That Auction Thingy

[Victor Meldrew]

at the top of the page, Swoopo, is the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.

Has anone else here actually logged on to that site? I know this is sad, but I even registered just to see what it was all about, whether it could be a good alternative to ebay perhaps, but no way!

You have to pay 50p every time you bid, which means you could spend hundreds of pounds and never win anything! If you become a member of that site, you are priveledged to be able to see what happened on ended auctions. Whilst some people win bargains, others don't seem to have any brains where this site is concerned. Here's an example:-

Dirt Devil Bagless Upright Vacuum & extra brushes

RRP £69.99

Final Price £37.20
Bids (87@50p each) £43.50

Total price payable £80.70

Well done mate, what a bargain you got there. I wonder if he wants to buy my no longer used windows 95 computer. I'll flog it to him for just £499.

[cryptonomiumo]

I've taken a look, but haven't registered, because it's bonkers.

From what I gathered, when you bid, the price goes up by just 10p, no matter how much you're prepared to pay? So you could be happy to pay - say - £100 for something but would have to bid multiple times, pay 50p a pop, then maybe not even get it.

I think it's for people who play it for entertainment, or are stupid.

[feral]

That site is all over the telly here at the moment so I had a look last night as well and thought what a brilliant idea .Ideal for the terminally stupid and greedy.

[feral]

Have you worked out how much swoopo made on that vaccum cleaner with 10p bids at 50p a go .I make it around £180 .Correct me if Im wrong
Hehe ..fecking brilliant

[cryptonomiumo]

Yeah I'm jealous, it's a good idea. Second only to the lottery which someone once described as 'a tax on the stupid' which amused me.

[feral]

Was discussing it last night as it happens-its a very simple principle -practicallly a tombola where you pay for your prize as well lol,but it must have taken some setting up -or it has some very good backing to be getting the advertising its getting .It's all over prime time TV here and I bet its locked millions already .
God it makes me sick that I cant think of things like that lmao -the perfect fecking business in a recession

[cryptonomiumo]

There's always people prepared to chuck their money away, whatever the financial climate.

But yeah, perfect business. Money for nothing at all.

[Victor Meldrew]

Mar 8, 2009 20:43:06 GMT feral said:

Have you worked out how much swoopo made on that vaccum cleaner with 10p bids at 50p a go .I make it around £180 .Correct me if Im wrong
Hehe ..fecking brilliant

Actually, feral, I've done some calculations on those auction items too. £180 is small potatoes compared to a laptop I was watching a while ago. The RRP was around £400, and it was going up in 1p stages, yes ONE PENNY a punt. It sold for £270, so with bids at 50p a go, I make it THIRTEEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS to Swoopo on bids alone for a £400 laptop. There must have been several bidders who spent well into three figures on bids and got nothing.

It's a brilliant idea, and I wish I'd thought of it. Oh hang on, I'm pretty sure I did think of it years ago, but thought there would never be enough completely stupid people in the world to make it work. Damn!

[feral]

Yea I thought I read 1p and not 10p but couldnt be arsed to go back and look .So they cashed in a total of £13,770 for the lap top .Even if they themselves paid retail price for the laptop thats still £13,370 profit .For ONE sale .
Just one of those a day for a month and they've made around £400k.
It's staggering isnt it ?
Retirement in 6 months

[feral]

I also like the way they've done away with last second bids as well .Have you seen how the time goes back up if a bid goes on lol ?
I've just been watching a laptop on german swoopo .There's 5 or 6 nutters bidding on it and each have put in over 20 bids in the last few minutes and the time left goes down to 1 second and then back up to around 20 as a flood of bids go in .I bet its still there in an hour and the nutters as wel

[feral]

weeeeeeeeeell 18rudi61 ..youve spent at least €50 in the couple of minutes I've been watching .Pssssst mediamarkt has the same laptop dead cheap

[feral]

LMAO .Its fecking hilarious .I could watch this all evening .Cleverlly ( great name ) has just won a Wii game for €21,60 .RRP €49,90.They've worked out for her how much shes saved .At 92 bids at 50 cents each absolutely nothing .In fact its just cost her €67.60 .And thats without postage LMAO

[cryptonomiumo]

1. Bidding on our auctions starts at just 10p, with no reserve prices.
2. The price only goes up by 10p with each bid placed.
3. If a bid gets placed in the final moments, we extend the auction by up to 20 seconds.
4. We charge 50p for each bid placed, even if it’s not a winning bid. (Doing this allows us to offer the winners such great deals)

[feral]

ah yea ...they have both sorts .same as here 10p and 1p auctions / 10 cents and 1cents
Actualy I was wrong about the laptop -that uns just finished and the bloke who won it got it for €46,20 and paid out for 69 bids .Laptop had a rrp of €449 so hes done ok for himself .On that one .He's busy bidding elsewhere as well and I cant see him winning em all lol

[feral]

Changed me mind .Cant watch it all evening .Its boring after a short time watching fools being parted from their money

[cryptonomiumo]

I'm warming to the idea. Guess if you bid intelligently you may do well. Just have to decide how many bids you're willing to make, rather than how much.

But still, it's a game for people with money to throw away.

[cryptonomiumo]

"Its boring after a short time watching fools being parted from their money "

Especially when it 'aint going to you, hehe

[feral]

I was trying not to dwell on that aspect .Git

[sushimo]

I have actually been to one of these auctions, it was to raise money for charity, and I think they called it a Dutch Auction. They had girls carrying buckets, and the bids start at 1p and rise by 1p to the £, then go in 10p sections to £10, and 50p up, and so on. You just throw your money into the bucket for each bid. (You are warned to carry a lot of change!)

A 42" TV went for £50, but the price the charity got for it was amazing - I did work it out, but forget now. They had bought it on a special deal from Comet I believe. That was just one item, there were about 4 auctions run, while we paid a bomb for our food and drink.

[Victor Meldrew]

How about a "Swoopo Moron of the Day" category on this board?

As a registered member I get the chance to see the winning bidders and how much they paid. I'll try to post it up here at lunchtimes.

To start off, today it's a massive congratulations to Big100.

Man, you've excelled yourself with this one. The auction was for a 300 bids voucher, allowing him 300 credits to bid for items on the site. The discounted cost of this voucher was £120.

Big100, you won this auction with:-

A final winning bid of £20

You bid on this item 408 times giving you bid fees of £204

Total cost of winning bid and bid fees = £224 for a voucher worth £120.

I was prepared to sell my Windows 95 computer to Swoopo members at £499. However, Big100, in recognition of your astute business sense, I have decided to give you a personal special offer.

It's yours for just £599.