tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390576188766780979.post1892798617363295398..comments2016-10-05T19:46:37.769-07:00Comments on Penny Auction Insider: Response to reader: Since we don't know how much an auction winner payed for their bids how do we know if they got a good deal?Malvoliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05213853476775717467noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390576188766780979.post-18061346200032058512009-08-24T19:52:44.345-07:002009-08-24T19:52:44.345-07:00Thanks for responding. I agree that it is unlikel...Thanks for responding. I agree that it is unlikely. However, let me provide an example from the first completed bid voucher auction I saw on Swoopo this evening:<br /><br />http://www.swoopo.com/auction/300-bids-voucher/211790.html<br /><br />$30.60 in bid costs + $52.30 auction price = $82.90<br /><br />Price per bid: $0.276<br /><br />Cost of 144 bids: $39.79<br />Auction price for iPod: $155.40<br />Total cost: $195.19<br />Profit: $3.80<br /><br />And, Zorro could have bought the iPod for $175 from Amazon. Which, by the way, is probably where the item will come from. According to the T&Cs section 8, delivery comes directly from their supplier.<br /><br />Regardless, the whole thing is a great way to prey on the naïve.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390576188766780979.post-84811982071788634162009-08-24T14:01:27.165-07:002009-08-24T14:01:27.165-07:00Interestingly, budpack auctions are some of the mo...Interestingly, budpack auctions are some of the most competitive. I've seen bidpacks go for more than retail without even factoring in bids spent! I literally saw a bidpack auction price go above the price you could buy it for instantly on Swoopo.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7390576188766780979.post-17918907735209795102009-08-23T00:31:15.966-07:002009-08-23T00:31:15.966-07:00Having just discovered Swoopo tonight, I'm tak...Having just discovered Swoopo tonight, I'm taking time to investigate the concept before bidding on something.<br /><br />Finding the auctions for bidpacks, it occurred to me that one could conceivably learn the swoopo system by bidding on bidpacks, thereby minimizing or potentially removing the cost of bidding on other items.<br /><br />If one could reduce/remove the cost of bidding by accumulating bidpacks, then bidding on actual items would then put the actual cost of items down closer to the winning auction price.<br /><br />Then (before finding your article) I made a leap of logic that, if one could consistantly buy items on swoopo for significantly less than retail, using the bidding-for-bidpacks strategy to pay for the bids of items, one would then have new items for less than retail that could be sold at a profitable margin on a site like eBay.<br /><br />I'm sure I'm not the only one who ever thought of this.<br /><br />Your article, however, makes it seem like this would be more difficult to execute in practice than in theory.<br /><br />If one were to employ your "Nikon Camera" strategy from your "Living in SIN" article, however, or some combination of the bid-for-bidpacks and the "Nikon Camera" strategy, it seems that one would be more than likely able to win the item for less than retail price, assuming they were committed ahead of time, as in your Nikon camera example. <br /><br />I'm left wondering how viable that could be as a profitable venture, to find a method that consistantly gets the products plus bid price at less than retail in order to still have enough margin to sell at a competitive price on eBay.<br />You'd have to basically factor the bid price in as an operating cost, and find the most effective methods of keeping that cost low. <br />Of course, you'd also have to factor in the time spent, since you can only have one bidbutler running at any given time, meaning only one auction at a time could be automated and any other auction you were bidding on would have to be run manually.<br /><br />So, assuming you could find a method for keeping the bidding cost low, and could sell the products for more than your cost plus bidding, you'd have to factor the time spent against any net profit to determine whether the pay was worth the time.<br /><br />Then again, if one were a student with a little spending cash to invest in the concept and were spending all their time on facebook etc. anyway, it might be worth a try.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com