Swoopo, winner
This is really pure genius. It's kind of like ebay for lovers of Liar's Poker, base jumpers, and the stupid (those are mutually exclusive parties). I'd love to sit down with the creator of this website and listen to him talk. About anything. It would be fascinating.
Do you see what happens here? Swoopo makes little bits of money over and over again for selling nothing. Then on the final transaction, they sell the item. It doesn't matter what the item sells for. They've already made their money. There's almost no way not to make money. I'm in awe.
Take for example the Phillips 47 inch LCD HDTV that sold for $86.94 instead of the $1500 retail. Someone got it for 14% of retail price. Pretty good right? Swoopo did even better, making $2608.20 on 4,347 60 cent bids. As many articles have pointed out, this is almost gambling, taking advantage of human stupidity. It's genius by it's creators, but another casino, lottery ticket, or pay day loan advance isn't doing anything for those in the lower class, who try their luck day after day, frittering away what little they have.
Oh, and if you want to try your hand at Swoopo, you better be well disciplined, have an understanding of game theory and psychology, and target the items that have larger than 2, 5, or 6 cent bid increments. The enormous savings are alluring, but I won't be getting any of it. I know the saying all too well: TANSTAAFL.
p.s. As I continue to monitor Swoopo, there's something fishy going on. You know that TV I just wrote about? Swoopo claims only 174 bids were made, as opposed to the 4,347 that I posited. If we know the increments of bids, and the final selling price, why is there they discrepancy?
And also, in a 5 cent auction, how do we get prices like $48.12. The more I look at it, the more something smells.
