhone 3G
unlocked $50 + $1.23 = $51.23.
Shipping is Free!
So for a product with retail price of $699.99 you pay $51.23.
YOU SAVE $648.76 that means 93%.
So what are you waiting for? You enjoy entertainment shopping go to http://www.kcbidz.com that is not a scam for sure.
Just google for: swoopo lottery
http://www.google.com/search?q=swoopo+lottery
-> 2000 search results
or: swoopo lottery scam
http://www.google.com/search?q=swoopo+scam
-> 3600 search results
I was a bidder for 6 month. My recommendation: Stay far away.
yup i was swooped i join did some bidding placed a bid on item i was like yea i got it took my dollar for bid looked on list for my name no bid i didnt get it scam stay away
More info from my last entry…
the UK version of the same "auction".
http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/ps3-playstation-3-sony-console-80gb-hdd/111090.html
sold for £209.72 retail value £299.99..
German, Spanish, and Austrian versions:
299,60 € and retail 399.00 €.
Before figuring in the bids, the US site sold for 112% of retail, while the Euro versions were 75% of retail, and the UK version was 70% of retail.
So even if this were a legit site, the US "bidders" are at a disadvantage.
I like all the idiots on here calling this a scam because they lost the auction. How about you learn to auction better!
It is a terrible site, I tried to win 4 Nintendo's WII's today, and they did not go full price by any means however after sitting all day, so I could give my son a great surprise for xmas,I am sorry I ever found it. Thought I could afford this site, but could not. They do not tell you a land line interent is not fast enough to get through on the bidding, it is also interesting that I see a name "Swoopoteam" (hope you won the Dyson Vac), betting on the auction in a consistent fashion. Well I have certainly learnt my lesson and will be telling every one I know to steer clear. I know it is my fault and I take full responsibility for my actions today, but just had a little hope that maybe I could make my sons xmas a little better this year after all that has happened for us.
Tell everyone to stay away from Swoop.com unless they’re
willing to gamble.
There is only one guaranteed winner (Swoopo) and a whole lot of
people losing money at $1/bid everything they try to grab
something for cheap.
Swoopo also operated illegally in several states without proper
commerce permits. Also, once you buy your bids, there is no way
get your money back for unused bids. It’s very much like
gambling and not an auction. However, in most gambling you
could cash-out anytime you like and trade in your chips for
cash. Not at Swoopo. They really want your money!
In no auction do you have pay every time you submit a bid. You
only pay when you are the highest bidder. With Swoopo, you pay
to bid and you pay again to buy with many of the “auctions”.
STAY AWAY!
Wow I just saw a brothers of arms get sold for 18$ some quick math states that the winner spent 120$ on bidding. 18+120= 138$
So he spent 138$ on a game with a value of about 30$. I agree MK its more like a lottery
I run across http://www.kcbidz.com and look so great compare to swoopo.
The reason that I like kcbidz is because they give you free bids and more bonuses when you buy credits.
For example :
If you recharge your account with $50 thy give you 5% in bonus so you can play in an active auction for more and another 50 free bids to play in the free bid zone.
So go and play at http://www.kcbidz.com because they give you more for your money than swoopo
Better than swoopo- http://www.kcbidz.com
Here is a list of how kcbidz members will be rewarded when they buy credits:
$10 – 3% bonus account credits + 10 free bids
$20 – 5% bonus account credits + 20 free bids
$50 – 6% bonus account credits + 50 free bids
$100 – 7% bonus account credits + 100 free bids
$250 – 8% bonus account credits + 250 free bids
$500 – 10% bonus account credits + 500 free bids
http://www.kcbidz.com is not a scam and do not sell overprice products like swoopo.
Go and join them!
Have you guys checked yellmann.com already? I don't consider it as a scam because I just registered and got 2 free bids. So what have I lost… nothing….plus they have quality products there , not any cheap crap
swoopo seems tainted. never had any trouble on ebay
Remember the Golden Rule: IF IT LOOKS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THEN IT PROBABLY IS.
I too was lead to the site via a link while shoping for a laptop. Upon seeing the rediculously low prices, I felt an urgency to place my bid before it was too late. Actually what I felt was greed. Just as I was getting ready to register, first time user, common sense kicked in. I searched swoopo.com and landed on this great blog. Swoopo is such a scam. If they are allowed to continue doing business, then they should change the name to SCAAMO.COM
I think Swoopo is great business. I have found also http://www.yellmann.com. UK based company offering similar type of auctions of gadgets.
It's definitely a great idea, one of those that play with human nature. I
WOW this is insane. Swoopo more than likely has their own bidders to keep people bidding. This is a very smart way to make money because there are so many people lacking in intelligence who gamble to win and loose lots of money. Just think about it, $1 to per bet and only raises the bid in $.15 incrementals…
Go ahead keep on loosing those bets one dollar at a time while Swoopo rolls in the dough.
Certainly a gambling website. I like to buy and sell items to turn a profit and this website will have you in the red. You're not going to win unless you're very lucky or if you spend more bidding than the item is worth (which is actually losing, right?). I mean, some of the winners are getting extremely good deals; but, I've looked at this from every angle and can't figure out any sure ways to win, aside from the obvious: find one with few bidders. Its a lottery all the way. Somehow you just have to get lucky and have the time run out with your bid up there. I would suggest using this only if you're feeling REALLY lucky and there are no casinos nearby. My best idea was waiting until the price seems like it won't go higher and then bidbutler your lot of bids (doesn't work). This method is also likely to cause you and some other poor bastards to lose your money (invested bids and reluctance to quit). God damn geniuses…
We are ready to sell ready system, similar to swoopo. Take a look http://www.uspel.net
Ready to discuss the price.
I know of a site with a similar idea. But this one is legit and not misleading. Its pretty simple. You pay for limited bid spots then submit your silent bid. High bid wins. It may be worth trying.
www.bidspot.us
Actually there are real people who are winning in http://www.yellmann.com , its all about manipulating the bidding, theres a little bit of mental game in it as well. shouldn't be so negative about the website just because you don't know how to play it. it does feel a bit bogus, but you have to understand that £.1 per bid allows for the site to sell the items for a lot less, considering that the £.1000 auction giveaway registers almost £.10, 000 worth in bids, making this auction 10 fold effective. You have to look at it like everyone pitching in a little bit here and there allowing you or someone else to purchase said item for a cheap price, almost like a drawing. The other thing on the site to look for is the items less interesting, if you go for the laptops, or the £.1, 000 cash prize, these will have a lot of interest, and take hours upon hours of additional bids to finish the auctions. Go for the less desired prizes and you might be able to get something. Also… if you look at some of the auctions, some people are bidding £.600 worth plus the price on a single auction, which doesn't make sense to me, but they end up losing money, i'd say… let them. It's all about waiting and learning how it works !
WISHED I had found this before I blew £10.00 trying to get my kids Christmas gifts!!! Even if you get a free voucher to spend on purchase as a new customer.
Notice no response from the swoopo CEO who was attempting to deflect blows. I think it's great that they thought of a way to get sweet amounts of money out of people and still come across as selling items at discounted prices. I just wish they did it lawfully.
I just heard of swoopo today. Joined and won my first auction. Now I'm leary of claiming my Wii Fit. If you win, does the merchandise really arrive?
If they want to run a gambling site they should say so, instead of pretending to be a bona fide auction site. I suppose it's a case of buyer beware, but unfortunately many people will sign up and buy bidpacks without really understanding how little chance they have of winning anything.
The only part of this auction that isn't like customary online auctions is 1) Pay per bid. and 2) Different regions of people bidding on different items of different values being unknowingly pitted against one another.
If the items were truly comparable (relatively equal in value) that would be one thing. But there are hundreds of dollars difference here. My opponent could be bidding on a Lexus and effectively taking me to the cleaners on a Hyundai. (Extreme example I know but you get the idea.) The retail value of items drives the bidding structure of an auction. If everyone is bidding on different values then we consumers are fighting a battle against unknown foes with unknown motivations.
I am familiar with gambling. I understand that the house gets it in the end. But even casinos don't act like this and that says something. It's like having a guy at table 31 going "all in" and raising the stakes for table 32. Not to mention he had to pay a dollar to make that bet.
I read how the "auction" worked and then searched swoopo+ scam and then swoopo+ripoff and got no hits in search results. I guess Google was taking the day off.
I gave it a shot and ran afoul of the bid butler which is my biggest complaint. I asked the people at Swoopo to review my bid butler bids. No satisfaction.
I then registered the domain :
http://www.swoopo-scam.com
to put out my warnings on the system. It is now my mission.
More hits in Google now, that's all I can say.
***Disclaimer – I work for Swoopo***
@Harold – when you mentioned that you asked the people at Swoopo to review your BidButler bids, did anyone respond to you? You stated above, "No Satisfaction."
I want to make sure that your email inquiry into our system was handled properly.
I just spent $20 for 30 bids, and I still have 20 bids left. I'll keep playing till I ran out of bids, but I won't be buying new ones. Because there was an auction and there was a bidbutler(a bidding bot) and myself. I wait till the last 5 seconds and I placed a bid, which put me on top. All of a sudden when 2 seconds were left, like 5 users came in and started bidding. That was a tad bit accurate for me or maybe I'm just being paranoid. But ya.
Wow, this is a great auction site in time for the holidays!
Check this out!!!
http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/300-freebids-voucher/138992.html
£120 of swoopo bids went for near on 2 1/4 times its value. And people say it aint a scam lol – anyone on this planet know anyone that would pay that much?
While a vast majority of the "auctions" seem legit, there's always going to be those few that are beyond belief, which taint the legitimacy of all of them.
http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/300-freebids-voucher/129217.html
After all, it makes more sense to only scam now and then and keep your business going, than to scam all the time and be out of business in a month.
I just found the site. My opinion is that it is not a scam…an opinion.
Why I believe that? Look at the "business model'. They make their money on people bidding. Who cares how much the final price is on the winning bid, right? It make sense, yet?
Here is the example I'm confronting. Either a MacBook 13" or Nikon D90. Both about 1299.00 US.
1, Pay to Bid. Sounds great to me! Why? It's a disinsentive for people to 'throw around' bids. It filters out the less motivated buyers, right? It's good for me…almost.
2, Time roll back… It's crap for me, as a buyer. It reopens up the bid for other's to 'snipe' my last bid. I can -almost- tolerate this one. It's very annoying but I can live with it.
3, Penny bid…this is the one bull sh!t which I can't stand. To buy a Macbook or a D90 at a "good value" (my opinion it would be well under 800.00), 800.00 as an example. 100 bids = 100 pennies = 1.00US bid price and 75.00 (their fee earned from people bidding).
1000bids = 10.00 bid price and 750.00 (Swoopo's fee at .75 cost per bid) 10.00 is still a GREAT deal.
10,000bids = 100.00 sales price and earning Swoopo a nice 75,000.00 US on a 1,299.00 item (the Nikon D90 or the Apple's MacBook). Not bad profit, right?
And if the selling price (what I still consider a 'good deal') is 800.00, then 80,000 bids were made. At a cost of .75 per bid, it would gross Swoopo a nice 60,000.00US!
Apparently, there are many people who are frustrated (me, for example….but I haven't signed up for Swoopo, I am researching this) enough to not even bother with this system…
The Pay to Bid is redundant from an economic stand point. The rising prices should filter out the less motivated buyers. The Pay to Bid system put up an even bigger psychological barrier for many people… "why should I pay to have the priviledge of attempting to buy?"
The Time Roll Back… I can almost live with this. It's market's 'natural forces'. The "Going once, Going Twice, Going, Going, Gone! Sold!"
The Penny Bid sh!t is what I don't like. As a motivated buy who researched what a 'good cost' is, I would instantly throw in 800.00US on a 1299.00 item. Knowing Apple, the Macbook will be close to 1,100.00. Nikon will be close to 900.00.
The Penny Bid artificially forces people to run out their blocks of Bids that was pre-purchased. The Penny Bid force a higher bid count, insuring Swoopo to earn their .75 US per bid.
If an item were to be bid up to 75% of it's value (about 800.00US of the 1299.00), Swoopo will earn +45x their initial investment of the 1299.00.
Swoopo… my opinion: it's interesting. Would I join and attempt to buy something? ONly if I have more data on people's bidding habbits. None of us likes to loose nor do we like to feel 'scammed'. Pay to Bid in conjunction with the Penny Bid are frustrating combination they are inflicting on the users.
I just did a one month analysis of an Apple Macbook on Swoopo. I found that Swoopo is profiting about 200% of the value of items delivered. This was only a small field for comparison – based solely on 1 month (December) of auctions for the same brand/model laptop. My findings were that on one item, in 49 auctions, Swoopo pocketed more than $127,000.
There were some interesting finds, such that they only come out ahead on roughly 50% of all auctions. However, those auctions they profit on include several that earned over 20x the wholesale value of the actual computer. On said Macbooks, the bids on the auction only need to reach $12.83 for them to make one penny. Everything beyond that is pure profit. The average value I found was $51.90. This meant that they grossed and average $3894.15 from all the bids placed (@.75 each) plus the $51.90 average ending price. That brings the average gross to $3946.05, and once you take out the cost of the item at Retail Value ($1299) they netted about $2647.08.
Further example, one auction sold for $0.92. This combined with the profit from bids brought the gross to $69.92. Factor in the cost of the laptop, and Swoopo LOST $1228.92. However, this is completely offset by the auctions such as the one ended on 12.01.08. This auction finished at 248.03, which means they stood to gross over 18602.25 (@.75 each)from bidding alone. Then add in the final value of the computer, 248.03, and you have a gross of 18850.28. Factor in the Retail value of the computer, and they netted a $17,551.28 profit.
I think it is pretty clear they are not losing money, however there is a chance to win a laptop at an extremely low value. The lowest I found was the winner of the $0.92 auction. When it was all said and done, shipping included, he had a 1299 dollar laptop for about $26.14. Just don't be like user Deafdlg and actually bid so high that the cost of bids are 200 more than the actual value of the computer.
If you would like to see more of my findings, and a complete table showing said findings, please view the pdf I published. Not all values are perfect, I already noticed an error in one field after I published the file, however most of them are spot on.
http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2184751_j4kfy/Swoopo.pdfSwoopo.pdf
if you are reading this you know swoopo is a dishonst business. But it probably will not get shut down. But you can certainly take action to help lessen their profit. Complaint to Paypal. urge them to stop working with swoopo.
boy am i glad i found this discussion. i clicked on a swoopo ad in gmail and almost got sucked in to bidding on a macbook air that's currently at about $18. i had credit card in hand, eagerly ready to register and snatch up that awesome deal… then i got the "man, i should prolly check into this" vibe and did a bit of googling. i will now put my card back in my wallet and walk away. to their credit, the creators of swoopo are bloody brilliant for devising this auction scheme. slimy bastards, but brilliant nonetheless.
I keep seeing folk saying that swoopo could be running bidding bots but I find this highly doubtful. The same things were said about poker sites back in the beginning and while it IS possible I find it deeply unlikely for one simple reason. If they can make money hand over fist by running it honestly then why risk it being shut down by breaking the law? There is absolutely no benefit to them going crooked because they would kill the golden goose if found out.
In saying that I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole but I admire the way they have come up with a legally non-gambling casino.
Don't trust anyone who owns both the website AND the merchandise you are bidding on. It is way to easy to be scammed and for them to scam you.
Hey Dave, I don't think most people here, when they say scam, mean it as they have personally been scammed. I think it's meant more as the possibility of being scammed is very much there. Even if there are no actual scams occurring, there is a surplus of idiotic bidders on this site. Just look through their bid history and take a look at some of the people who saved 0%, some people use an outrageously high number of bids to the point where they are far exceeding the cost of the item in bids alone.
A lot of people will see that and think there's no way someone could be that dumb, myself included, but I guess it happens. My viewpoint on it is that while there is no proof of scamming, it's still a crapshoot. Do you really want to wind up bidding against someone willing to spend twice the item's worth in bids?
Again, as far as I know, no legitmate proof of scams exists, but there are several "unusual" circumstances that make one question the validity of some of the auctions. I posted this one just a few responses ago, but here's one of the best examples I have of this issue:
Swoopo.pdf]http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/2184751_j4kfy/Swoopo.pdf]Swoopo.pdf
Sorry, copied the wrong link, here's what I was referencing:
http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/300-freebids-voucher/129217.html
Dave,
The theory does make sense, but it's still a bit difficult for me to swallow. There has to come a point where your brain kicks in a makes you realize you need to cut your losses. I have seen the same names bidding excessive amounts on several products, and those are just the ones people win. Who knows how much they are bidding on ones they lose? Those people who are unable to make this realization I would probably expect to have actual gambling problems.
I agree the theory makes sense to a certain point, but where is it that point? At what point do most people realize that in those situations they need to pull the plug? I suppose that would be an interesting experiment in its own right.
Also, that data isn't mine, it's a few responses after I posted my link, which is why I accidentally copied that link instead of the one I intended to.
Looking back, there is one aspect of this site which I would agree could be considered a scam. The fact that they have people from different areas in the same bidding pool for different items with different SRPs, and only give out the item the winner was bidding on. There's examples of that all over, just get the auction # and look at the different regional websites. This will usually be for the bigger items like tvs and laptops.
Since there is no mention that you are bidding against people bidding on different items, unless you check out the other sites, you have no idea what other people are bidding on, you think they are all bidding on the same item as you, which changes your bidding plan, and if you even decide to bid at all.
Quick example: same bidding group, two different items. To make matters worse, it's a penny auction, which means that the bid amount is actually different, yet the same.
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/sony-vaio-vgn-fw285j-b-16-laptop-vista-/139782.html
http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/hp-pavilion-dv7-1135-17-laptop-vista-/139782.html
The US is bidding on a Sony VIAO, the UK on a HP Pavilion. SRPs are close in terms of value, but look at the current bid amount. For US bidders, each bid raises the price by $0.01. Makes sense, it's a penny auction. For UK bidders, however, each bid raises the price by .01 pound. Currently the bid is at both $23.92 and 23.92 pounds, the equivalent of $36.46. This gives the US bidders an advantage because the bid amount will take longer to reach the US item's SRP than the UK item's SRP.
Say the bid exceeds $1049 US? The UK group will be bidding on an item that has already exceeded its value, while the US bidders are bidding on an item that is still only at 65% of its value. US bidders, especially those who haven't placed bids yet, are content to keep bidding on their item, while UK bidders, especially newcomer to the bid, will abstain from bidding since the item has already exceeded it's value.
The odds of that scenario occurring are low, yes, but it still has an effect even while the bid is low. The higher that bid goes, the more of an effect it has, as the difference in percentage of retail cost increases.
I have seen auctions where it has been the opposite as well, a non-penny auction where the SRPs of the opposing items are the same number, which obviously means not the same value due to the difference in currencies. This causes issues once again, as pound auctions will increase by .08 and dollar auctions increase by .15. Bid values are different, but for the "same" auction. Tough to justify that as being honorable. Unfortunately, I know little about business ethics, so I can't say whether that's considered a scam or just good business.
Hey,
There is a clause that has been added by Swoopo that says you might not get the same product that you bid for on the site, but will receive one for nearly the same value (greater or less is not defined). I totally agree that some sense must kick in, but then again, there are some people out there that are just not going to get it.
DON'T BID IF YOU ARE LOSING MONEY PEOPLE!!!!
Unfortunately those caps only reach as far as this page. I am hesitant to comment on the exchange rates. Again, I agree with you, but I'm trying to discover why Swoopo seems it's ok. 1) They dont' have big enough audience for a national auction so they have to go international. 2) Maybe they just see it as bidding in increments and never think that the exchange rate should be such a big deal. I know one party will always be getting a better deal and will be operating at less of a cost.
Yeah, that upsets me now.
I think it might be a good practice to google a screen name on Swoopo to see if you can find out where that person is from to know if you are at an advantage or not. It's trendy for people to use the same screen name across many different websites. 
Hope that helps
-Dave
I can vouch for the fact that they do ship what you win. I 'won' a Canon Rebel XSi with starter lens (available elsewhere for $700 at that time) and it was delivered (via Amazon) around 20 days later. I wasn't happy with the fact that I'd blown close to $1000 totally on the site (including on this item) before I actually won, but then I'd only blown $500 on the item itself, so there must be a few lucky souls who're actually making some gains. I've never gone back to the site since then; I've learnt my lesson the hard way. Dave's right on people getting way too carried away when they're trying to recoup atleast some of their losses; you see that in casinos all the time.
i think swoopo.com is the place you lose money.
when you bid, you add more seconds to the auction.
but who won?
i doubt.
leave it alone
****I've read every comment posted up till date****
First off I'd like to tip my hat off to the people at Swoopo.com, the evil geniuses, for their very slick and profitable idea.
I signed up with Swoopo two days ago. I didn't do much research at the time, because I was enticed at the "cheap" pricing one could "win" from their site. Nonetheless, I only paid for the lowest amount of bids, so my loss is relatively small. Anyway, I have fully recognized and understand the gray that this site stands within.
All I really have to say is that I hope this site will be just another enron/worldcom/etc. waiting to be exposed. Sadly enough, it won't happen any time soon. The upper management knows very well of what their company is doing, but can you blame them? No, not really…after all they are not forcing anyone to join their site, it is really for the buyer to beware.
Overall this site made me laugh, anyone with enough sense to know that this site is either too good to be true, or wants to actually save money and not blow it for an opportunity to buy something will stay far far away. For those members who choose to throw gamble their money away, all I have to say is tough luck…you deserve what you get, or better yet what you won't get.
Great posts from everyone, practically everyone is on the same page, that Swoopo is trying to redefine what an auction site is. Please use a different terminology such as raffle site. At least that would probably be the one descriptive and informative information to your site.
P.S. anonymity only adds to the controversy. Not being able to communicate with other bidders to verify if really another person exists is no good.
One last thing, to Mark from 01/06/09 @ 4:38A.M., actually Swoopo could and can still bot. Yes, they are surely earning enough revenue for them not to put themselves at risk, but it is possible that they may have done this in the past to garner up quick profits and members. There is also the possibility that rather than botting, that individuals are paid or given free bids in hopes of generating more bids.
Although these are unlikely, don't rule any of these possibilities out. After all, this company IS under the conspiracy theory radar.
Sorry for the long post,
Anonymous person returning back to their beloved eBay.com
I have tried swoopo three times now….its bogus. I found out that the item i was bidding on was also listed on their EU site. Forget that….there is enough compition already.
So I waisted $40.
Clones are popping up left and right.
The one I like the most is http://www.biddia.com (www_biddia_com).
@ Christine..
From Section 2 of terms and conditions…
"During the registration process, the user must choose a username. The username must not be offensive, be selected to deceive or mis-inform other users, may not offend common decency or infringe upon the rights of third parties."
You said you saw swoopoteam, I just saw a user adminstaff.
I'd say both of those could "deceive or mis-inform other users"
adminstaff was bidding on a PS3 that ended up going for 449.40.
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/sony-playstation-3-80-gb/111090.html
My vote? Scam
"Learn to auction better!"
I don't believe it's an auction site, so how can I learn to do it better? There's nothing out there, other than claims by employees that this is legit.
Please see my previous post, as users here in the US, we are automatically at a disadvantage. I would not call it a scam if I believed there were any chance at all to actually win. When you see users burn through hundreds of bidbutler bids, on multiple auctions but yet still somehow continue to bid on several auctions how can any of them if they are true bidders expect to come out ahead, or even break even. Then you can watch people win an aution then bid on the same item again. When it states in the terms that a commercial or semi-commercial individual CANNOT bid. what other purpose would that person have to continue bidding on the same type of item?
they just keep up coming http://biddinmadness.com – looks like same s***!
I just stumbled on to a swoopo-like page http://www.bidonetwo.com has any of you been there or know something about it?
people get upset because they think they can get a TV for 10 bucks, but that never happens on swoopo! if you just use common sense along with some 3rd party research on the site, you won't lose all your money. just don't waste your bids early and use sites like http://www.swoopomanual.com for research and you'll do WAY better.
Hello every one,
Please, stop given your money to Swoopo.com. Why?
Example:
For the phone Samsung SGH-i900 OMNIA, it cost about $700 in some where else. Now, on the Swoopo auction, this phone is bidding in penny auction; and the current bid is about $71.71 dollars = 7,171 cents. That's mean we have bidden 7,171 times.
Each time bid costs .75 dollar.
So the actual price of the phone = 7,171 x 0.75 = 5,378.25 dollars. And, plus the amount of winner have to pay for the phone too.
This is unreasonable price for this phone.
Conclusion, we are given out money to make Swoopo rich.
They are not a fraud, but they are running an unfair auction.
Please, don't waste your time and your money.
Dang Nguyen
This is a business model from the 70's that takes after the dollar auction.
Wiki Dollar Auction and you will see how the model works for profit.
test
It seems that Swoopo landscape is now divided into those who think that swoopo is a total scam, and those, authors of the e-books, that think it is perfectly fine.
I actually belowng to the second team.
Why nobody is saying the carnival games are scam?! You pay $3 to throw three balls, you miss the bunny you get nothing!
Swoopo is the same way. You pay for chance of winning.
there are a hard core of pro punters winning consistently at Swoopo.co.uk/de/at/com (when they are allowed to, given the policy of only allowing 8 wins per user per month, assuming these users haven't managed to set up multiple accounts) by spending sums on "Bid Butler" pre-booked bids far above what "amateur" punters are going to pay out. They are very clearly winning cameras, laptops, car navigation systems and expensive expresso machines in some cases in double digits per person. They are easily located by googling their Swoopo user names + swoopo.
If you are in a Swoopo auction with one of these pro regulars and you aren't prepared to spend 100s of dollars/pounds/euros in bids per item you have almost zero chance of winning an item.
to quote statistical analysis from http://auktionenwahn.wordpress.com/statistiken/ in the period this guy observed,
"545 Kameras im beobachteten Zeitraum fanden 336 neue Besitzer. Von diesen Kameras gingen 154 Stück (28.25%) an 27 Powerbieter (8.03%)." or google translation "545 cameras in the observed period, 336 new owners. Of these cameras were 154 units (28.25%) to 27 Power bidders (8.03%). "
Swoopo's Terms and Conditions clearly state that "Swoopo’s products and services are offered exclusively to private users and not to commercial or partly-commercial resellers. Swoopo reserves the right to exclude commercial resellers from the participation in the auctions and to close their user accounts at any time." but equally clearly they are not attempting to enforce this. A cynic would say that Swoopo is benefiting enormously from the presence of these pro punters (and the ignorance of the ordinary punters of the pros), almost certainly more so than the pro punters collectively themselves. An even bigger cynic might suspect that at least some of these pro regulars were working for the house and not constrained to try and make a profit.
Even if Swoopo chooses not to start enforcing their "no commercial resellers" condition presumably they could make the winning bid histories and reputation of any user available to all other users (in the same manner as ebay) very easily and the current situation would become transparent.
yours
atty
Hey guys,
I hope you're all doing well. Just wanted to give you a heads up on a sale that I'm having on my Swoopo ebook. Feel free to check it out, let me know if you have any questions… etc. I will be raising the price back up because it's filled with tons of great information, so I just wanted to let you guys know about the sale.
Hope you're all having good luck with Swoopo.
Cheers,
Dave
Hi Ty,
It really does work! I'm curious, how easily did you win your auction?
Thanks!
-Dave
http://www.beatswoopo.com
@Harold
So far I have heard from people I have been in contact with that Swoopo is very good at responding. Be careful if you go into an auction and are going against another bid butler. Here is what I have seen. When there are two BBs going against eachother, it will rocket through the number of bids you have allocated for that auction. The theory behind this is that it will drive the price up so high that other single bidders won't bid anymore. So, I totally understand why Swoopo would do this. If that's not the reason why they do that, it's purely technology. I don't have the technical know-how to say if they can know when that bid should be placed and if it's placed immediately, they know it is being put in at the right time, not waiting for a single bid to come in. So, understand how it works and think it through. If they have your bid butler wait, it won't really be a bid butler make a decision and it will wait too long, decreasing your chances of winning.
Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to contact me at support@beatswoopo.com or visit the site linked in my name or at the bottom of the post.
Cheers,
Dave
Dang,
Thanks for the analysis. I would agree with you, but I do want to bring up something. It's not costing a single person putting that in. That's why it's legal. It's taking a little from everyone. If each person bid in $10.00 worth, would it be a problem? Probably not. What I am trying to get at is that while Swoopo is seeming to be scammish, it's totally not. It's just taking a little from each of the whole.
If someone jumped in at the last minute, and bid once, they would still get a phenomenal deal. I hope you see what I'm saying.
Let me know if you have any questions at my email above. Feel free to visit my site that helps out with more strategies in my ebook.
Have a good one, and definitely write if you feel otherwise!
Thanks and have a great evening!
Best,
Dave
re: ICE 12/31
That person who bought that 120 of bids only spent $2.80 on the auction. Look at the number of bids they placed. It's a 100% off auction, so they don't pay the final price.
Still not a scam.
Hi,
I am just curious if any of the readers here have actually been scammed. Not trying to start an argument, just curious.
In all hopes of no replies,
Dave
Jared,
Hi! Thanks for the speedy response. Just to play devil's advocate, here is what I think they might be thinking. Say, they put 200 $ into it and want to give it. Well, don't give up right? You're already 200$ in. If you stop now, you're out 200 bucks. So, if you bid up to $100 over the 300 bid voucher, you only lose out $100 instead of the $200 when you first give up. That's how I can justify that auction. Though 1000+ bids is shocking. Thoughts on my theory of that?
BTW – nice data
Cheers,
Dave
agreed.
To me, SWOOPO is nothing more than a betting site with the last one win the product. I am surprise that so far nobody take any action on this, especially online getting is illegal here in the US, at least that is my understanding anyway. First, you buy the token to bet on the product and along the way if you win then good you pay for that price (hope that you still come out ahead) if not you loose all your token and time to buy some more.
Tony,
While there are some people who have the view you are mocking, how about you read their posts and realize most people acknowledge it is a good model for making money. Also, please explain how the fact the items are different is not wrong. I gave multiple explanations how the different item costs give way to advantages and disadvantages for people in certain locales. Since you apparently think this is ok, let me give a blatant exaggeration of this.
Joe is in Bids R Us building #1 on A street, bidding on a Ford Focus, retailing around $15,000. Dan is bidding in Bids R Us building #2 on B street, bidding on an Ashton Martin DBS, retailing around $270,000. Also, since it is considered a game of skill by you, let's have Joe and Dan around the same skill level, if not being the exact skill level as each other. They are bidding electronically, and can see only the names of other people who have bid on the item (the item also is not kept in the building, just shown electronically). Joe and Dan are bidding against each other. Who do you think will drop out of the bidding every time? Dan will win every time because hit item is worth so much more. Dan can save $220,000 with a winning bid of $20,000, but Joe would lose $5,000 on that bid, so it makes no sense for him to keep going.
Now here is my question to you: Why is this ok if the prices are only slightly different? Again, check my prior post and tell me how the differences are insignificant. It still leads to the same advantages/disadvantages, just not on a larger scale. Also, before you tell me that "it's a game of skill" and "you can still win bidding for the lower item if you're good enough," what if you are going against someone of equivalent skill who is bidding on the higher valued item? Well, since this is a game of skill, and he has the advantage against an otherwise evenly matched opponent, he wins every time.
So there are people who are bidding thinking they have a chance to win, which they do. The only problem is that with certain items and bid types they will always have to bid more than the item value to get it, which any sensible person would not do.
Lastly, before I am misinterpreted, I am by no means saying that ALL of swoopos auctions are like this. It is only a select few that behave this way, and there are several auctions where it is the same item across the board.
That's one of two aspects in which swoopo is a shady business. The other is the potential for price spiking, but as they grow their client base that becomes less needed and thus less likely to be occurring. At this stage, I doubt that it is occurring, though (again, as I stated in prior comments) there are always those few instances where you just have to question the validity of the person bidding.
These power bidders are pretty annoying and are obviously pretty greedy! If you look at winners or certain items you'll soon find winners that have won several digital cameras, some being the same model in a few days. For example at the moment lodame21 has won a Canon 450D last night, the same camera the night before and is also currently bidding on yes, the same model camera at the moment! With a little search on Google, recently (just what shows in the search-there are bound to be other winnings as the items he has won this week haven't shown up in the search) he has won 5xLCD TV's, 3xMobile phones, 4xCanon Digital SLR cameras, a Laptop, a Satnav and 2xpackages of bid vouchers. With at least 5xLCD TV's and 4xDigital SLR cameras, he is clearly not bidding and winning them for himself, and most likely to sell on to make money on Ebay for example.
I only want 1 camera, TV or whatever for myself, so it's frustrating to come up against the power bidders who want multiple amounts of the same item, clearly not for themselves and have hundreds/thousands of bids to use to make sure that they win them. Whether these power bidders actually have a normal job or not, I don't know! But as said above if you come up against these power bidders, it's best not to keep bidding against them unless you have masses of bids to use, but then doing that gives them even more of an advantage! I have noticed though that you never seem to get these power-bidders going against each other! I think Swoopo needs to do more about these power-bidders, before they take it over, as they have an unfair advantage over normal users and will make the site go downhill if they keep winning item, after item and attract less new bidders. How they manage to keep winning though I don't know!
I've tried bidding and got nowhere whatever time of day or night I've bid, yet I have seen people win with 1,2,3 or 5 bids-don't know how they manage it though! Some people must have lost masses though, as I've seen them doing multiple bids on the bid butler, then coming up against another bidder using bid butler and they keep going, even several hours later the other bidder using the bid butler might have dropped out and another come in. Now they or even another bidder could be determined to win, but only one person can win the item and who will drop out first? This is, I guess how people end up paying over the odds as they think they have paid so much in bids already and put in so much time that they can just not afford to write off all that money.
I would like to know though, how do the items actually end? Because every one I've watched has multiple bidders and if every bid being put in always raises the seconds allowing people to bid again, how do they actually end?! I can't believe that every current bidder who has bid (and ends up losing), suddenly decides as the seconds count down not to bid anymore? I'm sure if has to do with this freezing of the seconds. I bid on an item when it got to 1 second and I know I placed it in time, yet, the counter froze and then went to zero with me thinking I had won, but no, another bidder had won! The freezing of the counter normally seems to be when bids are placed, but I have watched a few items at the same time on the list page and have seen all them freeze at the same time and for the same amount of time when some have quite a way to go in the timer and are unlikely to have bids made on them. I'm sure this is how people actually end up winning?
They have found the perfect money maker. I initially bought $22.50 worth of bids and was appauled when the ticker counted down on a 40" Samsung 1080p LCD 120Hz tv that I was winning and after my ticker said ENDED another bid was allowed about a half second later which wiped my winning bid away. I bought more bids, thinking that I must figure this one out. $1000 later and one $6 Xbox game (which I'm still waiting for 3 weeks now), and I have nothing to show for it but a very angry wife, debt, and sleepless nights wondering how I could have been so stupid as to get addicted to a numbers game and noone can intentially win.
I've found another site as well, that I think is the same company, it's called http://www.BidWinFlip.com
In it you have to buy bids too but there is no extra cost if you are the winner. I have 99 bids on a tv right now and it says that I have not met the reserve. That's $100 as it's $1 per bid too. It claims that if I win the bid but not the reserve I get my bid points back……hmmmmm….. I also noticed that every single person who's won a big ticket item has not been allowed the item just their bids back. Whoever came up with these two websites should face a federal court judge and be hung.
Here's something I got from Technologizer:
=============================================
MaddyDaddy Says:
December 10th, 2008 at 7:31 am
this is another forum that i have read through. VERY INTERESTING>>>I WAS RIGHT!!!!
He writes:
“I used to work for the company, and I was recently fired for letting a couple of friends of mine win bids. I was paid to keep auctions “alive” in order to improve profitability. Save your money people.”
This was posted within the last few days..
======================================================
IT… IS… A… SCAM.
Stay away from Swoopo!! I bid on a Canon camera a few weeks ago on Swoopo. As it was getting late, I created a BidButler (a device to place bids automatically for you up to a specified number of bids and a specified price). I authorized 200 bids, at 1 cent ber bid. My BidButler promptly bid all of the bids that I authorized, PLUS ANOTHER 20 BIDS! Not only that, but the bid price on the camera went up only about $1.80 – since the BidButler bid 220 times for me, the bid price should have gone up at least by $4.40 (my 220 bids plus the bids from the person(s) against whom I was ostensibly bidding). Not realizing what had happened, I authorized another 100 bids. This time, it used up all of 100 bids almost instantaneously, but the bid price went up only 1 cent.
When I reported what had happened to Swoopo customer service (a misnomer if ever there was one), they basically said that everything went just peachy and it was too bad that I didn't win.
I don't know if there is a deliberate attempt to defraud customers, or if their bidding algorithm is just seriously flawed, but I would not spend your hard-earned money on Swoopo.
Those sites are not scams people are just jellis when somebody makes
money.I found cheapest site zoozle.com they only charge 50c bid.
I have been bidding on bidonetwo.com for the past week. I've seen three to five people going back and forth bidding for an item; however, when the clock counts down it skips from whatever to zero thus ending the auction. – OR – The site freezes and when you refresh 10-15 secs the auction is over. Thought, I was just seeing things or had bad luck with my T-1 internet connection so my girlfriend and I bid together all day on an LG 32inch LCD TV and this time we both saw the clock go from 5 – 4 – to finished.
Additionally, the pay pal service to feed your bid credits had stopped providing service to the site. It stated it was a temporary problem…who knows.
Exerpience, I've particpated in 5 auctions and believe this to be a fraud. Note: their website does not provide an address or phone number only a link to email customer support (the thieves taking your money).
It is a scam because;
a) They (Swoopo) represent themselves as an auction site, while they are actually a gambling site. Gambling is betting on an uncertain outcome, staking something on a contingency, or playing a game for money (freebids, cash, bids themselves) or property. (the item listed) Online gambling is illegal in the US.
b) They post numerous items of a similar nature/type in various countries, which are invariably won by one bidder. For example, the same bidder has won a sony viao laptop computer in the US and an acer laptop in the UK. This 'bidder' is most likely a 'swoopo bot' that hyperinflates the prices of items, making 'real' bidders fall by the wayside, with swoopo thus pocketing all the change. Too many other examples to list here.
c) If you check closely, you shall see that the majority of winners seem to have won in majority of the other bids (just google the names of the winners and see) and even spend more than the retail price for the product. Some bloggers are terming them powersellers, but if you look closely, they are 'swoopo bots', ghost winners!
d)Bidbutler/s? Please. Just another way to explain away the scam! For those familiar with bidbutler, you pick a start and end amount, say between $10 and $20, and place a certain number of bids you want to place when the bid falls within these amounts. Just watch the auctions and see how two bidders under bidbutler shall be pit against each other, and in just a few seconds, have their valuable 'bids' gobbled up, just to introduce another group of bidders, who fight like gladiators, and inflict mortal wounds to each other, all the while while swoopo (the nefarious emperor) cheers on, giving the thumbs down. The ghost bidders, obviously on bidbutlers, pick up the bodies, and prepare the arena for yet another bloodbath! Entertainment for Swoopo (they call it 'entertainment shopping') but a no win situation for the gladiatorial bidders (also called gambling, which is illegal, I repeat)
e) Scams always depend on public gullibility, misrepresentation about the issue in question, a smokescreen to pacify initial disgruntlement (I guess some real people actually win $10 HDTVs or $2 iphones!) and the inevitable escape route! If it walks and talks like a ponzi scheme, it is most likely a ponzi scheme. If not a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme. Remember the people burnt by the Madoff scheme? Madoff misrepresented the process, just like Swoopo is doing here.
This site shall go down later due to legal reasons and/or bidder fatigue (previously gullible public). The misrepresentation shall be questioned both legally, and more and more by regular Joes who shall have spent money and not won anything. At this time, even posting pictures and videos of 'winners' shall not matter. The site shall go down. The escape route? They are making piles of money, which shall insulate them against the inevitable lawsuits, a cost of doing business! Remember, even snakeoil had its supporters, and people wondered what the big deal was 'since everybody knew snakeoil to be a placebo '; not everybody knew, and the snakeoil salesmen misrepresented the oil as having true medicinal value. It is the same with the swoopo scam. Please keep off swoopo, send the letters to the FTC, and warn all others to avoid spending their money on this modern snakeoil!
I got a great deal on several items at bidwinflip.com. I didnt understand the reserve for the auctions at first but I did a little looking in the terms of use and figured it out. Its not a bad deal at all. The auctions with no reserve have green text while the ones with the reserve that isnt met are red. I had my bids on a couple of items where the reserve wasnt met and when the final auction date came I got all my bids back plus some because I was the last bidder. That gave me some extra bids to win a few Nintendo Wii games for about 5 bucks. There site says its an American owned and operated company so I dont think they are affiliated with Swoopo. I cant win anything at Swoopo so I just gave up trying, its like they have something bidding against you no matter what. I'm Done with Swoopo
yeah, that swoopo is very bastard, i signed and also i payed twice 25$, but i didn't buy any thing, and also my credit card is empty,….
I gotta say I don't see a thing wrong with these sites. There are others out there too, operating in my opinion honestly like http://BidFight.com
As long as they state the rules and follow them they are legal.
Apparently the folks claiming "scam" have never attended a live auction in their town or anywhere else. Ignorance is NOT a virtue, but you would think it was, by reading some of these posts. These days, it seems intelligence is measured by one's ability to search Google, read some blogs and jump on a bandwagon. Kewl…
The problem with Swoopo is that it requires one to navigate a learning-curve before dipping their toe in the water. You have to READ and UNDERSTAND how it works. Just because someone isn't willing to do their "due diligence" doesn't mean it's a scam. It's not rocket science. Sitting at a computer all day trying to win a Nintendo for your kid's Christmas, is not going to get it done most of the time. You have to use your noggin. For impatient people who want instant gratification without having to use their heads much, eBay is probably the way to go (just don't call eBay an auction, because it isn't even close). But if you spend time learning how Swoopo works, you can maximize your chances of winning and getting some great and sometimes, amazing deals.
If you don't think this is gaming then you are so naive. The reason they haven't get in trouble because no money changing hands. Think of this as Texas Hold Them that you play with your vitual friends. First you exchange money for some tokens (bids) then join the fun to see who will win the bidding item (instead of pot of money). Whoever got the most moeny or make it appears that way will win the item.
I didn't attend a lot of live auctions like you but I never have to paid for anything at those live auctions until I win. You must attend some very unique places that have to pay when placing a bid…..
Hey everyone,
There is a new site using this model that you might be interested in, http://www.yottabid.com. It is new, so there are way less users (much better odds of winning, if only just temporarily). They also are doing their best to be as transparent as possible and avoid some of the potential pitfalls of this model.
In the name of transparency and disclosure, yes, I am affiliated with the site, but not one of the owners.
Thanks,
Jani
Here is the new like swoopo auction, but you can sell on it to!
http://www.bidhof.eu
Swoopo is listed as a auction site but after bidding and watching for over a month on a daily basis I find it is more of a gambling site. The system seems to be setup for Bid Butlers to win over single bidders. I have had the auction close even though there was still one second showing on my computer.
I do believe you can win on this site but it is expensive to learn and find when odds might be more in your favor.
Also be careful when they list the high price for an item. I have found in my state (OR) that some of those items are priced higher then they sell here.
WHO WINS THE MOST: THE OWNER OF SWOOPO.COM $$$$$$$$$$$$$
just curious if any of you people ever thought about the fact that a whole lot of these products are made in asia at rockbottom prices then sold to you at a markup of about 600%!!?
you know how much any laptop costs to make? never more than about 8 – 16 dollars per unit.
think about that next time you want to yell scam scam!!
fools.
furthermore every business works in such a way.
almost anything you buy is marked up at a rate that competes with inflation and competition, simple business mathematics.
ask good ole mike knight how much he makes when you buy a pair of Nike's….
the answer might shock you guys since you don't seem to understand that everything in the developed world primarily comes from the third world, at a ridiculous markup…
nike pays about half a dollar to make any given shoe, then charges you about one hundred dollars on average for those shoes,
call you congressman and ask him to do something about that scam…
Hey
Check this site out.http://www.budizo.com.
I've seen lot of websites like this one, and I watch a lot of auctions before subscribing or paying… at the end I decided to buy a small pack of bids in http://www.bidoo.us I bid on a trip to mexico, I didn't won. I was so angry that I watched all the auction till the end (2 hours 44 minutes later) so since I started biding till the auction ended I counted approximately 30.000 bids… I don't know how expensive is go to mexico… but I'm sure is way way way more less than what bidoo earned.
By the way winning on the cheap products is easier … I actually won a game for xbox 360 but I don't have an Xbox so I sold it on ebay
Well I like this kind of website I actually "played" on http://www.bidoo.us and I actually meet some people who also played here… and I got surprised by hearing this (transcription almost literally):
The secret on this places is to buy big packs, and look for expensive auctions since they start till they are almost ended… from that point is where people starts bidding… and you must wait (that's not a science) like 2 or 3 more hours… and then start bidding nonstop. NONSTOP… so the people who bought cheap packs they are going to run out of bids or they are not going to bid if they see that someone is always bidding… so in that nonstop bidding you may spend lot of money like $200 or $300 but you win most of the time… in that point you maybe spent $300 but you win a television worth $5.000 and then you sell it on ebay for $4.000 and you actually make lot of money…
so there is a lot of professional bidders out there… winning is possible but look out for those sharks…
Swoopo is not a scam, but watch out because you can very easily spend a lot of money and not get anything. If you do win the auction you will get the item though.
um…in order to be a scam, a system has to be one thing while claiming and appearing to be another. it has to involve some degree of deception. swoopo does nothing of the kind. they tell you right up front exactly how the system works, and when you use it, it works exactly the way they told you it would work before you even signed up. where, pray tell, is the scam in that? what do you fancy they're lying about? what, exactly, are they hiding?
i see them hiding nothing and scamming no one. if a person is unable to control their own spending at swoopo, the fault is no one's but their own. anyone who tells you different is just trying to find someone to hold responsible for their own irresponsibility.
The following link is that of a BEGINNNER auction in Swoopo.
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/sony-playstation-3-80-gb/181472.html
Beginner means those who has not won any auction. Please take a look at the number of free bids (273 free bids) the person has placed without winning. This is pure cheating of the new members….. mentioning that this is a begineers auction
@Pradeep – no cheating has occurred. The user that won this auction has accumulated enough FreeBids in his account (without ever winning an auction until this one) to place those 273 FreeBids used to win this auction. Now that Bidder Adnanac has won, he will not be able to participate in any beginner auctions.
"Third, I wanted to let you know that on 70% of our auctions, Swoopo does not make enough money from bids to cover the cost of the product. So, it is a bit of a gamble for us in hopes that we can cover all of our product costs (and other overhead costs) with the remaining 30% of the auctions."
Quit playing the role of volunteer charity worker, Chris. Nobody is buying your BS. This is a gambling web site, plain and simple, and I honestly believe it's rigged, based on some of the cash auction results and other items I've seen people "win" by placing more $$ in bids than the item is worth on the street.
I have a Co-Worker that won a 42" 1080i LCD TV… and he only spent a total of $225 shipped to his door… he got on the site after his friend won a TV as well…
… so i find myself with my one and only attempt to win a small laptop… im not gonna try more than once… and hope for the best…
… but unlike 90% of you complainers… i know that i am risking $22.50 to try and possibly win a Laptop for under $100 …
…THAT'S FINE WITH ME!!!…. but if you don't like the fact that you may never see your money again…
… just don't even sign up… JUST STAY AWAY if you cant live with yourself, if you loose a little bit of money.
… FOR CHRIST SAKE YOU GUYS ARE ALL BEING LITTLE BABY'S… no one should tell me what i can and cant do with my money… no ONE!!!
have to admit i used to be skeptical of a company that could sell a laptop for £15. However, having analized the principles swoopo use i came to the conclusion that at increments of $0.5 per bid they make a profit even at such a low price, so that should be all right I suppose.
actually i even came across the resembling site, that is likely to be younger than swoopo. As far as guessed that is why their price for a bid is even lower – just $0.05.
Has anybody participated in auctions on luckberry.com?
i’d like to know whether everything is ok with them
I would agree with Jared about surplus of idiotic bidders. These people didn't care to even read how their bids work and pretty much the way the bidding system on the site works.
Swoopo is a pretty genius idea imo as far as a business model! Get people to pay for every bid, continually increasing auction times with each bid as well the shear competitive nature of people in general really helps drive their revenues.
As for Luckberry.. it seems to be reliable. I’ve tried it several times, they have suchlike rules and offer decent items..
i’m more determined than ever!
their young age turns out to be pre-eminence in this case. the fewer participants bid, the more chances of winning everybody has! close reasoning, isn’t it?;-)
i succeeded in winning lcd 65′ for eur 107 and saved eur 300, so i’m mightily pleased!! soon i gonna spend the left bids trying to win xbox for my son
ps. by the way no problems with delivery occured
I think Swoopo is too hard to win on because people that have bid a lot on an item aren't willing to lose because they have already put so much money into it. When http://www.GottaNabit.com launches it will be a waaaaaay better place to win items at cheap prices. At least 40-80% off every item and you dont pay per bid.
Maybe Goose, but for people interested in sites like swoopo, there are other alternatives that aren't as busy as swoopo which means it's easier/less expensive to win. I tried one called bidfire and I won a nintendo wii for very cheap. I was surprised it actually worked out, but now I have my wii. I noticed only a few different bidders were going back and forth and I just took a stab at it and won.
WOW!!! It's amazing how many whiny people there are because they don't have the intelligence enough to read first or understand the business model of the site.
I do NOT work for or have any association with Swoopo.com, but it really doesn't take a genius to figure this out people.
No part of this site is a scam (unless maybe they weren't sending the won products, but I'm sure that's not the case or they'd never be able to stay in business this long). It's a very basic and simple idea. Genius even, but like most new and misunderstood cutting edge businesses, they get to take the rap for being the first of their kind. Not an easy place to be, but I give them props.
All of you who say Swoopo is a scam obviously don't understand enough about it, and haven't read enough to make it work in your favor. If you knew how to read, you'd see that every part of the system is spelled out in black and white. No part of it is kept secret. You buy bid packages, you use the bids to try and win the auction. Just like any other auction, there is only one winner. You pay to play! If you don't like it, DON'T PLAY!!! Plain and simple.
The fact that they are different does not make them bad or make the system a scam. It just makes you unhappy because YOU don't like how it's done. Boo hoo! Stop crying about it and trying to make it bad for everyone else.
Everyone keeps saying it's a scam because it's another form of gambling. That's wrong too. It is similar to gambling, but anyone who knows what they're talking about knows the difference. This site is winnable with skill. There are several methods you can use, but you need to know them and apply them.
The gaming commission knows all about these sites, and the reason they have NOT done anything about it is because THEY have stated it is not traditional gambling since they are winnable with skill, unlike gambling which are all typically games of chance.
When I first found the site, I was like ABBY and thought, what's the catch. Then I did the math. Obviously, the other bidders that don't win help cover the cost that keeps the price down for the ultimate winner. Not rocket science. Besides, even if it took me $1980.00 to win a TV that I would normally be able to purchase at the store for $2000.00, I've still gotten a better deal. Not a great deal, but better. Most average people are just hoping to spend a few dollars and come out with a great deal. Although possible, not very likely.
It just takes strategy and a little common sense. If you really want to win an auction, expect to spend some money, especially if it's a popular item. Do the research, and find out when the best time is for bidding, when the best deals are, and know what you're doing before you get into the bigger items.
Also, I noticed at the top of this page someone stated that this site was a scam because the timer went to 1 second and he didn't win. Duh!! Read before you play!!! Every bid raises the timer 2 seconds and as much as 20 seconds, giving someone else another opportunity to place a bid, just like a real auction where the auctioneer says, "going, going, gone"!
Oh and by the way, enough with the kcbidz.com. It's boring and unimaginative. There are a hundred other sites just like it. Nothing special, and you still have to spend money for every number (dollar amount) you pick. Just like a lotto with the same chances of winning.
Anyway, good luck to those who understand the system, and have the money to make it work.
To the rest, I say – there are those who do, and then there are those who just complain about everything.
In my opinion the problem is that in many penny auction sites you pay event $1 per bid. I found a website where one bid costs 10 cents. Of course you have buy the biggest Bid Pack. But still – it's much much chipper to bid. Check it out: http://www.for10cents.com
I have been watching this site for the past few days and came to a conclusion that it's a OKAY site
Like say I am going to buy a GAME (Costs around $25-$30 RRP)
The winning person WILL bid over 10 times so basically
You pay $10 on bids and $10 to keep the game
Now you just wasted $20 and only saved like $5
I'd rather go Ebay because thats a known site and scam levels on there are pretty low
You have gaurantee there too
If you know your stuff and are going to swoopo and KNOW the auction is going to end around $30 then START BIDDING AT $27 Save yourself some pennies genious!
Swoopo has alot of products. But it's so expencive. this sites alot cheaper than swoopo, http://muulu.com 50 cents per bid, second pack you buy is like 30 cents. Plus free shipping and 1 in 4 bids give you an extra bid. Find that anywhere else.
I really appreciate the discussion about swoopo. I'm new to the online "buying/auctioning" world and wanted to get some real feedback about current "bargain" sites out there.
I was wondering if anyone knew anything about http://www.BIDZONE.com??
I found the site yesterday and it seems new since I have yet to find any comments about it. All I know (or read) was that they're currently offering free registration with 5 free bids. They're different than Swoopo in that their "auctions" reduce the product price rather than increase it. Each bid cost 50cents and each time you bid the product's price reduces by 50cents. seems pretty interesting and offers a better deal then other sites I've found so far.
Figured I post something just to see if anyone can give me more information! Thanx!
Swoopo states in there help section,
"
Enjoy the thrill of bidding but never leave Swoopo empty handed. You can still get the product even if you don't win the auction. Any time during the auction, you can choose to buy the item at a discount equal to the amount of bids you've placed in that auction. You'll never have to pay more than the Worth Up To price for any products on Swoopo. The auction will continue as usual, so other bidders can battle it out.
"
so it appears to me that this entire thread is on the wrong track, my question is how they make any money at all.
Swoopo isn't a scam, but it's basically gambling. There is some level of skill involved (knowing when to bid, strategies to bid), but you still need to get lucky.
The trick is to only bid on items you are willing to pay retail price for anyway. For example, I've been planning to purchase a PS3 Slim since the price went down. Instead of paying $300, I bid on Swoopo and got it for $90, + 28 in bids, and $12 shipping. I saved $170 because I was smart about my bidding. However, had I not been lucky enough to swoop the PS3 at that price, I would've kept bidding. Once my bids + auction cost = 300, I would've just stopped and bought the PS3 at retail price from Swoopo (which you can do with most products, there are a few they don't allow this, I think gold bars they don't).
If you feel you've been scammed, you went in blindly and didn't think your strategy through. There IS skill involved in the bidding process. Knowing when to single bid and when to bid butler, knowing when to let others bid while you sit back and wait. Waiting until the auction is closed to new bidders before you get serious about it.
I have friends that have bought dozens of items from the site, and then turned around and sold them for profits on ebay. A friend of mine last week bought a $1700 HDTV for $500 total. How? He was smart about it, and most importantly he was committed to paying full price if he had to (he would've turned around and sold the TV for a slight loss if he had to).
Is it risky? Absolutely. But if you know how to play it right, you CAN come out on top and save yourself hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
I bought my bids when they were 75 cents each and now they reduced them to 60 cents. When I requested them either refund me or add the appropriate bids to the account. They said they would and after 2 weeks of nothing, I sent them an email letting them know that I was unhappy and requested the bids be returned at the paid price. I did not get paid the proper price and have no satisfaction from these people.
*** I WARN ANYONE AGAINST "SWOOPO" AND ANY DEALING WITH THEM***
I just purchased 'Swoopo" points for "pennies on the dollar" ,.70cents for 40 Swoopo points.Soiunds like a good deal regardless,how much can I lose,,70 cents?
I figure I'll give it a try and buy something with the .70 cents I paid for the 40 points(even if it's justsomwething inexpensive.
My question is this?
If I pay for the swoopo points I won(that don't cost them a penny, if I pay via paypal or via credit card, do the 'swoopo' points get credited (the swoopo points) directly into my swoopo account?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Brentski.
funny but real: I found the ultimate analysing swoopo tool! "bidfight – ultimate analysing swoopo tools"
http://www.bidfight.net
its cheaper than another analysing tool, because its FOR FREE!!!
You can see how often your oponents won with swoopo and how much you have too invest too win an auction!
I have filed 5 disputes with Paypal because I have not receive the items I won on Swooopo! And it has been over a month for the first few items. Now, after 7 days of not receiving any notification (I only get Swoopo emailed newsletters so I know my email address works) I file a claim with Paypal and esclate the claim right away too. And Swoopo has not even respond to any of the disputes, some over 2 weeks old! I have zero confidence that Swoopo is even shipping anything to any winners! Just pocketing the price for the bids and the amount paid by the wininng bidder! I have suggested to Paypal that Swoopo be banded as a Paypal seller because Swoopo is not responvise to customers nor to the disputes! Buyer beware!!!
That is the number of bids they personally placed. Do the division on the actual price (all auctions start at $0.00). 2,369.40/.15 = 15,796 overall bids placed.
While it is a 100% free auction, they still had to pay the money for those bids, since they were not free bids (this person also placed an additional 300 in free bids). That means that person's total cost to win $1000 cash was $4,492 in bids + $0.00 for the 100% off + $0.00 for no shipping costs = $4,492.
If this was for an actual item, you could possibly get away with saying that the item was really rare or had some special intrinsic value to the buyer, thus he/she willing to seriously overpay. However, this was for cash, so this person literally paid $4,492 to get paid $1,000.
Just because the product is not available in a certain area does not mean you are allowed to replace it with something else for that group. As soon as there is one discrepancy between the items on each site, it becomes a separate auction.
The easiest way to show how the example above is wrong is to look at the financial portion of it.
The US laptop is listed as having a RRP of $1,149.99, while the UK laptop is listed with an RRP of 1,199.99 pounds.
The current exchange rate is 1 pound = $1.7669.
So what were the US bidders bidding for? An item retailed at $1,149.99 or 650.58 pounds.
What were the UK bidders bidding for? An item retailed at $2,121.58 or 1,199.99 pounds, an item worth essentially twice as much.
Two different items, two different amounts, two totally different bidding strategies for each item, etc. These should not be combined into one auction.
What if the winner was from the US and you told him he had to pay the cost listed on the UK site for the UK laptop? He'd probably tell you off because that isn't what he bid on, aside from the fact that he would have to pay 3/4 more.
Plus, forgive me if I'm wrong (no search function in your help site, that would definitely help) but I don't see anything stating that US bidders can't go to the UK site and bid on UK items and vice versa. Technically, I could go in and bid for both laptops, but obviously not have a chance at winning both, because it is impossible. The fact that I could bid on two different items and have a 0% chance of winning both is wrong.
I would be interested to see what the bids would look like if it was noted on these auctions that "on the US/UK/Germany/Austria/Spainversions of the site, there is a totally different laptop being auctioned, the bidders are combined, and only 1 person out of all 2-5 sites will walk away with the laptop they were bidding on."
For the record, the German and Austrian site's laptop for this auction ID was an Acer 8930G, the Spanish version is an 8920G-6A3G25BN, and all use the euro. These are listed as being worth different euro amounts as well. So take all the complications above and increase the issues 4 fold. I just can't see how that can be justified.
MYBrat2u
I have had the exact same problem. I won a camera off them and its been 2 weeks and no response from swoopo. I will file a complaint with Paypal but I do not think it will do me any good. Doing further research there will be a class action lawsuit against swoopo LAWSUITagainstSWOOPO@gmail.com, and I intend to join.
PLEASE BEWARE!!!
Do not be fooled by swoopo EVEN IF you win, you will not receive your items. Learn from our mistakes.
theres nother site like swoopo. its called bidstick.com. i won three auctions so far! one of tha items i won was a Vizeo 47" hdtv worth about 1300 bucks for only about 100 bucks total.
As with all new services, educating consumers and arming them with appropriate expectations is key. Much of the criticism penny auctions receive stems from the fact that few people win and everyone expects to get a great deal without much effort. Noone can fault the auction sites for channeling these human needs. It's called business. It is up to consumers to educate themselves by doing their homework, such as checking out review sites like http://www.pennyauctionguide.com. It's just like everything in life: luck favors the prepared.
Hi,
i found this nice video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAVIW478X50
I saw a similar site called Worm Deals Auctions that is similar to Swoopo. They have 2 winners to every auction and the second winner only has to pay $1. Plus they have a video section showing winners opening up their packages when they receive them. Is it for real? They are at http://www.wormdeals.com/auction
it is all rights,
same web site is http://www.IRINGBID.com and people are happy from these sites.
Why we have casinos, gamerooms, rulletes, cards poker….and etc.?
Guys,
Have you ever experienced an Entertainment Shopping Model, where the price of branded products will decrease as each second passes by ?…Strange, We are coming soon with unique model where you will be in always win-win situation. Brugle.com is coming shortly to change the face of entertainment shopping, A shopping experience you have never experienced before.
site is 100% scam BS>>>> You will see spammers everywhere advertising this site.. SAVE YOUR MONEY!
No need to buy bids anymore. Brugle.com is coming with a unique concept. One of my friend has told me about this site. I am very curious to know more about this site. How will we bid when we don't purchase bids. I am waiting for this site, this might bring something good for all penny auction lovers.
This is an interesting discussion, and it's hardly something that psychologists haven't recognized for a long time. In the ethics class that I teach, I always use one session to auction off a $20 bill. The catch is that the winning bidder pays what he/she bid and gets the money, but the person who comes in second has to pay their highest bid but gets nothing.
It never fails. As soon as the bidding gets close to $20, someone asks if they can bid more than $20 so that they at least get something back from the auction. No one wants to lose, and the final two bidders compete until the price gets ridiculous and they make a deal to cooperate and split the winnings and the losses. Swoopo offers a similar "out" by allowing you abandon the bidding process and buy the item at the listed price, so that you minimize your losses. I'm surprised that anyone built this concept into a business, since it's a classic illustration of brinkmanship. The good news is that I won't have to waste a class session next year to make this point to my students. I'll just assign them a visit to Swoopo as homework.
Try to register a username on Swoopo that contains any uppercase characters and your registered username will be all lowercase characters. Be suspicious of bidders who have usernames containing uppercase characters because they did not go through the normal registration process. Try it yourself, your username will be all lowercase. Be suspicious.
I consider all pay to bid sites a scam. There are a large number out there now and they all have similar rules but the basic principal is the same: keep the bid increment small enough that the auction can end with a winning price that is a small fraction of the retail value while still generating 2 to 3 x the retail price (or more) in bidding fees. Pick any site and watch for a while, each bid adds time to the clock so the auctions only end when every bidder (except the winner) gives up. The bidders give up when they come to realize that they have already spent too much money on bids. It only takes 10 participants willing to spend 10% of the product value on bids to completely pay for the product. Someone will win every auction and every auction will end with the product selling at a bargain price. Advertising strategy is to focus on the final price compared to retail and to publish only the positive comments from participating members even though they are almost guaranteed to get more negative comments from both losers (who spend potentially several hundred dollars on bids and don't win anything) and winners who overbid (who end up with a final cost far exceeding retail when the cost of the bids is added on).