I've been following Swoopo's new feature "Swoop It Now" (SIN) with considerable interest. This is a feature that allows non-winning bidders to apply the cost of their expended bids toward the outright purchase of the merchandise. My prediction was that it would drive the bid levels way up, as a bidder who was interested in buying the merchandise would have no reason to stop bidding once he had invested enough bids to make buying the item a good deal.
This has not happened. At all. At least, it hasn't happened yet. And I want to know why not.
Right now, Swoopo is selling a Nikon D90, a very nice camera, I happen to have one myself. Amazon sells it for $1,139.95 and by what is certainly not a coincidence, Swoopo shows $1,139 as its list price. So if you want the Nikon, instead of going to Amazon, go to Swoopo, buy 1900 tokens at 60¢ each, $1140.00 bucks works, and load them into the BidButler.
You might win and get the camera for something around $76.00 (1900 of your 2¢ bids plus the same number of 2¢ bids from whoever is foolish enough to bid against you). In fact, you'll probably win, because you have the huge war-chest to discourage rivals.
And if you don't win? You buy the camera for the same price you'd pay on Amazon.
Somebody should try this. I'll wait here.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
People who have the money to buy this camera aren't looking at every corner of the universe for a better deal--if they already have money to buy this camera = they have money to burn. They aren't going to spend the effort and time it takes on Swoopo to win an auction. Someone who already has the money to pay full market price for an item is not interested in spending the time. The visitors to Swoopo are the people who don't have the money to buy the products in other ways. But if you advertise the Nikon D90 for sale on Amazon for $900--you can turn right around and try what you propose yourself, USING the other person's money to test your theory. But I happen to know that Swoopo is a scam, a GAMBLING site that sells bids, and not an auction site that sells products. If you want to throw away your money, bid on Swoopo.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead and try this, since you already OWN a Nikon D90 = you have more money to burn than me or probably anyone else on Swoopo. Yeah, go ahead and try this. I dare you. I'll wait here.
Or better yet, how about you loan me $900 and I’ll try it? (We can exchange legitimate contact info and take every measure you need to verify my identity.) When I win the camera on Swoopo for less than $900, you can pay me $10/hour for my time to help you AND resell the camera on Amazon for a profit! If this worked, it would already be happening. This is a win-win situation for you, that is, IF Swoopo is a legitimate auction site, which unfortunately, it is not. Yeah, let’s figure our WHY this doesn’t work. But go ahead and try it. I’ll wait here.