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Author Topic: "Bid buying" auction sites  (Read 1153 times)

  • Offline zpyder

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"Bid buying" auction sites
on: August 10, 2010, 17:49:28 PM
Im curious whether people have used sites like http://www.swoopo.co.uk/ before, and what you think of them?

Its the second one Ive seen where the premise is you buy packs of "bids". The auctions are timed and theres usually a "catch" in that if a bid is made in the last few minutes the timer resets.

On the face of things it looks like theres bargains to be had, such as SLR kits worth £600+ going for £50 etc. But then you have to wonder how many bids you need to make before you might actually win something like that at that price and make a saving? Each bid costs 50p on the above mentioned site. Obviously they must plan on several hundred bids being made for the expensive stuff for it to be viable...unless they artificially add bids to ensure they dont make a loss...?
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"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #1 on: August 10, 2010, 18:18:51 PM
Quote from: zpyder
Im curious whether people have used sites like http://www.swoopo.co.uk/ before, and what you think of them?

Its the second one Ive seen where the premise is you buy packs of "bids". The auctions are timed and theres usually a "catch" in that if a bid is made in the last few minutes the timer resets.

On the face of things it looks like theres bargains to be had, such as SLR kits worth £600+ going for £50 etc. But then you have to wonder how many bids you need to make before you might actually win something like that at that price and make a saving? Each bid costs 50p on the above mentioned site. Obviously they must plan on several hundred bids being made for the expensive stuff for it to be viable...unless they artificially add bids to ensure they dont make a loss...?


£50 sale
50p per bid
increase by 1p
Total = £2500
Camera £500
Profit £2000

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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #2 on: August 10, 2010, 18:28:21 PM
There are alot of those sites that have sprung over the last 12months and they are nothing more than gambling sites praying on peoples stupidty and greed imo.

Eveytime someone bids (thats cost 50p ea on that site you linked, upto £2 on some) the price of the item increases by 1p and the item gets more time added on, so items can count down from 10seconds to 4 secs left for days and days and not end for ages.

There is an Ipad on there at the moment for around £75, that means it has been bid on 7500times @ 50p a time that is ALOT of money for an Ipad and it is nowhere near ended.

They make £1000s on every item.

I guess some people do get a bargain eventually but most just get ripped off.
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  • Offline zpyder

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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #3 on: August 10, 2010, 19:35:08 PM
Aye. Its pretty close to a pyramid scheme in a way, the initial few are quite lucky and have success, and then the people at the top (the site) get fat off of the scheme when it gets popular and they have lots of people bidding.

After reading into them for all of 5 mins I think Ill give it a miss. Just when I saw it initially I thought itd be cool to upgrade my camera to something that can shoot HD too, and has live preview, but cant justify upgrading it right now!
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  • Offline Bacon

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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #4 on: August 11, 2010, 02:18:55 AM
What i dont understand is why they let them advertise on television.
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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #5 on: August 11, 2010, 05:29:46 AM
Quote from: Bacon
What i dont understand is why they let them advertise on television.


they will advertise anything if they are paid enough , money talks remember ;)
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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #6 on: August 11, 2010, 10:22:04 AM
Quote from: Bacon
What i dont understand is why they let them advertise on television.


like the constant Jamster adds of a couple of years ago, they will continue until enough people complain that its basically a scam.
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  • Offline Clock'd 0Ne

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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #7 on: August 11, 2010, 16:26:45 PM
The thing is, just because so many people are stupid enough to bid on one of these sites doesnt make it a scam automatically. In the end, someone will always luck out and get their bargain as was pointed out, unlike with Jamster, etc and all the con-merchants that auto subscribe you expensive subscriptions that are difficult to remove yourself from. This is about as much of a scam as the National Lottery.

Door to door salesmen are far more of the scam-artists and that kind of soliciting should be banned, using their high-pressure tactics to tie you into their deals on switching your gas/electric/phone and not understanding youre not interested without resorting to a "piss off and never darken my door again" type response.
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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #8 on: August 11, 2010, 18:57:18 PM
Quote from: Clockd 0Ne
The thing is, just because so many people are stupid enough to bid on one of these sites doesnt make it a scam automatically. In the end, someone will always luck out and get their bargain as was pointed out, unlike with Jamster, etc and all the con-merchants that auto subscribe you expensive subscriptions that are difficult to remove yourself from. This is about as much of a scam as the National Lottery.

Door to door salesmen are far more of the scam-artists and that kind of soliciting should be banned, using their high-pressure tactics to tie you into their deals on switching your gas/electric/phone and not understanding youre not interested without resorting to a "piss off and never darken my door again" type response.


its not a scam..
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Re:"Bid buying" auction sites
Reply #9 on: August 11, 2010, 19:28:48 PM
Its gambling, some get lucky, some dont.

I got a PS3 for £150 when they were still £300 new.  I gave up after that.
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