Swoopo Tips: Watch for a while you'll learn alot
Posted on February 3, 2009
Well I've not posted for a while as I've been doing a lot of reading of whats going on with regards to Swoopo, Swoopo related news, help guides and other applications looming in the deepest darkest corners of the web. Oh and I've been very busy with my day job!
However, I just wanted to post this for all the novice users out there wanting to test their arm at Swoopo.
Do yourself a favour. Just watch 1 auction from the very start to the very finish!
I've just done it and here are my notes...
Auction ID: 150393
Rothenschild Patriarch RS-0604-SB Gents Watch
Nailbiter Auction
1st point I have to make is that I'd never, ever be the first person to place a bid for an item that costs over £100 $'s Euros whatever. It just doesn't make sense, the chances nobody else will place a bid are millions to billions to 1, you'll never win the item. Let some other chancer do it first!
So the bidding started and I quick took a copy of the first bit of action by simply opening up my "Windows Notepad" application and copy and pasting in the biddings from the 'bidding history' panel at the side.
(I've recently found a guy doing software that looks pretty cool for tracking this window automatically for you, I'm just doing some due diligence on it first before I'm happy to promote it to my readers! Don't want anyone getting a virus or having personal information stolen from their PCs!)
Anyways I copied the first 30-40 bidders usernames and then stopped as it became increasingly harder to keep up. However this was all I need as it happens, I'd copies of the main players names already.
So I watched the bidding unfold and there was one bidder in particular (who's Swoopo id I'll not reveal, as I feel sorry for him) but he started bidding from the off and must have spent at least £100 worth of bids ( I just hope they were all free bids for their sake!) but other than him there were at least 8-12 bidders that were either constantly taking part in mini bidding wars or were lurking in the wings, waiting for one of the main 2 or 3 constant bidders to drop out or look weak and then there they were jumping in again trying to steal the item at the last few seconds!
Now one thing I did notice and will bring up with the Swoopo support team is that when the bidding was at: £40.30 it jumped to £40.50 without there being a £40.40 why was this?
It was in a very fast period of bidding so perhaps one bidder took two hits very quickly but did he get charged or was the bid free?? interesting? I'll post back with an update later!
My 2nd point of contention was how the auction ended.
As I was watching the auction on my pretty (poo) pc it was counting down the timer nicely for a change and then just as it hit 4 seconds, it immediately jumped to show: This auction has ended???
I was like WTF? Now I'm going to watch a few more auctions just to see if it was my pc as it could well be down to my wireless broadband connection and the poor spec on my pc but that was some serious jump!
I'll be speaking to Swoopo about this also and asking them what pc spec and internet set up do they recommend if indeed it was down to some sort of lag!
But all the same it's a good word of warning to any other bidders out their! If you are experiencing a bit of lag when viewing auctions. (i.e. the clock pausing regularly)
When you're bidding you really don't want to be waiting till the last 4-5 second to get your bids in or you might just be timed out having already spent a pretty penny on the auction already!
The Outcome
The winner of this auction was a Pupsi06.
That user joined in this auction around about the £40 mark (don't quote me on that figure) They placed 81 bids which cost them £40.50 then paid £75.50 which as Swoopo states was a saving of 75% off the RRP £469.99
However if this individual had done their homework before hand!
They would have been able to search the internet and find that same watch available for as little as:
Euros:139 or £125
See this watch site
So user, Pupsi06 paid £116 in total add the £2.90 delivery charge and the grand total saving on this product was a measly £6.10
Lesson Learnt: Do your research before you start bidding. Note down the cheapest price your able to find the product for online.
Then set out a price your wanting to pay for it and work out the cost in bids before you would need to stop bidding.
Then work out the average price that the product has been selling for on Swoopo and see if the price you've limited yourself too and the average price gives you any room for bidding.
Make sure you've watched the auction from the begining and worked out how strong the opposition is, and then and only then should you start bidding!
Good Luck and I'd love to hear what people thoughts are about this post
Master Swoopo
Tags: swoopo auctions, swoopo bidding, swoopo legit, swoopo strategy, swoopo tips, swoopo watch
Tags: swoopo auctions, swoopo bidding, swoopo legit, swoopo strategy, swoopo tips, swoopo watch
February 13, 2009
thanks for the info.keep up the great work
February 16, 2009
why does the time jump from 15 seconds up to 30 minutes or even 3 hours after certain bids? Also, why would anyone in their right mind pay more for an item in an auction than they could buy it in the store? I say someone buy a Wii Fit for like $93, plus they spent $35 in bids? Most auctions end with the winner getting a great deal, but there are some where they win by paying more than it is worth.
February 16, 2009
Hi Troy,
Firstly why it jumps from 15 seconds to 30 minutes is usually when two bid butlers that have been set to have maximum bids that are quite high, meet one another and so what happens is they battle it out. i.e. they automatically bid against each other cancelling one another out until one of them runs out of bids.
2nd answer: Why would someone buy a Wii Fit for $93 plus spend $35 on bids? Well sometimes Swoopo emails you with offers. Like just the other day their offer was that all people who win any auctions between 7am on Sunday till 7am on Monday will get all of their bids back?
The person still might have paid over the odds for the product but he probably didn't want to loose out doubley on the bids he'd committed so carried on bidding so as to get there bids back to get something out of it.
Oh and sometime people are stupid too!
February 24, 2009
Hi
I would love to here more about this tracking software. Iv even considered trying to create something myself that will track the auctions and create some king of database.
February 25, 2009
I also have been watching items VERY close. I have purchased 2 50 bid packs. This morning @ 6:00 AM I was up watching a laptop that I had bid on. There was not much interest on it and only 3 or 4 consistant bidders. I also have Broadband with a 10MEG upgrade package which is really fast, and only live 2 blocks from my server Charter Communications. I have never really experienced LAG Time (especially that time in the morning). I had been putting in single bids right after the 00:02 timer came on. When My name showed up it showed that the bid was entered at :02 or :01 seconds. Had done this about 12 times. I entered another bid at 02 seconds and I could not believe my eyes. The Item timer never showed 00:01 or 00:00 - it stated Auction Closed and gave the winner's name - And it wasn't me - WTF
February 25, 2009
You must have experienced a bit of lag and your final bid never got through!
I think some kind of tracking software would really make spotting the auctions with the least interest a lot easier.
February 25, 2009
@ Mike
Yeah Andy's right they will always tell you it was the lag. See my email response from their support team (latest post here)
So I'd personally never wait till the last 5,6,7 seconds I tend to bid bang on 10 seconds. I can imagine you'd be mighty pished off that you committed the time and bids and then that happened to you. It's definately a real issue with swoopo and one that I really can't see changing until perhaps we all get Terabyte broadband speeds! lol
@ Andy, yeah that would be nice, this software I'm looking to review next kind of gives you some data to that effect but think you have to be tracking each auction from the off. I'll be posting it as soon as the developers get back to me.
March 18, 2009
what is an average number of bids that a person would spend trying to win an auction item like a tv or a laptop?
April 22, 2009
Btw i wanted to know whether you have to buy the bids before you can use bidbutler. Can you set the bid butler so that the 50p charge per bid comes from your bank account. Therefore if i have enough money in my account...i should never lose a bid?
April 30, 2009
@ Sav
Yes you do have to purchase bids before you start.
It doesn't hook up to your bank account Sav. As there would be an aweful lot of broke people about it they did!
April 30, 2009
@ Dan
You can work it out by noting down all of the previous history of finished tv or laptops. However I'd only use this as a guide. There are so many variable that can throw out your reasoning that it's really hard to give you some good advice on this.
One of the main areas that I believe makes it tough to determin when to bid is the constant offering by Swoopo to have days where the person who comes second gets all of their bids back. This just causes rabid bidding and the prices will always be higher on these days as people that get involved in a long bidding war tend to want to stay bidding just to come second and claim the bids back. It's suicide bidding on these days if you ask me!
I'm going to do some research on it but I beleive that you will find that more new usernames end up winning on these days than on normal bidding days (when the pro's are at work!) We will see if this prediction comes true!
June 3, 2009
Your answers about the questions being brought up here is very helpful. So that's the reason why the timer goes from seconds to minutes again. I usually just see timers less than 10 seconds going back to 15 seconds.
December 20, 2009
thanx fo tha tips, bro. i didnt win anything on swoopo but i did use tha same strajady on bidstick and wun a yamaha home theater system fo 30 bucks in bids. that sh*t is f*ckin tight, yo.
December 26, 2009
I appreciate the tips. I found another site called bidstick.com that ive won a few items on. Its a lot like swoopo only the timer never goes over 2 minutes. Thanks again. Bid responsibly.