

"Auction Site" Swoopo got $44800 for a $2500 computer. See comments for explanation - jimmyrcom
http://www.swoopo.com/auction.html?aid=166988
The Way swoopo works:
Users pay 75 cents per bid to use swoopo. Penny auctions start with a product at $0 then each bid increases the item price by one cent. Bidding at the last second won't help because it resets the timer to 10, 15 or 20.<p>$44800 computer:
58950 bid were placed, at 75 cents each that's $44212.50 + the final price $589.50 for a total of $44802<p>I researched the site a bit and generated some statistics including the top 20 biggest consumer fails / swoopo wins, the above being the most profit they've made.
http://blog.jimmyr.com/Auction_site_Swoopo_a_scam_or_a_bargain__13_2009.php
======
gojomo
I find this morally dubious for the same reasons as SwellJoe -- it's an awful
gamble, even by the standards of slot machines or government lotteries.

I hope competition and education can drive their take down to the level of
other money-based game operators. For example, what if there were an
alternative where the max collected on any item was capped at 2X retail?

------
sil3ntmac
Looks like the system is guaranteed to make money on at least some items...
for example:

[http://www.swoopo.com/auction.html?cm_re=Homepage-_-
Grid-_-1...](http://www.swoopo.com/auction.html?cm_re=Homepage-_-
Grid-_-1%2f5%2fLink&aid=177443)

See the "15" image next to the countdown? Mouseover that, and it tells you
that the 10 second countdown for this item will not trigger until the bid has
gotten up to $64.70. Doesn't take a genius to figure out that the house will
win this one (if not all of them).

------
midnightmonster
I built a site like this for a client a couple years ago. They were hoping to
use it to raise money for charity. They paid me for the work but never
operated the site.

~~~
lurker767
i'll pay you for the site again.

~~~
midnightmonster
If you're serious, I can contact the original client and see about IP. My
email is this screen name @gmail.com.

------
jraines
What do you think is critical mass for making something like this profitable?

And how do you scale something like this that seems to require 1 db call per
user per second minimum? Is this something memcached would be good for? (I
don't really know much about it yet)

I'm interested b/c I made a little clone that I'd like to turn into . . .
something, maybe a facebook app: www.dealbattles.com. It's a Ruby/sinatra app
right now that uses JQuery .post and .load to display the counters and update
based on bids. You can't really use it right now because buying credits is
tied to my paypal sandbox acct.

If anyone's interested in helping, I'm listening.

~~~
SwellJoe
Do you not have any ethical qualms about taking advantage of the mentally
retarded like this?

I can't holler at the Swoopo folks about it, since I don't know them. But,
you're right here, so I feel compelled to be judgmental. I don't do that very
often. Generally speaking, I think just about anything goes (porn, gambling,
soft drugs like pot, etc., as long as you're only selling to adults). But
taking advantage of the least intelligent and the most desperate to save money
is just nasty.

~~~
patio11
You don't have to be "retarded" to fall for something like this. The poster
clearly is quite intelligent. He also thinks he knows how to beat the system.
Behold the system in all its perfidious majesty: if there are two people in
the world smart enough to beat it, it will take everyone for all they are
worth.

The smartest man I have ever known, who will one day cure cancer, once
described to me in all earnestness how the double-your-bet-after-you-lose
strategy was flawless. (Relatedly: He also was a fan of penny stocks.)

~~~
djahng
Did you point out that the double-your-bet-after-you-lose strategy breaks down
once you hit the upper betting limit?

~~~
sho
Or when you run out of reserves, which is inevitable in the long run.

------
jimmyrcom
The Way swoopo works: Users pay 75 cents per bid to use swoopo. Penny auctions
start with a product at $0 then each bid increases the item price by one cent.
Bidding at the last second won't help because it resets the timer to 10, 15 or
20.

$44800 computer: 58950 bid were placed, at 75 cents each that's $44212.50 +
the final price $589.50 for a total of $44802

I researched the site a bit and generated some statistics including the top 20
biggest consumer fails / swoopo wins, the above being the most profit they've
made.
[http://blog.jimmyr.com/Auction_site_Swoopo_a_scam_or_a_barga...](http://blog.jimmyr.com/Auction_site_Swoopo_a_scam_or_a_bargain__13_2009.php)

~~~
noodle
yeah, this is not the first time swoopo has come up here.

~~~
patio11
I liked the discussion on "Profitable Until Deemed Illegal":

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=395970>

