Silliest auction site ever

Swoopo is possibly the silliest auction site ever.

 

The breakdown:

- You pay ~$1 for every bid you place

- Your bid raises the purchase price by a set amount (either $.15 or $.01 depending on the type of auction)

 

So, to take this auction for example:

Canon Rebel XSi

MSRP: $899.99

Final Purchase Price: $23.96

Winner placed 249 bids.

This auction was a ‘penny auction’ which means that each bid increases final price by $.01. The starting price was one penny.

 

So let’s do some math:

- The winner placed $249 worth of bids, plus pays the final price. So the winner came out with a great deal at $272.96 for a nine hundred dollar camera.

 

- All the people who placed the other 2,146 bids lost out. As a group they paid more than $2k for the privilege of playing this fancy slot machine.

 

- $23.95 / .01 (price increase increment) means that Swoopo received $2,395 for all the bids that were placed. Swoopo makes out like a bandid, 266% of the MSRP.

 

Now take THIS auction for instance:

Nintendo WII

MSRP: $249.99

Final price: $213

Winner placed 18 pids

This auction started at $.15 and each bid increased the price by another $.15.

 

Math:

- the winner gets merely an okay deal paying $215.70 including their own bid fees for a $250 piece of merchandise.

 

- $212.85 / .15 = $1419 paid to swoopo in bid fees, an astounding 567% of the MSRP!!!!!

 

My question is: why not just go to vegas to lose all your money with the off-chance of hitting it big? At least there you get pretty girls and a mild sense of luxury.