Full FeedPay to bid? Meet swoopo.com
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]
Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - 
Subscribe to our feed
Macworld 2010
"Apple may not be at Macworld 2010, but Appletell is, bringing you news, photos and videos directly from the show floor and special events. Join us February 10-14 to see what new products 2010 has in store for Macintosh, iPhone, iPod and iPad (yes, iPad) owners."
Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
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.
on September 17, 2008 at 11:31 PM - LINKI 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.
on September 17, 2008 at 11:32 PM - LINKI 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.
on September 18, 2008 at 10:30 AM - LINKMK - 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.
on September 18, 2008 at 10:48 AM - LINKIf 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?
on September 19, 2008 at 05:42 AM - LINKRuss, 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.
on September 19, 2008 at 07:48 AM - LINKA 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.
on September 19, 2008 at 02:30 PM - LINKPat, 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?
on September 19, 2008 at 02:49 PM - LINKThe $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
on September 22, 2008 at 11:53 AM - LINKThe 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.
on September 23, 2008 at 02:48 AM - LINKThat 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.
on September 23, 2008 at 11:47 AM - LINKi 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.
on September 24, 2008 at 06:38 AM - LINK@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.
on September 24, 2008 at 08:20 AM - LINKboy 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.
on September 24, 2008 at 12:00 PM - LINKFirst, 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.
on September 26, 2008 at 06:26 PM - LINK@Chris Bauman
on September 27, 2008 at 12:07 PM - LINKThird, 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:
on September 30, 2008 at 03:19 AM - LINKhttp://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx
This site is great. It is not a scam! Check it out!
http://www.kcbidz.com
on September 30, 2008 at 08:43 AM - LINKI wish to point out a fraud issue here
on September 30, 2008 at 06:45 PM - LINKBeware 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
on September 30, 2008 at 06:53 PM - LINKFurther 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
on September 30, 2008 at 06:58 PM - LINK*** 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.
on September 30, 2008 at 07:16 PM - LINKI 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!
on October 1, 2008 at 09:19 AM - LINKJust 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.
on October 1, 2008 at 09:21 AM - LINKChris 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.
on October 1, 2008 at 06:50 PM - LINK