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May 18, 2009

New Auction Site (Homegrown)
or The Legalization of the Dollar Auction

4 "entrepreneurs" from Ohio started Swipe It Up.com, looks interesting.

looked interesting
I get it. The site buys stuff to sell. Bidders put up bids that cost $0.50 but bump the price up only 1¢. Snipes don't work because the clock gets an added 15 seconds per bid.

I just witnessed an auction for 40 $0.50 coupons ($20 value). SwipeItUp earned $0.68 PLUS $34 for the bids. The bidders at the end of the auction are insane. It's more irrational than Ebay.

All those bidders pay but don't get the prize unless they win. Wow. This is legal?

Dollar Auction Wikipedia entry

2 comments:

Chuck said...

Yes this site is similiar to others like swoopo, etc. It is sort of like gambling however if you are clever you can win great deals. As far as legality goes, i've questioned this myself. However, since the other bidders are dictating the action and not the site itself, then it is classified under Ohio law as a skill game which is 100% legal.

I have noticed the site you are talking about lose money on things like nintendo wiis, and even a macbook went for 21.72 which if you do the math on that the auction income was $1086 + $21.72 =$1107.72 and 30 for delivery is 1137.72. however the macbooks brand new are 1300 so it seems like the site actually lost $162 bucks.

In short, i do believe it is basically gambling but if you do it right then you can definitely get great deals. The site is relatively new so not too many members unlike swoopo so if you are looking for a better chance to win this is the place. I've personally won a couple gift cards ranging from 25$-100$ and a nintendo wii. My investment in bids was about $200 and i still have some bids left. So I'm happy :)

love the blog by the way

Dave said...

Hey Chuck,
Thanks for stopping by. I'm more interested in this than anyone I know, so it's good to find someone interested.

I agree that good deals can definitely be found on SwipeItUp, but the probability of getting those deals is small. Some things like Wiis and a netbook have recently sold at a significant discount, BUT, the endpoint of the auction is completely unpredictable. The critical question in this scheme is

When do you jump in and start throwing your 50 cent pieces in the trash? No matter when the end is, your money's gone forever. Say you bid $2.50 worth on the possibility of winning a $1,000 laptop. You get outbid (you almost always will) and you start fooling yourself saying "it's only $2.50 ... I CAN win a $1,000 - and you continue to some unknown endpoint dropping 50 cents each time. Then you get obsessed, irrational and it's too late. You're in for $20 and you're inreasingly pissed you lost $20 and didn't get YOUR thousand bucks. Then it spirals from there.

The wife and I have tried to play out several "rational" scenarios and it just doesn't work.

Frankly, this site is brilliant. I almost wish I thought of it, but I couldn't feel good about taking money in this manner. And, my morals for this type of thing are actually pretty low.

I look forward to checking out swoopo, thanks for the tip.