Just have a look at who is winning the products. Having studied the site for a number of days plus digging into to some of the winning bidders, It is clear that swoopo, computer programs or people bidding for swoopo are wining the items. Yes they let some through but a lot of items are won by the same name. After following one auction one bidder used at least 700 bids to win a camera. He'd already won the same camera plus 8 other items, that could have been the tip of the iceberg of what he had supposed to have won. I saw one bidder, bid on eight different cameras in one go, the only reason is so to get the price up.

An item on the uk site is the same item on the US site and all the European sites. So a £100 item is also $100 and €100, its a good job the Euro is almost the same as the pound.

This site is a gambling site with all the cards stacked with the house because the house cheats!!!

Stay away, if your not convinced watch the site for a few hours.

Thanks

AB

Having logged into swoopo for the first time today feeling that it was surely a con then checking around to see what I could find I feel compelled to add my thoughts on it.

I had been looking for an alternative to ebay but this certainly isnt it. Alarm bells started to ring when told I was getting a £10 voucher and then being asked to spend £10 on bids. Then when you look at the prices items are supposedly sold for it is fairly obvious what is happening plenty of others here have worked out the maths. So it seems that if these conditions are present you will get something cheaper than cheap;

1) You spend X amount of 50p's on bids to get something.

2) Swoopo have decided to let this item actually be bought rather than selling it back to themselves.

3) One of the countless other people who have been taken in by the promise of something cheap dont happen to win.

4) It actually gets delivered.

Im not a mathematician but im guessing the odds are pretty stacked against you.

Thist isnt gambling its one of the oldest cons Ive seen. Offer people something at a ridiculously low price and they will be so busy falling over each other they wont realise your the only one who is making any money. Swoop are developing quite a powerful PR base I dont think this is run from someones bedroom they are very clever, very rich and becoming more powerful; I saw an advert on a bus the other day for them.

If it sounds too good to be true it usually is! If you like gambling try a more traditional method - then if you win buy your new camera on ebay. You've got a MUCH better chance of success!

<sigh>

Yet another genius. Several of us HAVE won on Swoopo, and we have received our items. And they don't sell to themselves. Surely, having seen how much money they make with this business model, even the stupidest person on here can see that they have no reason to be dishonest. Regardless of what your opinions are on Swoopo, it's NOT a scam, it may be morally dubious, but it is simply gambling. Jeez.

Wondered how long it would be before a 'satisfied customer' responded.

I didnt say it was a scam but a con with a very low likelihood of success which to me is a gamble where the odds are completely stacked against you by the dealer. Say backing a 100/1 on the grand national if you really want to use the gambling analogy. And the bookie standing at the finish line with a shotgun just in case.

No self repecting gambler puts his money down with no idea of the odds or who hes playing against. Also they have a very powerful PR base... easily powerful enough to post responses to every comment made on websites like this with 'advice' on how to win and tales of how they have won a Nintendo DS and how it was posted, when it arrived etc. :-p

Also you may call me stupid but I havent given any money to Swoopo. Besides you have quite a loose grasp of the English language.

No reason to be dishonest? I would say the 'business model' which you and your Swoopo friends keep justifying your actions with is inherently dishonest. I just hope people have the sense to check around on here before wasting their money. It would be better to give it charity. As the old saying goes there's one born every minute though.

>Wondered how long it would be before a 'satisfied customer' responded.

I never described myself as a "satisfied customer". More an onlooker whose frustration with some people's apparent inability to differentiate between a practice you don't approve of and a "scam" has finally reached breaking point!

>I didnt say it was a scam but a con with a very low likelihood of success which to me is a gamble where the odds are >completely stacked against you by the dealer. Say backing a 100/1 on the grand national if you really want to use the >gambling analogy. And the bookie standing at the finish line with a shotgun just in case.

So you don't think it's a "scam", but you do think it's a "con"? What is the difference? You have a real bee in your bonnet about this site. Did you perhaps spend a lot on bids before realising how it worked?

>No self repecting gambler puts his money down with no idea of the odds or who hes playing against. Also they have a >very powerful PR base... easily powerful enough to post responses to every comment made on websites like this with '>advice' on how to win and tales of how they have won a Nintendo DS and how it was posted, when it arrived etc. :-p

Well, if no self-respecting gambler would do that, no self-respecting gambler is going to use Swoopo. What's your point? And as for your comments about Swoopo's "very powerful PR base" - this is starting to sound as if you have a Big Brother complex. Do you perhaps believe that the world's finances are controlled by giant lizards from space pretending to be humans? I can assure you, I am not Swoopo PR, nor am I affiliated with them in any way. I note your "tongue-in-cheek" smiley, but you are making a point which is simply incorrect.

>Also you may call me stupid but I havent given any money to Swoopo. Besides you have quite a loose grasp of the >English language.

Thanks for that. Interesting that you should comment on my "loose grasp" of English, given that you can't use apostrophes (e.g "havent", "didnt", "hes", etc), punctuation (no comma after "besides", no hyphen in "self-respecting"), etc. Petty? Well, I wouldn't have pointed it out if you hadn't...

>No reason to be dishonest? I would say the 'business model' which you and your Swoopo friends keep justifying your >actions with is inherently dishonest. I just hope people have the sense to check around on here before wasting their >money. It would be better to give it charity. As the old saying goes there's one born every minute though.

There is indeed "one" born every minute, and your particular minute appears to have been occupied by someone who is quite happy to post his unqualified judgement on what - at least for the time being - appears to be a perfectly legitimate site, without the ability to form a cogent argument or to accept any comebacks from other posters.

Since you seem to find it difficult to read plain English, I will repeat the salient facts again, this time using smaller words and capital letter to emphasize the key points:

1. I PLAYED SWOOPO TWICE AND WON

2. IT IS POSSIBLE, BUT DIFFICULT, TO WIN ITEMS

3. IT IS A GAMBLING SITE

4. IT IS NOT A CON

5. IN MY EXPERIENCE, THEY DO SHIP ITEMS. I WON A WII AND A DS.

I do hope this helps you to understand someone else's point of view, and perhaps you may be able to form a coherent argument without having to revert to your conspiracy theory mentality in your next post.

Edit: Oh, I nearly forgot - as to your comment that Swoopo are becoming rich and powerful - I saw an advert on a bus for female hygiene products the other day. Presumably that means that all debate on the web is going to be stifled by Tampax from now on...

For sure, but you have to be patient and cautious.

I know it's for real since I have won two items.

One RRP £39.99 won for £2.29 and a 50 Bid Voucher (£25 to buy) for £3.27

SOME TIPS:

Don't use the "Bid Butler" unless you have a huge supply of bids.

Watch for the "Nailbiter" auctions (Bid Butler cannot be used on these auctions) and bid at the very last 2 seconds.

Finally ...... You MUST be prepared to spend ages at the pc and watch the bids closely.

Good luck,

Mike.

(PS: I do not work for or have any connection with Swoop.co.uk whatsoever)

The site itself is questionable ethically but this wouldn't stop me from giving it a go. My only gripe is people saying that bidders have placed bids far exceeding the RRP of the item. This indicates "insiders" or some foul play. Does anyone have any more thoughts on this?

I was told about this site by an employee( who was unsuccessful)and I've been watching couple of days now, looking at digital cameras. Previous blogger's advice to just observe a while and suss out how it works. Seems to me there's only two partie whi will come out of this satisfied; 1) the winner, having bagger a bargain, to a geater or lesser extent, and of course 2) SWOOPO, having not only been paid by the winner, the sale winning price plus all bids, but also for every unsuccessful bid the doxens and dozens of "loosers" have made @ 50p over an auction period time which could theoretically last for weeks.

You only have to look at the front page and watch the items ending soon have the finishing time relentlessly extended and consider how many additional bids have been made. Are these last second bids genuine of just the site robots keeping the auction going???It's been seen before!

How many times do you try to win different examples of the same item before you realise that with competitors across the globe bidding for the same item you've actually very little chance of winning. You could spend hundreds bidding for nothing.

The front page even shows a couple of auctions for 300 bids, so you're bidding for bids. Madness?? Addiction?? you decide.

The very vast majority of bidders are going to waste their money and time chasing an item and loosing. Don't waste time loosing the bid-fest, just find it on e-bay, at least you know what your getting.

Would you pay per bid at a real auction? Of course you wouldn't, the suggestion would cause a riot. This site is absolutely raking it in at the expense of a lot of people who are looking for a bargain because the need one, not because they have money to burn on bidding. The site/process isn't illegal but it's certainly unethical.

Good insight, isn't it though, into the mindset of the few winners who trumpet their success without really appreciating the bigger picture of the position of all those who lost out at no little expense. We all like to see a winning format and keen business sense, but I don't like to see the little man hammered to line the pockets of the greedy.

Well, that's my rant. Enjoy!!!

Hi

Forget about the working out of the figures... this is business and every business has to make profit in order to survive.

Think about the bargain that you will be getting. At way below the Market Price. www.kbid.co.uk, Swoopo & Madbid are very good sites. These avenues come in the right time of this credit crisis. The items are brand new with even warranty and all. I can talk for these sites becuase I have tested them .... won and have received my items just as described on the site.

In the original packaging and all. BRAND NEW... Ipod shuffle for 32p.... think about that... RRP 32.00 what better deal can I want.

Regards

Craby

You must be EXTREMELY thick or have a serious gambling issue to post the crap that you have posted here. Have you actually read any of the previous posts?. Swoopo a good site! you obviously need help my friend and deserve to be bled dry by these vultures and other sites like them. These sites are screwing people out of their hard earned cash and should be avoided at all costs, especially at times like this. Try typing 'gamblers anonymous' into Google and go from there.

I'm not sure I agree. It seems from the views of others that it is possible to win.... of course not everyone does, but it is possible.

The best tip i think is to get to one of the new sites as they start up, then you increase your chances of winning as hopefully not many others ewill be bidding.......

I haven't used these sites, but I must say, I am tempted!!

Well I've been watching swoopo and also ubid and also bidoo, and I have to say that I spend days watching without spending something...

Your case may be real, but that happens once in a million. My conclusions:

Swoopo:
Swoopo is full of "robots" because lot of auctions, those "robots" end up paying a lot lot more money than the product is worth and either they are robots or dee dee dees.

ubid:
ubid is a software, run by one man, always the same people in the auctions... and if you make a simple calculation with the number of people there... and the number of auctions ending up every day, you'll see theres something wrong there...

Bidoo:
Bidoo is the one I spend more time because what I said about swoopo doesn't happen and either it's real or their robots are better programed. But what I saw there is that there are some professionals. What I mean by that, think about it, most of the people "me included" when we are going to buy the bids we go for the smallest pack of all of them... Paying like $15 or $20 and we place our bid very very carefully.. and now just think for a second, that you are someone with a lot of money, and that you know that most of the people is going to play with a few bids and play carefully, at that moment the auction is just like poker... you just need to have more chips than the others and go all in. If you don't stop bidding lot of people there are going to:

a. stop bidding because they think you aren't going to stop so their bids are going to be wasted.
b. leave the auction and find another one with no shark in it.
c. wait till you stop bidding so aggresivly.

So in that moment the professional wins. And for example in bidoo (http://www.bidoo.us) they actually got a promotion where they double your bids. So what are you going to do with 30 bids against someone with 1000.

Ofcourse you can win.... like you did... but that is something that don't happens often. Those profesional know a lot and win a lot of auctions to sell the products they win on ebay... so and here's another conclusion:

this online auction websites are also helping ebay

To all the doubting Thomases out there, I can only say I achieved a superb steal on Swoopo and recently won a Samsung NC 10 notebook for £48.10.

I watched the site in action for about a month, bought a bundle of 30 bids at the standard price and used them to buy a bundle of 300 for £30. I used those to bid on a few things to get the feel of the thing, noting how some bids don't appear to register when there are many people bidding for the same item. Then I sat and watched again. I waited until the item I wanted came up and using Bidbutler I put all my bids up for that one item. Then I crossed my fingers and went to bed.

So, my purchase cost me around £90 all in, including delivery, a saving of over £200 on shop and online prices and I'm pretty happy. But I noticed how some people get into a bidding war and throw bids away, without waiting to see if the other person really is still bidding. I also noticed that luck can be the biggest influence in many auctions and this is borne out by the wildly fluctuating final prices for similar items. Someone else paid around £190 for the same item I got for £48, and taking into account his many many bids, he only saved about six quid in the end!

The trouble is, when you've spent £x on your bids, the last thing you want to do is back down from an auction competitor and find you have thrown away all that money. It's the choice between a rock and a hard place.

The trick is to use a cold and calculating tactical approach and to deny yourself any adrenalin rushes, these are fatal on Swoopo. It's not a con, but it's not for the innocent abroad either - and whatever you do, don't go on the site when you've had a couple of drinks!!

I should also say that the laptop did arrive about 10 days after the auction and it works fine, so I feel sorry for anyone who had a bad experience as mine was pretty ok, although Swoopo's customer service is a bit sketchy if you do contact them by email. Then again, so is Curry's!

Should have mentioned, I'm a genuine shopper from South Wales, happy to verify that to anyone who is still in doubt. I bought the notebook to use for work and I'm glad to find I have saved two hundred quid to spend on other things for the business.

I was lucky - but if I hadn't been I'm sure I'd be feeling pretty sore too. I still have 176 bids left in my account so will have to decide what I want to use them for.... Perhaps I'll get a proper scalding next time just to balance the scales! ;-)

have to admit i used to be skeptical of a company that could sell a laptop for £15. However, having analized the principles swoopo use i came to the conclusion that at increments of $0.5 per bid they make a profit even at such a low price, so that should be all right I suppose.
actually i even came across the resembling site, that is likely to be younger than swoopo. As far as guessed that is why their price for a bid is even lower – just $0.05.
Has anybody participated in auctions on luckberry.com?
i’d like to know whether everything is ok with them