www.telebid.com

competitionscafe

As telebid.com have changed their name to Swoopo.com perhaps the title of this thread can be edited to reflect this.

This site pretty much sums it up:

Profitable Until Deemed Illegal
"..Swoopo isn't an auction site. It bills itself as "entertainment shopping". I think it is in fact a lottery; the only way to win here is sheer dumb luck. Or, of course, by not playing at all. "
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001196.html

bill123456789

chum_2000_uk wrote: »

One other concern is who actually regulates this site? It would be interesting to know if this site has to be officially audited like other online gambling sites, e.g. poker sites have to have their software stringently examined by independent auditing companies to make sure the algorithms used are fair for its users. Is it the same for sites like telebid? I could be wrong, but I'm guessing probably not. I certainly think it is something that should be looked into, and any findings reported here - at least then users of sites like this will be more informed about what they are letting themselves in for. It could very well be that regulations are in place that prevent sites like this creatung "false bids" but as it stands at the moment from the general consensus here on this forum, we just dont know!

Has anyone who has been to a conventional auction encountered the practice of taking "bids off the wall" . This is standard practice in this country and has been accepted as legal for more than a hundred years. Most annoying if you are trying to get a bargain but all auctioneers use this to drive up the bidding. Perhaps ( I don't know but it is possible telebid does the same )

soolin

bill123456789 wrote: »

Has anyone who has been to a conventional auction encountered the practice of taking "bids off the wall" . This is standard practice in this country and has been accepted as legal for more than a hundred years. Most annoying if you are trying to get a bargain but all auctioneers use this to drive up the bidding. Perhaps ( I don't know but it is possible telebid does the same )

I regularly attend auctions and have never seen this happen. However the actioneer will take bids against his book either where he has a reserve price or where he is a proxy bid. Sometimes he will have a couple of live bidders and still not sell as it hasn't met his book price, you see this happening as well on the auciton TV programmes and it could be mistaken for taking bids off the wall as you never see a second party bidding against you.

CHR15

I saw this happen on one of the Auction progs on TV.

The Auctioneer took a bid off the wall but then nobody else bid.

It all got confusing and the Auctioneer announced he would have to restart the auction from the beginning.
the second time around it didn't fetch a price anywhere near as high.

That orange bloke with the bling (whatever his name is ) explained what had happened to the bewildered sellers

the Auctioneer was very embarrassed by the whole thing.

newdell

Hi.
I have been examining some of the penny auctions sites for the last couple of weeks. And came across quite a different one called biddingmart. They are not launched yet, but what they are offering is quite different then others.
1. When you register now, you will get 10 free bid (they call it pre-launch) offer.
2. They are UK based (not like swoopo)
3. When you win, you get all the bids you used to win that auction back to your account!!! So actually you only pay for the actual auction price.
4. They also state 90% of their products are collectable from London same day the auction is finalised. So, you don't even need to wait for delivery.

Has anyone heard about these people?

Oppsss. I am not allowd to post link, just search for Biddingmart on google.

Thanks
NewDell

custardy

so the winner gets their bids back,whoopdeedo
what about all the £100's of losing bids
seriously why do we need people to post more sites using the same formula

CHR15

newdells post doesn't smell much like :spam: at all.

newdell

Hi Custardy,
What I understand from penny auction concept is, to get those £1 PS3s, or £5 Iphones, there has to be catch. At the end of the day, these sites are businesses not charities. Of course they are going to make money. When I registered with Madbid, I won 15 bids with my first 3 free bids and when they are all gone, I haven't played again. That's why I said bidding seems to be more reasonable then the others. I would have 18 bids if Madbid was following the same concept with biddingmart.

I also don't understand people calling this scam either. There is nothing hidden here (I can't say this for biddingmart as they are not launched yet) everything is clearly explained on Madbid and Swoopo. You may call it gambling or penny auction or anything else but I do not understand why it's called scam as clearly it states in their t&c's what have been discussed here. Counter going up, bidding cost etc. I have searched a lot and nobody complained about not receiiving their product once they won the auction. There are complains about very long delivery schedule (swoopo) but don't you think same day London collection makes it a little bit more secure?

CHR15, sorry but I did not get whether you are being sarcastic or not. But I can tell you that there are no connections between me and Madbid or Swoopo or Biddingmart.

custardy

my problem is like so many people nowadays
people need to be spoonfed
they truly believe they will get that PS3 for £3.20
the fact these sites are popping up shows theres plenty dumb enough to support them
it wont affect me as i wont be bidding but for every site there will be many poor saps pumping money in for old rope

patman99

Sounds like Ebay, only EVERY bidder gets ripped-off, instead of the seller.