If one thing has become clear from Swoopo's auction of the red Mini Cooper convertible, it's that they need a better (quicker) format for selling expensive stuff. The Swoopo bidding model works well for moderately priced items, but a $24,550 car is going to take forever to sell. I understand Swoopo wants to minimize the risk of the car selling too cheaply (like the $1.24 Honda over at Rocky Bid) and so putting the Mini up in a 24 hour auction was smart. It increases the number of people who see the auction and gives them time to prepare to bid. However, as the auction approaches the 48 hour mark, with a price of just over $800, we here at Penny Auction Insider are starting to experiencing mental fatigue and wonder how much longer this thing will go for. I speculated earlier that I thought the car might eventually sell for around $18,000. Even if the car sells for $10,000 we've got a long, long way to go.In the future I think Swoopo should tweak the auction format for expensive items like the Mini. A faster countdown or less time added to extend the clock with new bids might be a good solution.
The Mini has a current price of $806.40 with about 30 minutes on the clock. Last night we saw the time go to under one minute before spiking due to a BidButler war. Why anyone would exercise their BidButler so early in the auction escapes me. We'll continue to follow this auction and provide updates on the blog.
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