07
Nov
New Auction Site For Cameras
Author: Natalie | Category: Business Sites, Photography WebsitesThe New eBay For Cheap Cameras?
I just clicked on an ad that brought me to a website called Swoopoo.
I clicked on it because it was promising a Canon EOS 450D dSLR plus lens for under £50! According to the site, Archie007 won the auction, and a new Canon EOS 450D dSLR for just £44.24, saving £600!
Can this be true?!
Has anyone used Swoopoo before for camera purchases?
Please leave a comment with your experience.
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Tags: camera purchases, canon 450D, swoopoo
November 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
One of the cameras that can supposedly be bought for 80% off is a Sony Handycam. Electronic Appliance
November 9th, 2008 at 9:03 am
its a SCAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 16th, 2008 at 11:51 am
I think the cheap prices must be introduction prices
November 20th, 2008 at 6:30 am
I dont know all the details but its an auction based site, and you have to pay a 1.00 to bid, and you have to purchase your bids in blocks upfront
December 15th, 2008 at 12:12 am
It isn’t a scam, but winning the acution is the tough part without spending a ton on bidding fees. If you do the math, it costs 75 cents to place a bid and depending on the auction, each bid increases the price of the item by 1 to 15 cents. So, in order for example a GPS unit to reach a price of $30.00 in a penny auction. There had to be 3000 bids on the auction. At 75 cents each bid, the amount of money Swoopoo makes on the “bid fees” would be $2250 and that from an auction of a $599.00 GPS that you can get from Amazon for $399.00. Its a great deal for the auction winner and a great deal for Swoopoo. For those that bid and don’t win, well they lost every penny they spent on bidding and Swoopoo got it all.
February 2nd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Also, swoopoo adds time to the auction after each individual bid. I’ve seen products be on the last ten seconds for ten minutes. Auctions can go for days. Just increasing by fractions each time. I thought it sounded nice, but combined with automatic bots, you’re chances are slim that you’ll be taking home a camera for anything close to what the auction said at the closing minute. But who knows, maybe you’ll get lucky.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:52 am
Stay away from Swoopo!! I bid on a Canon camera a few weeks ago on Swoopo. As it was getting late, I created a BidButler (a device to place bids automatically for you up to a specified number of bids and a specified price). I authorized 200 bids, at 1 cent ber bid. My BidButler promptly bid all of the bids that I authorized, PLUS ANOTHER 20 BIDS! Not only that, but the bid price on the camera went up only about $1.80 - since the BidButler bid 220 times for me, the bid price should have gone up at least by $4.40 (my 220 bids plus the bids from the person(s) against whom I was ostensibly bidding). Not realizing what had happened, I authorized another 100 bids. This time, it used up all of 100 bids almost instantaneously, but the bid price went up only 1 cent.
When I reported what had happened to Swoopo customer service (a misnomer if ever there was one), they basically said that everything went just peachy and it was too bad that I didn’t win.
I don’t know if there is a deliberate attempt to defraud customers, or if their bidding algorithm is just seriously flawed, but I would not spend your hard-earned money on Swoopo.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Swoopoo has an exchange rate mechanism. In the auction I was on for a Nikon D90 it was sitting at your price of £44.24. Every bid showed £0.01 was the bid but actually it was £0.50. That means for the auction to reach £44.24 Swoopoo made £2212.00 - the final sum. Its ludicrous for any site to get away with this. I lost £10.00 for 20 bids - a complete waste of time. STAY AWAY FROM SWOOPOO.