I mainly saw swoopo’s ads on gmail. I got intrigued by the ad and clicked on it.
of course swoopo is too good to be true.
just search for swoopo scam, you’d see tons of complains
Sligthly off topic: Last second bidding is NOT a problem. It’s a solution, and the problem is sellers trying to up the price by fake proxy bids. This is extremely common on eBay. In fact, it seems more common than not in my experience.
I haven’t bought anything in a long time of eBay, but I would not do it without a sniper software. In fact, I think eBay should introduce this as a service in their site.
Let’s put the two threads here together: 1) quick seat-of-the-pants calculations tell us that swoopo is making an insane amount of money, and 2) swoopo is rigging the game by including not-real bids in the process.
I think swoopo is making money off of this, but not nearly as much as it seems from the alleged activity on the site, since much of that activity is almost certainly fake. There does exist some number of people out there that are so stupid that they dump their money into this hole, but that number is mercifully not as large as it seems when you look at swoopo.
There’s a ton of these sites in Sweden at the moment. Several of them have been running for more than a year, taking out ads in TV and papers. There’s been talk about trying to shut them down over legal issues, but so far nothing. And no doubt, they’re making a TON of money.
I wonder how long will it takes before people realize they are wasting their time and money.
Still, it is an awesome idea.
In theory, some competitor will emerge with better terms, like 50 cent bids. This will repeat until some economic break-even point is reached.
Let’s see how long this takes…
ok, so you pay for your bids, and then you pay the final price?
Why would anyone ever do that? At least with a lottery you know, what you’re paying and you only pay it once, and then you win what you win… with this thing even when you win, you still have to pay.
If people are actually falling for this, then I think I’ll start charging admission to the box office at the movie theater
i’m systematically stuffing grapenuts cereal into the head of my erect penis. i’m going to attempt to jack off, have my load mix with the grapenuts, and shoot a granola bar out when i cum
I think the best entertainment value of this show is for the person who knows what a ripoff it is, and just watches other people fall victim, sorta like a bar with a VIP room on the other side of a one way mirror (or whatever those cop-interogation-room mirrors are called) You get to watch other people pick things out of their teeth and fix their boobs…
My lord – they did implement the dollar auction.
They will actually sell off $1000.
I found this a couple days back and thought to myself wow, what an incredible idea. The fact of the matter is that you’re unlikely to win, but if you pick your auctions right and get lucky, you can get some great deals. I notice you’re not too familiar with the site, as I spent a mere ten minutes reading through their FAQ and yet I’m able to spot several bunches of half-truths or even blatant misinformation in your article. For one, the extension time isn’t 15 seconds. It starts at twenty, and at certain points (in either time or bid amount-- I’m not sure which), it decreases by five second intervals to a minimum of ten. Additionally, I’ve yet to see a Free Bid Voucher auction that wasn’t a 100% off auction. As in, it’s free if you win. Your whole they’re printing their own money thing is absolutely bullshit. Have you never bought a gift card? Is Target printing their own money? This business plan is considerably less evil than any casino or lottery that has ever existed, namely because your chances of winning are more than likely in the whole number range. Is it a good idea to do your Christmas shopping on Swoopo? No. It it a good idea to bid on Swoopo at all? Probably not. Is bidding on Swoopo a much better idea than dumping money into your local lottery? Without a doubt.
Interesting article. We have a similar site here in Australia (www.realbargain.com.au) that advertises keenly on google. It works in a very similar way, except the bid system works slightly differently:
- You purchase bids in bulk (same as swoopo)
- The winner looses his bids on the current item, BUT
- Losers regain their ‘lost’ bids as credit against any successful purchase within 30 days.
Rip-off in my opinion, but makes for a great add. People picking up Nintendo Wiis for ‘less than $75’… False advertising in my opinion.
When I worked at the now defunct Crocker Bank, a fellow once told me, Son, if you’re going to commit crimes for a living, start with the legal ones.
These folks, at least in their jurisdiction, seem to have taken this advice to heart. Of course, they are as nothing compared to the current crop of Bankstas and hedge fund managers, but they are clearly the logical outcome of that 80s-2000s mindset (Checkout the book Liars Poker for a clearer example).
How is this any different than a live auction?
This is how auctions have been traditionally done, excepting the bidding fee. Tracking and monetizing that (whereas live auctions TYPICALLY have a fixed price to attend) is in no way illegal or even misleading.
so what? it’s just like poker sites or anything else in life where you pay to get entertained; it’s exactly what they advertise, Entertainment Shopping.
they aren’t lying to anyone, you pay for entertainment, this seems very fair to me and i don’t see what’s wrong whatsoever.
addendum: yes you’ll never win anything but that doesn’t change the fact that you got entertained; you didn’t pay to win auctions but for entertainment.
This is a fantastic post. I saw this site a few weeks ago, and on the outset it looks like a novel way to do an auction site. I can see how some people might get suckered into it. A few minutes looking around though, and it comes across as a bit of a scam.
Reminds me of some crackheads who would come into the bar with this guitar and sell raffle tickets for it. Nobody ever won or claimed the guitar [no raffle occurred] and they would be back a week later selling raffle tickets again and people would buy more tickets.
Maybe I am a little bit sarcastic, but I kind of fail to see the stated pure evilness.
Swopoo offers stupid people to get rid of their money, completely transparent and fair.
The harm inflicted to anyone in the process is exactly the harm that person inflicts willingly to himself.
If the swopoo-owners just spend the money on sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, i would even go so far to consider it pure good, because they prevent that the money the customers so desperatly want to loose goes to someone where it can do real harm, say, for example in politics.
Maybe it is indeed illegal in some countries/states, but the thought, that people who are allowed to vote actually need to be protected from schemes like this by laws is kind of frightening.