How is this legal?

[The Architect]

http://www.swoopo.com/

Ebay + Gambling = swoopo.com and many unhappy shoppers. 

[erkishhorde]

My co-worker has been using that thing to try and get a tv.  I didn't hear how the whole thing works but it didn't sound right to me either.

[il d00d]

Yeah, screw that site.  Screw it very much.

A review I read reveals this:
"...once you start bidding, you have a vested financial interest in winning that item. While the winner is likely to get a very good deal, especially on bigger items where the final price is hundreds below retail (even when you add the cost of bidding), those who lost could have spent quite a bit just to bid, and are likely doing so because of the money they need to spend to win."

Pretty soon, you are bidding so you don't lose money.  Yeah, no.

[herm]

clever bastards...

For every 15¢ the price goes up, Swoopo also gets $1 for the bid.

So, if an item goes up $15 in price (15¢ x 100), Swoopo gets $100! If it goes up $150 in price, Swoop makes $1,000!

That means they can sell a $1,000 item for $150 and make $150!

someone should let the fools who send money to nigeria know about this one....

[herm]

it gets even better!

if Swoopo is cheating, and winning their own auctions, then its all profit.

what a hustle...

[erkishhorde]

it gets even better!

if Swoopo is cheating, and winning their own auctions, then its all profit.

what a hustle...

Oooh... I didn't even think of that one. 

What a sham...  You shoulda heard my coworker talking about how he almost got a TV for dirt cheap.... ALMOST... Instead he's out $30.

[Gator]

I had a company approach me to build a very similar site for them.

I don't know if this is the same group, but we passed on the project because it just didn't smell right.



Its the same items over and over again and it reminded me of those free Ipod sites, where they ask people to sign up for twelve offers... sell their information to marketing firms and never deliver on the ipod because the person never buys from twelve vendors because they are 16 and don't have a credit card. 


I wouldn't use the site.

[The Architect]

Only one real winner on that site, the owners! 

What a money making racket. 

[IdZer0]

That means they can sell a $1,000 item for $150 and make $150!

And it's even better; no one is going to pass on a $1000 item for $150. So in reality people will probably bid on this until it reaches close to a $1000. Now go and count what they make off of that!

[Slide Panda]

I this threads a little stale, but some more info on the game theory that this site is based on

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/an-all-pay-auction/

[MendoDave]

This appeals to the greed impulse.

[♣ McKraut ♣]

This appeals to the greed impulse.

it appeals to the stupid impulse if you ask me