Swoopo
This site was recently brought to my attention, I had initially thought it was just another eBay want-to-be but it is actually bringing something new to the online auction table, whether it’s actually worth while though is something else. How the site works is kind of hard to explain, you bid on an item in 10p intervals and placing a bid costs 50p (even if you don’t win) the theory being that this small cost spread over many offsets the final price to the winner. Also placing a bid increases the remaining time by 20 seconds so most auctions are sitting permanently on the final 20 seconds, almost reaching zero and then leaping back up again so there’s no real way to tell how long an auction has to go. It sounds like an interesting idea but to unless you plan on buying loads of bids (oh yeah you have to buy a minimum of 20 bids you’re investing a minimum of £10 straight away with no guarantee of any return) and bidding on auctions in the middle of the night I don’t think there’s much benefit here. All items are new and listed by Swoop, not individual sellers and for the most part they’re iPods, DSis and laptops. I watched an auction for a DSi which finished at £54 - presuming you won, you’ve also got the cost all your bids, I have no idea how many it would take to win, plus however much (they don’t say) for postage and packaging so there is some value to be had there but for me I reckon you’d end up losing more than you’d win. I reckon initial interest will carry the site over for a few months but I can’t see it lasting a year.
