Swoopo.com auctions are a bid for the poorhouse
Filed under: Shopping, Technology
Bad ideas are as common in the internet world as Brittany Spears photographs, so to stand out in this company an idea has to be truly execrable. Swoopo.com rises (or sinks) to that level.
At first blush, the site resembles the typical auction site, where customers vie to snatch up bargains by competitive bidding. The difference with Swoopo, however, is that all items are put up by Swoopo, not individuals as on Ebay, and the bidder pays $.75 for each bid. Think about that for a moment.
Let's pretend that we are intent on bidding on the Samsung LN37A550 37" LCD HDTV currently on auction as I write this. While the site lists the retail value at $1,199.99, Amazon sells the set for $879.99. Suppose a dozen people start bidding. Of that dozen, at least a few are going to be caught up in the auction frenzy, as the price climbs slowly, but still tantalizingly cheap. By the time the set sells, one bidder might walk away with a bargain, but the other eleven will have nothing in return for the money they spent to bid.
The insidious part of the Swoopo model is that items could routinely sell for well beneath their market price, the difference funded by the money collected per bid. In essence, all the losers are helping to cover the cost of the winner's prize.
The only way Swoopo can hope to retain bidders is to provide bargains, and since in every auction all but one of the participant will end up out of pocket with nothing in return for the money they spent on bids, I can't imagine people hanging around long.
Thanks, Techdirt
Also read: Ebay changes turning off customers
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-31-2008 @ 11:49AM
Melissa said...
The other disheartening thing about this auction site is the fact that auctions hardly EVER END. When somebody bids within the last 15 seconds, the website ADDS 15 seconds to give everyone a "fair shot". Just another way to drive up the prices of their products.
Reply
1-10-2009 @ 8:40PM
Jordan said...
Swoopo is very misunderstood. People apply ebay rules to a website that is completely different. It is a not a site for the risk averse. But it is fun, and winnable.
Start small on a game or DVD movie, to get the hang of playing this game. Look out for the bidbutlers - only use them yourself after reading all the instructions (there are 2 bidbutler help pages worth reading on Swoopo).
I burnt through my first set of bids quickly, then I stopped an re-evaluated and started to understand how different Swoopo was from my first expectations. I have written a great tell all guide to help others win at swoopo. www.winswoopo.com
Happy Shopping
Reply
1-10-2009 @ 8:45PM
jordan said...
http://www.winswoopo.com
1-10-2009 @ 8:59PM
Jordan said...
Swoopo is very misunderstood. People apply ebay rules to a website that is completely different. It is a not a site for the risk averse. But it is fun, and winnable.
Start small on a game or DVD movie, to get the hang of playing this game. Look out for the bidbutlers - only use them yourself after reading all the instructions (there are 2 bidbutler help pages worth reading on Swoopo).
I burnt through my first set of bids quickly, then I stopped an re-evaluated and started to understand how different Swoopo was from my first expectations. I have written a great tell all guide to help others win at swoopo. http://www.winswoopo.com
Happy Shopping
Reply
1-12-2009 @ 7:58PM
Jordan said...
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. Someone will get it right.
The one I like the most is www.biddia.com (www_biddia_com).
It at least has fair ways that people have a shot at winning an auction.
Reply
1-14-2009 @ 3:13PM
kulner8 said...
they just keep popping up (http://biddingmaness.com).. though bit different than swoopo
Reply
1-15-2009 @ 1:49PM
Alan said...
I just stumbled on to a swoopo-like page http://www.bidonetwo.com has any of you been there or know something about it?
Reply
1-20-2009 @ 11:54PM
Matthew said...
Like Jordan above (and above and above) I created a tell-all guide to Swoopo.
It's packed w/ loads of info on how to win and it's the best on the market. (Sorry Jordan, I checked!)
http://www.swoopomanual.com
Reply
2-04-2009 @ 3:13AM
IamAsucker said...
I think bidonetwo is nothing but a way to steal your money. I was bidding against 15 different people (I see only user IDs) and they kept bidding. it went for hours and hours. Finally I stopped bidding and then auction ended few minutes after that. some one (one of the IDs) had won. As long as I was active bidding the system kept me in and kept taking my money. once I stopped bidding, someone won. Looked at all the closed auctions and never that TV (what I was bidding on) sold for more than $50, but call me a sucker as I stayed in the bidding war until the price had reached $90. It is just a person's intelect to design such website to take your money. The only thing that you can ever win from them is the "free bids" since it cost them abseloutly nothing, and you end up using them on other things. Do not spend your money on this or any other fake auctions like this one. good luck
Reply
2-16-2009 @ 11:07PM
greguva said...
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.
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