Interesting Site I Found

In my daily random searches of the Internet, I occasionally find sites that I think other people might be interested in, so I post them on my blog. Here is a site that I found today. It's basically like eBay, but a bit more "live and interactive." (At least I think it is. I haven't really looked at eBay in a LONG time.)

Anyway, it's another online bidding site called Swoopo. One downside to the site, I guess, is that you have to purchase "bids" in preset amounts (each bid cost $.75), and then you use those bids to try and win items in live auctions. They have a Bid Butler, that's similar to some of the sniping tools on eBay, and a real-time countdown timer that shows you how long the current bid is open for. To use the Bid Butler, you set a specific price range you're willing to bid within, and a specific number of pre-purchased bids you'd like to use, and then the Bid Butler monitors whatever bid you've attached it to. During the last 10 seconds of the bidding countdown, the Bid Butlers kick in and do their thing. If you're lucky enough to be the only person using a Bid Butler on that particular item, you're more or less guaranteed to win the bid, but usually their are numerous Bid Butlers bidding on the same item, and things get pretty crazy. The Bid Butlers can kick in at any time during the last 10 seconds, and they're randomized to keep everyone guessing and keep things fair. Each new Bid Butler bid also adds more time to the countdown, to make the action that more intense, sometimes increasing it by 10-30 seconds, sometimes adding as much as 10-20 minutes or more to the timer, so you never know who's going to win, or when!

Now obviously people with more money to spend are going to have better luck with the Bid Butlers because they can expend more of their pre-purchased bids, and they will usually have a greater available purchase range, but there are "Beginner Auctions" available for new users of the site, where the competition is less fierce, and you won't burn through as many of your available bids (and have to purchase more.)

Yes, eBay has the advantage in not requiring you to pre-purchase bids, but this site has some great deals available. I was watching it for a little while, and saw people get digital SLR cameras worth over $1,000 for as little as $20 - $40 (plus S&H of course.) Also, many of the bids are "Penny Bids" where each new bid only raises the price by $.01 per bid, instead of the standard bids that raise it $.15 per bid. Right now there is a bid going on for an $1,800 ATV. The current bid for it is less than $125 (but the Bid Butlers are going crazy in the last few seconds of the bid.)

Registration for the site is free, but you have to pre-purchase bid packages to bid on anything. If you win a bid, you'll be taken to a page on the site to confirm your win, and get the payment and shipping cost information. You then have 7 days to pay for your bid upon item. For some reason they then wait up to another 14 days (21 days total), after which if payment has not been received, they assume you don't want to the product, and it goes back on the bidding block. That way if you win a bid, and it's more than you planned to pay, or you don't have the available funds for one reason or another, you have an "out" and aren't locked into the purchase.

So, if any of this sounds interesting, check out the site by clicking on the Swoopo link above, or by visiting the following URL:

http://www.swoopo.com/

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day. :)