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09/30/2010 09:44:13 AM · #1 |
I searched the forums but did not find so I'll post....
A site called Quibids.com is a new kind of bid site. However, IMO it is more like a raffle or lottery and a HUGE money maker for the site owner. Here's my take:
Item for auction: Nikon D90 - Retail value $1200.
Bidders "buy" bids. Each bid costs .60 cents. (so each time you bid, your acct is deducted .60 cents.
Bid increments for the item is .01 cent. Meaning that each bid will cost you .60 cents but raise the current bid by .01 cent.
Clock starts at various countdown but lets say 15 hours to bid on this camera.
As time gets below 10 seconds, each bid restarts the clock back to 10 seconds. Item is not won until bidding has stopped as clock reaches zero. If you were the last bid, you win.
Let's say the final "price/bid" for the camera was $50.00. This means that you purchased that D90 for $50.00 plus the cost of your bids. Let's say you bid only ten times in the last minute. The bids cost you $6.00 (.60 x 10) and the camera cost you $50. So you just bought yourself a D90 for $56.00....THIS HAPPENS EVERY DAY.
The losers lose .60 cents for each bid that they posted. Some may lose .60 (1 bid) but some can lose unlimited amounts (if they are idiots).
The kicker is this: On that one D90 Camera the bidding got to $50.00. This means at .01 cent increments there were 5000 bids placed. At .60 cents a bid this means the site took in .60 x 5000 bids = $3000 for a $1200 camera...SWEET !
I just saw a $10 walmart gift card go for $1.42. The bid increment was .01 so this means that the winner got the card for $1.42 but the site took in $85 for a $10 walmart card !
If I ran this kind of program "live" on a street corner, would I be arrested for running a "for profit" raffle or lottery?
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09/30/2010 09:54:37 AM · #2 |
| I don't know if it's legal or not, but what a brilliant idea! LOL! If it turns out it is legal I'll bet quite a few of them will be popping up. |
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09/30/2010 09:55:27 AM · #3 |
That model is exactly like www.swoopo.com www.swoopo.ca which has been running for about a year now. I tried to get a second Canon T2i but have lost about $90 bucks so far in trying to win. I believe the legality/morality was put in question when they first started up but the site(s) haven't been shut down because it is called "Entertainment" shopping. I wish I would have thought of the idea. They probably aren't paying retail or even normal wholesale for the items because they are stocking skid fulls of each item for sale. The profit margin is staggering and the auctions they do lose money on aren't that often.
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09/30/2010 10:30:08 AM · #4 |
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09/30/2010 01:46:59 PM · #5 |
It reminds me of this place in Nevada I visited where they had this machine that sells $100 in coins for just a quarter. The only catch was that you have to pull this handle and it would spin these 3 wheels with pictures on them and if it stopped with 3 matching pictures, then it would allow the purchase to go through. It allowed you to keep trying as many times as you like. I believe it is still very popular down there.
edit: type Oh!
Message edited by author 2010-09-30 15:06:32. |
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09/30/2010 02:16:46 PM · #6 |
pahahaha, art...you funny funny man.
Those sites are genius..i wish i would of throught of that a couple years ago. |
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09/30/2010 03:51:19 PM · #7 |
i think its OK as long as the feds get their tax cut.
its much, much easier to bail on the owed taxes doing this on a street corner. |
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09/30/2010 04:15:30 PM · #8 |
| Yikes, those sites are dangerous, especially to people like us who already have shown an update button weakness. I just spent 15 minutes watching bids trying to figure out a strategy by watching patterns. I think the big name stuff (iPad, etc) would be a total gamble, but some of the more obscure stuff could be pretty easy to get if you watch the bids right. |
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09/30/2010 04:26:03 PM · #9 |
Certainly an opportunity to put in your two hundred-twenty cents ... ;-)
Based on the description of the procedure, I'd never bid until the ten-second counter showed up, and then probably not more than twice ... in an auction where you can't see the other bidders, there is absolutely no way to know that there isn't a shill out there running up those last-second bids. |
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09/30/2010 06:09:20 PM · #10 |
I read through the FAQ and the site suggests that you "train" on the obscure items.
Originally posted by aliqui:
Yikes, those sites are dangerous, especially to people like us who already have shown an update button weakness. I just spent 15 minutes watching bids trying to figure out a strategy by watching patterns. I think the big name stuff (iPad, etc) would be a total gamble, but some of the more obscure stuff could be pretty easy to get if you watch the bids right. |
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09/30/2010 06:13:58 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
Certainly an opportunity to put in your two hundred-twenty cents ... ;-)
Based on the description of the procedure, I'd never bid until the ten-second counter showed up, and then probably not more than twice ... in an auction where you can't see the other bidders, there is absolutely no way to know that there isn't a shill out there running up those last-second bids. |
Has anybody actually seen one of the auctions at swoopo end? After watching the bid times reset over and over and over I started scrolling down the page expecting to see a Commodore 64 from the manufacturer up for sale.
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