The Internet -- Creating hobbies you never would have imagined.
So I found a new hobby online.
There's this site called http://www.swoopo.com/. It's a type of eBay bidding monster. There's a ton of these right? Why is this one a "hobby"?
The site, Swoopo, buys all of the merchandise themselves and puts it up for bid. They don't put a reserve on it, and it starts at about $1. There is a long timer on each of these, but as is the usual on eBay, no one bids until it's down to about 10 seconds. Well, every time you bid, it brings the timer back up 15 seconds. Well, that's not so bad right? You just have to keep sharpshooting someone until they finally give up.
It gets better. The price on the bid doesn't go up a certain amount that YOU put in that you want to bid up to. It goes up incrementally 15 cents each time. So when you bid, you've only increased the bid by 15 cents, keeping the bids low for a long period of time, and the bid sniping on your toes for what could end up being hours.
So, still sounds like a good idea, right? Here's the catch: they sell you the BIDS. That's right, every time you hit the bid button, you've said goodbye to $1. A DOLLAR A BID. Or a little less if you buy the bidpacks (I imagine, I didn't register to find out). So now, you REALLY feel like you have to win cause you've already bid 15 times on something that is steadily becoming NOT as much of a deal. Can you believe how much this site is making? Someone that buys an item that's worth $120 for only $31 ... If it starts at $1, then that's 200 bids. Swoopo makes $231 on the $120 item. The person that wins the item .. well, they came away with a steal (or maybe not!) and the rest of them are screwed. This is gambling in a big way.
The reason I call it a hobby is because it's awesome to watch. It's not old-school like eBay. You don't have to pound the F5 key and hope that you're going to keep getting updated. It's all put together in nice javascript so that you can watch the timers and see the price updated real time so that you can see the sniping action.
Also, there's a program that they provide called "BidButler" that you can set up to bid a certain amount of times at a certain price for a certain increment, etc etc. The thing just bids automatically for you on whatever you set with the criteria. This thing is making them TONS of money. If two people have the BidButler going, then you can sometimes see 40-50 bids made instantly, shooting the price up a couple bucks and elongating the time for about 10 minutes or so. Then no one bids for about oh, ALL of that time except 15 seconds, and then the sniping happens again.
So what makes this so interesting? Following it until the big win happens. Then it shows you all the stats, INCLUDING how many bids the winner made and what their savings are. There are different kinds of auctions too, that just keep the bidding going forever. One is the 100% off auction, where if you win, you just don't pay for it. So how are you going to quit bidding since you can win a $1000 item for NOTHING except your dollar bids? If you were that lucky guy that hit it once at the end and grabbed it, the item costs you $1! And that's what keeps it going.
I just watched one where they sold a "vacuuming robot". It was a "Fixed Price" auction where they tell you the price and that's what you pay if you win. Very much akin to the 100% auctions. The retail price was $449.99, and the fixed price was $35. The "price" on the auction went up to $990 or so before the winner was finally announced. This guy was not at the computer, and it was obvious because his BidButler was just bidding like crazy. It showed his $35 price for the item and his 3,188 bids. That's right. He just bought this $500 piece of crap for $3,223. I like how Swoopo makes no bones about making you feel stupid. It finishes off by showing "Total Savings!: 0%" I laughed and laughed and laughed. Oh man. So entertaining.
I hope he doesn't off himself or something when he finds out. I can see this kinda ruining your life so easily without even being at the computer, but I can't help watching the train wreck.
Oh, gotta go. I've been watching this Nintendo DS auction since it was $8, and it's peaking $93 right now. *grabs popcorn*
www.swoopo.com
Update: It finished. Retail price: $129.99. Winning bid: $122.85. # of bids: 26. Shipping: $12.90. Total Savings: You guessed it. 0%.
There's this site called http://www.swoopo.com/. It's a type of eBay bidding monster. There's a ton of these right? Why is this one a "hobby"?
The site, Swoopo, buys all of the merchandise themselves and puts it up for bid. They don't put a reserve on it, and it starts at about $1. There is a long timer on each of these, but as is the usual on eBay, no one bids until it's down to about 10 seconds. Well, every time you bid, it brings the timer back up 15 seconds. Well, that's not so bad right? You just have to keep sharpshooting someone until they finally give up.
It gets better. The price on the bid doesn't go up a certain amount that YOU put in that you want to bid up to. It goes up incrementally 15 cents each time. So when you bid, you've only increased the bid by 15 cents, keeping the bids low for a long period of time, and the bid sniping on your toes for what could end up being hours.
So, still sounds like a good idea, right? Here's the catch: they sell you the BIDS. That's right, every time you hit the bid button, you've said goodbye to $1. A DOLLAR A BID. Or a little less if you buy the bidpacks (I imagine, I didn't register to find out). So now, you REALLY feel like you have to win cause you've already bid 15 times on something that is steadily becoming NOT as much of a deal. Can you believe how much this site is making? Someone that buys an item that's worth $120 for only $31 ... If it starts at $1, then that's 200 bids. Swoopo makes $231 on the $120 item. The person that wins the item .. well, they came away with a steal (or maybe not!) and the rest of them are screwed. This is gambling in a big way.
The reason I call it a hobby is because it's awesome to watch. It's not old-school like eBay. You don't have to pound the F5 key and hope that you're going to keep getting updated. It's all put together in nice javascript so that you can watch the timers and see the price updated real time so that you can see the sniping action.
Also, there's a program that they provide called "BidButler" that you can set up to bid a certain amount of times at a certain price for a certain increment, etc etc. The thing just bids automatically for you on whatever you set with the criteria. This thing is making them TONS of money. If two people have the BidButler going, then you can sometimes see 40-50 bids made instantly, shooting the price up a couple bucks and elongating the time for about 10 minutes or so. Then no one bids for about oh, ALL of that time except 15 seconds, and then the sniping happens again.
So what makes this so interesting? Following it until the big win happens. Then it shows you all the stats, INCLUDING how many bids the winner made and what their savings are. There are different kinds of auctions too, that just keep the bidding going forever. One is the 100% off auction, where if you win, you just don't pay for it. So how are you going to quit bidding since you can win a $1000 item for NOTHING except your dollar bids? If you were that lucky guy that hit it once at the end and grabbed it, the item costs you $1! And that's what keeps it going.
I just watched one where they sold a "vacuuming robot". It was a "Fixed Price" auction where they tell you the price and that's what you pay if you win. Very much akin to the 100% auctions. The retail price was $449.99, and the fixed price was $35. The "price" on the auction went up to $990 or so before the winner was finally announced. This guy was not at the computer, and it was obvious because his BidButler was just bidding like crazy. It showed his $35 price for the item and his 3,188 bids. That's right. He just bought this $500 piece of crap for $3,223. I like how Swoopo makes no bones about making you feel stupid. It finishes off by showing "Total Savings!: 0%" I laughed and laughed and laughed. Oh man. So entertaining.
I hope he doesn't off himself or something when he finds out. I can see this kinda ruining your life so easily without even being at the computer, but I can't help watching the train wreck.
Oh, gotta go. I've been watching this Nintendo DS auction since it was $8, and it's peaking $93 right now. *grabs popcorn*
www.swoopo.com
Update: It finished. Retail price: $129.99. Winning bid: $122.85. # of bids: 26. Shipping: $12.90. Total Savings: You guessed it. 0%.
posted by Karl at 10:10 AM
3 comments
