Full FeedCan you beat Swoopo? Gadgetell interview with beatswoopo.com
Our story on swoopo.com, an auction site that advertises crazy low prices, continues to draw folks that are either angry at the site or impressed with their business model. The concept is rather unique: bidders pay per bid which tends to keep the prices low. Is it possible to beat Swoopo? Can it be taught?
One site that has been offering advice to our readers on swoopo is David Boyd from beatswoopo.com. Dave sells a guide book of sorts on techniques to beat Swoopo. The book costs $7 and is sold from his site. From his site:
A sample of 5,000 auctions was taken to formulate several different characteristics and trends on Swoopo. You will have the ability to know what day of week a product is going to be discounted the most. You will know what time of day you should be bidding on that product.
Let’s get to the questions:
Tell me what drove you to start your site.
I started my website after checking out Swoopo when I read a brief blog on the site. I’m always interested in new business models, and this one definitely sounded like a first. So, I checked it out, did my
research, and found that there were a ton of people very dissatisfied with it. I guess it’s only to be expected because it is not an eBay clone and is called an auction. What if Swoopo came first? I think it would be the other way around. I digress. Well, I saw that there was a way to extract the data off the website and present the data in a way that makes it easier for people to see the best times to make bids on Swoopo. People on eBay call this sniping. I call it simple statistics.
What kind of advice (as specific as you can) do you offer?
What I am going to say isn’t original. Similar to what it says on the Swoopo website I believe you should start out small. Don’t use Bid Butler at first. Get an idea of what you think is what you want for a small amount of money (bids + final price) and give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen? Yeah, you could lose $30.00. So what? That learning experience could save you $300.00 in the future.
Why $7? How did you arrive at that number?
The $7.00 is a holiday special which I have decided to keep running. I might keep it at that price, but I’m not sure as of this time. It’s also a very reasonable price for a book that will most likely save someone ten times that amount given the product and auction.
Do you believe swoopo is evil or just misunderstood?
Swoopo is totally misunderstood. The guys at Swoopo definitely have some tough skin for all the flak they get. It’s like trying to get the old people at church to change the style of service from traditional to contemporary; only they are trying to get people to change from eBay to Swoopo. Also, they are a young company with an extremely fast growth rate. I’m sure that if there are any kinks to be worked out, they are already on top of it.
Do you offer a guarantee or some assurance of winning?
As of right now I do not guarantee anything through the purchase of my eBook. I do have a disclaimer in the book, but I would also think that you can’t be that ridiculous to think that I’m going to sell insurance on an auction that you are putting your money in that I have no say in. I’m not a dealer at a blackjack table and I’m not the house. Hmm, that’s an idea. Swoopo selling auction insurance? Maybe for the amount of insurance you put in you get a certain amount back if you do not win. It could be a ratio between the sell price and the price spent on bids. Just a thought. You heard it here first.
What have you won on the site?
I don’t gamble for religious reasons, so I do not participate on Swoopo.
Can you give us an idea how many customers you’ve had?
I am still in the early stages of sales and have sold under 75 books. I will be coming out with Volume 2 soon. It will be available on the website. I am also looking to get on Amazon for all you digital book people.
Can you share your customers success rates/stories?
I have had several customers come back saying that they love the book and have used the strategies to win holiday presents for their kids. It’ s a good feeling to know I helped.
Thanks to Dave for answering all my questions. On his site he says he assumes Swoopo is legit. What is your take? Let us know in the comments.
Product site: [Beatswoopo]
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David Boyd doesn’t see SWOOPO as a gamble site and he said “Swoopo is not evil, it is totally misunderstood”.
When asking about some assurance of winning by reading his book, this is what he said and I quote:
” I’m not a dealer at a blackjack table and I’m not the house. Hmm, that’s an idea.”
When asking did he win anything at Swoopo, he said:
“I don’t gamble for religious reasons, so I do not participate on Swoopo.
You don’t need to read his book to win all you need is GAMBLING experiences.
He is right as Swoopo has a new bussiness model and that is running a gambling site under the auction format without being caught (yet),
on December 21, 2008 at 01:24 PM - LINKI believe that Swoopo is not different from the online quiz shows that you see over here in the UK.(ITV Play,QuizCall)
on December 29, 2008 at 07:43 AM - LINKYou basically phone if to have a guess at the answer in simple quiz in a bid to win a cash prize.
However when you phone there is no guarentee that you will get through to the live show but you still get charged for the call.
This pretty much the same thing alot of people that use the site are simply missing the point. They are completely transparent about it all though people just don’t bother to read the rules!
His E-book ain’t worth the $7! No great secrets learned here!
on January 7, 2009 at 01:30 PM - LINKTOTAL SCAM. Smoopo is ” A tax on people who are bad at math.”
Ive read several reviews now on swoopit after running across it while looking for a TV. Either ALL the people writing these reviews are idiots or they are part of the scam. the one thing NONE OF THESE REVIEWS MENTION is that if you dont win the auction, you still pay .75 for each bid. SO, You PAY whether you win or not. OK the winner usually gets the item under retail but by the time you add final cost+ amount you pay for all your bids+ shipping, its not always a great deal and on several of the items I looked at on finished auctions, I can get the items on sale at retail store for less then the winner paid in total. AND all the loosers get to pay also.
One that I looked had something like “winning bid 23.11”. But at 477 bids by the winner x .75 = $357.75 + $69.00 shipping + $23.11 for the winning price = 449.86 total cost. The retal is only 498.00 and Ive seen it at retials stores on sale for 375.00 or so. NOW, what if your the guy who got outbid and you had say only 400 bids???? Well lucky you, you get to pay (400 bids at .75 a bid)$300.00 and get NOTHING!!!
SO, the end result is this. Winners SOMETIMES get a good deal. Loosers ALWAYS throw away hard earned money for Nothing. (AND now they have to start over and HOPE they win the next auction or they are out even MORE money.)
Once again- Smoopo is ” A tax on people who are bad at math.”
on February 4, 2009 at 06:17 PM - LINKand that is why I calls it a Gambling site except that you don’t win money. You exchange money for token to bid and if you win you got the mechandise. That is why it is legal because no money involved. A Texas Hold Them game that you play with virtual people all over the world. Very slick…
on February 4, 2009 at 07:06 PM - LINK@ Slanteye - Technically it’s not Gambling as you can still keep bidding until everyone else gives up (even if you do pay over the odds) so you can guareentee a win whereas you can’t when you gamble!
@Rodney quote:“Either ALL the people writing these reviews are idiots or they are part of the scam.”
It’s not a scam it’s just a well thought out business model. If they were scamming people do you think they would go on Television to be interviewed? (see below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQpGkLATzSQ
on February 5, 2009 at 05:56 AM - LINKIs there a way to beat Swoopo? Maybe. I think he hit on a very valid point with Swoopo being simply misunderstood rather than evil. There’s another company: [url=http://www.pricedrip.com]http://www.pricedrip.com[/url] that offers a BIT more transparency because you can TECHNICALLY buy the item whenever you want (you’ll just use more points).
on March 18, 2009 at 04:04 PM - LINKi finally realized the correct way to think about this is. calling this an entertainment auction site is totally correct. think about it this way. you go to an arcade and pay money for tokens. you use these tokens to play games (ski ball for example), and win tickets. you then trade in these tickets for prizes. usually you end up paying many times the amount of the actually cost for one of the prizes. in this case the entertainment is rolling a ball up ramp into numbered holes. in swoopos case the entertainment is beating out other people to win the auction. two differences i see is that you always get some tickets and some sort of prize. even if it is a crappy little rubber ball or some cheap gum. the other difference is that the prizes in an arcade are always over paid for, while if you win the swoopo auction you get a good deal. if you could manage to keep your bids down to 100 or 200 on items like HDTV or computer you get a great deal. it seems like the problem is people just not reading the fine print and realizing the risk. because the winner is not random this isn’t gambling. it’s not a lottery so you can’t treat it as such. the only thing i can see the law forcing swoopo to do is be more up front about it. even then you’ll still get stupid people to bid and lose that will complain. but people will risk the $30, $100 or whatever to get a HDTV for 70%.
on May 7, 2009 at 12:17 PM - LINKLets see if you think about it most of them rip you off one way or the other. EBay People who are selling have different emails so they can bid the price up on ya just to contact you later and tell you the bidder backed out and you can have the item for your bid. Even shopgoodwill here they are items given too them they are sitting there own starting price now which it was free too them why shouldn’t a bidder beable too set the frist selling price Also like Tocoma Washington Goodwill sit high shipping charges for xtra money even thou if you complain they say o no we go right by the book but I know better because i’ve put different address in and price has still been the same. Swoopo well I’m sure the same Bots or people bidding the price up some where near the area they are making top dollar. Now thats my comments on 3 places Wonder how many more there are?
on May 30, 2009 at 12:23 PM - LINKThere are other sites like swoopo where the chances of winning are a lot better. If you take a look at a site like bidfire, the prices stay lower AND the bid increments are $.05 which means it costs the bidders a lot less in the long run.
on July 31, 2009 at 01:35 PM - LINKInteresting interview.
I am developing a similar software to collect data from Swoopo auctions, plus an automated bot that bids according to customizable strategies on top of that. I need some motivated people to test it. Check swoopobot.com or drop me an email for more info: william ‘at’ swoopobot.com
on October 18, 2009 at 10:55 PM - LINK