Is Swoopo an auction site or scam?

Auction

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by Ronni Dee

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I personally believe that Swoopo is an auction, but also with a scam twist. Swoopo, and similar sites, allow you to purchase bids for an item. The winner could walk home with a $3,000 television or computer for the $1 he or she paid for the bid.

My thoughts on the scam side of it come from the fact that 100 bidders could have bought enough bids to each bid on the auction 100 times. Each bid costs $1, therefore the bidder is spending $100 to try to win the item. In this scenario, the potential amount of money that Swoopo brought in is $10,000.

This is great for the company, and the winner may have spent less than $100 for an item valued at $3,000. That is a $7,000 profit for Swoopo, more than triple the original cost. What about those other 99 bidders and their 100 bids?

They are lost. The $100 spent is gone, the 100 bids purchased are used, and in the end, they get nothing. 99 unhappy people who are out $100 without anything to show for it, and one person who is probably happier than they could have ever imagined when an auction ended.

The reason I chose the auction side of this debate is that I do firmly believe that the winner of the auction does get their prize. Furthermore, the auction does go off to the person who spends the most bids, generally speaking. Near the end of the auction, if no one is paying attention, someone could swoop in and take the item for just a few bids. Normally, the more bids, the better your chance at winning the auction.

Personally speaking, however, the site is somewhat of a lottery. A scam, maybe, or at least partially, but an auction lottery nonetheless. Lotteries are to be conducted by government agencies; Swoopo is not a government agency. State lotteries often benefit older citizens, or another worthy cause. Swoopo's profits, which are sizable, only benefit the founders, owners, and possibly investors of the company.

Judging the site to be an auction without being at least somewhat of a scam, or judging it a scam without being somewhat of an auction is unrealistic. I spent hours watching auctions on the site before walking away without purchasing any bids.

The founder does deserve credit though. Whoever came up with the idea for Swoopo found a way to take in a potential $10,000 for every $3,000 item they sell. This is the equivalent of $1,000 for each $300 item, depending on what you are 'bidding' on.

Personally, I will save my $100 for 100 bids and when I have enough saved up, I will buy the item myself. It would be great to snag that new laptop worth $3,000 for $10 in bids, but I am not up to taking that kind of chance with my money, especially in the current economic situation.

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