29th
eBay should re-invent itself. What about making $2000 for something that is sold for $300?
Swoopo is a new type of auction where the price of all the products are very low. Each time a user bids on a product, the price is increase by $0.12. The catch is that each time you bid, you pay 0.60$.
The idea is just amazing. The idea is so amazing it’s just killing me!
We have calculated that in general each item has 1000 bids and the value of the product is far less than all the money Swoopo does on the cumulative bids. The winner of the auction is also very happy as the final price of the article is most of time less than your cumulative bids on it, the final price and the shipping cost.
For example, this Nikon D90 12.3 MP DSLR Camera, with a street price of $1,139 was won for $289.98. The bid value increment on this specific article was $0.06 (instead of the usual $0.12). We have evaluated the profit made by Swoopo:
- $289.98/$0.06 = 4,983 bids
- 4983 bids * $0.60 = $2,989.80
- 298.98$ the final price of the auction - $ 74.40 the winner total bids = $224.58
- $2,989.80 + $224.58 = $3,288.78
- $3,288.78 - $1,139 the street price of the camera = $2,149.78
So Swoopoo on this specific product made more than $2000 in profit (and this is considering Swoopop pay the street price for their products, something that is certainly not the case. ) and the winner got a $1000 camera for less than $300!
One of the craziest auction I’ve seen is the 300 Swoopoo Bids Voucher, a virtual good, where the winner wins 300 bids to be use on Swoopoo. The value of 300 bids (at $0.60 each) is $180. To date (as the bids are still going on this item), Swoopo did $500 in profit! And please think about it for a moment, the winner of the voucher will probably loose the majority of his free bids on products that other members will win. So it probably makes those vouchers the most profitable products in the Swoopo listing.
And the profit doesn’t ends here, they do money on the shipping and handling and from the advertising on their pages.
And here’s worse, you are not even sure to get your article you won!!! From the help section under Delivery & Shipping:
Substitute items
On rare occasions we are no longer able to source the specific item detailed in the auction. When this happens, we will contact you and offer to send you an equivalent item of at least equal value. Many of the products we sell are high-technology items that have a short life-cycle, so often this will mean an upgrade to the newer version of the item.
UPDATE: I just found out, that we have a Canadian version of those “slot machine” type of auctions at iPennyBid.
