I was fascinated to discover the auction hybrid site swoopo.com [1] (previously known as telebid.com). It's a strange combination of eBay, woot, and slot machine. Here's how it works [2]:
> * You purchase bids in pre-packaged blocks of at least 30. Each bid costs you 75 cents, with no volume discount.
* Each bid raises the purchase price by 15 cents and increases the auction time by 15 seconds.
* Once the auction ends, you pay the final price.
I just watched an 8GB Apple iPod Touch sell on swoopo for **$187.65**. The final price means a total of 1,251 bids were placed for this item, costing bidders a grand total of **$938.25**.
Via reddit [3], “Coding Horror: Profitable Until Deemed Illegal [4]”
So, let me get this straight. Swoopo charges people 75¢ per bid on an auction, and each bid only increases the bid amount by 15¢ …
Amazing.
I guess D avid Hannum [5] was right, and I'm in the wrong business.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swoopo
[2] http://www.swoopo.com/new.html
[3] http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/7j4ky/coding_horror_profit
[4] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001196.html
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There's_a_sucker_born_every_minute