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[img width=230 height=87]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/07362Swoopo_logo.png[/img] is EvilEveryone wants things on the cheap. After all, we are going through some tough economic times right now. When you see an add that says "Playstation 3 sold for $32.50! Visit now!", you are immediately drawn in. A PS3, for less than list, and it looks legit?! Is this possible?! Well, my friend, I am here to tell you how... You see, the site we are talking about is none other than Swoopo, which just so happens to be more vile and evil than e(vil)bay itself. Swoopo is a relatively new site, founded in 2005 for German bidders, with it coming to the States in September of 2008. It is not a normal bidding site, AT ALL. See, on a bidding site like ebay, each item is posted by another user. Then, you, the buyer, bids on said item. After that, you pay the buyer, who then pays fees to ebay and ships you the item. That's normal. This is how Swoopo works: You are you. Swoopo is swoopo. There is no seller other than swoopo. You buy from the company that is swoopo, not some other seller. Every bid you place raises the price of the item by $0.15, or $0.01, if it is a penny auction. It also, if there is less than 20 seconds left on the auction left, it brings the time back up to 20 seconds. Oh, and I almost forgot... Each bid costs you, the bidder $0.75! So, we have all of these different factors, correct? What is wrong with this, then? Well, it's the basic fact that, if a penny auction makes it to $175.92, that's 17592 bids at $.75 each, on say, an Item that costs $899.99 for them to buy. That's $13,369.92 income on one item on swoopo's end, which figures to nearly 1400% profit! Meanwhile, 17591 or so people have been shafted because they all payed money to get nothing! Then, the winner has gotten truly lucky, because they managed to bid last and not have anyone else re-bid again, which resets the clock again to 20 seconds. Well, the authorities in many places have caught on. In England, swoopo was investigated as an unregistered gambling site, and let off the hook. This is where you come in. What are your feelings on this evil, dastardly, bastardly site? Will you sign up, and see if you can nab a deal? If you think so, then you may be right. The chances are slim, but you might just get the deal of your lifetime, or at least, your day. [IMAGE]
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Sounds like the perfect place to snipe.
Just throw in last second bids on tons of items and you have to win one of them at a good price.
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@Izret101:
That's the point. It's impossible to snipe. It resets the time to 20 seconds with every bid, making sniping impossible.
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LMAO, that's hilarious. 
I'll stick to eBay. It's not super-cheap, but atleast it works.
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I think for most people who do not see this websites plan before joining will quickly understand after their first experience using their service. When you have just bid a dozen times on something and are asked to pay 9.00 for most that will be the first and last time they try it. So here is an example of a real auction that took place at their site so we can see how much Swoopo really made
Wii | Nintendo Console + Wii Sports
http://www.swoopo.com/auction/wii-nintendo-console-wii-sports/158524.html
Even today some people still have a hard time getting their hands on a Wii if they want one so this auction is a great example of an item that would attract a good pool of bidders, so lets break down some numbers here.
Package Value - $249.99
Auction End Price - $87.75 (before fee's)
So if we were to stop here most would say what a fantastic deal for Aluf412 who won this auction! but here is where Swoopo's fee scheme comes into works.
Aluf412 Bidding fees @0.75 per 0.15 increase to Auction price - $107.25
Total - $195.00 (So for Alfu412 at least this was not a terrible experience and they did save $54.99 from the package value minus the 12.99 shipping that's not mentioned)
So did Swoopo take a hit here...oh heavens no. See Aluf412 made a total of 143 bids on this item which if multiplied by the auction increment rate of 0.15 would mean they increased the auction by $21.45. So this means we still have $66.30 to cover...more numbers! (now I found here that there was some problems getting numbers without a decimal but for arguments sake I dont think it will make a huge difference)
Auction starting price 1.00 (66.30-1.00=65.30)
65.30/0.15= 435.33
So there was aprox 435 other bids 435x0.75 = 326.25
Money taken in by Swoopo for this item
87.75 - price
107.25 - winners fees
12.99 - shipping
326.25 - fees of loser's (not shown or disclosed by Swoopo)
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TOTAL - $534.24 USD
No to bad at all Swoopo...no bad at all
(If I have made an error in how I determined this total please let me know I would not wish to spread false info but from what I could gather it does seem that Swoopo basically doubled there money on this item)
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Interesting stuff, I honestly hadn't heard of Swoopo prior to hearding about them through you, but it just doesn't seem like it'd be worth using, I mean you could end up losing a bunch of money and not even winning the auction. Nice job on the article, Rob.
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they sound like modern day pirates to me 
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The perfect scheme as I see it. Sure, it sounds great on paper but as everyone pointed out, it's got major flaws. Dont see myself even bothering with it. Then again, I also see huge bidding wars happening in the final 20 seconds.
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That's an ingenious company. Evil, but really really ingenious.
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It seems like a really good idea to me. If people want to spend $0.75 to bid on an item, let them. The company that runs this is obviously is ingenious for coming up with such a scheme. And really, if you think about it, if most of those bids are coming from different people, then the losers are only out a few dollars, which isn't that big of a deal if you save, say, $100 on the next item that you do win.
It's kind of like in Office Space how the guys steal a few partial cents from every transaction the company does to make a large total profit. Only in this case the company (Swoopo) is taking a few cents off each bidder to make a large total profit.
However, I don't think this will be successful in the US. Not because the idea is bad, but because the cost to bid is too high. If it was $0.25 or maybe even $0.50 I think a lot more people would figure it was worth a chance to throw out a bid in the hope that they get the last one in.
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Brilliant but evil idea. I won't mess with it though. They should have a pop up before you log in/bid stating how the site actually works. I would be really upset if I were to put in 10-15 dollars for nada.
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I actually think it's a pretty cool idea. Aluf412(from the example) still got a pretty good deal and it was his choice to bid that many times. I wouldn't use it but if I were to I'd pick an amount and then bid when it hit that amount and then not bid again.
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I don't know if they use to but that site currently has it plastered everywhere that it costs 75 cents to bid.
They aren't trying to hide it.
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@Izret101:
I never said they didn't.
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Doesn't sound like my cup of tea but good luck to those having a go.
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I signed up for it because you get "10$s free" but i can't see myself using it.
eBay works out just fine for me more often than not.
Plus swoopo is new items only.
Doesn't help me when i want to pick up something older than Wii/PS3/360
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@Izret101: If you do try it out, let us know.
It seems like as long as one can keep track of how many bids they place and factor that into the final price and are willing to cut your losses if the auction gets too high, then its possible to get some really good deals.
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Thats part of the reason i don't want to try it.
You never know when someone might come in on their first bid and decide "hell whats another 76 cents on top of the price."
I have a feeling i won't be giving it a shot :-/
If i do i will blog with my results 
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![[IMAGE]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Swoopo_logo.png){kind=link}