Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Look this swoopo look like not the best site to give you the best price for your money.

Go and check kcbidz.com and there you really get the best for your dollar!

Nice tool for Swoopo.
http://www.wikiwif.de/bidwatcher.com

“People that don’t win are going to be mad, even regretful sometimes, but those very same feelings happen on other auctions like eBay too. “
Except on ebay you don’t loose all your money, when you don’t win the auction you were bidding on

“I have not found Europeans getting as upset over the site as they have for the US version.”
Guess you have not found out about that since Sofina filed a lawsuit against just about everybody who was expressing a critical opinion…

“Our CEO, Gunnar, was surprised on how many mixed reviews we’ve gotten. “
Probably more surprised that in the U.S. he cannot censor as rigourously

“We do not make them aware.”
...because if they were aware, they would refrain from participating

“Gunnar, our CEO has been keeping an eye on the auctions for years and has not seen people bid outrageous and not won.  “
For years? That’s funny, he’s only been CEO for maybe a year

“There is a skill to Swoopo. “
You bet, just as much as there’s skill in playing the lottery

“Winning takes two things: money and patience. “
True, except spending money patiently won’t make the deal a bargain anymore

This auction site is a piece of ####. I never won and never will. Crab…... don’t use it.

This is bullcrap. How would anyone know if Swoopo is manipulating the auctions. Since they have have all the chips, they can hire people 7 dollars an hour just to drive up the auction price, when the auction has reached profit making mark, then they drop out. Or better yet, using programs to do that automatically. The house will always win and worst is no one even know that they giving away money to these aholes. How can anyone tell that those ppl who won a 40” hdtv for $255 is not one of the Swoopo bidders using bidbutlers with infinite bids. This is Bogus, I can’t even begin to imagine. Looking at the site has my my boiling.

Swoopo is a defenite scam.  Check out this 300 bid card that I watched goto $576.75.  I watched bidding continually go higher and higher for 45 minutes.  Why would anyone pay $576.75 for a $300.00 bid card they can purchase anytime from swoopo for $300.00.
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/300-freebids-voucher/112354.html

If people still think it is for real after seeing this then they need to stay on swoopo and give them all their money cause their too stupid to even possess money.  By the way there was a TOM TOM 930 GPS that went for $23 and a Sony Playstation 3 for $83 at the same time people were fighting for this 300 bid card.

I found out about Swoopo this evening and have been discussing it with a friend. I don’t at all think it is a scam, but it is tapping into that “gambling urge” people have and anyone who has problems with that should definitely steer clear.

Just to respond to jerry summers’s comment, the winner of that bid card didn’t have to pay $300 for it—as it is very clearly stated on the page you linked, it was “free”; the winner only paid for their bids (in this case $32 for 32 bids) while Swoopo made $3845 from it.

In response to Jerry Summers:

Jerry… I’m not a member of the site and I just saw the site today and I know more than you.  The 300 bid card did not go for $576…. it went for $32.  If you look around and understood the different meanings of some of the things on the pictures such as 100% free, then you would understand that the person doesn’t pay the winning price… instead they pay the amount of bids they did.  This means while although the price got up to $576, the person who won had to spend a minimal $32.  This makes it an extremely good deal as normally it would cost $300. 

Also, loosing is apart of every game, every auction, every raffle, etc.  If you can’t stand the loosing then why participate in it?  This brings me to the next point.  Those of you who say “ultimately the ‘house’ brings in the most money” its true!  But in what situation is this not true???  Think about it, a business has to make money.  No matter what the business, they always charge more than what the product is worth or they have to make money someway.  In this case, swoopo, has over 380 auctions running simultaneously.  Some last days, some last weeks, but either way it is important to know that they need to generate enough income to make up for all the products they distribute, all the costs of a business, employees, etc. and so the obviously need a way to make money.  So what I’m trying to say is, while you don’t have to like their practices (even i don’t like the system), you have to understand the basic principles of a business which is to make money, and in the case of swoopo they do make a good amount of money, but they also offer their users great deals.

I think most people critical of the general Swoopo philosophy have not bothered to really understand HOW to use the site.  Ultimately, there is strategy.  It is a bit like gambling, just as it was quoted above “...it takes time and money.”  In other words, if you buy 20 bids thinking you’ll win an auction for something worth $1200, you’re going to lose your money.  The part he left out is LUCK.

The comment I have trouble believing is that Swoopo doesn’t cover cost 70% of the time.  If you look through the completed auctions and add up the number of bids vs. the cost of product, I don’t see how this is possible - unless there is some MAJOR overhead (Gunnar’s salary, maybe?).  Just look at the Nintendo DS’s or Wii’s.  These regularly go for near the retail price of the unit.  Any product that is gets enough bids to equal it’s retail price means that Swoopo earned 6.66 times the cost of the unit in bids, plus the winner usually still pays the final price of the auction.  So, if they sell one Wii for $250 they’ve earned $1666 in bids, plus the $250 for the final price.  This same concept is also true in the other auction types.  I’ve seen very few cases, especially for the more expensive products, where the bids do not cover the item cost plus a large margin to account for the system, databases, salary, etc.

That said, I don’t have anything against Swoopo, but based on these perceived margins, it would seem they could make their bid price much cheaper.  Even if 4x the bids are cast, people would feel better about losing $.25 per bid rather than a full $1.

Another error I’ve found in the site is that they regularly OVERSTATE THE SAVINGS.  I’ve seen auctions close where the winner has 3 of the last 10 visible bids, but the end report says they won with only 1 bid.  The root of the issue seems to be when a person wins with Bid Butler.  You can book more than one Bid Butler at different price points.  So if one is set to bid up to 5 times between $0-$10 then you set a second to bid 5 more times between $15-30, then you win the auction on your last bid at $30, Swoopo only looks at your last Bid Butler of 5 bids to calculate the amount you spent.  So Swoopo would say you used 5 bids, but you actually used 10.  Additionally, they don’t count “free bids” against the savings, even though you’d have to spend money to win free bids in the first place.  Therefore, if you win some free bids, then win another auction using those free bids, Swoopo says you saved 100%. 

I’ve been watching Swoopo and even dived in to trying it out.  After wasting a bunch of bids here & there, I reassessed my strategy.  I did win a “50 free bid” auction.  It took me around 20 bids to win, so I netted 30 free bids.  If you’re thinking of trying it out, do like they say - start small.  Don’t go for that ipod or LCD tv.  Go for a free bid auction, the $80 cash, or something.  Before you ever place one bid, most of all, OBSERVE!  Watch other auctions as they unfold - you’ll start to see some general patterns to how auctions end.  READ everything you can on the BidButler so you understand how it can work, then observe auctions to see how people use it both advantageously and also to their own detriment.

jerry summers said:

“Swoopo is a defenite scam.  Check out this 300 bid card that I watched goto $576.75.  I watched bidding continually go higher and higher for 45 minutes.” 

Jerry, go back and look at that auction.  It is “100% off” meaning you don’t pay the final bid price.  Your cost is only the # of bids you made.  In this case the winner placed $32 in bids and won $300.  That was his total cost.  Swoopo on the other hand made $576 on a $300 auction due to all the bidding.

The BidButler is the scam part - it is supposed to automatically bid for you when the timer drops to less than 10 seconds.  However, I’ve seen it where if there is more that one bidder using BidButler, it won’t wait until 10 sec and will run up bids among all the BidButlers until they are extinguished.  This wipes out all automatic bids, while SingleBidders can save their bids and sit on the sidelines.

Hey i found something very similar. Its http://biddingmadness.com . Also i think there will be more of them, its like flowers in the spring :D. Try out the google search “+wanted +swoopo.com +clone”, it gave me 148 answers. :))))

Hey, I went to that site biddingmadness and spent $10 and won A sauna, Asus laptop, Apple Macbook, a Roomba, and a apple Ipod Touch.  Too bad I wont get them cause its a big scam.  I won by just waiting till the auction was going to end and bid 2 seconds before closing.  The timer said 1 or 2 minutes remaining but the auction closes at a certain time on the dot regardless of what the timer says. I saw lots of people just bidding away and I just snatched the items right out of their hands because they weren’t looking at the auction end time,  instead their watching the timer,  I figured this out after about 10 mins of watching.  I only saw one other guy doing what I was doing.  Anyhow, they take payment by paypal and when you get the receipt it says payment made to a non-us unverified user.  Supposed to get a email on how to get my winnings but haven’t and know I wont.  This site and swoopo are both sucker games…

The guy is pretty. Lots of large men will have their way with him when he goes to prison.

I don’t know what every one is bitching about! You don’t get mad at the slot machine when it takes your money! It is just fun entertainment and you could win something for pennies on the dollar. My suggestion is if you don’t like them don’t play them. Same with slots. I myself have never put money into these auction websites, but I have put plenty into slots with nothing in return. Also many of us like to play bingo, but many times walk out empty handed as well. If you don’t like to gamble then stay away. It’s that simple!

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 have a WAY better chance of winnign auctions

My friend first told me about this swoop site the other day and after visiting the site I am very surprised that there has not been a great deal of marketing done to let people know that it is available, I can only imagine that this is down to the management being silly feeling that promotion is not needed but it is. I found the site to be good and will be visiting often

Obviously there are a handful of intelligent people on here, and then a bunch of whiny cry babies.

First of all, if the whiners would stop and take the time to read, they’d see that Swoopo does exactly what it says it does and DOES offer people an opportunity to get a great deal on name brand items. Yes, there is a risk involved to win an auction, but that risk is really no different from anything else we participate in knowing that the chances of winning are not in our favor, just as Bob and Responder have stated.

Like Responder (to Jerry) said, I also am not associated with Swoopo, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the site if you know how to read. With the format Swoopo uses, it is extremely easy to see that there really is no need for them to pull a scam. They are clearly making plenty of money from their site.

Like Brian Roush said, I also don’t believe that Swoopo is earning below cost on 70% of their auctions, but I could see that number being closer to 50%.
The site is still young (in the US), and most people will look at the price of an item and see it continue to go up, and assume that Swoopo is getting more and more money with every bid, but that is not the case. Swoopo is ONLY making money when they sell a bid package. So, How many packages are they really selling in a day? That’s the question.
The last time I looked at their site they had around 30 something pages of live auctions ending within seconds, and going up to 23 hours or so. I calculated just one page worth of items at their regular retail rate and that total came to be over $15,000. Now, let’s just figure that they spend (after discounts and their wholesale costs) around $10,000. per page. Then that would mean that they have around $300,000. worth of won merchandise to pay for within that 24 hours, plus other business expenses, salaries and that. So, with many items earning a profit, and many not, that still seems like a very high amount to have to cover in a day. Making a profit? Yeah, of course, but at this point probably not as much as many would assume.

When it comes right down to it, Swoopo is definitely not a scam. They’re just very smart and since they seem to be leading this new style of auctioning, they are getting all the complaints. JUST like every other business that has ever started, before people understood them.

Plain and simple, several people by bid packages, those people spend their bids trying to win an auction, and ultimately just like any other auction, only one person wins. No part of this system is a secret. You pay to play and you take your chances. If you can’t handle it, DON’T PLAY!!! Just stop bitching and learn the system. Unlike gambling at slots or poker, there actually are ways to increase your chances of winning, but you need to do the research and apply the methods.

Oh and by the way, the gaming commission is quite aware of these sites and has even looked into them, and has stated that they are NOT considered gambling because they are winnable with skill, rather than chance like gambling.

So for those that are smart enough to understand the system, and who have the money to make it work, I say good luck bidding.
To the rest, I say - Some people do, the rest just complain about it.

I agree that swoopo is a bit of a scam!
The best way to get stuff for very cheap or free is Kudos Network!

http://gifts.kudosnetwork.co.uk/28541

It takes a while to build up your refereances but it works and at least ur not losing your money!!

try it!

Everyone needs to chill out a bit and think.

If you go to Vegas and gamble you will lose.  Always.  You might win once in a while, but in the end you always lose.  Sure knowing how to play a game gives you an advantage over the next guy that doesn’t, but it NEVER gives you an advantage over the house.  EVER.  Not even close.

If you buy a raffle ticket your odds of winning are slim to none.  If you buy enough raffle tickets your odds get better, but you still can lose all of it and you have no control over the outcome.

If you play the lottery your odds of winning are virtually non-existant. 

In none of these do you have any control over the outcome other than if you play or not or how much you spend. 

These are pure gambling and the game is set up so you can’t win in the long run, not even get close.  They don’t build Billion dollar hotels in Vegas because people win, they build them because people lose massive amounts.

While there is a large segment of the population that shuns these things there is a significant amount that enjoys them and nearly all understand that fact they are going to lose their money.

In an auction such as this you have more control and in the end the odds that you will the auction are pretty good and the more you learn about it the better those chances are.  In the end in every auction someone is going to get a great deal and have something to show for it.  The same can’t be said for Vegas or even a lottery since the house could win in either (Most cases in Vegas, and in a lottery often people don’t even check their tickets to see if they won).

So sure, it isn’t for most of us, I will never participate because it just isn’t my thing (I like to be in control too much), but calling it a scam, gambling, illegal, etc is wrong.  Just because you don’t understand something well enough, or realize it isn’t something you would participate in, doesn’t mean it needs to be shut down or ridiculed. 

I don’t know anyone that has won a lottery, or raffle, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen so saying you don’t think this is legitimate because you don’t know anyone that won an item is wrong.  There is a big difference between rumor or opinion instead of facts and documentation.  This has been going on long enough that if people were bidding, winning, and never seeing their product there would be A.G. complaints, investigations, and evening news stories.  The fact is that there is no reason for them not to be legit.  Ship the goods and everyone is happy.  It isn’t like they don’t make a net profit. 

And if you are upset that they make a lot on some items then don’t go to a Target or other national chain.  Do you really think that something can be “Free after rebate”?  There are many items they sell at a loss in order to get you in there and sell you a $17 bottle of shampoo (that costs $1 to make). 

The big difference between these guys and the stores you shop in every day is the fact these guys let you know how much money they make. 

So be a smart consumer always but just accept the fact that some people will participate in segments of the economy that you won’t.

I sure was not impressed by the comment that Chris made saying that they don’t even cover their costs 70% of the time. Thats pretty fishy if you ask me if I ran a business and couldn’t cover costs 70% of the time I’d be out of business. I wonder what practices they are pulling to stay in business.

I have been watching auctions on Swoopo. I haven’t made any bids yet. Just trying to figure out if this is a legit company or a scam. In my opinion, let the free market decide if this is worthwhile to them. I think the site can be addicting. I have seen winners post enough bids and pay 2 or 3 times what the item is worth.  Is it a rip off? I guess we have to look at it from the ENTERTAINMENT value rather than the Value of the product. An admission to see a movie, popcorn, soda, pay for parking, gas to drive there is $30.00, about the same price as a 30 bid pack. As far as Swoopo taking a loss. I think I have seen smaller ticket items go for a loss. Thing like popcorn poppers, hair dryers, and cheaper grade cordless phones.

Is it dangerous for a person to get addicted to this stuff? Yes.. But its no different than people who pay $3.00 for ringtones, and wallpaper for cell phones.. Or people who get addicted to E-bay, gambling websites.. I wished I would have thought about Swoopo 10 years ago. What a clever way to make money.

I don’t know if I will use Swoopo..I certainly defend someone’s right to use it.

I think swoopo is a scam only for one reason; which was mentioned before.

I have a feeling a lot of the bid butlers are actually the company forcing people to make more bids than would normally be made. I watched an auction for about 2 hours and thought logically:

“What idiot would bid 100 times and then pay the sale price on this unit?”

Almost every bid this character made was bid butler… and he wasn’t always triggering. Granted, it was because there were multiple set for different price ranges… but still, why would someone use that many bids?

Without a way to see who you are bidding against, there is too much of a possibility that the company is actually controlling those butlers.

What does Chris Bauman has to say about these 2 auctions

2 Different products in 2 different countries. But same auction id. Both won by the same guy for the same equivalent price. See, the bidders are also the same.

http://www.swoopo.co.uk/auction/sony-vct-r100-lightweight-tripod/167468.html

http://www.swoopo.com/auction/digital-concepts-tr-60n-camera-tripod/167468.html

I would be extremely couscous with this site!  I have not read a post that someone said they won a physical item. I do not count bids a wining that is something swoopo can give out.  It is like a casino giving free chips when you can get cash for them and have to spend them at their establishment.

Why was there no question in the interview asking where they purchase the goods and/or store them. 

This site could be legit but very easily not be.  Like someone posted swoopo can very easily use a computer program to make sure the auctions keep bidding higher and that swoopo wins in the end.  That way they collect money from bids only.

Again this could be legit or a scam.  I will believe it more when I see more people come forward and say they won and received physical goods. Or, if someone bids on an item that costs say $2 and just bids until they win and sees if a swoopo program would go over the actual amount.  We all know people would not bid on something that is more then what they can buy if for without a bidding system.

Swoopo isn’t a scam per-se, but it IS basically online gambling.

It’s the facade, hiding behind an online auction mask that makes it a sleezey scam.

Let me repeat,
The site itself and what it does is not a scam, the scam is the way in which Swoopo presents itself, which has and will continue to attract people lulled into the idea that it’s as safe as eBay instead of actual real gambling.

If Swoopo said “hey, we’re a gambling site, but you gamble on electronics” no one would have a problem, but then no one would go there. It’s the intended twisting and obfuscation of the truth on Swoopo’s part that will invariably land them in jail. The people who are angry about Swoopo aren’t angry because they feel they lost at gambling, it’s because they feel they lost at an eBay-ish online thing they didn’t understand or bother to look up, but that’s not warrant enough for anyone to become a pretentious self-righteous douche. These people are the victim of a bold-faced and subtle lie.

That said, I would love to try my hand at Swoopo sometime. It seems fun, just like any other form of gambling, and that’s because I bothered to apply some logic/critical thinking/research.