Does this look legit?

[BillLee]

http://www.swoopo.com/brw/cameras-photo_51.html

[Memphis1]

they charge per bid, but people always bid on the last second to try and get it cheap, so you end up paying more by bidding then by the product's low price.

[anthony @ eas]

Yeah, Swoopo is legit, although it's hard to win anything. And if you loose, you still loose money. If you win, you get a really good deal though.

[BillLee]

right now i'm trying to get a D90, and there's 7-10 other people bidding on the same one thats about to end. there's 10 more D90's up for auction. i don't get why they cant bid once on their own d90 then everyone would get a d90 for even a lower price. there's plenty more of the same product for everyone to get at a really low price. hope that made sense. (i guess it makes it hard cause you cant message the other bidders)

[montreal red]

ok... i just went to the site. never been there before... but everytime someone bids, the bidding time increases... so i guess the bids can go on forever indefinitely?

[gavinlocke]

Swoopo is absolutely legit, but most of the bidders on a certain product actually loose money.

Swoopo makes money by selling the bids and banking on the fact that those bids will cover the price of the item.

Strategy can go a long way on Swoopo. There are experienced bidders that know when and where the best deals will be.

I have used http://swoopsmart.com to look at analytic data for completed auctions. That should give you a little edge when winning your products.

[Dan in PA]

Google for Beezid, I believe they're similar to this. They let you purchase bids, then each bid increases the price of a given item by $.01. IIRC a bid costs you $.50. So if a camera which normally retails for $2k starts at $.01, and it gets bid up to $10, the company has already made $500 by selling the 1,000 bids it took to get the auction up to $10. Let it get bid up to $50, still only 2.5% of MSRP, and the company has sold $2500 in bids. It seems like they're selling stuff ultra cheap when in reality they turn a huge profit.

Unless my math is way off, which is very likely. ;-)

[Derek Zoolander]

Originally Posted by Dan in PA

Google for Beezid, I believe they're similar to this. They let you purchase bids, then each bid increases the price of a given item by $.01. IIRC a bid costs you $.50. So if a camera which normally retails for $2k starts at $.01, and it gets bid up to $10, the company has already made $500 by selling the 1,000 bids it took to get the auction up to $10. Let it get bid up to $50, still only 2.5% of MSRP, and the company has sold $2500 in bids. It seems like they're selling stuff ultra cheap when in reality they turn a huge profit.

Unless my math is way off, which is very likely. ;-)

That is awesome.

[Dan in PA]

Originally Posted by Derek Zoolander

That is awesome.

It's a great way of tricking people into thinking they're somehow cheating the "system" of paying full price for stuff. I read a few accounts of people being ripped off in various ways by Beezid, ymmv.

[SantaPimp27]

i use the site. so many people are idiots on it. ive seen people pay much more than a product is worth.

ive also seen people use a few hundred dollars worth of bids on a product and not win

[dudeitslena]

you can also try www.keh.com for cheap but high quality cameras and accessories. even their "bargain condition" has quality products that work like new

[scollins]

Originally Posted by dudeitslena

you can also try www.keh.com for cheap but high quality cameras and accessories. even their "bargain condition" has quality products that work like new

www.usedcameras.com is another resource. I have not bought from either Used Camera's or KEH though.