Entertainment Shopping
So, i ran across something interesting. Sites that are as much gambling as really bidding on stuff. This first one labels itself as "Entertainment Shopping". heh.
Swoopo - It costs $1 to bid. You basically keep bidding until no one else is willing to keep bidding. The end price of the bid is somewhat irrelevant because mostly what you are paying is in the cost of the bids you place, not the item which probably went for $10-50. They make this more obvious by having fixed price or 100% off things where you are bidding just for the chance to pay nothing for the item.
Most bid increments are $.15. Meaning, for every dollar of the price over the starting, they are getting a not so subtle $6.66 in bids. Plus that dollar. Plus probably some silly shipping fee.
But on the buyer side, it's all a matter of being willing to go the distance on something and seeing if you have more chutzpah to win.
Example sale: Wii Console. Winning Bid $42.60 It took the winner 102 bids to win it. Winner pays $145+shipping for a Wii. Not too bad.
Of course, that also means that there were 284 bids overall (assuming it started at $0), and that folks spent $182 on bids to NOT get it.
All-in-all swoopo gets $325 for a $250 product.
Seems okay. But that's a reasonable one. There's so many where the bids are up to $400 or something for a $1000 item or the final sale is for worth more than the item is worth.
I'm somewhat amazed that this company is still lasting in the markets it's been in.
It's a bit horrifying to watch every time someone bids.
KC Bidz - More gambling, less chutzpah. $1-5 per bid. But Lowest Unique Bid wins. 7 people bid on something - two $.11 bids, one $.12, two $.13 bids and one $.14 bid, two $.15 bids The $.12 bid wins.
I'm confused how this isn't just straight up gambling. It's pretty much a raffle (which isn't legal at all in Kansas). The fact that you're "bidding" a price is, again, irrelevant. It's just "pick a number", then you take all the numbers and rule out the duplicates and see who has the lowest number. And the lowest part keeps people scrambling for the bottom and likely to collide.
They have a set number of bids for the action to take place, so they even know they make money.
While i can think whatever i think about the people involved in trying to win these "bets", i'm not too sure our whole economy runs off of smarter thinkers and planners.
Swoopo - It costs $1 to bid. You basically keep bidding until no one else is willing to keep bidding. The end price of the bid is somewhat irrelevant because mostly what you are paying is in the cost of the bids you place, not the item which probably went for $10-50. They make this more obvious by having fixed price or 100% off things where you are bidding just for the chance to pay nothing for the item.
Most bid increments are $.15. Meaning, for every dollar of the price over the starting, they are getting a not so subtle $6.66 in bids. Plus that dollar. Plus probably some silly shipping fee.
But on the buyer side, it's all a matter of being willing to go the distance on something and seeing if you have more chutzpah to win.
Example sale: Wii Console. Winning Bid $42.60 It took the winner 102 bids to win it. Winner pays $145+shipping for a Wii. Not too bad.
Of course, that also means that there were 284 bids overall (assuming it started at $0), and that folks spent $182 on bids to NOT get it.
All-in-all swoopo gets $325 for a $250 product.
Seems okay. But that's a reasonable one. There's so many where the bids are up to $400 or something for a $1000 item or the final sale is for worth more than the item is worth.
I'm somewhat amazed that this company is still lasting in the markets it's been in.
It's a bit horrifying to watch every time someone bids.
KC Bidz - More gambling, less chutzpah. $1-5 per bid. But Lowest Unique Bid wins. 7 people bid on something - two $.11 bids, one $.12, two $.13 bids and one $.14 bid, two $.15 bids The $.12 bid wins.
I'm confused how this isn't just straight up gambling. It's pretty much a raffle (which isn't legal at all in Kansas). The fact that you're "bidding" a price is, again, irrelevant. It's just "pick a number", then you take all the numbers and rule out the duplicates and see who has the lowest number. And the lowest part keeps people scrambling for the bottom and likely to collide.
They have a set number of bids for the action to take place, so they even know they make money.
While i can think whatever i think about the people involved in trying to win these "bets", i'm not too sure our whole economy runs off of smarter thinkers and planners.